**Chapter 22**
Four people burst out of the “Fantasy Train” exit and ran.
“Huff, huff!”
The characteristic gasping sounds of people running for their lives came from both sides.
It couldn’t be helped.
Mascots were pouring out.
D i e
“Aaaagh!”
“Huuuh, huuuuh…”
At every attraction entrance, every store, every sign, grotesque and bizarre bubbles bubbled up and spat out slimy mascots.
And those mascots, turning their snouts inside out to reveal countless teeth embedded in their entrails, were chasing us in bizarre shapes.
Intermittently, their bodies shook, and half-melted, tentacle-like things drooped from their ears and arms.
-♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪
-Ahahahaha! Hahahaha! Ahahahaha! Hahahaha! Ahahahaha! Hahahaha!
It was noisy everywhere.
The theme park’s music and laughter overlapped, spinning around and creating bizarre noises from all directions.
Loud, scary, confusing, terrible sounds!!
Every element made your head ache and your sense of direction falter. But…
“This way! This way!”
I gritted my teeth and turned according to the coordinates etched in my mind.
At that moment.
*Splat.*
*Slurp.*
The fluid from the tip of a flying tentacle narrowly grazed my head.
*Sizzle.*
“…Huff.”
I could feel the burning smell, my hair melting where the fluid had splattered.
‘What the hell.’
Cold sweat ran down my back.
But my feet didn’t stop. No, they couldn’t stop.
‘The moment I stop, it’s over.’
I’d die. No, an instinct crawling up my spine told me I’d end up in something even more horrifying.
The only saving grace was that the destination was very close!
Even the researcher stopped whining and ran, drool flying.
B o r i n g
“G-go away! Go awaaaay!!”
“Shut up!”
The butterfly mask shouted. His eyes said he was desperately frustrated that he couldn’t throw the researcher as bait to buy time.
It couldn’t be helped.
‘Too, too close.’
The mascots swarming like zombies were multiplying like crazy, and some of them were starting to get dangerously close.
And they were fast.
Faster than humans!
‘Damn, damn, damn!!’
Just as fear made the hair on my neck stand up—
“Guh!”
Finally, someone got caught.
“Kraagh, uweeegh…”
The cow mask tumbled to the ground.
‘Fuck.’
Without looking back, I somehow flicked a coin from my pocket and summoned the glove.
Then I threw several 500-won coins as if tossing them, creating translucent shadow hands in the air.
*Whoosh.*
The shadow hand that flew through the air pushed the grotesque mascot’s head.
“Run!”
The Team Y newbie, who had barely escaped with countless holes in his shoulder, scrambled out on all fours and started running.
“Huff, huff, th-thank…”
“Later!”
There was no time to stop the bleeding. I couldn’t afford to worry about specialized equipment or anything else!
‘Anyway, the shadow hand will disappear once it’s more than 3 meters away—’
An insane pain struck my left hand.
“~!!!”
I almost grabbed my hand and rolled around sobbing.
This feeling, like my hand being crushed alive and melting in a sharp press…
‘Specialized equipment!’
I realized instinctively.
The hand I’d summoned in the air had been destroyed while being subjected to something horrible—whether by the mascot’s mouth or its tentacles.
This was the first time I’d learned the weakness of my specialized equipment.
That if the glove’s hand gets shattered, my real hand hurts exactly that much!
But there was no time to scream. I ran like crazy.
And shouted.
“There!”
The target point came into view.
A massive gate.
Painted in colorful hues, in the typical theme park style…
[Fantasy Land (West Side Gate)]
A decoration.
A decorative gate attached to the wall surrounding the west side of the theme park.
“It’s blocked!!”
“Get under it!”
I was the first to boldly step under the decorative gate and turned around.
Almost simultaneously, two people tried to step in. Team A Deputy Manager and Team Y newbie.
The researcher was behind them, in a somewhat dangerous position…
“Move, you fuck!”
“Ugh!”
*Thud.*
The researcher pushed the Team A employee with all his might, using the recoil to propel himself forward.
“…!”
The slender body, unexpectedly knocked aside, collided with a mascot.
D i e
Dark red fluid poured from the eyes of the half-melted, crawling mascot onto the butterfly mask.
“Aaaagh!”
*Sizzle.*
The sound of burning echoed in my ears.
“Deputy Manager!”
The Team A employee trembled beneath the mascot, which had taken an indescribably horrific form.
His face, not covered by the butterfly mask, was already bubbling and ruined.
What I saw were eyes of resignation.
The eyes of someone who had clearly calculated that this was not a situation where help could come.
The moment our eyes met—
“Fingernail!”
I shouted.
“Deputy Manager, your fingernail—here!”
At the same time, I extended my left palm forward. The Team A Deputy Manager’s eyes widened, and he reached out his right hand, extending his index finger.
*Fwik!*
The launched nail embedded itself in the exact center of my palm.
“…!”
But I didn’t flinch.
‘It already hurts like hell from being shattered!’
Ignoring this new pain on top of the greater agony, my grip held the nail firmly without wavering.
And I pulled.
*Whoosh.*
With a short sound, the butterfly-masked body flew toward me.
B o r i n g
Teeth and fluid poured into the empty space narrowly avoided, scattering all around.
“Huff, huuuuuh…”
“Phew……”
We collapsed on the floor under the gate, catching our breath.
And right before our eyes.
Countless rabbit mascots, weeping bloody fluid from their empty eye sockets, stood clustered together, forced to stop as if blocked by an invisible wall.
“Hic!”
It was as if a transparent wall stood between us.
======================
Cheerful Theme Park User’s Guide (Up to Exploration Record 64)
5. Enjoy the various zones!
Has the mascot’s appearance and the attraction’s color changed? You are standing in a new zone.
