021
While mascots weeping tears of blood stared at me with pupilless eyes, I was in a desperate situation, faced with the demand: "Hey, since it’s come to this, why don't you try killing someone first?"
Lies flowed smoothly from my mouth.
"A trap?"
"Yes. Think about it."
I tried my best not to look at the crazed mascots in the windows, maintaining an expression that said, 'I just had a brilliant realization.'
"It’s this Darkness that tied us together as a team."
"But would it really be okay to kill a teammate so recklessly?"
Actually, it would be fine.
"This is a Darkness that chokes you just for being too far from your teammates. But if you kill one?"
You just carry the corpse around.
In that process, my cowardly heart wouldn't be able to take it, I'd end up vomiting, be labeled a 'total liability,' and simply get reassigned to a spot perfect for dying...
"...No matter how I think about it, there must be an enormous penalty."
"Hmm."
The eyes beneath the Butterfly Mask narrowed.
"There might be a penalty for not killing, right?"
"Conversely, killing could lead to total annihilation."
"......."
"If both are possibilities, I thought it more rational to choose the path of preserving our numbers."
The opponent wavered slightly.
I swallowed hard and added,
"Of course, the decision is yours, Assistant Manager..."
"Yeah! If, if you kill me, huh? You’ll die too, uh, huh? You crazy bastard! You don't want to die either. Stop..."
Thwack.
'I already set the stage, so why the hell are you trying to get yourself killed?'
I decisively struck the back of the Researcher’s neck.
Meaning, I knocked him out.
'I already set the stage, so why the hell are you trying to get yourself killed?'
The Team A Assistant Manager, who had watched the whole scene, spoke slowly. No further comments.
Perhaps because the restriction had been lifted, the rookie's face turned pale as he let go of the Researcher's limbs.
I waited anxiously.
"You."
"......."
"You better not regret this."
I lived.
"Yes, of course."
The Team A Assistant Manager didn't respond. It seemed my score had dropped considerably.
But that wasn't what was important right now.
What mattered was that I had cleared this moment.
[Di...]
The narration that had been repeating 'Die' subsided once we stopped attacking each other.
Flicker.
The moment the train's lights flashed.
"Th-They’re gone...!"
The mascots that had surrounded the windows disappeared.
Only bloodstains remained.
"......."
But they weren't the only things that had vanished.
'He’s gone.'
The conductor mascot.
The exciting theme park music.
The cheerful voice announcing the arrival.
"......."
Creeeak.
Pushing the train door open ourselves, we saw an interior eerily devoid of light and sound.
"...I think we stepped on a landmine."
"......."
That... was true.
==========
Cheerful Theme Park User Manual (Applicable up to Exploration Records No. ■)
4. Each zone of the theme park is colored according to its theme! The place where you first open your eyes is the zone your team belongs to!
Respect the zone. The zone is more important than anything. Look at the colors. Do not offend the mascot. The mascot is everything in the zone.
==========
This clause didn't exist for nothing...
If you get on a mascot's bad side in a colored zone of the theme park, you are no longer respected as an 'Admitted Guest' in that zone.
You might have to play a game of deadly tag.
But you couldn't exactly push the Core just to avoid stepping on a landmine, could you?
'A mascot's demands escalate.'
Usually, they start with something simple.
Eat something, hold something, or give them a warm hug.
'But they demand murder from the first turn?'
By the time you get on the next attraction, you'd be treated in a way that makes you wish you were dead.
I had already seen in the Exploration Records crazy things like, 'Make balloons out of your bladder.'
By then, the mascot's influence becomes so strong you can't even refuse.
'I'd rather die.'
This was a Ghost Story Worldview where things often turned out worse than death.
And even now, it wasn't like there was no escape route.
I swallowed.
'We just have to run.'
If we leave the zone of the red rabbit, the Magic Bunny, and enter another mascot's zone, the aggro will be lost.
To do that... let's see.
'Found it!'
I finally found what I was looking for on one side of the dark exit path.
