The resort must open its doors.
Even if someone died three hours ago.
Even if that person was a close coworker of mine.
Even if their blood and entrails flowed back into him and he was resurrected as something no longer human.
"Welcome, dear guest! What kind of room would you like?"
We stand side by side at the front desk.
…Right next to me, the staff member in the yellow mascot mask is courteously attending to guests.
Jang Heowoon.
No, rather...
'I don't know.'
Cold sweat trickled down inside the costume. As I mechanically handed a room key to a guest, I kept thinking…
What in the world is this?
'Did I bring Jang Heowoon back to life?'
But can I really call that thing Jang Heowoon?
My sense as a mascot recognizes the employee standing next to me as a being pledged to me by contract.
However, for him to start working with a wide smile like that… It's not the reaction of a human being who was impaled through the spine and brought back to life.
It's a ghost story.
But since the resort must operate, and since Jang Heowoon also has to work diligently to fulfill the conditions as an employee and get his ride ticket stamped, I stand here.
But now, I even doubt whether escape is possible at all.
If you've already become part of a ghost story, can you really escape back to reality under human rules?
And is it even okay to escape…?
"Wow… thank you so much!"
He's no longer overly tense.
He really acts like a hotelier, even toward the strangest-looking guests.
No matter how bizarre the requests, he doesn't sweat or get flustered.
Who is that?
Even at lunchtime, instead of joining the other employees and heading to the staff cafeteria I had set up, he continued to work among the standard mascots.
He wouldn't even look at Ladybug—the one who killed him—who was now muttering to himself, cleaning in a deranged state in the corner.
No resentment, no forgiveness, no interest.
Nothing.
'He's not human.'
All of that incongruity made my stomach churn and sent chills down my spine.
Thankfully, the mascot suit hid everything.
Next
I sent off a guest and glanced around as I saw the next guest approaching, mouth half-open.
But…
"E-Excuse me…"
A modern person in a hoodie and jeans, looking flushed and glancing around nervously.
'That's a human.'
Was she caught up in the theme park board game? If so, then all I could hope for was that she'd just fill up her ride ticket and get out quickly.
But…
"This is the resort from that magazine, right? Amazing…"
…Magazine?
'Wait a minute.'
I checked both her wrists.
…No ride ticket band.
Y o u C a m e T o
T h e T h e m e P a r k ?
"Huh? There's a theme park here too? I just, um, saw the review ad… Huh? But how did I get here? I remember wanting to visit, but why am I here?"
The person's face went blank.
And I felt a chill down my spine.
…A human has shown up, dragged here by a method other than the board game.
Just for this resort?
"Um, but I don't know how I got here. How do I leave?"
"This way, dear guest!"
Jang Heowoon cheerfully pointed toward the lobby door.
But the exit to this resort… Wait a second.
You can't just let them walk out that way…!
A legitimate theme park guest will safely return to where they entered from. But a mere visitor… Wouldn't she have a high chance of just ending up 'outside' the theme park?
And who knows what's outside the theme park…
Just think of Death Lane or the Mansion of the Blind!
'She'll go missing.'
I hurriedly stopped the person.
W a i t
"Uh… yes?"
T h i s
I handed over one of the room keys hanging behind the desk at random.
T a k e I t
"Huh? Ah, no, I'm fi…"
I lowered my head.
And I gave the last chance to become my guest to this bystander who had entered the resort, not even as a guest.
The mascot's pupils stared at the bystander.
T a k e I t
"Y-Yes…"
The person, trembling, held out her hand and accepted the room key.
It was basically a forced sale.
But there was no other way.
'Just let her stay for now.'
At that moment.
"How would you like to pay?"
…!
"P-Pay? Card…"
Jang Heowoon, in the yellow mascot mask, smiled as he handed the card back.
"That's not a payment method accepted at Cheerful Theme Park, dear guest! Please pay in Cheerful Coins."
"Uh… um, where can I get those?"
No.
"It's simple! At the Theme Park ■■'s where you can ■■■■■ your ■■■ ■■ and ■■■■■."
"Aaaah! Oh there's a way like that!"
"Yes! It's very simple."
"I'll go exchange it now! It's so reasonable! Imagine, even humans can be used as currency!"
