Chapter 179
Chapter 179
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 179
Chapter Title: Even If I Fall Into a Ghost Story, I Have to Go to Work
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Everything is red.
A choking, blinding crimson tide is violently pouring in from the rusted gate connected directly to the dark forest.
These are the lost souls who blindly followed the horrific Magic Bunny parade into the woods.
-♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪
-Ahahahahaha!
They are casually snacking on dry junk food manufactured from their own broken ribs, wearing plastic headbands decorated with their own freshly plucked eyeballs, and proudly holding floating balloons constructed from the glistening, wet innards of their own family members.
The unfortunate, hollowed-out people driven permanently mad by the grotesque shows in the Magic Bunny zone, entirely broken by the cruel, wretched demands of the Magic Bunnies.
Now fully transformed into the mindless monstrosities inhabiting the red zone, they swarm indiscriminately, breaching the boundary into the yellow zone.
And they scream in a chaotic, overlapping chorus.
"They'll give mask prizes! Mask prizes!"
"I hope you all end up exactly like me."
"Have a fun time in the Magic Bunny Zone! It's fun! I said it's fun! Please! I'm telling you, it's fun!"
...All this time, these were the most volatile, dangerous anomalies we had worked so desperately to block from ever entering the resort perimeter.
Dozens, hundreds of them.
Swarming in like a locust plague.
'No.'
I hurriedly pulled the terrified employees back to the rear of the courtyard and sent our yellow supply mascots rushing toward the gate in a defensive wall.
'Block them. Hold the line.'
If I could somehow suppress this breach, manage the crowd control, and get the critical illumination show back on track...
"Yellow mascot!"
"That's it!"
"Ahahahahaha!! Hahahahahahaha!!"
Hordes of guests with grotesque, distorted forms leap madly onto the Flower Golden Mascots from above, dragging them to the dirt.
'...!!'
I looked up, my breath catching.
Beyond the surging, screaming crowd of monstrosities, the red Magic Bunny standing at the gate hoists a blood-splattered signboard.
Tear off the flesh of a yellow mascot!
1st Prize: Great Magic Bunny
2nd Prize: Great Magic Bunny
3rd Prize: Great Magic Bunny
Ah.
"It's yellow!!"
The red guests swarm the supply mascots like wild dogs, clawing at their costumes with bare, bleeding hands and gouging out the yellow fabric with sharp novelty items bearing the Magic Bunny logo.
The plastic eyes are violently plucked from the golden costume heads.
They are ripping them apart.
Horns are torn off, internal white stuffing bursts out in clouds, and the felt-made organs inside the suits are brutally ripped away.
The yellow mascots writhe in physical agony as they're systematically torn to shreds. No... I'm the one being torn apart!! My skin is being flayed!!
"I tore some off!"
"Hahahahaha!"
"Look at this, it sparkles! It sparkles! Kyakyakyakya!"
These rude, worthless, vulgar, penniless junkies from the red zone daring to commit such disgusting, filthy acts in my beautiful zone!
Still thinking they're in the lawless red zone and performing such foul, unforgivable desecration on my property—unforgivable! Absolutely!! Never!!
You all.
The red visitors instantly halt, raising both hands to violently strangle their own necks.
It's almost time for the grand ceremony. Do not dare to perform such a disgraceful act as to stain my manicured garden crimson. Do not even think about being absorbed by the resort and becoming standard nutrients for the lawn.
These disrespectful, subhuman pieces of shit have absolutely no right to be classified as guests at my resort.
I won't even grant them the mercy of being sent back to the red zone.
Even if it takes a little longer, asphyxiation will be the cleanest, most aesthetically pleasing method to clear them.
It was exactly like watching an invading swarm of ants march into the corporate office and gnaw away at my clean files and supplies as they pleased. My vision was blazing a violent, toxic yellow. No, this wasn't mere anger—this was the profound, visceral revulsion that occurs when the system suffers an absurdly unfair, logic-defying breach.
So...
