A Calculated Absence
Park Seong-gyeon parted his lips, letting out a terror-stricken mutter.
"W-what... Why is this happening..."
He took a step back to avoid the system window shoved in front of his face, but his back quickly hit the wall.
Even though he must have known physical force wouldn't work, he flailed his hands in a desperate attempt to swat the system window away.
I approached Park Seong-gyeon, pretending to know nothing.
"Are you alright?"
"Argh!"
Shaking violently, Park Seong-gyeon flinched and swung his claw hand.
Having already anticipated his reaction, I dodged his attack by a hair's breadth.
"Second Lieutenant Park Seong-gyeon!"
Mo Hae-in shouted, her eyes blazing with fury.
But Park Seong-gyeon was already out of his mind. He let out a scream and charged at Mo Hae-in.
"Aaaaaah!"
Under normal circumstances, Mo Hae-in would have easily dodged him, but she was currently busy evading Princess Tarantella's attacks and the musical note gimmick.
"Ugh...!"
She gritted her teeth. Crimson blood seeped through her clenched teeth and trickled down her chin.
Her abdomen pierced by Princess Tarantella's toy leg, Mo Hae-in suppressed the pain and swung her Black Obsidian Halberd.
A long gash was carved across Park Seong-gyeon's chest by the Black Obsidian Halberd.
Collapsing to the floor, Park Seong-gyeon was struck repeatedly by the toy musical notes raining from the ceiling, leaving deep dents all over his body.
As a cacophony of discordant sounds echoed, Park Seong-gyeon screamed as his body was dyed in a vibrant rainbow of colors.
Then, with a loud clatter, he crumbled into toy blocks and spilled across the floor. He was dead.
He has three hearts, so he'll respawn.
Since we hadn't registered a save point on our way here, he would likely respawn back in the lobby.
"Damn it..."
Mo Hae-in looked at me with trembling eyes. She, too, would soon be judged dead and have a heart deducted.
Looking at the civilian who would be left all alone in front of the boss, Mo Hae-in's eyes filled with despair, frustration, and helplessness.
She spoke in a rapid-fire torrent.
"Listen to me, civilian! Dying here doesn't mean you actually die. You will respawn, so stay exactly where you wake up and wait for me—!"
But she couldn't finish her sentence before crumbling into toy blocks. Seeing her worry about me made me feel a slight pang of guilt.
I'm sorry, Captain Mo Hae-in. I'll treat you better when you get back.
Once she respawned, she would prioritize protecting the civilian over pursuing Park Seong-gyeon.
I calculated the time it would take for Mo Hae-in, waiting in the lobby for my respawn, to realize something was wrong and make her way back to the laboratory. Then, I looked up.
Princess Tarantella was staring down at me.
Tring! A system window popped up.
Pacify the Angry Princess Tarantella
All your allies have died. You are entirely alone.
You are the only one left to face the enraged spider.
You must pacify Princess Tarantella. To do so, you must win this battle.
The boss's aggro had now shifted to me.
Musical notes rained from the ceiling as her eight legs lunged at me.
The attacks poured down in a chaotic flurry, but they weren't difficult to track. This was a section I had cleared deathless back in the game.
My movements are solid, too.
In a Trial, players were fundamentally granted the minimum physical capabilities required to clear it.
It felt strange to have my body move so lightly and precisely according to my will.
"--!"
Having failed to land a single hit, Princess Tarantella let out a high-pitched screech.
This was the start of Phase 2.
The raining musical notes vanished, and Princess Tarantella began spewing yarn webs in all directions.
The webs severely restricted player movement; getting caught meant being immobilized and instantly killed by her follow-up attacks.
I wonder if the bug play will work here.
I didn't have much time. I planned to exploit a glitch in the game to clear this quickly.
Of course, the probability of success was low.
Just because it worked in the game didn't guarantee it would work here.
I dashed straight toward Princess Tarantella. The key was to move before the webs were fully deployed.
