Amid mascots weeping tears of blood and staring at me with pupil-less eyes, I found myself in a desperate, life-or-death situation after being told, "Fine, if it's come to this, then you go kill someone first."
The lies rolled right off my tongue.
"A trap?"
"Yes. Please think about it."
I kept up an expression that said, I really just had a flash of inspiration, while trying not to look at the insane mascots outside the window.
"This darkness is what tied us together as a team. But if we carelessly kill a team member, will that really be okay?"
Actually, it would.
"This is darkness that strangles our necks even if all that happens is the team members getting too far apart. So if someone dies?"
You just carry the corpse around.
In the process, this coward's heart would fail, I'd throw up, get judged as, 'What is this bastard, some kind of useless liability?' and get reassigned to the perfect spot to die in....
"...No matter how I think about it, I feel like there would be an enormous penalty."
"Hmm."
The eyes beneath the butterfly mask narrowed.
"But what if we get penalized for not killing anyone?"
"On the contrary, I mean we could all be wiped out if we do kill someone."
"..."
"If both are possibilities, then I thought it would be more rational to choose the option that preserves our headcount."
The other party wavered slightly.
I swallowed and added,
"Of course, the decision is yours to make, Assistant Manager, but..."
"Right! If, if you kill me, huh? Then you die too, o-okay? You crazy bastard! You don't want to die either, right? Stop...."
Thwack.
I struck the researcher hard across the back of the neck.
Meaning, I knocked him out.
'I laid everything out for you, so why are you making such a fuss trying to die on your own?'
No wonder he gambles in-house with this little sense!
Maybe the restriction had already lifted, because the Group Y rookie had also let go of the researcher's arms and legs, his face deathly pale.
After watching all that, the Group A superior slowly opened his mouth.
I waited anxiously.
"You."
"..."
"You'd better not end up regretting this."
I survived.
"Yes, of course."
The Group A superior did not reply. It seemed my score with him had dropped quite a lot.
But that wasn't what mattered right now.
What mattered was that we'd gotten past this timing for now.
[D i e....]
The narration that had kept repeating die died down at some point when we stopped and did not attack one another.
Blink.
And the moment the train lights flickered—
"Th-they disappeared...!"
The mascots crowding around the windows were gone.
Only the bloodstains remained.
"..."
But they weren't the only things that had vanished.
'Gone.'
The engineer mascot too.
The cheerful theme park music too.
The bright disembarkation 안내 voice too.
"..."
Creeeak.
Having pushed the train out with our own hands, we looked into an interior strangely devoid of sound and light.
"Feels like we stepped on a land mine."
"..."
That was... true.
I recalled one Darkness Exploration Record again.
---------------------=
A Fun Theme Park User Guidelines (applies up to Darkness Exploration Record No. 64)
Each zone of the theme park is painted according to its theme! The place where you first open your eyes is the zone your team belongs to!
Respect the zones. The zones matter more than anything look at the colors do not offend the mascots the mascots are everything in the zone
---------------------=
That clause wasn't there for no reason....
If a mascot took a dislike to you inside that painted zone of the theme park, then in that zone you would no longer be respected as a "guest."
You might have to play tag with death.
But it's not as if we could press the nuke button just to avoid stepping on this land mine.
'The mascots' demands keep escalating, step by step.'
Usually, at first, they made you do something simple.
Eat something, carry something, give them a warm hug.
'But from the very first turn, they're making us commit murder?'
If that happened, by the time we boarded the attraction after next, we'd be treated in ways where dying would be preferable.
For example, I had already seen in the records things like being ordered to "Make a balloon out of your own bladder"....
By that point, the mascot's influence would have grown so strong you wouldn't even be able to refuse.
'I'd rather die.'
This was a Ghost Story world where ending up in a state worse than death was commonplace.
And even now, it wasn't as if there were no escape route.
I swallowed.
'We just have to bolt.'
