Amusement Park Closure
The amusement park was finally wrapped up.
“Senior, did Tosam’s head explode again?”
“You’ve been through a lot too, senior.”
I ran into Nahee at the infirmary after hauling Tosam’s mangled body over. She was dragging a battered Ha Taewon whose limbs had all burst open.
“Good evening, Jeongchan.”
“Yes, senior. Are you well?”
“I’m perfectly fine.”
I sat Tosam down beside Ha Taewon and waited for treatment in order. Thanks to the pair of them never sparing their own bodies, I now knew the infirmary’s treatment methods like the back of my hand.
There would be no more incidents of body parts being reattached incorrectly or receiving excessive care.
“I’ve reviewed all the rules. How about your side?”
“We’ve finished processing everything as well.”
We had continued exploring the amusement park and verifying the rulebook. Along the way we corrected existing rules and even derived new ones.
“This incident wrapped up more safely and quickly than expected. It’s all thanks to the draft you provided, junior. Handling something this difficult alone—how on earth did you manage it?”
“I was lucky.”
It was less about what I had done and more about the people in the anomaly gallery who had participated enthusiastically and fed me information.
“Verification is complete, so it’s time to submit the rulebook. Survivors will keep coming, but the Civilian Response Bureau can handle them. We can leave the rest in their hands.”
“Leave it to the Civilian Response Bureau?”
There were still so many anomalies I hadn’t collected yet. I had to hand them over to someone else?
“You probably didn’t know. This is your first time writing a rulebook since becoming an agent. Normally after this much work, it’s acceptable to hand over the rest. The next stage is devising methods to raise the survival rate while rescuing survivors, so we don’t necessarily need to—”
“No. I want to see it through to the end.”
There were still so many anomalies left to adore. Leaving them behind would be unacceptable.
“Aren’t you being a bit too diligent, junior?”
“This is my responsibility.”
“In that case, I was planning to handle the trivial matters myself… but would you like to take over the entire handover of the amusement park?”
“Gladly.”
There was the Blue Dragon Train, the anomalies in the ghost house that would suit Cutie Poojak Island better, and so many more. Time was short, yet the number of anomalies I wanted to capture was overwhelming.
“No special points to note during the handover?”
“None. If I had to pick something, it would be the way the staff suddenly started acting suspiciously…”
Nahee stared at me intently.
“That much is trivial. Such things can happen in anomaly spaces at any time, can’t they?”
Nahee seemed willing to cover for the mess I had made.
“Thank you.”
“For what? I should be the one thanking you. Thanks to you, junior, I’m another step closer to promotion. Pffthaha!”
It was an oddly clumsy laugh, nothing like her usual one.
“Excuse me. I’ve been here too long; the laughter keeps slipping out. Has my mind been contaminated?”
“Would you like to head back first? Mental contamination can’t be treated here.”
“No, I still want to ride the carousel one more time.”
“We’ve already inspected that area.”
“Have you? I did want to enjoy it a little more…”
Once the injured were treated, Jeongchan gathered even Nahee—who had grown increasingly cheerful—and left the amusement park with the now-complete rulebook.
He still had many anomalies he hadn’t been able to collect yet. All that remained was to confirm with the Civilian Response Bureau whether survivors could safely exit using the manual, while he continued to adore the rest.
*
‘I don’t know where this is, but it feels really fun?’
A woman appeared in a foggy clearing. She had fallen out of nowhere, yet she was smiling brightly.
In front of her stood a sign explaining the amusement park’s location.
Amurotica Amusement Park
Welcome! Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Come enjoy the fun here!
She stared at the sign as if entranced, then noticed the rulebook lying at her feet.
Amurotica Amusement Park Survival Guide
Reading and following these instructions will make your visit even more enjoyable!
0. To fully enjoy the amusement park, please swallow the candy enclosed with this manual! It will make your experience even more delightful!
‘Really? It can get even more fun?’
She picked up the colorful star-shaped candy and swallowed it.
‘It’s so bitter. Is this medicine?’
She frowned and tried to spit it out, but the candy had already melted away like snow. At the same time, the artificial joy inside her melted away too.
‘Huk—! What was I just thinking?’
Once she regained her senses, only terror remained—the terror of having been caught in an anomaly.
‘Why did I feel happy?’
The only thing the trembling woman could trust was the rulebook in her hands, the one the Response Bureau had created and distributed.
You are currently trapped inside an anomaly at the amusement park. Simply reading this text has already increased your survival rate. Please calmly follow the rules below.
1. You must behave like a tourist in this amusement park. Your clothing and accessories should also…
She began moving according to the manual.
2. You must purchase a ticket from a staff member by paying an appropriate price. The more sincerely you compliment the staff member, the cheaper the price will be. Please take the white pill enclosed in the manual. Also, swallow the black painkiller before paying the price.
Gulp—
The moment she faced the staff member, nausea surged up her throat. She barely managed to swallow the rising vomit along with the pill and looked at the staff member.
‘Can that even be called a face?’
Only after the medicine took effect did the figure appear beautiful.
She stammered out a compliment and offered her left hand as payment to obtain a ticket. Because she felt no pain, she was able to stop the bleeding with her clothes.
Staggering into the amusement park, she realized something.
This was no place for an ordinary human like herself to enjoy.
Hairy dolls roamed everywhere. To hide her expression while looking at them, she had to buy many items from the stalls.
She covered her face and wrapped her body tightly. Once the gazes upon her decreased, she could finally let out a sigh of relief.