The red zone mutants, with black blood now pouring from their ruptured blood vessels, violently bang their heads against the stone floorboards.
The remaining, normal resort guests watch the spectacle with quiet, morbid interest.
Fine. If we treat this as a pre-show spectacle before the main illumination, it will only make for an even more successful ceremony...
"Mr. Roe Deer."
...
"Mr. Roe Deer."
Huh?
I slowly turned my head, my thoughts sluggish.
An employee wearing a heavy lizard mask was staring directly into my eyes.
What did he just call me?
In a low, clinical, entirely impassive voice, ensuring the other corporate employees couldn't overhear, he whispered:
"Do you remember your actual name?"
...
That is,
K i m
"Don't say it aloud."
Ah.
I immediately closed my mouth, the yellow smoke in my throat catching.
It is a fatal mistake to utter your true, human name within the bounds of an active ghost story.
And I... That is, my name is...
...
'Kim Sol-eum.'
Yes. That's it.
The yellow Flower Golden mascot I wear is merely a protective corporate costume. It is a fabricated, fictional name, and I am only disguised as this golden monster.
The real occupant is safely inside the suit.
I am... human.
'...'
"Huuhhk!"
The red zone visitors, who had been systematically strangling themselves to death, instantly let go of their own throats, gasping for air.
"Hiic, hiiiiic..."
"Give me a prize, if you give me a prize please return our ■■ please..."
Even as they burst into manic, hollow laughter, or wept, or crawled desperately across the stone tiles toward my feet, I spoke to them with cold, gloomy authority.
Regardless of the broken yellow mascot suits rolling on the ground, I use my remaining mascots to physically shove them back toward the threshold of the gate.
"AAAAAHHH!"
As I forcefully eject them, these broken, non-normal entities are driven back through the gate and into the red zone.
Watching the broken pieces of yellow mascot fabric rolling in the dirt, Supervisor Lee Seonghae spoke quietly from beside me.
"Should I go after them?"
I shook my head firmly.
My heart was thundering violently in my chest, and at the same time, my blood ran cold.
'Just now.'
What the hell was I about to do just now?
'I'm being actively assimilated into the Flower Golden persona.'
It is incredibly dangerous. The boundary is slipping.
I need to extract myself from this theme park immediately. Quickly.
As soon as my staff are secured, I must immediately...
'The ceremony!'
I had to initiate the ritual now!
I anxiously turned my gaze toward the gate.
...But what was infinitely more horrifying was the scene that unfolded immediately after I pushed those red guests back through the threshold.
"Priiiiiize..."
Magic Bunny stood on the other side, welcoming those returning through the gate with wide, open arms.
And then.
"Uck."
With a sickening, casual movement, he pulls off their heads.
"...!!"
He systematically pulls out their entrails, snapping their waists like dry twigs.
As if letting them ride a series of cute attractions, as if playing a game or putting on a fun show, the guests are murdered one by one as they cross the threshold of the gate.
"Blaaargh!"
"...!"
I could hear the frantic voices of the Disaster Management Bureau agents tending to the civilians in the rear. Even Daydream Inc.'s employees, who were highly desensitized to gruesome sights, frozen in place at the sheer, clinical horror of the processing.
And yet, the remaining red visitors still throw themselves at the gate.
"Give me a prize!"
"I brought this, please, a prize!"
And then, the 'prize' is delivered.
Cruuuuuunch.
The empty, broken body of the deceased, toppled over like a discarded toy, is crudely and instantly transformed into a cute animal mascot suit.
Right.
Those who get lost or who die within the theme park are recycled directly into the mascot workforce.
That is why, inevitably, in the red zone... there can only be an insane, endless number of mascots.
'...Ha.'
This was the chilling, structural truth of the theme park.
At Magic Bunny's playful, mocking gestures, they die and turn into mascots in that endless death march. Even when I stopped pushing the visitors out, the red zone visitors did not stop trying to cross.
They continued to claw at the yellow mascot's flesh and fling themselves desperately at the gate.
