Chapter 182
Chapter 182
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 182
Chapter Title: Even If I Fall Into a Ghost Story, I Have to Go to Work
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Light blooms in the nighttime garden of Flower Golden Resort.
Whoosh.
A single streak of light shoots into the sky and bursts spectacularly, pouring sparkling light like a waterfall onto the resort building.
Wow!
Colorful flowers throughout the garden bloom in light, swaying as if dancing and opening in sequence. Even the glow-in-the-dark flowers brought by non-human guests fill with light and draw cheers.
A sight so ecstatic it feels eerie instead.
And soon, light blooms from the resort building as well.
The light rises in vine-like patterns, flashing off windows and terraces before reaching the top of the resort building and bursting into pollen-like specks of light.
Finally, he steps forward.
The owner of this resort.
The yellow mascot strides to the center of the garden with countless other mascots, performing synchronized dance moves. With each motion, the lights dance anew.
The cheerful theme park's theme song flows.
-♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪
At the same time, variations of the same tune echo faintly from all directions.
Sounds drifting from far away.
"……."
The Hyunmu 3rd Team leader glances sidelong.
Red zone and blue zone.
The other zones are holding their own ceremonies too.
Blue zone fireworks, and...
-Kyahahaha!
Red zone parade.
The maddeningly agonizing, cheerful, horrific, and gorgeous procession led by Magic Bunny kicks off from the Magic Palace at the red zone's center, blaring raucous music amid screams and cheers.
Too distant to make out details, but the team leader gauges the parade route.
And senses it intuitively.
It's heading here.
Not yesterday. But they've changed the path.
The moment this ceremony ends, that parade will halt at the red gate before the garden.
And when business closes...
"The parade's coming over here, right?"
"…!"
"Ah, sorry. Did I scare you?"
Similar hunch?
The team leader silently watches the dolphin-masked employee bow to her, then nods.
She wasn't the type to flaunt open contempt for the shady pharmaceutical front.
Besides, she'd just witnessed that bizarre scuffle.
"I'll
leave you
behind"
"No." "It's fine." "Doesn't seem fine."
Right before the event, the yellow mascot cleared all employees from the garden, gathering them in front of the resort.
As if shielding them from something.
Thanks to that, the staff watch the illumination from afar, distanced by the resort building.
Even so, the entranced stares from her Hyunmu team agents drive home the strangeness of this "mascot ceremony ritual."
And if her eyes weren't deceiving her...
That dolphin-masked employee had tried to aid the mascot in protecting the staff to the bitter end.
'…….'
Rookies often conflate an unethical organization's nature with its members' characters, but reality's never so tidy.
Ghost story creatures are no different.
Which only makes it more of a headache...
'Hoo.'
She shakes off the reverie.
Work awaits.
And besides, now's the moment to move.
Waaaaa!
At the illumination's climax, the yellow mascot centers himself. His horn ignites in blazing golden light as flowers bloom.
In that instant, the yellow mascot turns their way and, like stage direction, raises a front paw to wave at them from afar.
Intent clear without words.
"Come
here"
"…Now!"
At the signal, employees bolt like mad.
Target: the gate to the blue zone.
And moments later.
The ground beside the gate trembles and rises.
The illumination hurtles toward its peak.
Light pools beneath the yellow mascot at the garden's heart, lifting him airborne.
Drumroll.
Ooooh!
Light sprouts from the yellow mascot's horn, swaying like a colossal tree engulfing the resort.
Flowers bloom suffocatingly.
And as the mascot raises a hand to end the music...
Aaaaaah!
His name erupts in light midair, achieving full recognition.
Owner of the Cheerful Theme Park's yellow zone.
Everyone knows. Proclaimed to all.
Congratulations. He's now the perfect mascot of this place.
And the yellow mascot absorbs an immense new sensation.
'…!'
He senses the entire yellow zone.
Everything happening in his resort zone is known to him. He can command all mascots as extensions of himself. He comprehends every law and ■■ of this Cheerful Theme Park!
Now he's the zone's complete master and mascot!
Aaaah!
Instinctual ecstasy amplifies the illumination's dazzle, bursting golden flowers across the garden to conclude the ceremony ritual.
Aaaaaaaa!
But in that span.
Something emerges beyond the red gate.
The parade of madness.
The grotesque, overwhelming, gorgeous finale of Magic Bunny's march.
Finishing its final sacrificial rite, the red rabbit carriage, giant face balloons, and parade floats of every sort halt before the gate.
Flashing wildly as if defying the illumination... then snuffing out.
Simultaneously, the illumination's radiant waves fade to final bliss.
Ending.
What flows...
-♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪
Ending theme.
A warm variation of the theme song begins.
Closing time nears.
The garden falls quiet.
Spectators disperse from the illumination viewing. They hurry to exit gates.
The zone swiftly regains bustling calm.
Business winding down.
Yellow mascots tidy the nighttime garden, guide guests politely, manage resort facilities.
No movement observed beyond the dark red gate.
Yellow mascots toast the day's event lightly, check lobby for lingering guests.
No movement observed beyond the dark red gate.
The resort building now glows softly through lobby glass in serene quiet. Yellow mascots within wave goodbye to guests exiting the gate.
No movement observed beyond the dark red gate.
The lobby doors shut.
Thud.
…….
…….
…….
Beyond the dark red gate.
Countless red eyes begin popping out.
