Mir Land: Fantasy for All
The endless line of cars stretched from Yeongdo Bridge onward.
At first glance, it looked like a parking lot, but this was unmistakably a road.
An absolutely shocking traffic jam.
The police who had been dispatched to this hopeless situation could only stand there with hands on their hips, letting out helpless chuckles. Nearby office workers passing by also giggled at the bizarre spectacle, clearly entertained.
Of course, in the middle of all this, Hee-ae—the mother of twins—was on the verge of losing her mind.
“Why aren’t the cars moving at all? Was there an accident? This is driving me crazy.”
Nana and Mamma’s Parenting Channel.
This channel, which had gained massive popularity through the chaotic growth story of a novice mother raising twins, had transformed over the years into a major channel with 1.8 million subscribers.
In its early days, it featured videos of making snacks for the kids or reviewing toys good for brain development. That was around the time they had even received an advertisement offer for the Ttibuttibuseal stickers from the old Lair Cafe.
As time passed and the children grew, the channel had evolved to introduce workbooks, kids’ cafes, and amusement parks that were great to visit with children.
And that was exactly why Hee-ae had willingly stepped into this hell.
“Mommyyyyy!!”
“When are we getting theeeeere!!”
“Najeong, Najun, quiet down. Mommy’s driving.”
“We’re not missing it today, right? I told all my friends I was going with Najun!!”
“You promised me, Mom! We can definitely get in today, right?”
“We’re going! We’re on our way, so please just be quiet, okay? And Najun, Najeong! I told you not to call out your own names like that! You’re about to be elementary schoolers—when are you going to fix that habit!”
The whole thing had started with a single post that appeared on an online community.
— URGENT INFO! You know that outdoor park at Royal Field that closed recently? Something incredible is being built there!
Yeongdo Royal Field had by now become one of Busan’s premier landmarks.
Beyond its original concept as a shopping mall, it was now regarded as a comprehensive cultural space featuring a library and various sports facilities, earning immense love from Busan citizens.
Mothers with children were especially devoted to it. With one of the largest cultural centers in the country, it had become a place they simply had to visit at least once a week.
News that something new was being built at Royal Field spread like wildfire among the moms—an ultra-exclusive scoop!
Naturally, the quickest information hounds sprang into action, and soon they caught wind of one particular rumor.
— This is for your ears only! So my kid’s dad says they’re building a theme park there?
A theme park no one had ever heard of.
A completely new concept theme park that didn’t exist anywhere else in the world.
And moreover…
— They say Lee Shin himself is personally involved!
The fact that that Lee Shin was directly involved!
Was there any better seal of approval in all of South Korea?
The legendary planner. The creator of miracles. The emperor of the Mir Empire.
The destructive power contained in those two simple syllables—Lee Shin—defied imagination.
They didn’t know what it was, but something absolutely incredible was definitely coming!
Hee-ae and many other mothers waited on edge, their senses sharpened, for any news about the theme park…
And the moment the long-veiled theme park finally revealed itself—
They could only cry out one thing.
As expected, Lee Shin really is a god!!
Lee Shin personally unveils the long-awaited result of his research with Gale Porter of the Olympus Magic Tower. “I invite you all to a land of dreams and fantasy!”
A Gate.
The exclusive domain of Hunters—Gates.
They were saying ordinary people could enjoy them too?
Was that even possible??
In the photo, Lee Shin answered that question with a bright, confident smile.
Yeah. I made it possible.
Gale Porter, Head of Olympus Magic Tower’s Korea Branch: “Theoretically, the mana field that appears just before a Gate is created includes precursor phenomena… (omitted)… If you ask whether this truly captures the original meaning of a Gate, then I suppose… (omitted)… ”
Lee Shin snatching the microphone: “Just shut up and enjoy it. It’s awesome.”
She immediately started the car.
There was no time to hesitate. She was willing to bet that every parent with children had already headed this way.
In fact, it was no coincidence that the highway leading into Busan was completely jammed even though it was a weekday afternoon.
Through the windows of the cars all around, you could see children whining and fussing in every single one.
Considering all that, Hee-ae was actually incredibly lucky.
Thanks to staying constantly alert, she had managed to arrive in just two hours. And after only another two-hour wait, she was finally able to enter the theme park.
“Next group, please enter.”
“Please come this way.”
