Chapter 181
Chapter 181
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 181
Chapter Title: Even If I Fall Into a Ghost Story, I Still Have to Go to Work
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......
[Do you hear me?]
I hear you.
Brown's voice.
Classic, jovial, with a unique accent.
[My heartfelt advice is already prepared, but no matter how good the advice, it means nothing if you're not ready to hear it.]
[So, first things first, I need to properly introduce Deer here to his current situation.]
...Introduce my situation... to me?
I gripped the receiver, sinking into a strange immersion that overtook not just my hearing but all my senses...
....
[Do you see it?]
Ah.
I see it.
Classic band music swelled, applause erupted, and the curtain rose.
That was...
'Me.'
Like rewinding a sitcom, my days from the moment I entered this jovial theme park began playing out.
Me, waking up in the resort's facility room, dressed in the security team's uniform.
[What a fun costume! Quite dashing, isn't it? A beast restrained by a belt—textbook horror mixed with allure. But not bad. Not bad at all...]
Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong! Ding dong!
With cheerful sound effects, an edited montage of my actions flashed by.
[That's the moment you became the owner of this resort. Hmm, the mascot's deformed design looks a bit childish... but fine! It's a theme park, after all!]
[Yellow bow ties for all the staff? Oh my! Should've just slapped mascot heads on everyone! Goodness!]
Laughter.
[My goodness, gift barrages and free spa facilities? A bold promotion that'd draw every depressed soul in the world. Assuming the resort doesn't go bankrupt first, that is!]
Scenes flashed by in rapid edit.
The jovial commentary reframed my desperate survival tale as a fun, successful resort management story.
[The dead employee rises successfully and returns to work! Thus, Deer learns another great mascot lesson.]
'People can't be fixed, but employees can be reused!'
A bizarre feeling washed over me.
'...Did I really do all that?'
It felt strange.
Immersion, after all, means getting lost in something that's not your own experience.
In other words... it presupposes distance.
Thus, the yellow mascot's actions in the flashback were being judged by me.
[One more! Someone unfit for the resort's dignity gets tossed out of the lobby again!]
Over the past few days, at some point, I'd started endlessly adding guest rules and work regulations, evolving into the resort's ruthless, eerie operator.
A mascot straight out of a typical cheerful theme park.
That was... that was.
[Behold! Your thorough guest selection process!]
The more successfully the resort operated, the stronger it grew.
Expanding further, more guests, better reviews, rising revenue—and I began judging operations not just by safety, but by discomfort levels.
'Wait a second.'
A sense of wrongness crept up.
And then... it led to the scene where I switched 'bodies.'
In the flashback, I transferred my consciousness to a stock mascot and naturally handled the disturbance inside the resort—the ladybug employee killed by Manager Yi-seong-ha.
...From this view, it really was a non-human perspective and ability.
[This is the scene. My first piece of advice for you, Deer.]
[Let's take a close look. But...]
The tape rewound with a whir.
[This time, from a different angle. It'll be fun!]
My consciousness departing for the resort's stock mascot.
And what remained... was my body.
The yellow mascot standing by the gate to the blue zone just stood there for a moment, then started handing out balloons to arriving guests and greeting them.
Just like the stock mascots.
'...!'
Good. It stayed put.
By the blue zone gate, it wouldn't have been tampered with or gone missing.
...Though a chill hit me at the realization that my body could be treated like a stock mascot too.
Still, immense relief flooded in.
Now I just had to reunite with my body and hurry through the ceremony ritual!
Thank...
[Shh! Let's watch a bit more.]
But the 'advice' wasn't over.
[Let's see... Here they come. Oh, the filthy, rude intruder!]
Dizzying.
The flashback sped forward, soon connecting to the magic bunny's mad gate assault just moments ago.
Missing persons, once ordinary people, tortured by the red mascot until insane, wailed, begged, went mad, and died.
A惨 hellscape.
[A surprise attack! Such thrilling tension. Ooh! Your response is hilarious too!]
Each of the countless missing persons, one by one, turned grotesque, cried out for the red mascot, were killed like toys, and rose again as red mascots.
And the yellow mascot in the scene, in rage, hurled the red mascot's corpse back through the gate as a threat.
From the black shadow of the invaded mascot, strange golden branches bulged and vanished...
......
Wait.
Rage?
Not despair or terror at that sight, but territorial rage first?
Intending to punish a guest?
This is...
insane.
It really was.
A chill crawled up my spine.
In the end, I reached the conclusion about my actions...
-Completely corrupted.
I had fully assimilated as the yellow mascot into this resort.
Under the pretext of escaping, I'd desperately expanded the resort successfully.
And the resort's principles of safety, etiquette, and dignity—which I'd made for protection—were now dominating me.
...Means and ends inverted.
This is...
insane.
I flailed my arms. And realized.
Why do I still have a right arm?
It was the fifth day here.
Yet why was my right arm still moving fine?
The will-o'-wisp mimicking it needed recharging every three days—why no reaction?
Even in my original body left near the blue zone gate, the right arm hadn't vanished. I, I...
Just having the mascot head form let me move a right arm.
A chilling realization ran down my spine.
'How deeply has the mascot infested me?'
Not just becoming a mascot and time passed, but the more successfully the resort ran, the deeper the infestation...
[Exactly. You've been overly faithful to your role as this resort's mascot. And...]
[It's too late now.]
