The Basement of the Factory
Before I could even formulate a reply, she spat out a cold word.
"Nut Candy."
It was an interrogation that brooked no excuses. Her words triggered a memory that flashed through my mind.
"Well, I heard that picking up these candies lets you repair the toys."
It was the excuse I had made while explaining the Sad Smiley fragments.
Unless you were an Adaptor, you couldn't see the item description for Nut Candy—in other words, the system window.
It was simple logic, but because the existence of the system window was so natural to me, I had made a slip-up.
Mo Hae-in must have harbored doubts since then, and seeing me alive and well after being left alone had completely sealed her conviction.
I need to be more careful from now on.
Playing the clueless civilian was going to make achieving a True Ending difficult anyway, especially with Park Seong-gyeon around.
That was also why I had taken care of Princess Tarantella.
I gave a somewhat ambiguous reply.
"I think I can see it."
"You think?"
"This is my first time experiencing something like this. A square message pops up... Is that what you call a system window?"
"Yes."
Mo Hae-in asked, still refusing to withdraw her spear blade.
"How did you deal with the spider?"
"I just dodged it."
The tip of the spear poked me right under the chin. I hurriedly added,
"I could see its patterns. My eyesight is on the better side."
Mo Hae-in let out an incredulous, dry laugh.
"You beat a spider with nothing but your kinetic vision and reaction speed, without a single item?"
"I thought it was similar to a game, so I just played it like one. I like games, you see."
My eyes naturally slanted upward, making it easy for people to misunderstand me when my face was blank.
I tried my best to make my eyes look as innocent as possible, slightly curling the corners of my mouth.
"And you did say we wouldn't actually die."
"Fearless bastard."
Mo Hae-in spat out what might or might not have been an insult, finally lowering her spear.
I rubbed the spot under my chin where she had poked me. It didn't seem to be bleeding.
Mo Hae-in stared at me in silence.
"For a first-time Adaptor entering a Trial to pull off a play like this..."
She trailed off and shut her mouth.
"Let's talk once we get out of here. What did you say your name was?"
"Han Goyo."
"Call me Captain."
"Yes, ma'am."
But the very next moment, I found myself calling out to her.
"...Captain?"
Click.
A pair of hinged handcuffs snapped shut around my wrists.
It was a special item from the Trial Response Agency, reserved only for those of captain rank or higher: Adaptor Restraining Handcuffs.
Finding my hands completely immobilized, I looked at Mo Hae-in with bewildered eyes.
Stroking her Black Obsidian Halberd, she warned,
"Let's behave ourselves, shall we?"
"..."
I shut my mouth without asking or arguing further.
It seemed my attempt to win Mo Hae-in's trust had ended in failure.
With me in cuffs and leading the way, Mo Hae-in didn't head toward the next stage. Instead, she turned back.
"We're going to find Park Seong-gyeon now."
In the hallway between the warehouse and the laboratory, she opened a sealed door. Behind it lay a small space containing an elevator.
Unlike the colorful, child-friendly paradise outside, this elevator was made of cold, colorless steel.
The elevator only had a down button. The moment she pressed it, the doors slid open.
The first thing that caught my eye was the giant, blood-red lettering scrawled across the wall.
Inside the elevator, there was only a single floor button, just like on the outside.
To be precise, in a space where about fifty buttons should have been, there was only one massive button.
Inside a long rectangle, a dense sequence of numbers was packed tightly.
I tried counting the number of nines before giving up, while Mo Hae-in spread her toy claw arm as wide as it would go and pressed the massive button.
A static-filled announcement crackled through the speaker.
Then, the doors closed, and the elevator began to move.
As we descended, she crossed her arms, keeping her spear tucked under her armpit.
"Hey."
I was being treated like a suspicious criminal suspect, but at least she was still talking to me. I replied cheerfully,
"Yes?"
"What do you think happens if you die here?"
If you lose all your lives and get a Game Over, or if you equip a Cherry Picker on all four limbs...
