EP6. Amusement Park
Yongin's amusement park.
True to its reputation as the largest theme park in Korea, crowds bustled everywhere.
"Hurry up!
We gotta finish construction before the opening next week!"
The workers were redecorating the buildings.
They strung up fake cobwebs here and there and set up mannequins dressed as ghosts to give people chills.
To celebrate summer, they were preparing a horror house special.
That's when it happened.
Worker Kim, who was covering the basement pipe passage with a partition, spotted something.
Behind the pipes, something was glowing brightly.
"What's that?"
It sloshed like pooled water, but the sparkling glint made it look like mercury.
"Hey!
Check this out!"
Kim called to the other workers, but they were all too busy to respond.
"Hey!"
He shouted again, but still no answer.
Damn it!
Should he just cover it up?
What if it was a pipe leak?
After agonizing over it, Kim made up his mind.
Clank.
He'd go down and check it himself first, then report to the site foreman.
Better not get chewed out for nothing.
He pried up the floor and climbed down.
Splash!
Sure enough, some pipe was leaking bit by bit.
The ground was already soaked, turned to mud.
This is gonna mean ripping everything out and rebuilding, isn't it?
Irritation crept across Kim's face.
Before he knew it, he was close to the glowing object he'd seen earlier.
It was bigger than he'd thought—a massive door-sized thing, half-obscured by pipes and dirt.
The blue shimmer rippling across it looked familiar.
"Ah.
Is this a gate?
No way."
He vaguely remembered seeing something like it on TV.
But why was it here?
Kim turned to report it first.
But then—
Someone was standing behind him.
"...Who?"
Splash.
Splash.
Someone was approaching Kim.
The face was hard to make out.
Kim squinted, peering closely—then froze in shock and stumbled back.
"Wh-what the hell!"
Splash.
Splash.
"Euuuummmeee."
A massive goat head with huge horns atop a hulking, muscular human body—tall enough for its head to scrape the ceiling.
In its hands, it gripped a guandao as tall as itself.
"Euuuummmeeeeee."
Emitting a nauseating bleat, the monster advanced.
Splash.
Splash.
"I-I didn't see anything, please!"
Whoosh!
Light flashed off the curved guandao blade.
Thud!
Kim was smashed like a potato under the guandao.
His skull shattered first, then every bone in his body crumbled into a bloody pulp.
"Euuuummmeeeeee."
A little later, the other workers came to finish sealing the space where Kim had been working.
"Kim must've slacked off and gone on break without finishing this.
Ugh, I can't catch a break."
Another worker sealed the partition tight.
A week passed like that.
Hye-seon and her friends had gotten up at dawn to arrive at the amusement park.
With it being the weekend, crowds were sure to swarm, so they came early to snag spots.
"Whoa!
The weather's perfect today!"
"Right? Let's ride everything fun!"
"Sigh.
Kids, calm down a bit."
Hearts pounding, Hye-seon and her friends rushed inside the moment it opened.
"What first?"
"Viking! Viking!"
"No, Ghost House!
They say it's super scary!"
The two friends argued, then decided on Viking first, Ghost House after.
Kyahaaaa!
Screams from thrilled riders already echoed around them.
Since they'd entered right at opening, there weren't many people.
"Our turn!"
Hye-seon sat at the very end with her friends.
As the Viking swung back and forth, people threw their hands up cheering.
"Whoa, that was scary. I nearly hurled."
"Liar, you loved it."
"Next, Ghost House—go go go!"
The three headed side by side to the Ghost House.
The building looked creepy at a glance, with a sign dripping like blood.
"...Can we skip this?"
Terrified Hye-seon asked, but her friends dragged her along like, what are you talking about?
"How long's the wait?"
"About 15 minutes."
"Whoa, that's short."
Hye-seon and her friends waited at the entrance.
Kyahaaaa!
A bloodcurdling scream tore from inside the Ghost House.
"Must be really scary."
"Yeah, those screams are intense."
"H-help!"
Kyahaaaa!
The screams made Hye-seon and her friends flinch—the part-timer at the entrance chuckled.
"Scary, huh?"
"...Yeah."
"Don't worry. It's all just people acting. Nothing to it."
But even after 15 minutes, the group that went in before hadn't come out.
"What the...?"
The part-timer grabbed his walkie-talkie and radioed the team inside.
Static.
"Team that went in still there?"
"...—ro... run!"
"Huh?
What? Can't hear you!"
"B-blood! Run!"
"Ugh, what're they saying."
Irritated, the part-timer raised the walkie again—and this time, a clear voice screamed through.
"Run awaaaay!"
Thud!
A massive guandao blade cleaved the part-timer's head straight down to his neck.
Hye-seon and her friends were splattered with blood right in their faces.
"...Is this...
makeup?"
Splurt!
Gush!
Blood sprayed backward from the half-bisected head.
Kyahaaaa!
Then, grotesque monsters began emerging one by one from the Ghost House entrance.
They were lizardmen—reptilian skin, dinosaur-like faces, razor-sharp teeth.
"W-we gotta run!"
Hye-seon grabbed her dazed friends' arms and dragged them away.
The monsters chasing Hye-seon and her friends stopped when they saw people everywhere.
"What? Cosplay?"
"Awesome, looks so real. Wanna photo?"
People crowded around, peering curiously.
The lizardmen tilted their heads at the gathering mob.
Hiss!
Hiiiiss!
"Wow, the skin feels real!"
A girl who got too close poked at one's skin.
The lizardman turned to look at her.
Hiiiiss!
Snap!
Crunch!
Its jaws gaped wide and chomped her entire face.
"...Wh-what was that?"
"Fake, right?"
Hiss!
Soon, even the most hopeful illusions shattered.
The lizardmen lunged at the surrounding people.
But they weren't alone.
Monsters kept pouring endlessly from the Ghost House.
Following the lizardmen were nagas—snake torsos and lower bodies.
The nagas, wielding strangely curved swords, scowled at the bright sky.
Hiiiiss!
Hiss!
A naga in odd robes stepped forward from behind.
A naga shaman.
Chanting at the sky, dark clouds gathered, blotting out the sun.
Satisfied, the nagas joined the lizardmen in hunting humans.
Kyahaaaa!
Slash!
"Save meee!"
Thud!
The amusement park morning—still before lunch—dyed red like sunset.
It was late lunch by the time Jae-jun dragged himself out of bed.
His phone kept ringing nonstop.
Who is it?
"Yawn."
Rubbing sleep from his eyes, he checked the screen—it was his sister Hye-seon.
"Hello?"
"O-oppa!
S-something's wrong here!"
"Huh?
What's up?"
Jae-jun bolted upright at Hye-seon's panicked voice.
"What's wrong?
What happened?"
"O-oppa!
We're at the amusement park—kyahaaaa!"
A monstrous roar echoed through the phone with Hye-seon's scream.
Hiiiiss!
Kraaaaa!
Monsters?
"Hye-seon!
Hye-seon!"
Beep—beep—
Her call cut off.
Jae-jun tried calling back, but it went straight to voicemail.
"What the hell?"
He rushed to his computer and booted it up.
No news on the top of the internet.
What is going on?
He jumped onto SNS—faster than news—and immediately saw a shocking video.
Someone had uploaded footage from Hye-seon's amusement park.
It captured monsters slaughtering people in vivid detail.
"Gate break?"
Jae-jun shot out of the house like a bullet.