Chapter 184
Chapter 184
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 184
Chapter Title: Conquest of Fantasy Land
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I walked slowly.
Magic Bunny's Fantasy Land.
Everything had stopped, shrouded in darkness.
The silent amusement park was more than enough to conjure up horrifying imaginings all on its own.
Especially since I was walking at the front.
'Hoo...'
Hmm.
I felt a familiar sense of emptiness and faint relief from Brown's voice coming through the receiver.
'Good thing at least you're enjoying it.'
I'd assured the socializer in the ghost story that it'd be fun, and if he'd called it lame, I'd have been sweating bullets.
And even aside from that, this situation warranted joy and relief.
Everything was proceeding according to plan.
Splash.
From the very back, following along, the blue mascot.
No, whoever it was after removing that mascot head.
Becoming aware of him sent chills down my back, but at the same time, something inside me let out a sigh of relief.
Terrifying, yet reassuring like a heavenly host.
'Good thing we reached an agreement right before the ceremony.'
Initially, I'd wanted to demand an assault on the Magic Bunny zone the moment the theme park closed.
Using the attack on my resort as cover to hit and devour their red zone.
But if the timing didn't match... if the blue mascot got pushed back, that would've been trouble.
'Their forces seem evenly matched.'
The blue mascot probably thought Magic Bunny was equally powerful, so they'd been ignoring each other.
Mutual destruction if provoked.
'That crazy red mascot doesn't invade the blue zone, so some balance of power must be holding.'
So I had to set the stage for him to safely devour Magic Bunny.
'Had to proceed step by step.'
And the most conservatively probable result was this very moment.
Me and the employees hide in the shelter, bomb the resort itself.
Then infiltrate the Magic Bunny zone with the powerful blue mascot.
Of course...
'......'
Still, my ears strained toward it involuntarily.
Splash.
The sound of water slapping from behind, a tail scraping the floor, something massive dragging its belly as it moved along.
I could hear it.
Like massive waves, or a snake slithering, or bizarre wings or whiskers brushing, or perhaps something damply stuck to the floor.
Following from behind, the blue mascot's unmasked...
something.
Splash.
My nerves instinctively stood on end.
The blue mascot probably hadn't fully lost its outer shell to this theme park's identity like Magic Bunny had.
The sounds suggested it retained some form.
Of course, I couldn't turn to confirm.
'There's a reason for it.'
I kept walking without dispelling the smoke-formed letters, Absolutely do not look back. Ah, at some point I could use this. Did the mascot influence this costume in reverse?
Anyway, we pressed forward.
Destination: the red zone's center.
Magic Bunny's Fantasy Castle.
"......"
"......"
No warning to stay quiet, yet even the civilians targeted for rescue by the Disaster Management Bureau moved cautiously, mouths shut.
'No need for that.'
But anxiety quickened their steps to near-sprints.
The colorful amusement palace loomed rapidly in the darkness.
This zone's largest core facility.
'...Something's left behind.'
Even if the Magic Bunny main body and its horde had assaulted the yellow zone only to get zapped and buried in the collapse, scraps surely remained in the red zone.
And all of it could become Magic Bunny.
I knew now. Mascots were that kind of breed.
Those scraps would function like the main body given time.
Had to eliminate before then.
"...We've arrived."
I stopped first upon hearing Squad Leader Lee's whisper.
Fantasy Castle's rear came into view.
Yes. We'd approached from behind, and the exaggerated fairy-tale palace had a modern tech-finished back door cleverly hidden, theme park style.
"......"
I didn't stop Squad Leader Lee from forcing the back door open.
Crack, screeech.
The door opened, revealing a vibrant, silent interior.
Horrific things displayed casually like theme park props emerged from the dark, then vanished as my lantern light passed.
Gulp.
Someone behind swallowed hard.
I meticulously searched every wall, reaching beside the gate where the red rabbit mascot would have guided guests.
Then, the 'thing we'd been seeking' appeared.