If we got out of Red Rabbit—Magic Bunny's—zone and entered another mascot's zone, this aggro would reset.
To do that... let's see.
'Found it!'
At last, I found something off to one side of the dark exit path.
"There's something over there."
"Huh?"
This was the reason I had wanted to ride this attraction in the first place.
'The Fantasy Land color map!'
[~Fantasy Land Color Map~]
Because once you finished this attraction, at the very last exit, there was a map showing each mascot's territory.
As I strode toward it, I muttered,
"It's a map. This could help us."
"H-how so?"
At a glance, it just looked like interior decoration.
Since the attraction had introduced Fantasy Land, it looked like nothing more than a visual representation of that.
However, the information it contained was enormous.
"Do you remember what this attraction was about?"
"Ah, uh, well, that these theme park mascots were fighting over land...."
"Exactly."
I nodded.
"On this attraction's map, the other mascots' zones should be marked."
"...!"
We would be able to see with our own eyes how to move to reach a different-colored zone by the shortest route.
"We seem to have gotten on the monster's bad side, so let's run? While carrying that?"
The Group A assistant manager jerked his chin toward the researcher I had slung over my back.
It sounded like he might say we should kill him even now, so I answered immediately.
"I'll wake the Senior Staff from Research Team 1 as soon as we check the map and make him walk properly."
"Hmm."
Please just don't start some dismemberment show in front of me....
Anyway, with some kind of vision finally emerging, a bit of hope returned to the Group Y rookie's face.
Mine probably looked similar.
'Please let it be close.'
Taking a deep breath, I hurried to the map and checked it—
"..."
"..."
"There's... nothing."
Huh?
I looked at the map again.
But the image did not change.
[~Fantasy Land Color Map~]
The entire interior view of the theme park shown there 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] [Magic Bunny Zone]
Magic Bunny's face was stamped on every single sign.
"Ah."
[Magic Bunny's Fantasy Land]
There was nowhere
to run.
"..."
"..."
"Th-this, isn't there something wrong with this? Mr. Soleum, there were definitely, definitely other mascots earlier..."
"They all got driven out."
"...!"
The narration I had heard during the attraction came back to me automatically.
-Drop them into caves, throw them into water, shove them off cliffs!
Then....
"So that red mascot killed off all the yellow and blue ones and completely took this place over."
"..."
"Then... the employees who drew the other colored pieces,"
"Who knows."
The Group A assistant manager shrugged.
"All missing?"
"...!"
"Is that what matters right now? What matters is...."
The eyes beneath the butterfly mask turned sinister again.
"I think you chose wrong."
"..."
"Don't worry. It's not like you need to die first."
There was only one meaning to that.
There was someone else who had to die first.
"Even now, it's not too late, you know?"
"..."
...The moment I reflexively turned to look at the unconscious researcher hanging off my shoulder like baggage—
B o r i n g
"...!!"
"Wh-what...."
B o r i n g
A sound rang inside my head.
B o r i n g
Haven't I heard it somewhere before?
Ah, the talk show, Tuesday Talk Show. On the revamped talk show, the dead pig head from the Choir of Living Sacrifices sounds like a screaming animalanimals it's an animal mascot! Magi-Bu-Magic Bunny is booori
"Kgh."
I clapped my hands over my ears.
B o r i n g
I lowered my gaze.
The admission ticket hanging from my wrist was vibrating.
[(A Fun) Fantasy Land Ride Ticket ■□□]
[(A Fun) Fantasy Land Ride Ticket ■□□]
The sound was coming from here.
N o f u n
Screeeeeech.
The ticket had started tearing apart from the sonic vibration.
The ticket.
---------------------=
A Fun Theme Park User Guidelines (applies up to Darkness Exploration Record No. 64)
Keep your admission ticket bracelet clean!
If it is lost or damaged, you are no longer a guest. If you are not a guest, you are an intruder. A thief! A lawbreaker! Terrible punishment awaits you. Or else
would you like to become an employee?