"There's something over there."
"Eh?"
This was the reason I had wanted to ride this attraction in the first place.
'The theme park color map!'
{~Fantasyland Color Map~}
Because at the exit of this attraction, there's a map showing each mascot's territory.
I muttered as I approached quickly.
"It's a map. This might help us."
"Wh-Why is that?"
At first glance, it looks like mere interior decoration.
Since the attraction introduced Fantasyland, it seems like nothing more than a visual representation.
However, the information it contains is immense.
"Do you remember the content of this attraction?"
"Ah, uh, so, it was about these theme park mascots fighting over land..."
"Exactly."
I nodded.
"On this attraction's map, the zones of other mascots will be marked."
"...!"
We could see with our own eyes which path was the shortest route to a zone of a different color.
"We've offended a monster, so let's run? While carrying that?"
The Team A Assistant Manager gestured with his chin toward the Researcher I was carrying on my back.
Thinking he might suggest killing him even now, I answered immediately.
"I will wake the Research Team Supervisor and make him walk properly as soon as we check the map."
"Hmm."
Please, just don't perform a dismantling show in front of me...
At any rate, with a vision of some sort appearing, a bit of hope returned to the rookie's face.
Mine probably looked similar.
'Please let it be nearby.'
Taking a deep breath, I quickly approached the map to check...
"......."
"......."
"It's... not there."
Huh?
{~Fantasyland Color Map~}
The entire interior view of the theme park shown was...
Red.
{Magic Bunny Zone} {Magic Bunny Zone} {Magic Bunny Zone} {Magic Bunny Zone} {Magic Bunny Zone} {Magic Bunny Zone} {Magic Bunny Zone} {Magic Bunny Zone} {Magic Bunny Zone} {Magic Bunny Zone}
The face of the Magic Bunny was engraved on every single sign.
"Ah."
{Magic Bunny’s Fantasyland}
The place to run just…
Isn’t there.
"......."
"......."
"Th-This, isn't something wrong? Mr. Soleum, surely, surely there were other mascots earlier..."
"They were all driven out."
"...!"
The narration I heard during the attraction automatically came to mind.
—Drop them in pits, drop them in water, push them off cliffs!
If so...
"The red mascot killed the yellow and blue ones and took over the whole place."
"......."
"Then... the employees who picked the other colored pieces,"
"Who knows."
"...!"
"Is that what's important right now? What's important is..."
The eyes beneath the Butterfly Mask turned sinister again.
"It seems you made the wrong choice."
"......."
"Don't worry. It's not like you're the one who has to die first."
That meant one thing.
There was someone else who had to die first.
"It's too late now, isn't it?"
"......."
...Reflexively, the moment I looked back at the unconscious Researcher hanging on my shoulder like baggage.
B o r i n g
"...!!"
"Wh-What..."
B o r i n g
A sound echoing in my head.
B o r i n g
Haven't I heard this somewhere before?
Ah, the talk show, the Tuesday Talk Show. In the revamped talk show, it sounds like the screams of the dead pig's head of the Living Sacrifice choir animal animal mascot! Magic Bunny is bor- Magic Bunny is bor-
"Ugh."
I covered my ears.
B o r i n g
That meaning was simple.
I looked down.
The admission ticket around my wrist was vibrating.
[(Cheerful) Fantasyland Ticket ■□□]
[(Cheerful) Fantasyland Ticket ■□□]
The sound was coming from here.
N o t F u n
Riiiiiip.
It began to tear from the vibration.
The ticket.
==========
Cheerful Theme Park User Manual (Applicable up to Exploration Records No. ■)
1. Keep your admission ticket bracelet clean!
If lost or damaged, you are no longer an Admitted Guest. If you are not an Admitted Guest, you are an Uninvited Guest. Thief! Criminal! Terrible punishment awaits you. Or
do you want to become staff?
==========
No.
I desperately tried to think.
But there was no way.