[No Entry Except for Staff]
"This is..."
"...A staff area or something?"
Yes.
The resort had a staff-only office.
Recalling the operational documents and stamps I'd found there, I figured the red zone had something similar.
If there was a place to claim conquest of the red zone...
'Right here.'
"Is this the destination?"
I nodded.
Squad Leader Lee casually unlocked and opened the door again.
Basement.
Modern stairs descending appeared.
Austere style, rusted here and there as if corroded by blood.
"......"
I used smoke to offer the people choices.
"Uh...?"
I quietly stood before the stairs to the 'No Entry Except for Magic Bunny' area.
'Please, just have a few strong ones follow.'
The thought of walking silently with that unmasked blue mascot thing without looking back alone made me break a sweat.
But surprisingly, everyone followed.
"W-What if someone waiting turns around by mistake!"
"You die if you lag behind in situations like this."
"......"
Hm. Pretty persuasive choices.
Anyway, the exploration resumed in the darkness.
Descending, we passed doors labeled 'Supply Room', 'Freezer', 'Magic Storage' and the like, but I ignored them and kept going down.
I sensed it.
Something like that.
The people followed me, avoiding even the glass windows on those doors.
And finally, upon reaching the bottom.
A rusted nameplate appeared.
[Mascot Development Room]
Door half-open.
Found it.
"There, sir. Hold on. What does 'mascot development' even...?"
I grabbed the handle and flung the door open.
"...!!"
I heard the staff clamping their own mouths to stifle screams.
It couldn't be helped. What lay before us was...
In the center of the vast development room, a massive red body half-covered in flesh.
Back legs with sharp claws, grand and sinister bat-like wings, severed tail, a lone massive... something for the lower body.
"Hiccup."
The people froze in terror.
Then, a cheerful voice piped up beside me.
"Ah, it's a doll head!"
"...!"
"But it looks unfinished? Only half there."
Yes.
That lower body on display was hollow inside upon closer look, with clumps of severed hair stuffed in like cotton substitute.
Traces of attempting to craft its own mascot suit.
'Phew.'
I examined the bizarre beast's lower body further with my glare-formed vision.
Covered in dense scales.
Human fingernails.
'...Ha.'
And that wasn't the end.
Scattered throughout the wide 'development room' were unconnected, abandoned parts.
Yellow slit-pupiled eyeballs, fin-like membranes, bizarre massive bird-claw front paws, tongue, muzzle flesh.
Traces of mascot development. Many forms hinted at material sources, turning my stomach.
But it seemed they couldn't officially unveil or introduce it as a 'mascot' in the theme park.
This was red rabbit Magic Bunny's zone, after all.
That majestic, intimidating form wouldn't fit this colorful cute playground.
The cheerful theme park wouldn't allow it.
"Not the rabbit, but... wanted to use that as a new mascot?"
"......Who knows."
I heard the agents whispering.
Hm.
'...The opposite, maybe?'
'Wonder if it was trying to restore its original form using that suit.'
Magic Bunny had completely lost its shape inside the mascot head.
'So probably tried shaping the suit like its original self.'
Instinct or calculation.
Failed in the end.
'And piecing those fragments together, Magic Bunny's true nature was...'
That was when I thought that far.
Something moved.
"Aaaack!"
I swiftly grabbed the civilian by the scruff and tossed them to the agents.
Shriiirrr...
The scale-covered tail the civilian had been peering at writhed, dripping viscous fluid.
"Gasp."
Magic Bunny scrap.
It had been clinging to the inner wall of the tail-shaped head, squirming.
No limbs.
No organs or limbs collected from missing persons and guests.
Residue from the mascot head after losing form.
But cunning and aggression remained.
And then.
Rip rip rip rip.
Sounds began from all directions.
All mascot parts in the development room vibrated.
The central massive one twisted joints following the tail.
Deeper crimson things bulged and writhed between the red suit.
"Aaaah!"
