Got Dropped in a Ghost Story Chapter 21

With blood streaming from their eyes, the eyeless mascots pressed against the windows, demanding that we start killing each other.

And in that desperate situation, lies came pouring out of my mouth without hesitation.

“A trap?”

“Yes. Think about it.”

I did my best not to look at the crazed mascots outside while putting on an expression that said, I’ve just realized something important.

“This Darkness forces us to stay together as a team. So would it really let us kill one of our teammates without consequences?”

Actually, yes.

“This place strangles us just for moving too far away from each other. What do you think would happen if we actually killed someone?”

Honestly, we could probably just carry the corpse around.

But doing something like that would be too much for my cowardly heart.

And if I kept behaving like that, I might end up earning a reputation as the company’s resident torture maniac and get sent straight into the kind of assignments where I’d die.

“I think there would be a severe penalty.”

“Hmm.”

The eyes behind Assistant Manager Jin’s butterfly mask narrowed.

“But won’t there also be a penalty if we refuse to kill anyone?”

“I’m saying that if we do kill someone, there’s a chance the entire team could be wiped out.”

“…”

“If both possibilities carry risks, I think preserving our numbers is the more rational choice.”

She seemed slightly convinced.

I swallowed and added,

“Of course, the final decision is yours, Assistant Manager.”

“Right! Exactly! If you kill me, you’ll die too! You don’t want to die either, do you, you crazy bastard?! So stop—”

Thud.

I struck the researcher firmly on the back of the neck.

He collapsed unconscious.

Why was he so determined to talk himself into getting killed when the situation was already bad enough?

No wonder he gambled at work with that complete lack of tact.

Once the order was no longer enforced, the pale-faced Jang Heo-un released the researcher’s arms and legs.

Assistant Manager Jin watched the entire scene in silence before finally speaking.

I waited nervously.

“You.”

“…”

“Don’t regret this decision.”

Saved.

“Yes. Of course.”

She said nothing more.

My standing with her had probably taken a serious hit, but that didn’t matter right now.

What mattered was that we had safely gotten through this moment.

[Die…]

The endless Die narration gradually faded once we stopped trying to attack each other.

Blink.

The lights inside the train flickered.

“They… they’re gone…!”

The mascots that had been plastered against the windows had disappeared.

Only the bloodstains remained.

“…”

But they weren’t the only things that were gone.

The conductor mascot had vanished.

So had the cheerful theme-park music.

There was no lively announcement welcoming us to the exit either.

“…”

Clang.

We manually pushed our way out of the train and stepped into an area strangely devoid of both sound and light.

“It feels like we stepped on a landmine.”

“…”

True.

A rule from the Exploration Records came back to me.

======================

Cheerful Theme Park User Guide
(Applicable through Exploration Record #64)

4 – Every zone in the theme park is colored according to its theme!

The place where you first open your eyes is the zone belonging to your team!

Respect the zone.

The zone is more important than anything.

Look at the colors.

Do not upset the mascots.

The mascots are everything in the zone.

======================

There was a reason that rule existed.

If you angered the mascot governing one of the colored zones, you were no longer treated as a proper “guest” of that zone.

And once that happened, you could end up dragged into a deadly game of hide-and-seek.

Still, stepping on a landmine was better than pressing the nuclear launch button.

The mascots’ demands escalated rapidly.

Usually, they started with something simple.

Eat something.

Carry something.

Give them a warm hug.

But if they were already ordering us to murder someone as their first demand?

By the time we reached the next attraction, we might be better off dead.

One Exploration Record even described a mascot ordering someone to make a balloon out of their own bladder.

By that point, the mascot’s influence would become too powerful to resist.

Death might genuinely be preferable.

In this world of ghost stories, fates worse than death happened all the time.

Fortunately, we still had an escape route.

I swallowed.

Run.

If we could leave Magic Bunny’s red zone and enter another mascot’s territory, this hostile state should disappear.

For that, I needed…

There!

I finally spotted what I had been searching for near the side of the darkened exit.

“There’s something over there.”

“What?”

This was the real reason I had wanted to ride the Fantasy Train.

The theme park’s color map.

[~Fantasyland Color Map~]

Near the exit of the attraction was a map showing which parts of Fantasyland belonged to each mascot.

I quickly approached it.

“A map. This might be useful.”

“Why?”

At first glance, it looked like nothing more than decorative scenery, a visual representation of Fantasyland matching the attraction’s story.

But the information on it was extremely valuable.

“Do you remember what this attraction was about?”

“Well… the mascots were fighting over territory in the theme park.”

“Exactly.”

I nodded.

“This map should show which zones belong to the other mascots.”

“…!”

That meant we could find the shortest route into another colored zone.

“So we’re running away from the mascot that’s angry at us?”

Assistant Manager Jin glanced at the unconscious researcher hanging over my shoulder.

“And you’re bringing that with us?”

Before she could suggest killing him again, I answered quickly.

“Once we confirm the route, I’ll wake the Research Team supervisor and have him walk on his own.”

“Hmph.”

Please don’t dismember him in front of me.

The possibility of an escape route brought a little hope back to Jang Heo-un’s face.

I was probably making the same expression.

Please let another zone be nearby.

I took a breath and looked at the map.

“…”

“…”

“There’s… nothing.”

What?

I looked again.

The map hadn’t changed.

[~Fantasyland Color Map~]

The entire illustrated park 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]

Every sign was marked with Magic Bunny’s face.

“Oh.”

[Magic Bunny’s Fantasyland]

There was nowhere to escape to.

“…”

“…”

“Soleum-ssi… isn’t something wrong?”

Jang Heo-un stared at the map.

“There were definitely other mascots before…”

“It looks like they were all driven out.”

“…!”