The player becomes an employee of the factory.
"You become an employee working in the toy factory, never able to leave."
Mo Hae-in spoke of what she already knew.
But what she said next was something I didn't know.
"In the place we're going to now... there are people who got trapped in the Trial like that."
I had already seen what lay on the basement floor in the game.
There were hundreds of employees wearing the exact same overalls as the player, diligently assembling toys.
I had searched every nook and cranny, but since there were no events triggered there, I had assumed it was just a hidden space—an Easter egg—put in by the developers as a lighthearted joke.
But all of them were actually people trapped in the Trial?
I recalled how I used to find those tiny, pixelated employees cute as they repeated their fixed animations to manufacture toys.
Those employees never grew tired, never fell ill, and never felt pain.
In the dreary, dark underground factory—so unlike the surface—they simply crafted toys with joyful, wide grins perfectly suited for the Happy Smile Factory.
I swallowed hard and spoke up.
"Is Second Lieutenant Park Seong-gyeon down there?"
"Lieutenant, my foot. I'm going to strip that bastard of his uniform myself."
Mo Hae-in leaned her face against the Black Obsidian Halberd. Seeing her cheek squish against it, I briefly forgot our situation and marvelled at the sight.
They said the Black Obsidian Halberd would never harm its owner, and indeed, even though she was resting her face against that razor-sharp blade, her cheek remained perfectly unblemished without a single scratch.
She cast her eyes down and muttered,
"Attacking an NPC right off the bat, turning the toys hostile, committing mutiny against his superior... and yet he doesn't even have the ability to clear this place and escape on his own."
So Park Seong-gyeon attacked Smiley.
And Mo Hae-in had lost her hearts trying to protect him.
Now I knew for sure what that noise I heard when I first woke up in the factory was.
After her first death and resurrection, Mo Hae-in had been dealing with a Smiley that had already turned hostile.
That was why a veteran like her was forced to go down the difficult Collapse Ending route.
"The only place where Park Seong-gyeon can hide safely from the toys without being attacked until I clear this place is down here in the basement."
I looked at her name tag. The smiley emoticon on it was now crying.
Mo Hae-in was on the brink of a Game Over.
"Won't it be dangerous?"
"Of course it is. But I can't afford to keep looking over my shoulder until we clear this place, can I?"
She was right; we couldn't risk Park Seong-gyeon launching a surprise attack.
Park Seong-gyeon had two hearts left.
Of course, equipping a Cherry Picker on all four limbs would trigger an instant Game Over, but unless he was insane, he wouldn't do that.
Having equipped three Cherry Pickers, Park Seong-gyeon currently held the physical advantage.
Actually, I had my own contingency plan: the Bolt Candy I had secured by exploiting a bug to buy myself some time.
If push came to shove, I planned to hand the Bolt Candy over to Mo Hae-in.
Though, since explaining how I got it would be troublesome, it would be best to subdue Park Seong-gyeon without having to use it.
Thump.
The elevator reached its destination, shuddering slightly as it came to a halt.
The doors slid open.
But what greeted me was not the sight I had anticipated.
A bright yellow face filled my entire field of vision.
Smiley...
A Smiley that had grown so massive its face completely blocked the elevator doors was waiting for us.
Our reflections stared back at us from its smooth, plastic eyes, which were solid black without any pupils.
Both of us froze, our eyes wide.
We couldn't even bring ourselves to breathe, let alone scream.
It felt as though a single wrong breath would result in us being instantly crushed to pieces.
In Happy Smile Factory, Smiley's gigantification only occurred during the final boss battle.
True to its status as the final boss, the giant Smiley possessed incredibly difficult attack patterns, characterized by massive area-of-effect attacks utilizing its colossal body and various toys.
It was an opponent we needed to face with thorough preparation.
So why was it here?
This was supposed to be a safe zone where toys couldn't appear.
No, I couldn't say it was impossible, could I?
