The four of them burst out of the 'Fantasy Train' exit and ran.
"Heok, huff!"
The peculiar gasping of someone running with all their might echoed from both sides.
They had no choice.
Mascots were pouring out.
D i e
"Aaaaaah!"
"Heu-eo, heu-eok..."
At every attraction entrance. At every shop. At every signpost. Heterogeneous and bizarre bubbles boiled over, spitting out slimy Mascots.
And those Mascots, their snouts peeled back to reveal countless teeth embedded in their entrails, were chasing us in grotesque forms.
Their bodies shook intermittently as melted tentacle-like things protruded from their drooping ears and arms.
-♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪♩♪♬♬~♩♬♬~♩♪♪♩♪♬
-Ahahahaha! Hahahaha! Ahahahaha! Hahahaha! Ahahahaha! Hahahaha!
It was noisy everywhere.
The theme park's music and laughter overlapped as if spinning in circles, creating a bizarre noise from all directions.
These loud, frightening, confusing, and horrible sounds!!
Every element made my head ache and caused me to lose my sense of direction. But...
"This way! It's this way!"
I gritted my teeth and turned, following the coordinates engraved in my mind.
In that moment.
Phut.
Squeltch.
Whoosh.
I felt my hair, splashed with discharge, melting away—the smell of burning hit my nose.
'This is insane.'
Cold sweat poured down.
But my feet didn't stop. No, they couldn't stop.
'The moment I stop, it's over.'
I would die. No, an intuition that something even more terrible would happen sent shivers down my spine.
The only saving grace was that the destination was very close!
Even the Researcher ran while drooling instead of whinging.
B o r i n g
"G-get away! Get away, aaaaagh!!"
"Shut your mouth!"
Butterfly Mask shouted. Her eyes flickered with a crazed regret that she couldn't throw the Researcher as bait to buy more time.
It was inevitable.
'They're too close.'
The Mascots swarming like zombies were multiplying like crazy, and some began to spawn at a dangerously close distance.
And they were fast.
Faster than humans!
'Damn it, damn it, damn it!!'
Just as the terror made the hair on my back stand up.
"Keugh!"
Finally, someone was caught.
"Keuak, ugh..."
Cow Mask tumbled over.
'Shit.'
Without looking back, I somehow flipped a coin from my pocket and summoned the gloves.
Then, I tossed several 500-won coins, creating translucent Shadow Hands in the air.
The Shadow Hands flying through the air shoved the heads of the disgusting Mascots.
"Run!"
"Later!"
There wasn't a moment to stop the bleeding. Exclusive Equipment or whatever, I couldn't care about any of that!
'Since the Shadow Hand disappears once it exceeds a 3-meter radius anyway—'
A sudden, excruciating pain lashed my left hand.
"~!!"
I almost rolled on the ground, clutching my hand and wailing.
This feeling, as if my hand was being crushed and melted alive in a sharp press...
'The Exclusive Equipment!'
I realized instinctively.
The hand I had just summoned in the air had vanished while suffering some horrible fate, whether from a Mascot's mouth or a tentacle.
It was the moment I realized the weakness of my Exclusive Equipment for the first time.
If the hand created by the glove is destroyed, my own hand hurts just as much!
However, there was no time to scream. I ran like a madman.
And then I shouted.
"There!"
The target point was in sight.
It was a giant door.
Painted in vibrant colors, in the typical style of a theme park...
{Fantasyland (Westside Gate)}
A decoration.
A decorative door attached to the fortress wall surrounding the western side of the theme park.
"It's blocked!!"
"Get under it!"
I was the first to step fearlessly beneath the decorative door and look back.
Almost simultaneously, two others tried to step in. Team A Assistant Manager and the Team Y Rookie.
The Researcher was behind them, in a somewhat dangerous position...
"Move, fuck!"
"Ugh!"
Thud.
A slender body, shoved unexpectedly, collided with a Mascot.
D i e
Dark red discharge poured from the eyes of a half-melted Mascot crawling toward her, splashing onto Butterfly Mask.
"Aaaaaah!"
Sizzle.
The sound of burning echoed in my ears.
"Assistant Manager!"
The Team A employee lay pinned beneath a Mascot of indescribably horrific form, her limbs trembling.
The part of her face not covered by the Butterfly Mask was already a mess of rising bubbles.
What I saw in her eyes was resignation.
The eyes of someone who had calculated with certainty that this was a situation where help was impossible.
The moment our eyes met.
"Nail!"
I shouted.
"Assistant Manager, your Nail, right here!"
At the same time, I opened my left hand and thrust it forward. Team A Assistant Manager's eyes widened, and she reached out her right hand, extending her index finger.
Phut!
The shot Nail pierced the very center of my palm.
"...!"
But I didn't waver.
'It already hurt like it was being smashed anyway!'
My grip, ignoring this new pain due to the even greater agony from before, tightly seized the Nail without trembling.
And then, I pulled.
Whoosh.
With a short sound, the body wearing the Butterfly Mask came flying toward me.
B o r i n g
By a hair's breadth, the teeth of the Mascots slammed into the empty space, and discharge poured down.
"Heok, heu-heooo..."
"Huff......"
Numerous rabbit Mascots, dripping discharge like bloody tears, came to a forced, clunky halt with their empty pupils.
"Hik!"
It was as if an invisible wall was blocking them.
===
Cheerful Theme Park User Guide (Applicable up to Exploration Record No. 64)
5. Enjoy the various zones!
Has the Mascot's appearance and the attraction's color changed? You are standing in a new zone.