The narration from the Fantasy Train immediately came back to mind.

One by one, one by one, one by one! Dropping them into pits, drowning them in water, pushing them off cliffs!

Then that meant…

“The yellow and blue mascots were killed, and the red mascot took over the entire park.”

“…”

“Then… what happened to the employees who drew the other colors?”

“Who knows?”

Assistant Manager Jin shrugged.

“Maybe they’re all missing.”

“…!”

“Does that matter right now?”

Her eyes behind the butterfly mask turned cold again.

“What matters is that you seem to have made the wrong choice.”

“…”

“Don’t worry.”

She spoke calmly.

“It doesn’t mean you’ll die first.”

Which meant only one thing.

Someone else would die first.

“It’s already too late anyway.”

“…”

Without thinking, I glanced at the unconscious researcher hanging over my shoulder.

Boring.

“…!!”

“W-What…?”

Boring.

A voice echoed inside my head.

Boring.

Where had I heard something like this before?

Ah.

 

The Tuesday Quiz Show.

 

In that revamped version, the Choir of Purgatory had been shrieking like some dying animal…

And now this mascot—

 

Magic Bunny.

 

It was bored to death.

 

“Urgh.”

 

I covered my ears.

 

Boring.

I looked down.

The admission wristband around my arm was vibrating.

[(Cheerful) Fantasyland Admission Ticket ■□□]

[(Cheerful) Fantasyland Admission Ticket ■□□]

The voice was coming from there.

Not fun.

Screeeech.

The vibration intensified, pulling violently at the wristband.

======================

Cheerful Theme Park User Guide
(Applicable through Exploration Record #64)

1 – Keep your admission wristband 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!

A terrible punishment awaits.

Or would you…

…prefer to become an employee?

======================

No.

I desperately searched for a solution.

But there wasn’t one.

There was nowhere to escape.

Nowhere to run.

If I wanted to preserve what little human dignity I had left, maybe it would be better to end things before—

Kim Soleum-ssi.

Now I was hearing hallucinations too.

Kim Soleum-ssi. Can you hear me?

A hallucination?

No.

I raised my head.

There was nothing visible in the empty space around us, but the voice ringing clearly in my ears was unmistakably real.

And I knew exactly who it belonged to.

“Squad Leader?”

Yes.

Section Chief Lizard.

No, Squad Leader Lee Jaheon.

The situation felt strangely familiar.

Except this time, our roles were reversed.

“How did you contact us?!”

I’m using Supervisor Park Minseong’s personalized equipment.

Boring.

The voices overlapped, and the sound of the Great Red Magic Bunny faded into the background.

Only then did I realize I had been on the verge of hyperventilating.

No, that wasn’t important right now.

Roe, are you okay? Are you alive?

“We’re fine! We already cleared all three attractions!”

The other members of Squad D were together.

But how?

“You three aren’t on the same color team, are you?”

I was sure of it.

Squad Leader Lee Jaheon had drawn blue, while the other two had drawn yellow.

Roe, that isn’t what matters right now…

“It is important! You’re on different teams, but all three of you still ended up in the same part of the theme park?”

There was a brief pause.

No.

Section Chief Lizard answered calmly.

I found the other two and moved with them afterward.

Several questions immediately sprang to mind, but one mattered more than the rest.

“Where did you find them?”

Near the outskirts of the blue zone.

“Then you’re inside the blue mascot’s zone right now?”

Not fun.

Yes.

A shiver ran down my spine.

“The map doesn’t show it, but do you know where the blue zone is?”

I don’t.

Damn it.

“You don’t need an exact location! Just tell me what attractions are nearby, or even which direction it is!”

Understood.

A short silence followed.

The west…

The voice cut off.

“Squad Leader?”

No answer.

The time limit on Supervisor Park’s personalized equipment had probably run out.

But there was a much bigger problem.

“W-West?”

Jang Heo-un, who had been listening beside me, stared blankly ahead.

Assistant Manager Jin looked equally unsettled.

There was a simple reason.

“We’re already on the west side, aren’t we?”

Exactly.

The Fantasy Train was located near the western edge of the Fantasyland map.

The eastern side was bordered by rugged forest, while the western side ended smoothly along the castle walls near this attraction.

And beyond that western edge…

there was nothing.

Boring.

“Could we be in different versions of the theme park?”

Jang Heo-un hesitantly continued.

“Like… one version where the blue mascot won? Darknesses can have variations like that, right?”

Different places?

Were we really in separate parallel versions of Fantasyland?

Not fun.

“No.”

That couldn’t be it.

“This Darkness comes from a board game. If we’re all playing the same game, there shouldn’t be separate boards.”

“Hey. Shut up.”

Assistant Manager Jin cut me off coldly.

“No matter how much sense your theory makes, if it doesn’t match what’s actually happening, drop it.”

This wasn’t just speculation.

It was deduction.

There were plenty of similar cases in the Exploration Records.

But there was no point explaining that when she had no reason to believe me.

Right now, I only needed one thing.

The answer.

Where exactly is ‘west’?

Quickly.

Think.

There had to be something.

I looked over the Fantasyland Color Map again.

Every visible part of it was still painted red.

Ferris wheel.

Carousel.

Roller coaster.

Viking ride.

Magic palace.

Every attraction bore Magic Bunny’s red face.

Every attraction…

Wait.

“…!”

Boring.

Hold on.

I looked over the map again.

And then I saw it.

“I found it!”

“What?”

“A different colored zone.”

It was here.

Certain now, I immediately started moving.

Whether they had noticed the same possibility or were simply following my sudden confidence, the others came with me.

Not fun.

We had to hurry before the mascot noticed what we were doing.

There was no time to waste.

We needed to get out of this attraction.

Ignoring me?

Too late.