He's saying things that should never be heard! He's talking about things that should never be known! There's a reason I deliberately assigned a human staff member, not a mascot, as the assistant front desk attendant! And there's a reason I make sure not to think about it but of course as the mascot I already know. No, I won't think about it! No…
Q u i e t
The staff member closed his mouth.
The drooling human guest looked up at me.
G i f t
"Uh, but, payment…"
F o r g e t I t
"Yes."
The guest staggered away and went up to her room.
A sigh of relief slipped out between my twisted lips.
"..."
There was one thing I was sure of.
The employee standing next to me had just done something that the real Jang Heowoon would never have done.
"Mr. Mascot, shall I bring in the next guest?"
I couldn't hold it in.
Y o u
W h o A r e Y o u
"Pardon? Ah, I'm a staff member you hired, working at this resort…"
W h o A r e Y o u
The staff member glanced at the mascot's eyes, but soon answered brightly, just like any employee at Cheerful Theme Park.
"I'm the HR manager of this resort!"
Y o u r N a m e
"Um… Ah. My name is Bison, sir!"
...
The nickname signed on the contract.
W h o A m I
"You're Mr. Mascot!"
M y N a m e
"Mr. Golden!"
The employer's name on the contract.
With a devastated heart, I stared at the employee wearing Jang Heowoon's face, whose identity I could not gauge.
And finally, I asked.
D o Y o u K n o w
R o e D e e r ?
"…Roe Deer?"
The staff member in the yellow mascot mask paused for a moment.
"Batchmate."
…!
"A colleague from the previous company I worked at before getting this job at the resort. I was very grateful to them. I remember you, Mr. Mascot, were also a member of the Security Team there…"
...
Could it be.
Y o u r R e a s o n
F o r W o r k i n g T h e r e
The reason he worked at Daydream Inc.
Wish Ticket.
The most desperate goal in his life.
If I reminded him of the essence of who Jang Heowoon was, maybe...
"Ah… I wanted to save my precious family."
…!
"I was an orphan and grew up in a facility, but three years ago, there was a huge fire, and all the family I lived with died in it. I just barely survived, by chance."
...
"I tried to die too, but they told me I shouldn't. So I tried to save other people. If I did that…"
E n o u g h
"Yes? Understood, Mr. Mascot!"
I couldn't listen any more.
I was losing my mind.
"But it turns out all of that was meaningless obsession. I feel so fulfilled and happy working at this resort!"
...
W h y
"…Yes?"
W h y A r e Y o u H a p p y ?
"Because it's a wonderful resort run by the amazing Mr. Mascot…"
W h a t D o e s T h a t H a v e T o D o W i t h Y o u
"I-I'm sorry… That was presumptuous. I'll work even harder for you and the resort..."
Damn it.
S o r r y
"No! Mr. Mascot, you can do anything. This resort runs entirely on your decisions and will. I'm honored to work at a place like this."
...
N e v e r M i n d
After that, I returned to accepting guests at the front desk.
The staff member with Jang Heowoon's face seemed a little nervous for a moment, but when another guest approached, he went right back to acting like a Cheerful Theme Park Resort employee.
Which only made my mind go cold.
'I really shouldn't have heard all that.'
That sense of rejection when you hear someone's deeply personal, desperate story in a far too light, careless, and offhand manner.
It made me nauseous.
I was honestly relieved that I'd cut it off before hearing even more details.
...
Is there really, truly, no way…?
I even took out the operational guideline document I'd used like a manual, and picked up my pen.
I repaired one staff member. It took some effort, but it seems like he became an even better employee through the repair process. Very satisfied
It gave me goosebumps.
I forcibly twisted the pen.
Very satisfied, but being an excellent employee isn't necessarily the same as being a good employee, so I'm trying to find a way to return things to normal.
But the pen won't stop.
However, there is no such way.
...!
All I can do is think about how to run the resort better. I decided not to waste energy on meaningless worries.
I will exist solely as the mascot of this resor
I picked up my pen and finally managed to erase all the notes.
My breath grew rapid inside the costume, but the mascot did not falter. I can't let this shake me.
'I need to get out quickly.'
Something is going wrong.