Truly, there wasn't a single inch to escape to. No place to run! It seemed it might be better to commit suicide before it was too late to preserve my human dignity...
—Mr. Kim Soleum.
Now even auditory hallucinations—
—Mr. Kim Soleum. Can you hear me?
'.......'
It wasn't an auditory hallucination!
I snapped my head up.
Nothing was visible in the air, but a voice so clear it couldn't possibly be mistaken for an hallucination spoke in my ear.
Its owner was...
"...Leader?"
—Yes.
It was Section Chief Lizard, Leader Lee Jaheon.
It was a situation that felt like déjà vu. Though the roles were reversed!
"How did you contact me?!"
—I am using Supervisor Park Minseong's Exclusive Equipment.
B o r i n g
The voices overlapped, and the sound of the great red Magic Bunny grew faint. I barely realized I was on the verge of hyperventilating.
No, that wasn't what was important...
—Is that Roe fellow okay? You're alive, right?
—We're okay! We just finished riding all three attractions!
All of Team D was together. How did this happen?
"Weren't you three on different colored teams?"
I remembered clearly.
'Only Leader Lee Jaheon was on the Blue Team, the rest were on the Yellow Team!'
—Roe, that's not what's important right now...
"It is important! Did all three of you wake up in the same spot in the theme park despite being on different teams?"
After a brief silence.
—No.
The calm voice of Section Chief Lizard replied.
Several questions flooded my mind at once, but the most urgent was this. So,
"...Where did you find them?"
—The outskirts of the Blue Zone.
"...Then, are you in the Blue Mascot’s zone right now?"
N o t F u n
—Yes.
A shiver ran down my spine.
"It's not marked on the map, but do you know which point is the Blue Zone?"
—I don't know.
Damn it.
"You don't need to know the specific coordinates. Just tell me any nearby attractions! Even north, south, east, or west is fine."
—I see.
After a brief silence.
—It's the west...
Click.
The connection was cut.
"Leader?"
No answer came back.
It was probably a timeout for the Exclusive Equipment.
And more important than that assumption was...
"W-West??"
The rookie, who had been desperately listening along, had a look of despair on his face.
The Team A Assistant Manager’s face was similar.
The reason was simple.
"We're in the west, aren't we?"
That's right.
The 'Fantasy Train' was located almost at the western edge of the Fantasyland map...
Opposite the east, which was ruggedly surrounded by forest, the smoothly finished west was enclosed by castle walls.
And this attraction was right next to those walls.
In Fantasyland, there was nothing further west than this!
B o r i n g
"It seems we've fallen into different theme parks? A timeline where the Blue Mascot won, something like that. That's just how the Darkness is."
Fallen into different places?
A setting where they were in entirely different parallel dimensions?
N o t F u n
"No."
That couldn't be.
"This is a Darkness derived from a board game. There's no way they'd use different boards for the same game."
"Hey. Be quiet."
The Team A Assistant Manager replied coldly.
"You can babble all the plausible nonsense you want, but if it doesn't fit reality, you have to discard it."
No, this wasn't speculation; it was inductive reasoning.
I wanted to explain that there were countless cases, but I knew he would never believe me. What was needed now... was simply to give the correct answer.
The reason was simple.
Where exactly was 'west'?
'Quickly, quickly.'
Think. Surely there's an answer.
I looked at the Fantasyland Color Map again. Every zone visible was still painted red.
The Ferris wheel, the carousel, the roller coaster, the Viking ship, the magic palace. Without exception, the Magic Bunny's face was spinning in red.
Every ride... Wait.
"...!"
B o r i n g
Wait a minute.
I scanned the map again.
And I realized.
"...Found it!"
"What?"
"A zone of a different color."
It’s this way.
I moved my feet with conviction. Whether they were swept up by my momentum or felt a glimmer of hope, my teammates followed.
N o t F u n
We had to move quickly before we caught the mascot's eye. Since there was no time to lose, I stepped out of the attraction as quickly as possible.
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