[You can't just quit arbitrarily anymore. You're part of the Jovial Theme Park now!]
My hands trembled.
[You even chased off the nosy previous owner yourself. This resort is fully yours now!]
Then.
Can't
es cape?
[Oh, looks like it.]
No.
[And once the final announcement happens, everyone will know. Your upcoming event—the Flower Golden Resort's Illumination!]
...Mascot ceremony ritual.
The mascot ceremony ritual publicly declares which mascot owns the Flower Golden Resort and gets guests' official recognition.
If successful, it becomes a stepping stone to expand other facilities.
The ceremony ritual establishes identity as a mascot.
So the moment it succeeds...
-I'm officially a full mascot.
The resort's complete owner.
All identity染ed, no scraps of self left to quit and separate...!
'No.'
[Hmm. Agreed. Spending your life in this musty old resort? What a bore!]
[Deer, you have a duty to keep experiencing fun things and showing us. It's what you promised your friends directly...]
Friend
[Yes. I'm your friend. The purpose of your visit here!]
The kind voice guided me.
[You want to get out of here, right, Deer?]
Yes.
[Then you'd better keep listening to my advice. Just take the receiver with you. Friend. Now, unplug the cord and grab it. Come on...]
With trembling forepaws, I unplugged the receiver and clutched it.
The voice still came from the dangling handset.
[Good... Very good!]
[Now for my final advice... Don't be shocked. It's a magical solution to escape this predicament! Namely...]
The voice dropped to a whisper.
[Switch places with one of the staff for the mascot role.]
......!
[No need to make a new mascot! Just make him mimic you.]
[If he does the ritual in your place, everyone will mistake him for you. And if everyone believes it, it becomes reality. Oh, it'll be hilarious!]
[Someone might pity his fate a bit... but just pick one who exists for you!]
[The two staff who swore eternal service until your contract ends, with nowhere left to go!]
Buffalo.
Ladybug.
The ones I killed and revived.
[Yes. The chosen one will faithfully continue your mascot duties... until he's eaten alive by the red mascot, that is.]
[Let's pick one and make him do the mascot ceremony ritual in your place!]
......
[Easy, right? I'd wager it's already decided...]
The voice rose in excitement.
[The one your heart points to, say the name...?]
......
[Deer?]
No.
[Hm?]
I rose on shaking legs and grabbed the facility room door.
Time until closing... 45 minutes.
Ceremony
I
will
do it.
[...Oh. Surely you're not saying you'll spend your life in this musty theme park, friend? You, who coldly rejected far better jobs worthy of your talents...]
No.
[Then what's your alternative? Impressive! Must be something amazing to reject this Brown’s advice...?]
I strode out of the facility office with resolve.
And declared into the receiver.
My plan.
Resort
I'll
blow it up.
[......?!]
A stunned silence flowed from the receiver.
Of course, the legendary host smoothly recovered.
[My goodness. Deer, destroying this resort won't free you from mascot duty! Heavens, you'd face enormous compensation costs instead!]
[Where did that drastic, pointless choice come from?]
Point
less my
ass.
Meanwhile.
I'd finished talking with the blue mascot using my body by the blue zone gate.
It'll be
fun,
friend.
[...Oh, dear.]
Good.
I took a deep breath.
...Let's do this.
Same time.
Flower Golden Resort's night garden.
'Ah, still here...!'
The magic bunnies kept staring.
The cute bunny mascots gazed motionlessly at the Flower Golden Resort's garden—and the staff within.
"......"
Dozens of doll heads staring silently at me.
An alien, eerie experience.
Even more so after seeing those doll heads rip out human guts while laughing just minutes ago.
Some staff sweated coldly. But not entirely from the creepy staring.
"Why... why isn't it coming?"
The yellow mascot's absence!
They'd all received direct orders from the mascot: 'Tend to the guests,' so they couldn't leave their posts.
Yet their employer, who'd run off dragging a magic bunny doll head back to the resort, still hadn't returned.
10 minutes, 20 minutes dragged like hours...
"No, you know how much time's left, right?"
"40 minutes."
"......"
"40 minutes until closing."
Yes...
The Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau agent shuffled behind the team leader, dodging the Daydream employee in the lizard mask.
The team leader stifled a sigh.
'...Might need to prepare if things go south.'
She gripped the signed sword in her bosom.
And she wasn't the only one gearing for combat.
A few Daydream Corporation employees were limbering up.
Lizard. Dolphin.
'...They look competent.'
Elite team, huh.
As she sharply checked their masks for golden marks,
the dolphin-masked one clapped and waved.
"It's here!"
"...!"
For real.
There, waddling hurriedly from the resort, the yellow doll head rushed over.
The mascot adorned with glass golden flowers as horns.
At that moment, goosebumps raced up the team leader's nape.
'...Stronger?'
He felt somehow more immense, a dominating presence prickling her skin...
But the appearance was unchanged.
'What?'
Did it eat something?
Whatever the suspicion, the yellow mascot's fairly gentle demeanor was unsettling.
It circled the staff like checking on them, confirmed all safe, then called the other mascots together.
The team leader raised her hand.
"Hold on."
"...!!"
"T-Team leader!"
"The thing comes after the event and park closing, right? Any countermeasures?"
The yellow mascot turned to the team leader and extended a hand.
And pointed.
"...?!"
Thus, 30 minutes before closing.
The delayed grand illumination event began.