Chapter 3
‘Could Smiley also be considered a toy, so maybe it could help with the treatment?’
It was a kind of insurance.
I was trying to meet the conditions for the True Ending, so I couldn’t afford to make the toys hate me too much.
“What are you doing?”
“Ah, sorry. I stopped for a moment to tie my shoelaces.”
I chased after Lieutenant Park Seong-gyeon while running and glanced back.
“……”
The candy placed on Smiley’s hand was still there.
The mechanical sound that had been coming out until just now had only stopped.
It seemed to have no effect.
After passing through the long hallway where simple introductions of Haspak’s toys were painted as murals on the walls, we arrived in front of a large plastic door.
On both sides of the plastic door, as well as on the ceiling, there were dozens of small levers in various colors.
“Lieutenant Park, right side.”
When Mo Hae-in stretched out her pincer hand, the plastic chain extended with a rattling sound and grabbed the lever on the ceiling.
She quickly pulled down the colored levers on the left wall and ceiling.
Park Seong-gyeon handled the right wall and ceiling and pulled down the levers.
Originally, the levers had to be operated by looking at the colored patterns drawn on the floor.
But the fact that they had completely memorized the pattern showed that they were definitely familiar with clearing Haspak.
Click.
When the last lever was pulled, cheerful music played and the plastic door opened.
Mo Hae-in and Park Seong-gyeon entered without hesitation.
This was where players started their first work shift as factory employees.
The task was sorting toys coming along the conveyor belt. Since it was the first work shift, the difficulty was easy.
But unlike the people walking ahead, I quietly slowed my steps.
Because.
“C-Captain.”
“…The pattern is messed up.”
From outside to inside, click by click, click by click, the lights turned on.
The dark interior gradually became visible.
Music that was clearly cheerful but somehow felt eerie filled the space.
The toys that were supposed to be quietly spinning around on the conveyor belt were all standing on the floor.
Watching Mo Hae-in and Park Seong-gyeon with their shiny eyes.
Ding!
Along with the notification sound, a system window appeared.
◆ Main Quest: Survive the Killing Toys.
The toys will not forgive the adult who attacked Smiley.
You think you must survive while avoiding the angry toys.
‘That’s why you shouldn’t have beaten up Smiley…’
I swallowed a sigh inwardly and slowly moved toward the safe zone.
The Trial Response Agency was a government organization, so it strictly applied rules inside trials.
Among them, the most important rule was:
“No unnecessary contact with NPCs.”
This was to reduce the risk of infection by minimizing contact.
The trials that came from outer space carried strange viruses.
If someone became infected by a trial virus, their body would mutate and they would develop strong aggression toward humans.
Mo Hae-in, a soldier of the Trial Response Agency, followed the rules thoroughly.
The situation today was probably the first time she had attacked an NPC first.
She must have expected some degree of story change.
But she probably never expected things to change this much.
The route Mo Hae-in was currently progressing through was the hardest difficulty route.
The Collapse Ending Route.
By attacking the first NPC that appeared, Smiley, every toy in the factory became completely hostile toward the player.
Players would be attacked by toys at every stage.
At the end, they escaped the factory covered in flames and reached the ending.
The final message that appeared in the Collapse Ending was especially disturbing.
<Happy Smile Factory> has collapsed.
Smiley was cut apart and thrown into the flames, but even then, it could not die.
Smiley will become a terrible nightmare and return to find the player again….
It was an ending I still remembered vividly.
‘But the Collapse Ending Route is also connected to the True Ending Route.’
If I handled things well, I could maintain my position as an ordinary civilian who knew nothing and still see Haspak’s True Ending.
While I was thinking about the Collapse Ending, an announcement with a child’s voice played along with the music.
“An adult who bullied Smiley. Aduult. A boring adult.”
Hundreds of toys looked at Mo Hae-in and Park Seong-gyeon.
They moved their bodies left and right as if doing warm-up exercises to the rhythm.
Left.
Right.
Left.
Left.
Right…
“I want to make adults fun.”
“But you are already an adult. Adult. Aduuuult. No. I don’t like it. Boring.”
“Aha!”
The sound of cymbals and children cheering could be heard.
“We found the answer. Let’s make the adult smaller!”
“Small. Small. Small. Like a child. Ah, ah, ah, like a child. Small. Small.”
“Pieces. Pieces. Pieces. Pieces. Pieces.”
Mo Hae-in shouted.
“Civilian!”
Park Seong-gyeon, who had been tilting his head left and right like the toys, suddenly came back to his senses.
After swearing, Park Seong-gyeon extended his pincer hand and grabbed my waist.
Then he placed me on top of the conveyor belt.
“If you don’t want to die, stay here quietly!”
It basically meant he had no intention of saving me no matter what happened.
“Yes!”
I answered Park Seong-gyeon energetically and swallowed a sigh inside.
The conveyor belt made the player count as a toy.
It was a safe zone used to avoid attacks in Haspak.
However, there was something both Park Seong-gyeon and Mo Hae-in did not know.
In the Collapse Route, the conveyor belt was useless.
“Turning adults into children, staaart!”
With children’s laughter, the announcement ended.