‘Now I need to escape.’
3. Attempt escape by riding the white bumper cars. Ram into others, and keep ramming. The impact is similar to that of real automobiles. Striking others one-sidedly results in less impact.
4. Attempt escape by riding the carousel. However, if you see a red horse or a black horse, abandon the attempt.
Her attempt to escape using the bumper cars failed.
Her attempt to escape using the carousel also failed.
She had to pay the price for each failure. This time she lost her entire left arm.
She had to attempt escape before the medicine wore off.
Before that, she would stop by Flesh Garden to reattach her arm and ride the attractions again.
Was the order carousel, bumper cars, gyro drop, and Ferris wheel?
It would be good to visit Cutie Poojak Island and Western Area, which were listed as the next escape methods.
‘Heehee, this looks fun.’
As she excitedly thought about the rides, someone sat down beside her. It was a man wearing flower-patterned clothes.
“Are you alone?”
“Yes, I’m alone! This amusement park is such a joyful place!”
“It is. The staff are so beautiful that just looking at them brings joy.”
“Huh? The staff aren’t pretty though?”
“Oh dear… You seem quite ill. You need urgent treatment.”
The moment the drug was injected, her memory cut off. The last thing she heard was the deeply troubled man’s muttering.
“If the dosage is too strong it causes suicidal impulses, but if it’s too weak they fail to escape like this. What should I do? Should I catch more anomalies?”
When she regained consciousness, she realized she had escaped the amusement park.
She remembered that her escape had not been thanks to her own efforts, but because of a certain man.
“To think you even recalled that much—you may have the aptitude for this after all.”
She quietly listened as the person who introduced himself as an employee of the Response Bureau’s Civilian Response Division explained the situation.
“Where is the person who helped me?”
“He returned to the amusement park. There are still things like dosage and other details he needs to verify.”
“At least let me give him a personal thank-you…”
“He’s not the type to want that. I don’t know him well, but after working with him this time, I can say he doesn’t cling to material things. He faces anomalies that others avoid in order to save people, without any fear. He doesn’t seem to find it bothersome either. I’ve never seen an agent like him before.”
Jeongchan was rummaging through the amusement park like a bear that had found a honey pot, searching for anomalies. In the process he rescued quite a few survivors as well.
‘Why are so many people coming here?’
In truth, he was simply trying to quickly chase out the annoying survivors who kept luring anomalies, but neither the survivors caught in the anomaly nor the Civilian Response Bureau staff watching him had any way of knowing that.
It was only natural that his fame would grow.
Meanwhile, Amurotica, locked inside the Management Bureau, felt a strange sense of familiarity.
‘This place…’
From the way the anomalies were constantly terrified, to the bright white walls that still carried the damp atmosphere of a basement—it was all too similar.
‘Is the director here someone with similar abilities to Master?’
It was far too similar to the place where she had been born and where the dollmaker who cherished her had lived.
She didn’t know the exact nature of the ability, but it seemed to possess the same containment power as her former master.
Unlike the place she had stayed before, the staff here seemed weaker than the anomalies, yet the anomalies still allowed themselves to be managed by the staff. That was fascinating.
‘Why is that?’
“Raopf, respect the order.”
‘What the—!’
Along with the stench of sewage, each word brought an unbearable mental shock that hammered into her head.
A powerful anomaly covered in barnacles was being managed by a staff member while glaring at the other anomalies.
Divers stood in formation behind it, radiating intimidation, yet the tentacled anomaly paid them no mind.
Behind her, anomalies with cameras instead of heads had taken their positions.
“Order? Was there such a thing? The staff simply manage whichever side they want to manage.”
“Isn’t it because you’re seducing them and making this side’s management sloppy?”
“Humans need to be handled gently, but just approaching that side causes their minds to collapse. So of course they prefer this side, don’t they?”
The two anomalies’ tense standoff was too much for the staff, who collapsed.
The sight of them desperately struggling to be managed by humans was something even Amurotica had never seen before.
For an anomaly to completely submit and beg to be managed—this was something not even her previous master had achieved…
“Do you not know that if you aren’t meticulously managed by the staff, that person will manage you with even greater care? I clearly yielded last time!”
“Did you? I don’t remember it well.”
“You…!”
‘Who is that person?’
It seemed they wanted to be managed by the staff in order to avoid being managed by a certain existence.
Could it be the one who captured me?
Although he had been stronger than her, he was pathetically weak compared to her master.
He was frightening, but not to the point of causing convulsions. An unknown chill and terror toward an unidentified horror churned inside Amurotica’s mind.
“We’ve been getting a lot of new recruits lately.”
An anomaly that was not even staff looked at her from outside the bars with the familiarity of a longtime resident. Like her, it was a doll. A doll that had seen a great deal of human wear.
The anomaly wearing a princess-style dress spoke.
“You probably don’t know yet. Well, you’ll find out soon enough.”
Clack, clack—
At someone’s footsteps, everyone returned to their containment cells. The previous tension had vanished without a trace.
“Why are the staff so weak? Should I train them separately?”
Clack, clack—the footsteps were getting closer.
Having once been staff and now an anomaly herself, she understood the fear the other anomalies felt even better.
‘What exactly is it? What does he do? He only said he would manage them?’
The man who had captured her finally appeared.
“Amurotica, we have something to discuss. Though there’s something I must do first.”
Another terror-filled scream echoed through the Management Bureau. It had been far too long since his notoriety had taken root there.