Regrettably, Mascots from other zones cannot exist in a new zone.
Please say your goodbyes. Kindly!
===
I looked at the ground.
'....The brick color was different.'
Miraculously, there were exactly two rows of white bricks. They were beneath the decoration styled like a main gate.
The Mascots stood there, unable to cross over from the red brick floor beyond.
I looked down at the entry ticket.
[(Cheerful) Fantasyland Boarding Pass ■□□]
[(Cheerful) Fantasyland Boarding Pass □□]
N o t F u n
B o r i n g
The voices vanished.
Even the Mascots crowded before my eyes stood motionless, and then, the moment I blinked...
They were gone.
"......."
The sound of panting flowed through the now-silent air.
We survived.
"We succeeded... in escaping."
"Ah..!"
"H-huuuu..."
The Team Y Rookie let out a groan of relief and pain, collapsing while clutching his shoulder.
I also leaned my head against the wall and caught my breath while looking at the sky.
'I thought I was going to die...'
My heart was racing too fast.
I can't believe we lived through that.
Team A Assistant Manager stared with terrifying coldness at the Researcher who had pushed her, but after glancing at my palm where the flesh was gouged in the shape of her Nail equipment, she regained her composure.
In any case, we were alive, and she seemed to judge that she didn't have the leisure to go on a rampage to kill the Researcher right now.
It was impressive that she remained calm despite the immense pain she must have been feeling from having her head drenched in what seemed like acid.
"First of all."
"Yes?"
Team A Assistant Manager took a deep breath.
"Thanks. I survived because of you."
It was unexpected.
"It was nothing. It was thanks to your Exclusive Equipment, Assistant Manager..."
"There's no point in being humble here, you know? Just say okay. You really walked the line well just now."
Ah, yes.
"Unlike a certain retard."
The Researcher desperately avoided her gaze.
Team A Assistant Manager watched him for a moment before turning the conversation back to the task at hand.
"This place seems like a sort of leftover space, but was this what you were aiming for? But it's too cramped just to stand here... what are you planning to do?"
"This isn't the destination."
"Hmm?"
After fully catching my breath, I turned around completely and stood facing the decorative door.
"Do you know this? Large theme parks usually have other things besides the amusement park itself."
"...Other things?"
"Yes."
I tapped the door-shaped wall with my hand.
Thump.
It made a hollow sound.
"Assistant Manager. Can you tear this open with your Exclusive Equipment?"
The Assistant Manager silently raised her hand and drew out the Nail on her index finger again.
Then she wedged it into the gap in the wall and gave it a sharp pull.
"Heok!"
Cr-crack.
A brick-shaped panel was ripped away, and a breeze rushed in.
What drifted in... was the smell of water.
-Ahahahaha!
"...!!"
Splaaash. The sound of cool spray pouring down, the sound of a ship's horn, the cries of seagulls, and a cheerful march played.
Through the gap in the bricks, I could see the sunlight shining down on an open space.
Giant cylindrical slides winding through the air were all various shades of blue, spewing out water and tubes.
[Blue Dream Waterland]
"This place is...!"
A water park.
A space for summer that serves as one of the main pillars of a large-scale theme park.
"It's the blue zone."
The Team Y Rookie turned his head so sharply it looked like it might snap, looking at me with an astonished expression.
"H-how?!"
"In the color map of Fantasyland we saw earlier, there wasn't a single attraction that used water."
" ...!"
"So, I interpreted that there might be a large section for it elsewhere."
I took a deep breath.
"I also deduced that it would be difficult to access normally. Usually, they sell separate entry tickets for it."
"Yes."
I recalled the details of the phone call with Leader Lee Jaheon earlier.
-It's the west...
The west.
Of course, what the Leader meant was the west side inside that Waterland.
But thanks to the fact that we happened to be at the western edge of 'Magic Bunny Fantasyland', the deduction that there was a separate blue zone was possible.
'The east was blocked by a forest, the north had the entrance, and the south was a cliff...'
The only place there could be space beyond 'Magic Bunny Fantasyland' was the west.
That was my interpretation and...
'I was right.'
"The Blue Mascot that was kicked out of Fantasyland must have created a new zone here."
"Ah."
"For now, let's hurry and cross over."
"L-let's tear it down!"
Hands were busy ripping away the rest of the panels. Even the Team Y Rookie, who had a shoulder injury, tried to help with one hand however he could.
Meanwhile, the Researcher stood in the corner, eyes darting around, but his usual slipperiness had returned to his face.
It seemed he realized things were going well.
And a few seconds later.
"I-it's done!"
Beyond the wall panels torn open wide enough for a person to pass through, they began to exit one by one.
I was the last to leave, and as I stood in the Waterland with both feet, I saw the blue pool and the blue sky.
Whoosh. A damp breeze blew.
'The sunlight...'
It's breathtakingly good.
In that moment of strange liberation,
I saw people running toward me from afar, waving their hands as they spotted me.
"Roe!!"
"..."
It was the people from Team D.
Team D members, each carrying bulky luggage as if they were holding tubes, swarmed closer.
Perhaps because we had been stuck together for a month, a wave of relief washed over me.
"Have you been well?!"
I also approached them with a glad greeting.
And I was contemplating whether I should take the luggage from the Leader's shoulder to be a proactive rookie...
Wait.
'That's a human body.'
It wasn't luggage.
Slumped over Lizard's shoulder was a limp human body.
'....Hunting?'
Looking closely, they were wearing a Mallard Mask.
It was the Team A Leader.
No.
NO!!
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