Following the guidance of the staff members dressed in tuxedos, Hee-ae and her twins joined the crowd and headed up to the rooftop.
Thump thump. Pit-a-pat.
With hearts pounding in excitement, they pushed aside the thick blackout curtains—and their eyes widened in astonishment.
An artificial lake intertwined with trees created a fantastical landscape.
They had never seen anything like it, but if an elf village existed, surely it would look just like this.
And standing out most of all were the white Gates hanging like fruit from the ends of the tree branches.
A staff member dressed as a fairy stepped in front of them.
“Hello, everyone! Welcome to Mir Land. From now on, you will forget reality for a little while and journey into a world of dreams and fantasy!”
“Beyond the Gate, mysteries and challenges await that we could never even imagine. We will become hunters of dreams and explore this world of fantasy together.”
This was no ordinary theme park.
It was a real world of adventure where you traveled to another dimension through Gates!
“Don’t be surprised if the magical trees whisper to you. Don’t get annoyed if the starlight borrows your shoulder for a moment. If any fantastical being speaks to you, please greet them back.”
“You are never alone. The dazzling illusions are all on your side.”
The moment the fairy staff member winked and clapped her hands—
The perfectly normal tree trunk split open, and bracelets came pouring out.
People put on the bracelets and stood in front of the white Gates.
Hee-ae tightly held both of her twins’ hands.
“Everyone ready?”
““Yes!””
“I can’t hear you! Are you ready?”
““Yeees—!!””
Perfect!
The fairy staff member fluttered forward like a real fairy, stepping into the white mana field. Hee-ae and the twins, caught in the crowd, also pushed forward with all their might into the mana field.
And at that moment—
They saw it.
“Whoaaaaaaa——!!”
A world sparkling like jewels. A world where stars greeted them and colorful bubbles filled the air. In the distance stood a transparent castle.
It was a genuine world of fantasy.
And while everyone was lost in awe at this fantastical world—
Lee Shin took it one step further.
Flash!
The bracelets they had put on before entering began to glow. Everyone was startled by the dazzling rainbow light and closed their eyes.
When they opened them again, the children screamed at the top of their lungs.
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaah——!!”
Floating gently beside them were adorable creatures.
Characters that resembled cute animals.
The eternal friends of children everywhere.
They were the monster friends from the animation Monster Guild.
— “Kyuu—?”
This was the surefire item Lee Shin had prepared.
* * *
People were losing their minds.
Some screamed until their throats were raw, while others simply collapsed on the spot.
And it wasn’t just the children. Mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers—even a white woman wearing sunglasses—were all hugging their adorable monsters and shedding tears of pure emotion.
Chae Dong-ha, watching the scene on the control room monitor, was at a loss for words.
“Wow…”
A theme park built using zero-level Gates.
The world’s first Gate that ordinary people could enjoy.
An adventure unfolding in a world of fantasy. Searching for treasure, solving gimmicks, and sometimes working together to overcome obstacles. Perhaps this was the only kind of raid an ordinary person could ever experience.
That alone was sensational, yet Lee Shin had added one more thing.
These very bracelets.
They had taken the artificial spirits from the ‘L&P Identification Method’ that he and Gale Porter had ambitiously researched together.
“To dress up the artificial spirits from the Olympus Magic Tower with the appearance of Monster Guild characters…”
In terms of combat power, they were essentially zero.
They had almost no ego and no abilities whatsoever.
But here, no one expected anything like that from the artificial spirits.
Just smiling and making cartoonish sounds was more than enough.
Look at them right now—the laughter of the happy children and adults on the screen.
His ideas were always on another level.
Chae Dong-ha let out a dry laugh as he looked at Lee Shin, who simply shrugged while keeping his eyes fixed on the monitor.
“If it’s just fantastical and novel, people will get tired of it quickly. That’s the inevitable limitation of any experience.”
A palace of dreams? A world of stars? A land of fantasy?
Those things were fine once or twice, but after visiting ten times, dreams became reality and stars were no different from ordinary lights. Once fantasy stopped being fantasy—
That was when a theme park lost its vitality. That was Lee Shin’s view.
In reality, amusement parks didn’t invest huge amounts of money in new attractions and create seasonal events for no reason.
So let’s put something else in there! Not just novelty and wonder, but something lovable and intimate!
That something was the characters from Monster Guild.