Stepping on her eight legs, I leaped upward and reached the top of Princess Tarantella's head.
Ugh.
Just a hand span away from where my feet landed, I could see her mouth crammed with razor-sharp teeth.
If I slipped, I would fall straight into that maw.
But hey, I still have lives left, right?
I jumped with all my might toward the darkness of the hole in the ceiling.
It was pitch black.
My body reached the peak of its trajectory and began to fall.
A faint shiver ran across my skin.
A cold dread crept down my spine at the thought of the pain I would experience if I failed.
A brief fall.
My feet touched solid ground.
"Phew..."
I exhaled the breath I had been holding and looked down.
Having lost her target, Princess Tarantella scurried around in confusion before blindly spewing webs.
The glitch, which could only be executed in Phase 2, involved hiding on an invisible collision platform inside the ceiling hole.
If you waited on this ceiling platform—a developer oversight that shouldn't have existed—Princess Tarantella, unable to find her target, would glitch out and eventually trigger a victory condition for the player.
Princess Tarantella, who had been spewing webs in only one direction like a broken machine, suddenly raised all eight of her legs.
She vomited a cocoon, and her four-way split mouth closed, returning to its default smiling face.
"---..."
The sound of a child's weeping echoed as the toy spider collapsed to the floor.
It was a boss battle victory.
You have won the battle against Princess Tarantella!
Using Princess Tarantella's body as a stepping stone, I climbed back down.
The cheerful chiptune music had now shifted to a melancholy melody.
The cocoon she had spat out crumbled away, revealing doll parts.
They were the limbs of the Prince Doll.
I retrieved the doll parts and placed them in my inventory.
"..."
Throughout this, Princess Tarantella didn't make a single movement.
It was then that I pulled out a Nut Candy and slid it toward her.
Suddenly, Princess Tarantella's legs twitched.
She weakly clicked the claws at the tips of her legs, trying to pick up the candy, but they kept slipping.
I unwrapped the Nut Candy and placed it where her mouth was supposed to be.
Her smiling face cracked open slightly as she swallowed the candy. The limp Princess Tarantella suddenly pushed herself up, looking re-energized.
Before I knew it, the chiptune music had transitioned into a soothing, pleasant tune.
Princess Tarantella looked at me and stretched her legs upward.
The spider scaled the wall with her toy legs and slowly vanished into the darkness of the ceiling.
A yarn cocoon was left behind where she had been.
I already got the doll parts, though?
Puzzled, I picked up the cocoon. As the yarn unraveled, a small candy was revealed.
◈ Effect: Whir-whir, upgrading toy...
It was the hidden item of Happy Smile Factory—the Bolt Candy.
The Bolt Candy temporarily boosted attack power and physical stats by a massive margin.
Unlike the Nut Candy, it could be used without equipping any toy parts.
It could only be obtained once in Happy Smile Factory, and only through a secret quest.
This was the very hidden item I had planned to find before Mo Hae-in returned to the laboratory.
But for Princess Tarantella to hand me a Bolt Candy herself...
This was the first time a boss had ever gifted a hidden item.
The toys of Happy Smile Factory hated adults.
In the True Ending route, the toys did develop a favorable impression of the player, but it was practically closer to "not hating" them.
An active display of affection like giving a gift was supposed to be impossible.
Come to think of it, Sad Smiley also asked me to be its master.
While the invitation to stay together forever was creepy, it was technically a positive sentiment.
I pocketed the Bolt Candy, picked up the Prince Doll from the floor, and attached its limbs.
After placing the completed doll in my inventory, I looted an additional Erlenmeyer flask filled with rainbow liquid.
I walked forward, lost in thought.
What if there's another ending besides the True Ending?
Reviewing my playthrough, there was only one discrepancy.
My blood getting on Sad Smiley.
In the game, unless it was a specific scripted event, getting injured never resulted in blood staining an item.