"AAAHHHHHH!"
The boundary gate had become a meat grinder, a sight no human should ever have to witness.
And it didn't end there.
Magic Bunny, utilizing a long magic wand-like toy merchandise from the gift shop, was actively stabbing visitors who hadn't even attempted to cross the gate yet.
"...!"
"Stop it, you disgusting...!"
Thunk.
A red visitor's neck is snapped clean, and their body rolls over the threshold, landing in my yellow zone garden.
In the yellow zone...
...they became a lifeless corpse.
But the entity who had thoroughly corrupted that visitor was the Magic Bunny, and the one who killed and disposed of them was also the Magic Bunny.
Their physical form begins to twist and violently distort on my lawn.
"...!!"
"Eek, r-red mascot...!"
The Magic Bunny mascot, having successfully shed its human corpse shell, rises up within the yellow zone.
And, drawing terrifyingly close, it rushes madly toward my staff and me, its jaws clicking.
"Aaaack!!"
But mascots are structurally forbidden from crossing into another zone's territory.
Thunk.
The advancing Magic Bunny mascot, like a rubber balloon slowly losing its air pressure, staggers for a few steps and then collapses, turning completely stiff on the ground.
"..."
"I-It stopped..."
But the red mascots do not stop their actions beyond the gate.
Playful, mocking bunny dolls continue to bash the heads of the unfortunate.
"Ack! Aaaah!"
"The Great Magic Bu—"
Those who died caught in the threshold instantly transform into Magic Bunnies and, as they rush forward into my zone, they keep collapsing and turning into stiff, inanimate objects on the grass.
An overwhelming waste of human life.
An overwhelming showcase of brutality.
...Before long, dozens of empty red mascot suits—corpses—piled up in the resort garden.
The staff watched the display, frozen in place, not even daring to breathe...
"..."
"..."
I slowly lifted my head and stared at Magic Bunny beyond the gate.
And I realized the core concept of this performance.
This entire display is a psychological threat.
It is designed to make me angry or terrified, forcing me to overreact so that whatever horrific game happens next will be even more amusing for them—a cruel prelude to their entertainment.
Fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun.
On the other side of the gate, the Magic Bunnies clap their hands in unison.
– Kyaahahahahaha!
And shockingly, some of the guests trapped within my yellow zone begin to laugh along with them.
...Laugh?
They are actually laughing after witnessing this scene? Even though they might miss the dazzling illumination, even those people laughing have absolutely no corporate manners!
The laughing guests, sensing my sudden malice, hurriedly covered their own mouths in terror.
The Magic Bunnies poked their oversized heads through the gate, as if wanting to get a closer look at my reaction.
'You too, shut up.'
I reached down, grabbed one of the non-functional Magic Bunny mascot suits lying on the grass, and hurled it with all my strength through the gate.
Thunk!
The Magic Bunnies that were hit directly in the head toppled backward into the dirt.
"Huuk!"
At that exact moment.
Whip.
Every single red mascot that hadn't been hit turned their heads in perfect synchronization, staring directly at me through the gate.
As if promising to kill me.
In absolute, chilling silence.
...A freezing terror swept over my human mind. Still, I felt like I could finally breathe again, just a little.
Whenever you try to pull a stunt like you did earlier, I'll just have to violently retaliate like this—
"Mr. Roe Deer."
Even if you don't keep calling me that, I remember that was my old name.
"Mr. Roe Deer."
I know!
I turned my head to face the one who called me.
Section Chief Lee Jaheon.
"It looks like you require assistance."
But who could possibly help me in this situation?
...Ah, wait.
...
Perhaps.
– We Can Help.
That button item, the emergency escape tool, the one that reptilian entity used to control my body previously. Is he referring to that?
It was certainly useful. But I cannot access that interface now. Besides, I don't have the points to utilize the Space Shopping Mall...
"I see."
Lee Jaheon replied, looking at me without a single hint of agitation behind his lizard mask.
"Please reconsider this conversation after business hours are over for the day."