Unfortunately, mascots from other zones cannot exist in the new zone.
Say goodbye. Kindly!
======================
I looked at the ground.
‘…The brick color was different.’
Like a lie, two rows of white bricks lay beneath the decoration arranged like a main gate.
The mascots couldn’t cross the red brick floor beyond it.
B o r i n g
I looked down at my admission ticket.
[(Cheerful) Fantasy Land Ride Ticket ■□□]
[(Cheerful) Fantasy Land Ride Ticket ■□□]
N o t F u n
The voice disappeared.
The mascots clustered right before my eyes stood motionless, and then, in the blink of an eye…
They vanished.
“……”
“……”
Panting breaths flowed through the now-quiet air.
I swallowed.
“…It seems Magic Bunny’s Fantasy Land ends here.”
We survived.
“We… escaped successfully.”
“Ah…!”
“Huuuuuh…”
The Team Y newbie let out a groan of relief and pain, clutching his shoulder as he collapsed.
I also leaned my head against the wall, looking up at the sky, catching my breath.
‘I thought I was going to die…’
My heart was pounding too hard.
This was insane.
The Team A Deputy Manager glared at the researcher who had pushed him with terrifying coldness, but after glancing at my palm—torn open from the nail equipment—he calmed down again.
At any rate, we were alive, and he seemed to have judged that now wasn’t the time to raise hell about killing the researcher.
It was impressive that he remained composed despite the immense pain from having acidic fluid poured over his head.
“First.”
“Yes?”
The Team A Deputy Manager took a deep breath.
“Thanks. I’m alive because of you.”
“……”
It was unexpected.
“Not at all. Thanks to your specialized equipment, Deputy Manager—”
“Being modest here is pointless? Just say ‘okay.’ You made a good call right now.”
Ah, yes.
“Unlike some fucking idiot.”
“……”
The researcher desperately avoided eye contact.
The Team A Deputy Manager stared at him for a moment, then turned the conversation back to business.
“This is a kind of leftover space—did you aim for this? But just standing here is cramped… what are you trying to do?”
“This isn’t the destination.”
“Hm?”
After fully catching my breath, I turned completely around and stood facing the decorative gate.
“Did you know? Big theme parks usually have other things besides the amusement park itself.”
“…Other things?”
“Yes.”
Strictly speaking, this spot under the gate belonged neither to Magic Bunny’s territory nor to any other mascot’s territory.
It was a kind of void within the theme park, so they probably wouldn’t chase after me for damaging property.
I knocked on the wall in the shape of a door.
*Thunk.*
A hollow sound.
“Deputy Manager. Can you tear this open with your specialized equipment?”
“……”
Without a word, the Deputy Manager raised his hand and pulled out his index fingernail again.
Then he wedged it into the crack in the wall and pulled.
*Whoosh.*
“Huh!”
*Thud-thud.*
One brick-shaped panel came loose with a grinding sound, and air rushed in.
Riding in on it… the smell of water.
-Ahahahaha!
“…!!”
The sound of waves splashing refreshingly, boat horns, seagulls crying, and a cheerful march playing.
Through the gap in the bricks, I could see sunlight pouring down into an open space.
Giant cylindrical slides spiraling down through the air were all shades of blue, spewing water and tubes.
[Blue Dream Waterland]
“This is…!”
A water park.
A summer space that forms one pillar of a large theme park.
“The blue zone.”
The Team Y newbie turned his head as if his neck would break, staring at me in shock.
“H-how?!”
“In the Fantasy Land color map I saw earlier, there wasn’t a single attraction that used water.”
“…!”
“From that, I interpreted that there must be a separate large section elsewhere.”
I took a deep breath.
“I also reasoned that normal access would be difficult. Usually, they sell separate admission tickets for these areas.”
“…So you tore through the wall?”
“Yes.”
I recalled the earlier conversation with Section Chief Lee Ja-heon.
-West…
West.
Of course, what the Section Chief said was likely the west *inside* that water park.
But because we happened to be at the western edge of ‘Magic Bunny’s Fantasy Land,’ I was able to deduce that the blue zone existed separately.
‘The east was blocked by forest, the north had an entrance, and the south was a cliff…’
Anyway, the only direction where space could exist beyond ‘Magic Bunny’s Fantasy Land’ was the west.
That was my interpretation, and…
‘I was right.’
“The blue mascot that was driven out of Fantasy Land must have created a new zone here.”
“Ah……”
“For now, let’s hurry across.”
“R-right!”
Hands busily tore away the remaining panels. Even the Team Y newbie with the injured shoulder tried to help with one hand somehow.
Meanwhile, the researcher was rolling his eyes and standing in the corner, but a sly look had returned to his face.
He seemed to have noticed things were going well.
And a few seconds later.
“D-done!”
Finally, through the wall panel torn open wide enough for a person to pass through, we began to exit one by one.
I was the last to step out, standing in the water park with both feet, looking at the blue pool and blue sky.
*Whoosh.* A breeze carrying moisture blew past.
‘The sunlight…’
It was amazingly nice.
Just as a strange sense of liberation washed over me—
I saw people running toward me from a distance, waving their hands.
“Musk deer!!”
“…!”
It was Team D.
“Are you okay?!”
“Deputy Manager!”
Team D people, carrying bulky loads as if they had tubes, rushed over in a crowd.
Perhaps because I’d spent a month working alongside them, a wave of relief rushed over me.
“Have you been well?!”
I greeted them warmly and approached.
I was wondering if I should take over some of the Section Chief’s load to look like a quick new hire…
Wait.
‘That’s a human body.’
It wasn’t luggage.
Dangling from the lizard’s shoulder was a human body.
‘…Hunting?’
Looking closely, it was wearing a mallard duck mask.
The Team A Section Chief.
“……”
No.
No!!