First, let's focus on what needs to be done.
This was a hard-won opportunity to separate myself from Park Seong-gyeon and Mo Hae-in. I didn't have the luxury to indulge in idle speculation.
I left the laboratory and headed to the next stage: the Warehouse.
I scanned the Prince Doll's eyes to unlock the warehouse door and stepped inside.
There was a hidden space inside the warehouse.
It was a space that could only be found by collecting sketchbook pages scattered throughout Happy Smile Factory, crafting an item, and deducing its location based on the clues provided.
The text written on the sketchbook pages was as follows:
To save the sick Princess, the Prince summoned an evil demon.
Having obtained the demon's power, the Princess became healthy! But she turned into a horrible monster.
Trapped in the tower, the Princess lives forever. The Princess hates what she has become and wants to die.
But no matter what she does, she cannot die. Forever...
In her anger, the Princess pushed the Prince off the tower. The Prince shattered to pieces and died. The Princess envied the shattered Prince's death.
Collecting all five pages transformed them into a storybook item.
A crude storybook made by drawing with crayons on a sketchbook. It looks like it was made by a young child.
And at the very end of the storybook, one more page was added.
I want to die I want to die I want to die I want to die kill me kill me kill me die die die
This text pierced straight to the core lore of Happy Smile Factory.
However, since I already knew every single clue the storybook would provide, I didn't need to waste time running around the factory to collect the pages.
Instead, I looted the Tarot Cards depicting the Crown and the Tower—symbols that appeared in the storybook—from inside the warehouse.
Then, I approached a dusty, barely visible old cabinet tucked away in a far corner.
When I pulled the handle of the tall metal cabinet, it only rattled with a clack and refused to open.
It seems to be locked...
In the game, a system window like this would pop up.
But if you stubbornly tried to open the door more than ten times...
The cabinet door has broken!
The door would open along with a notification chime.
Though in this reality, instead of a chime, I heard the actual sound of the lock snapping.
Dismembered doll parts spilled out of the open cabinet. They were all butchered Prince Dolls.
I cleared out the doll pieces, placed the completed Prince Doll along with the items I had gathered from the laboratory and the warehouse inside the cabinet, and shut the door.
A brilliant light leaked through the cracks of the cabinet. I waited for the light to subside before opening the door again.
All the other items inside had vanished, leaving only a single Bolt Candy sitting quietly in their place.
Now I have two Bolt Candies.
This was an item I had never possessed two of at the same time. Pondering how best to use them, I summoned the system window.
Park Seong-gyeon's status window.
Checking his status window, there wasn't much change other than the fact that he had consumed a Nut Candy in the meantime.
Come to think of it, when I sent the Transmission to Park Seong-gyeon earlier, I was able to see his system window.
Normally, you couldn't see another person's system window, but it seemed I could see his because the Transmission was my own creation.
But if I'm the System, shouldn't I be able to see everything from the start?
As if waiting for this question, a square box popped up.
Your ability is lacking.
It was a highly half-hearted response, as if it found repeating itself too bothersome.
Having found out what I wanted to know, I ignored the system's lazy attitude.
I began setting up the groundwork while waiting for Mo Hae-in, who would be arriving soon.
There was a running gimmick that started from the warehouse and led to the next stage.
Since we would have to run while dodging falling debris from a collapsing building, I cleared away the obstacles in advance to prepare for it.
Just as I moved the last chair, Mo Hae-in appeared.
"Pant... You... How..."
She was panting heavily, looking as though she had run with every ounce of her strength.
Leaning against the warehouse door, Mo Hae-in blankly scanned me from head to toe.
Once she confirmed I was completely unharmed, she gritted her teeth and approached me, her Black Obsidian Halberd in hand.
The black obsidian blade of the halberd pressed right up against my chin. Mo Hae-in looked up at me and asked:
"Civilian."
"Yes."
"You can see the system window, can't you?"