...
"When business hours end, you need to rest as well. Have you gotten any rest lately, Agent?"
"Tonight, take off your mascot suit and rest."
If tonight's ceremony ends safely, I have to stand guard in the garden. The red mascot will definitely attempt something else under the cover of darkness.
'...If I am careless, I will die.'
No, it will be a complete massacre of my staff.
This red mascot was very clearly depicted in the logs as actively hunting and killing other mascots within the attractions.
He definitely knows the rules to kill a mascot, and he will attempt to execute them here.
"You can take it off," Lee Jaheon's voice was utterly flat, carrying a cold, heavy weight.
"When the theme park's operations officially end, your shift ends as well. That means you can rest as yourself, not as a mascot."
That is not the structural problem, though...
Wait.
Wait, wait a second.
Just now... I feel like I heard something highly critical.
'So, after the theme park closes for the day, a mascot can exist in a physical state other than the costume...'
...!!
The memory suddenly locked into place.
After the theme park's operating hours ended, the guests who couldn't get back into the resort, desperately begging and pounding on the lobby doors.
– Let us innnnnnn!
The people vanishing in pure terror as they fled into the woods. All those people who entered the theme park via the board game and never made it out before closing time, eventually going missing.
...Unless they were a highly specific case like Supervisor Lee Seonghae.
'And Supervisor Lee even said it herself during her debrief.'
– Once business hours ended, there were incredibly weird noises coming from the theme park, but even if that crazy rabbit chased me into the forest, it was a bit slower there.
If it was just the normal mechanical sounds you'd expect from a theme park—like attraction repairs—she wouldn't have classified them as 'weird noises'.
That means... they were sounds that should never be heard in a theme park.
So...
Noises that do not belong to the attractions.
And, with no other employees possessing separate selves, only the Magic Bunny mascot exists in the red zone after closing hours, so it's only natural that it would be the one making those noises...
'...'
I stared at the red mascot in the rabbit costume standing on the other side of the gate.
Then.
Then perhaps, after operating hours, a mascot can take off their suit and walk around as a human or something else.
If Section Chief Lee Jaheon's explanation of the system is correct.
The reason it was able to chase Lee Seonghae through the woods wasn't just because that was a neutral space outside another mascot's territory...
But what if it wasn't even wearing the heavy mascot suit at the time?
If it was counted by the system as 'not a mascot', maybe it could cross the boundaries and move into other zones?
But in just a single night, it wouldn't have had enough time to cross the forest and reach this resort. Unless it deliberately expanded its territory all the way here.
'...'
No.
The realization struck me like ice water.
How Magic Bunny was able to kill the other mascots.
– After the theme park closes, it comes to kill.
Then, today, with a direct gate to the red zone set up right in front of the resort...
'...!!'
"Mr. Mascot?"
I frantically began tidying up the blood-splattered garden.
'I have to start the ceremony right now.'
I need to open the third zone and escape before the theme park's operating hours end.
"Yes?"
I pointed aggressively beyond the gate.
"...!!"
The moment the park closes, it will cross the gate and attack.
The employees didn't even ask how that could be possible, their faces instantly turning pale.
They had already witnessed the absolute insanity of Magic Bunny.
"Th-Then..."
"Wait, so if we just conduct this ceremony quickly, we can escape, right?"
I nodded quickly.
The Disaster Management Bureau agents rushed over to help clean up the ruined garden.
I rapidly assigned tasks to the remaining staff.
My mind was nearly breaking from the sheer, suffocating anxiety.
It felt exactly like listening to a digital countdown before a nuclear explosion.
'No.'
I need more information... Right. Maybe I can extract something helpful.
Just in case, I sent one of our yellow mascots toward the gate where the Blue Dragon resided.
Since the blue mascot had boasted about its power previously, they would definitely help us defend.
But...
'...So much for relying on the Good Friend.'
There was absolutely no time left to retrieve it.
If I successfully escape today, I will have completely failed my original goal for coming here.