The toys that had been shaking their bodies jumped up like popcorn and rushed forward.
Mo Hae-in stretched her toy arm toward the ceiling.
She grabbed onto the pipes passing through the ceiling.
Then she cut through the air with her human hand.
A black obsidian sword appeared.
Mo Hae-in’s item.
Black Moon Blade.
The Trial Response Agency recommended clearing trials only with items obtained inside that specific trial.
Using items obtained from other trials had a high chance of causing unexpected variables.
But this was an emergency situation, so she must have taken out the Black Moon Blade.
‘Wow……!’
Even in this urgent situation, I couldn’t help but admire her.
I was seeing Mo Hae-in swing the Black Moon Blade with my own eyes.
And it was right in front of me.
I watched her battle as if hypnotized.
Park Seong-gyeon swept away toys with his pincer hand and used the flashlight in his human hand to shine light on them.
The toys hit by the flashlight stopped moving for a moment.
Mo Hae-in did not miss that chance and cut them down with the Black Moon Blade.
The toys sliced apart by the long blade screamed with voices similar to children’s screams and spilled colorful rainbow-colored blood.
I wanted to keep watching.
But unfortunately, I had no time.
I barely took my eyes away from Mo Hae-in.
Then I ran across the conveyor belt while avoiding the attacking toys.
Even without any items, avoiding the attacks was not difficult.
Because I knew their patterns.
The movements of the toys shaking their bodies when the music first played were hints to their attack patterns.
Since I had seen every ending of Haspak, I had memorized all the patterns like a veteran player.
Running at full speed on the conveyor belt, I quickly scanned the toys rampaging everywhere.
New toys were continuously coming from the production pipes, making the situation completely chaotic.
However, finding what I wanted was not difficult.
A 15cm mass-produced Smiley doll.
Black Edition.
Among the noisy primary-colored and fluorescent toys, the doll that was completely black was actually hard to notice.
But it was a necessary item for the True Ending.
I stretched my arm between the toys.
“Ugh……!”
A burning sensation passed through my arm.
A pony doll wearing an apron had cut my forearm with a plastic knife.
Still, I succeeded in grabbing the black Smiley.
Smiley Black Edition: The only Sad Smiley in the world.
I ran across the conveyor belt again and arrived in front of package boxes stacked behind the production machine like background decorations.
Among the packages containing various toys, there was one unusually large box.
The toy package box where NPC Smiley was originally supposed to be placed.
Now it was empty because Mo Hae-in had attacked Smiley earlier.
Since it was a box made to contain a 1-meter doll, it was large enough for an adult man to enter.
I squeezed myself inside the package box.
It looked pretty pathetic….
When it was only pixel graphics, it was fine.
But doing it in reality felt a little embarrassing.
Anyway, after settling inside the package box, I watched Mo Hae-in and Park Seong-gyeon through the transparent plastic.
The two of them were already almost finished dealing with the toys.
If I waited any longer, getting the True Ending might become difficult.
I quickly checked the Smiley doll.
Even though every second mattered, I froze for a moment.
‘It’s smiling?’
The Sad Smiley doll was smiling.
As its name suggested, Sad Smiley was supposed to have a crying expression.
But there was no way I had picked up the wrong doll.
In the colorful toy factory, Sad Smiley was the only colorless toy.
While examining the doll, I noticed my blood had gotten on Sad Smiley.
When my arm was cut, blood had splashed onto it.
Because it was black, I hadn’t noticed.
Even after wiping away the blood, Sad Smiley still had a smiling face.
It was suspicious.
But I had no time to think.
I pressed Sad Smiley’s stomach.
A recorded gloomy child’s voice came out.
“Please make Sad Smiley happy.”
In the original game, two choices appeared.
Ignore it.
Ask what you should do.
But there were no choices here.
So I spoke directly.
“How can I make you happy?”
Then Sad Smiley should have given me a clue to learn the secret of the toy factory….
“Please become Sad Smiley’s owner.”
It was supposed to tell me……
“Let’s be together forever. Being together is fun. If it is fun, it is happiness. Forever. Fo-forever. Forever. Forever. Foreverrrr….”
Crack!
The Sad Smiley in my hand split in half.
Black blood splashed onto my face.
“I told you to stay still, civilian.”
Mo Hae-in glared at me while lowering the Black Moon Blade stained with rainbow-colored marks.
I came out of the box holding the remaining half of Sad Smiley.
The plastic covering of the package box where I had hidden was also cut in half, so getting out was easy.
Rainbow colors covered the entire area.
“You said you weren’t supposed to move!”
Park Seong-gyeon shouted angrily.
I had been distracted by Sad Smiley’s strange behavior, so I reacted a little late.
“Sorry. I was on the conveyor belt like you told me, but the toys attacked me, so I avoided them…”
“You were attacked even while on the belt?”
Mo Hae-in and Park Seong-gyeon’s expressions immediately became serious.
While they briefly discussed the situation, I found the other half of Sad Smiley that had flown away.
I placed it together with the half I was holding and put the nut candy on top.
I stared blankly at Sad Smiley’s smiling face.
This was unexpected.
Really unexpected.
And yet…
My heart was pounding because I was so happy……!