Screams from some, those fleeing to stairs hesitating unable to look back, agents taking positions shielding civilians...
"Should we destroy it?"
"Seems fightable at this level?"
N-No, not that!
I shook my head quickly and manipulated the black smoke again.
Sent toward the massive form silently in the development room corner, who'd followed us from the rear.
Blue mascot's true body.
"...!"
The unmasked blue mascot thing was enveloped in my black smoke, blocking everyone's view momentarily.
'Now!'
I gestured for everyone to evacuate up the stairs.
Staff rushed out in a panic. I followed to the stairs, standing last with my back to the development room door.
Before the sweating group also facing away from the room, I withdrew the smoke sent to the blue mascot and formed letters again.
And.
Splash.
A sound from the development room.
"......"
The one inside the blue mascot who'd followed us moved.
To fulfill the promised deed.
The slow, powerful footsteps of massive waves, the friction as the deep sea's master regretfully surveyed the fragmented suit and contents...
"Finally, this moment has arrived." "Heretic spawn from another realm."
⟨ Devours ⟩
It sucked them in.
"...!!"
The Magic Bunny contents scraps in the development room were crushed and pulverized like sucked into fierce tides or whirlpools.
Just like the 'bad kid' in the waterpark being drawn into its maw.
Swallowed.
Eerie screams, eerie void.
"Urgh."
"Ugh!"
People instinctively covered their ears and bowed heads. As if refusing to witness the unbearable scene.
However...
I locked eyes with someone watching me.
The one wearing the yellow mascot mask.
Jang Heo-un smiled faintly.
As if completely subsumed by something else, devoid of self to tremble in fear here.
As if ready to turn and witness it all if I wished.
A different chill swept over my body.
Yet the presence behind peaked.
Sounds of massive water streams whipping around the development room like heavy lashes or tails, and...
Gone.
"......"
"......"
Those with ears covered slowly lowered their hands.
From behind came a sense of gentle intent.
"......"
And.
The stairs began to move.
"Wha-wha-what?!"
Like being remodeled in real time, they rippled like waves and gently pushed the people upward.
"Wh-what is this?"
Finally, the 'No Entry Except for Staff' door burst open, and those who escaped...
"Huh?"
Witnessed something astonishing.
"Huh?!"
All the red rabbits had vanished from Magic Castle!
The horrific symbols it created lingered, but every rabbit character shape that once filled Magic Castle was gone.
Instead, new imagery was forming.
Cutely deformed blue dragon figures appeared everywhere.
As if hasty renovations before opening.
"...!"
"D-Done?"
The staff glanced at me somehow, and I nodded.
The Magic Bunny zone had been conquered by another mascot.
Completely!
"Ah!!"
"It's done!"
Seeing my smoke, people sighed in relief. Some beamed or laughed, but unable to look back, sounds escaped their mouths unbidden.
"Th-thank you."
"Thanks."
Directed at the blue mascot.
The shadow behind my yellow lantern swayed as if pleased.
That shadow was...
"...A dragon?"
"Squad Leader?"
"Dragon or imugi... whatever, fine."
I saw the squad leader start to say something but stop.
"......"
A thought struck me.
'I was forcibly instated as a mascot too.'
If the one behind me was something else before becoming the blue mascot.
And if that suit earlier was Magic Bunny's lost original form.
Perhaps the Cheerful Theme Park contracted powerful entities from other ghost stories or legends, turning them into mascots.
"......"
The board game for entering this park was made by Jolly Lab too?
'Eerie feeling.'
Not something to dwell on now.
What mattered was...
Magic Bunny was gone now.
No risk of being killed by it even if someone remained in the resort.
'Good.'
My heart lightened.
Sigh.
'Still, it'll be fine.'
I led the staff out of Magic Castle.
Dawn was breaking.
The Cheerful Theme Park would open soon.
We'd returned to the yellow zone's connecting gate, but the passage we used wasn't Blue Dream Waterland.