“My favorite cartoon character is right beside me. The cute and cool character that used to only exist inside the TV has come out into reality to go on an adventure with me. Can you really call that just an ‘experience,’ hyung?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Right. Absolutely not.”
“Still, some people might think of it that way.”
“Heh, but you know that’s fine, right?”
Lee Shin smiled meaningfully.
Because there was one more terrifying point hidden here.
Monster Guild was a long-running animation that had dominated an entire generation up to season 8… no, it was still dominating.
Naturally, the number of monsters was ‘a lot.’
“The total number of monsters that have appeared up to this year is 131.”
“You can only bring one monster per visit.”
“Which means you’d have to come 131 times to experience them all.”
“Wrong. Your math is off.”
Chae Dong-ha coolly pointed out that even the number 131 was incorrect. The monsters you encountered would change every time. The number of possible combinations would increase exponentially.
Even if you experienced the same facility, every visit would feel similar yet completely different.
And was that really the end?
Of course not. Because just recently, Lee Shin had bought up all the shares of the Monster Guild production company.
“Now creating new series is entirely in your hands, Representative. 131 monsters? Just keep pumping out new seasons and the money will print itself.”
“Tsk tsk, Dong-ha hyung. Don’t say something so vulgar like ‘money.’ Let’s call it dreams. We’re selling dreams and fantasy here.”
This was what made Lee Shin terrifying.
He kept adding one thing on top of another. And he created a business model with virtually zero risk.
Just like this theme park that offered endless experiences even if you considered it nothing more than a simple attraction.
“Can I ask you just one thing, Representative?”
“You’re special, hyung. You can ask two.”
“Did you tell me to buy the production company’s shares because you were planning all of this?”
The Ttibuttibuseal stickers that had turned Lair Cafe into an instant hit.
That was when their connection with the Monster Guild production company had begun.
And astonishingly, Lee Shin had ordered the purchase of the company’s shares from that very moment.
At the time, Chae Dong-ha’s reaction had been, ‘Why bother?’
It wasn’t about whether it was good or bad.
The question was whether a guild even needed to own shares in an animation production company.
To be honest, once Mir Guild grew further and produced star-level Hunters to represent the guild, he had expected there would be no need to continue using Monster Guild characters.
In fact, seeing versions like ‘Kang Mal-sook Diablo Edition’ and ‘Mama Yama’ Ttibuttibuseal stickers becoming popular items on the secondhand market only proved that Chae Dong-ha’s prediction at the time had been correct.
Of course, if the reason was to win over children—the future of the guild—there was nothing more to say. Still, simply proposing mutually beneficial seasonal events should have been enough.
Despite those doubts, Lee Shin had pushed forward with the acquisition, and by last year he had completely brought the production company under his control.
If they were to talk about that process for a moment, it was equally mind-blowing.
“The president was a complete lunatic. If it’s an animation production company, just make animations. Why the hell was he making games?”
“Well, business diversification is something everyone does. I don’t see a problem up to that point.”
“Who would’ve guessed he’d put gacha probability items into a phone game using children’s characters? The main character Vex had a 0.00002% chance, right?”
“It was the Venom Stone gacha. The funny part is that they even rigged it. It turned out they had set it so that it would never appear within the first ten pulls, and they got hit with a 50 billion won fine.”
“He was insane. With nothing left to take, he tried to steal money from kids who still had snot on their noses.”
It might have been because Lee Shin was jealous of the guy making money off Ttibuttibuseal, or perhaps because he saw the potential that character merchandising could be profitable thanks to Lee Shin himself.
Either way, the president who recklessly tried to copy the idea ended up ruined. He was dragged before a National Assembly hearing, publicly humiliated, slapped with massive fines, and essentially forced to hand over his shares to Lee Shin.
In any case, Chae Dong-ha was asking whether this whole sequence of events had been for today.
In response, Lee Shin gave him a faint smile.
“Who knows?”
He wasn’t a god. Saying he had predicted all of this would be a lie.
But he didn’t bother denying it either.
Because that wasn’t what mattered. The true virtue of a manager was seizing opportunities even amid countless coincidences.
“The fact is, we’ve gotten one step closer to dreams, haven’t we?”
Making this league more exciting and fun.
Lee Shin’s gaze was fixed on the screen, where a foreign woman was crying as she said goodbye to her monster.
* * *