Magic Bunny's parade horde crosses the gate outright.
Thud thud thud crack,
Corpses of guests used as carpets—plus living somethings—to keep the carriage from snagging crush underfoot. The gate stains red.
The carriage charges. Its wheel-mounted music box tinkles a jaunty melody. Things in Magic Bunny masks stagger in march to the tune, into the resort.
Doll masks melt gooily.
Time when they're no longer mascots: red mascots shed form to invade another zone.
Transcending rules irrelevant post-closing.
Aaaah!
Bipedal red lumps link like veins. The parade's facade twists into irredeemably bizarre, beyond theme park illusion.
Yet onward it parades.
With music box chime, they trample yellow zone garden, swarm the resort as horde.
Drawing a grotesque circle, tightening gradually. Inch by inch toward the resort.
Slowly.
Closer.
Pressing.
Yellow mascots in the lobby watch warily.
Closer.
3.
2.
1.
Aaaah!
Lobby glass shatters. Parade floods the resort interior.
Hell breaks loose.
Unfiltered murder lust and wrecking rage erupts. Dozens of yellow mascots seized, slaughtered.
A few yellows swarm to resist or counter, pinning one or two—but fleeting.
Soon ripped apart like dolls, stuffing flying as they stall.
Mascots plummeting from the roof, heads exploding, impaled in freezers.
Maceration, atrocity, breathless horror.
Magic Bunny conquest!
Magic Bunny's mighty power!
Thud thud thud thud!
Amid it, one yellow mascot flees in panic.
The ornate-horned one.
The very entity from tonight's illumination.
The true body.
Kyahahaha!
Magic Bunny fireworks burst laughing. Flames scorch the fleeing mascot's leg.
It topples, crawls away—lead parade carriage pursues down narrow hall like a battering ram.
Toward facility office.
Click!
Yellow mascot slips into staff-only yellow zone space, barely locking before carriage arrives.
Boom!!
Vast front ornament shreds door, invades.
Colorful bulb carriage from parade vanguard.
Iconic Magic Bunny mount.
Its grinning giant red Magic Bunny face ornament cracks wide.
Thud thud thud thud!
Ornament eyes rupture, mouth explodes, powder erupts—from within, something finally spills forth.
Aaaah!
Magic Bunny's core.
Something digested into red mascot.
Bizarre lump devoid of pre-mascot form pours from carriage.
Body parts affixed like spoils: eyes, ears, limbs galore.
Aaaah!
It quivers in delight, approaching yellow mascot.
Slowly, slowly.
Fun!
Raw hunt. Raw bliss!
Revenge! Release!
Plunder's thrill!
Leg mangled, stuffing leaking, yellow mascot can't flee.
It merely gazes up at the horrific, crushing mass...
Opens maw.
That instant.
Boom!!
Thunderous roar—facility office ceiling caves.
The maskless red thing lunges to devour the yellow mascot's head regardless, but the collapse isn't ceiling alone.
Bang! Kwakwakwa bang!
Explosions pulverize the resort.
Heavy beams spear the parade horde mid-hunt.
Aaaah!
Destruction indiscriminate, utterly different.
But blasts rage on.
Resort crushes first floor under gravity's crush, sinking.
Innumerable Magic Bunny guts pulverized below.
Yellow mascot corpses too.
Kwa bang bang bang!
Even the facility office housing the greatest innards.
Concrete slabs, steel pipes plunge savagely into desk documents.
That desk's original paper...
Honoring that will.
The resort shatters utterly, engulfed in flames.
Everything within included.
"My, my god."
Employees groan afar as the resort halves and collapses.
Business end spares them safety now.
Third facility: yellow mascot's frantic underground dig near blue zone gate at ceremony's end.
Less official service, more emergency haven—empty inside, but advantageous.
Staff enter freely, no strings.
No side effects means human-safe.
Thus safe in shuttered Cheerful Theme Park, skipping the resort lodging...
Watching workplace crumble, boss massacred via ceiling slit-window.
"Wait! Don't tell me that mascot plans to go down with—"
"L-look! It's still there!"
"Fuck."
From collapsed resort rubble, red lump erupts.
Aaaaa!
Red lump spits out its chewy mouthful.
Golden-furred pelt.
Yellow mascot head rolls floorward, faint in blaze-glow...
"Ah..."
Sluggish crawl signals damage, but no full stop.
Chilling portent for yellow zone staff.
Lost.
Red zone absorbs.
But then.
"Te-Team Leader!"
"Hold on."
Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau Hyunmu 3rd Team leader steps from shelter.
Magic Bunnies mob resort hunting yellow remnants—no mascot forms here, untouched yet.
Allows fulfilling boss's "special request" outside.
Yellow mascot's plea.
"Use
that thing"
No clue how it foresaw, but fair ask.
"Hoo."
She draws sword from coat.
Yang energy imbues it: ghost-repelling, evil-expelling calamity-cutter.
Exclusive forge-issue for Bureau Hyunmu team leaders.
Blade uncoils endlessly from short glass sheath.
Scroll of twenty-eight mansions stellar, scroll of sword canon.
All of it...
Raised.
"Heaven bestows the essence, earth aids the spirit" "Sun and moon take form, mountains and waters shape" "And."
⟨ Lightning thunder raging blade ⟩
Swings.
Over collapsing resort.
Lightning spears the trapped evil's crown.