---------------------=
No.
I desperately tried to make my head work.
But there was no way.
There was truly nowhere to go, not even an inch out of bounds. There's nowhere to run! If I want to preserve human dignity, maybe it would be better to kill myself before it's too la—
-Kim Soleum.
Now I was even hearing things,
-Kim Soleum. Can you hear me?
'...'
It wasn't a hallucination!
I jerked my head up.
There was nothing visible in the air, but a voice so clear it could never be mistaken for a hallucination rang beside my ear.
Its owner was....
"...Leader?"
-Yes.
Manager Lizard, Lee Jaheon, Group D's leader.
This situation felt familiar. Though the setup had been reversed!
"How are you contacting me?!"
-I am using Park Minseong's exclusive equipment.
B o r i n g
As the voices overlapped, the sound of great red Magic Bunny blurred. I barely realized I had been on the verge of hyperventilating.
No, that wasn't what mattered....
-Is that Roe Deer okay? You're alive, right?
-We're fine! We just rode all three attractions!
All of Group D was together. What happened?
"You three weren't on the same color team, were you?"
I remembered clearly.
'Only Leader Lee Jaheon was on the blue team, and the others were on the yellow team!'
-Roe Deer, that's not what matters right now....
"It does matter! Even though the three of you were on different teams, did you all wake up in the same place in the theme park?"
After a short silence,
-No.
The calm voice of Manager Lizard answered.
-I moved after finding the other two.
Several questions sprang up in my head at once, but the most urgent one was this. So—
"...Where did you find them?"
-At the edge of the blue zone.
"...Then are you in the blue mascot's zone right now?"
N o f u n
-Yes.
A shiver ran through me.
"It isn't marked on the map, so could you tell me where the blue zone is?"
-I don't know.
Damn it.
"You don't need the exact coordinates. At least tell me the nearby attractions! Even cardinal directions would help."
-I see.
After a short silence,
-It's the west....
Click.
The connection cut off.
"Leader?"
No answer came back.
It was probably the exclusive equipment's time limit running out.
And more important than that guess was....
"T-the west??"
The Group Y rookie, who at some point had been listening desperately beside me, looked blank.
The Group A superior's face looked similar.
The reason was simple.
"We're in the west."
That was right.
'Fantasy Train was located almost at the very western edge of the Fantasy Land map....'
Opposite the east side, which was rough and encircled by forest, the west side was hemmed in by a smooth-finished castle wall.
And this attraction was attached right beside that wall.
In Fantasy Land, farther west than this... did not exist!
B o r i n g
"Looks like we got dropped into different theme parks somehow. Maybe some timeline where the blue mascot won or something. Darkness is always like that."
Dropped into different places?
Was this really a setting with entirely different parallel dimensions?
N o f u n
"No."
That couldn't be it.
"This is darkness derived from a board game. If we're playing the same game, it makes no sense for us to be using different boards."
"Hey. Shut up."
The Group A superior answered coldly.
"Babbling on and on... if it doesn't fit reality, you throw it out."
No, this wasn't deduction, it was induction.
I wanted to explain that there were countless cases like this, but I knew he would never believe it. What was needed right now was... only the correct answer.
Where exactly was "west"?
'Quickly, quickly.'
Think. There was definitely an answer.
I looked at the Fantasy Land color map again. Every zone still visible was painted red.
The Ferris wheel, the carousel, the roller coaster, the Viking ship, the magic palace. Not a single one missing—Magic Bunny's face spun red over all of them.
All the rides... wait.
"...!"
B o r i n g
Wait a second.
I scanned the map again.
And then I noticed.
"...Found it!"
"What?"
"The other-colored zone."
This way.
With certainty, I moved my feet. Whether they were following my momentum or feeling hope, the others moved after me.
N o f u n
We had to get there before we were noticed by the mascots. There was no time to delay, so I stepped out of the attraction as fast as possib—