But… first, to do that, I needed to successfully expand this resort one more time.
As quickly as possible.
Requirements to expand resort facilities
Staff: 3
Satisfied Guests: 300
Mascot Ceremony Rites
For now… at this rate, I'd reach 300 satisfied guests in no time. Honestly, judging by how many guests flooded in today, I'd probably hit the goal within a day or two.
It was an astounding achievement.
'Why does the social distancing concept work even for ghost stories?'
If it were before, I might have found it infuriating or funny, but now I really didn't care. The real issues were above and below. Staff and the ceremony.
'...'
Three additional staff members.
One way was to tempt civilian visitors into taking a job here, using a night's stay as bait, just like before.
The problem was, how many people could I actually persuade like that? And if someone died while working here, who would be responsible?
'Those people don't even have basic gear like a mask.'
There was also the question of whether my own mind could handle it.
The next method was…
Gruesome, but I'd learned about it from the recent incident.
'...'
I called for the standard mascots.
Then, I asked them about the whereabouts of certain things they had stashed away.
Specifically, the two corpses that Supervisor Lee Seonghae had dragged in with her.
Right.
I was going to check if I could revive those corpses and use them as staff.
The standard mascots led me to the back of the resort building.
It was a place where only mascots worked, where human staff avoided and guests were forbidden from entering.
Among those spaces, they guided me to the cold storage section in the room service warehouse.
Two mascots were standing guard at the entrance.
[Freezer Storage. Lock Confirmation Required]
'Ha.'
I was about to open the door, imagining the corpses inside…
'...'
And then I realized.
As a mascot, I could see it immediately.
Y o u T w o
The corpses were not in the freezer.
The two standard mascots guarding the freezer were the employees' corpses themselves!
'Fuck!'
The corpses had turned into those standard mascots…!
Just like how Jang Heowoon's corpse became an employee…
The mascots stared at me.
I almost stumbled back, but my identity as the resort's operator kept me upright.
Then, the mascots—creatures that, in a sense, I recognized as extensions of myself—approached and tried to support me.
Goosebumps crawled down my spine.
That means, all the standard mascots here are...
'Damn it.'
There must have been corpses wandering in the resort ruins.
I was raising up people who had died who knows when, and using them as staff!
This was a terrifyingly creepy resort… Wait a minute.
If you think about it, it's not the resort's fault.
'Corpses end up buried in graves and become nutrients for nature anyway.'
But if they became nutrients for this wonderful resort, isn't that better than simply decaying for bugs and weeds?
Yeah. If someone's already dead, it might actually be better to make good use of them.
'Huu.'
I barely managed to calm myself, letting out a sigh of relief.
…Anyway, reviving the corpses to use as staff was a failure.
'Maybe because I didn't make a separate contract, they're not recognized as individual beings.'
Still, there was one silver lining. Jang Heowoon was still counted as staff, not just a standard mascot.
In other words, he's recognized as an individual, not just as a mascot with no self.
…Even if he didn't have a mascot appearance, it's just because I allowed staff to maintain a human appearance.
"..."
I squeezed my eyes shut— No, I wanted to, but the mascot head prevented it.
This situation… is spiraling out of control.
'I'm so confused.'
The weirdness of the ghost story was starting to show itself blatantly.
I'd been so focused on running things, but now that I took a step back, I realized things could get far worse at this rate.
I had assigned Ladybug to keep a close eye on the two powerful staff—Section Chief Lee Jaheon and Supervisor Lee Seonghae—but I couldn't load all the burden on him forever.
'I have to get out of this insane resort as soon as possible.'
No matter how dazzling this resort is, or how much care I put into it, this is something I can't avoid.
'I need more information.'
Ironically, now that Jang Heowoon… is a perfect staff member for the resort, I can leave him in charge of the front desk while I move around.
If I give him instructions, he'll carry them out precisely.
I've gained a bit of freedom of movement.
So, on this fourth day, my evening plan was… this.
I left the resort building entirely and walked down the road.
Then…
H e l l o
I went straight to the gate leading to Blue Dream Waterpark.
That is to say…
To meet the blue mascot.
I ' m H e r e
The blue mascot, standing on the other side of the gate, tossed aside the booklet it was holding and ran over.