The game I knew was already changing. This was well within the realm of possibility.
What I needed to focus on right now wasn't the cause.
It was how to deal with the giant Smiley right in front of us.
"..."
Mo Hae-in lifted her foot with agonizing slowness.
And took a step back.
A cautious retreat.
I could see the blue veins bulging on the back of her hand as she gripped her Black Obsidian Halberd.
Fortunately, even though Mo Hae-in had taken a step back, Smiley remained motionless.
She gave me a silent nod.
I attempted to take a slow step backward, just like her.
Or rather, I tried to.
Damn it.
Screeech! The elevator doors, forced open even wider, let out an ominous groan.
It was because Smiley had shoved its face inside.
This made one thing crystal clear: the one Smiley was interested in was me.
Cold sweat trickled down Mo Hae-in's temple.
Even for someone of her caliber, the final boss of Happy Smile Factory was no easy opponent.
If she were alone, she might have been able to defeat the giant Smiley with her Black Obsidian Halberd.
But with a useless piece of baggage like me to protect, it was an impossible task.
The cramped elevator, which made it difficult to freely swing her long halberd, only added to the disadvantage.
At this rate, Mo Hae-in might suffer a Game Over.
She didn't know me, but I knew her.
I had no desire to see a character I had grown fond of while playing the game on the Archive end up as a permanent toy factory worker.
I decided to take a gamble.
I shifted my foot forward, reversing my retreat. As I took a step forward, Mo Hae-in's eyes widened.
She looked as if she wanted to scream at me right then and there, but fearing she might provoke Smiley, she only managed to part her lips slightly.
I took another step forward.
And another.
Smiley pulled its face back.
At that, the elevator doors, which I had thought were broken, rattled as they tried to close again.
Crunch! Smiley ripped the elevator doors clean off with its claw arm.
Thanks to that, I was able to step outside easily.
Though, of course, it would have been much better if the doors had just closed...
Smiley retreated step-by-step, matching my pace.
As I walked, I pulled the Bolt Candy out of my inventory and held it in my hand.
I quietly dropped it to the floor before stepping completely out of the elevator.
The basement floor, which had been obscured by Smiley, finally came into view.
It was a space so vast and high that its scale was difficult to grasp at a glance.
Although the deeper sections were shrouded in darkness and hard to see, I was certain it stretched far back.
Dozens of massive machines were lined up, yet the place was eerily quiet.
Every single machine was completely still, as if their power had been cut.
And then, there were the hundreds of employees.
Wearing colorful overalls, they stood at attention, their mouths stretched into wide, exaggerated grins that reached their limits.
Despite the sheer number of people present, not a single breath could be heard.
It seemed to be because they were no longer 'human'.
With the employees lined up behind it, the giant Smiley looked down at me.
...Okay, this is actually a bit terrifying.
A toy standing roughly fifteen meters tall exerted an immense, suffocating pressure.
Still, I was doing fine so far.
Deducing from the goodwill the toys of Happy Smile Factory had shown me up until now, Smiley wouldn't attack first either.
Smiley's claw arm reached toward me. Sensing no hostile intent, I stood still and waited.
The claw gripped my body like a crane game claw.
I was lifted into the air like a prize plushie.
Smiley brought me right in front of its face. A mechanical voice droned out.
Behind the mechanical voice repeating "happy-happy," the laughter and cheers of children echoed.
A chilling shiver ran down my spine.
The moment Smiley exerted even a fraction of force in its grip, I would be shattered into blocks.
Yet, strangely, I didn't feel much fear.
Perhaps it was because Smiley, like Mo Hae-in, was an NPC I was fond of.
Even at this point, I still wanted to finish this with a True Ending.
It might be impossible, but I wanted to keep trying until I succeeded.
"Smiley," I smiled at the toy.
"Do you want me to kill you?"
The absolute condition to reach the True Ending: the death of Smiley.
I spoke the wish that the final boss of Happy Smile Factory so desperately desired, and waited for its response.