The gate Magic Bunny had set up.
But now it bore a different sign.
The blue mascot, back in its head, waved from its newly claimed zone.
Some staff awkwardly waved back.
...or something. That's what Brown would've said if he were here.
But dawn broke, the receiver lost function, connection severed.
Still, we'd meet soon.
I hung the receiver near my thigh.
Then, Deputy Eun approached me.
"Um, now the mascot has to go back to the doll head too, right?"
I looked at her wordlessly.
If no other measures, yes.
And I'd be stuck eternally as a mascot unable to leave with the others.
Quit mascot, and what's left of me vanishes.
However.
The moment operations began with upbeat music.
Resort uniform overlaid my security outfit.
But no doll head.
"Wh-what?!"
Crisp suit uniform with yellow bowtie.
"Em-employee?"
Yes.
Finally, my mask's horns neatly arranged, and I stood as a full 'Flower Golden Resort' employee.
"Mascot... sir?"
Hm.
Strictly speaking, no.
This body was an employee.
Since when?
Right before the illumination started!
'Signed an employment contract!'
Yes.
I'd brought my original body from beside the blue gate and made it sign the employment contract.
To separate from mascot me!
'Living entities can be made employees.'
Ceremony ritual not yet done, so not all my mind and body existed for the mascot.
But supply mascot's ego strong enough like a body, separation worked perfectly.
Thus, my main body separated as employee!
So even buried in the shelter, Magic Bunny couldn't notice.
I was employee, not mascot.
"Wh-whoa..."
A bit sorry I couldn't even smile security-style at the stunned staff.
'Still, duty calls.'
...Of course, there was an issue in the process.
My consciousness splitting in two.
Experiencing death in the supply mascot wasn't pleasant.
But bearable.
No, had to bear it.
For this result!
'Now I can leave.'
Yellow mascots mostly dead except supply types, resort collapsed.
Seize the weakened moment, quit as 'employee' and flee the park.
The consciousness remaining as mascot torn in ghost story... creepy, but had to endure.
As Brown said, dumping it all on employee would've gotten both shredded by Magic Bunny.
'...My already weak self might not have endured.'
This Cheerful Theme Park expedition was held at my request by Executive Ho.
Even if volunteers, especially Jang Heo-un... seemed planted by Ho no matter how I thought.
So if bearing something, better this way.
I breathed.
And let the me possessing the supply mascot in the collapsed resort escape...
'First have everyone quit, then rebuild resort.'
Pump in Cheerful coins from red conquest, easy.
Remaining staff get workplace, we escape quick.
No problem.
That was when I thought that.
The blue mascot beyond the gate stared at me intently.
Then raised a hand toward empty air... pointing at the zone Magic Bunny pioneered where it stood.
Hm?
'...?!'
W-Wait.
But it was already happening.
The color of the zone 'ceded' by the blue dragon shifted.
The walkways once turned blue reverted to golden light.
And the golden climbed half the walkways, conquering 'Fantasy Land'.
'My god.'
Fantasy Land's resort-equivalent zones, nearly a third of the total area, bathed in gold.
Cat mascots with flower crowns appeared everywhere.
No.
No!! I had zero intent to expand the yellow zone, not a fingernail's worth...!
'Just give money for resort rebuild and done!'
I stifled a scream watching the blue mascot's expectant face.
Yellow facilities now five... no, seven!
'This is insane.'
I felt it.
Mascot consciousness swelling too much.
Wait, at this rate I can't quit...!
'Mascot getting too powerful!'
Far stronger than with just the resort, massive things flooded my mind, pushing out employee self, urging vision to supply mascot. No!
'If I quit now, can I remain?'
The mad moment of terror overtaken by mascot joy.
"...!"
I looked down.
Light leaked from my wrist in letter shapes.
The tattoo serving as inventory.
And that light detached from skin, forming shape.
That shape was...
'Employment contract!'
The smudged contents revived.
The strikethrough rejecting it,
Vanished.