And... there is no more time to calculate a way to extract a staff member who has been revived from the dead within a ghost story, while they are still alive.
...
"What do you need, Grapes?"
...!
I turned my head. Supervisor Lee Seonghae, still busily cleaning the grass, had also been watching the Magic Bunny gate I was staring at. Stroking her chin, she spoke.
"Do you, uh, need something from over in the red zone? You keep staring over there!"
!
"Oh, I guessed right. In that case..."
Supervisor Lee Seonghae leaned in and whispered.
"Should I go run over and get it for you?"
What?
"I'll hurry and do it while you're running the illumination ceremony! I'm probably the fastest one here with both of my legs still fully functional. I may not be as strong as Section Chief Lizard, but I'm definitely smarter!"
She glanced confidently at the gate.
"I think it's because of me that that crazy rabbit mascot figured out how to get here anyway..."
...
I opened my mouth, my voice flat and distorted.
I could not send her into a place of certain death on the off chance that she might succeed.
Just hurry, let's conduct the ceremony as planned, as quickly as humanly possible.
"...Yes, yes."
I began cleaning up the now-ruined garden once more.
'There is no time.'
Faster, faster.
The ceremony is an event structurally held right before closing, and of course, I had prepared the logistics to match that time, so there was very little time left until closing now.
At any moment, the final announcement might play over the speakers.
-♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪
-Hahahahaha!
My staff and I frantically cleared the debris from the area.
Dozens of Magic Bunnies were staring at us from just beyond the gate, but they weren't doing anything crazy like before.
Still, the suffocating sense of tension lingered.
I sent the employees to give gifts to the remaining guests, and I personally used the standard mascots to clean up the mess near the gate.
. . . . . .
On the other side of the gate, the Magic Bunnies stared at me as I swept the grass.
'Don't show any weakness.'
They seemed like the exact kind of entities who would enjoy it more if I looked rattled. I quickly finished cleaning up the horrible blood and flesh and backed away.
'Is there still enough time left?'
-♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪
-Hahahahaha!
This area's good, that area's good.
Everything is ready for the illumination.
I anxiously scanned the garden. The only things left were the non-functional Magic Bunny mascot suits that had lost their anomalous spark, lying on the ground like kites with broken strings.
Let's hurry up and clear them out of the courtyard.
The yellow mascots picked up those rabbit mascot suits and carried them away.
'It would be great if I could somehow turn them into my own mascots instead.'
But that didn't seem possible under the rules of the zones.
These seemed to be recognized by the system as something unique, originating strictly from Magic Bunny and the red zone.
'Like a souvenir, maybe.'
It was disgusting, but that was how the system classified them.
'...'
No, wait.
Wait a second!
I stopped in my tracks, my eyes widening behind the mask.
And looked down at the empty Magic Bunny mascot suit I was currently holding.
'A souvenir.'
A thing made from a guest's processed corpse, with the physical appearance of a mascot.
A plush toy filled with soft fur and stuffing, with a cute appearance—something you can only obtain at the theme park's gift shop.
There was one other thing that matched this description exactly.
'...The Good Friend!'
♩-♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪
Then, could a non-functional mascot suit essentially be treated by the system's logic as the exact same thing as a Good Friend...?
– Attention, please! Our theme park will soon be closing for the day~
...!!
"Mr. Mascot!"
I had to make an immediate decision.
If the ceremony didn't go well and closing time arrived, it would all be over.
And just in case, right now... we needed a major trump card.
If it were someone who knew an immense amount about the nature of ghost stories, who possessed various anomalous abilities, and who was definitively on my side...
'...'
– We hope all guests inside the park enjoy Cheerful Theme Park until the very end!
I gritted my teeth and made up my mind, abandoning my doubts.
"Mr. Mascot...?"
I immediately grabbed one of the empty Magic Bunny mascot suits, dragged it by the ear, and dashed like mad into the resort lobby. And then...
– One hour until closing!
I began drawing the Good Friend summoning circle on the floorboards.