Chapter 170 - Chapter 170

Chapter 170

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

Translated by Jinmu

Read more at Nineheavens.org

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

Pleasant Theme Park was a B-grade Dark entity of Daydream Co.

And a manual had already been written, with the analysis by the research team completed as well.

...I remembered my contribution to it without even having to make an effort to recall.

: Socius :

Since the very tattoo on my wrist was something engraved as the ticket to that theme park burned.

And usually, the whereabouts of a high-grade Dark entity whose analysis was complete fell into one of two categories.

Attributed to the research team.

Or....

"It is the Dark entity assigned to Group A."

Assigned to the elite team.

"Usually, Team A recruits a capacity of three, three from the Site Cleanup Team, and six from the general team to enter with twelve people... but well, the last entry record was three months ago, so there is some time before the next entry."

Director Ho smiled broadly and handed over the documents.

The manual for Pleasant Theme Park, which detailed the entry method of twelve people using a board game.

And the work order.

[Special Entry for Research Purposes]

"So I have scheduled a separate date."

"...Thank you."

"No need to thank me! It wasn't a difficult task at all."

Those words might actually be true.

Since Group A was Director Ho's line in the first place.

'Since it was a ghost story under his own jurisdiction to begin with, it must have been easy to pull it out.'

Of course, that was the director's situation, and as a mere regular employee who received favors from the director, I had to bow my head low here for now....

However, Director Ho's words did not end there.

"And to make it easier for you to enter, I have also recruited all the employees who will enter with you. Haha."

"......!"

What was this ominous premonition...?

"Ah, are you perhaps worried that there might be someone you know among those entering? Worried they might recognize you, Sol-eum?"

"Yes. As you say, I do have such concerns."

"Of course! So, Sol-eum, it is regrettable, but..."

Director Ho pointed at me.

"I don't think you'll be able to infiltrate in your original appearance."

I knew that.

"Yes. So I was planning to purchase and consume a disguise potion with the welfare points you distributed...."

"That would be too inconvenient for you. Besides, you must live as a different person even on regular days lately due to work... I want to minimize such inconvenience for you."

"......."

"So, I have found a method where you won't be suspected at all!"

Excuse me?

I stared at him with an ominous feeling.

Director Ho looked at me with a bright smile.

"How about you go under a special identity, Sol-eum?"

"...!?"

* * *

The next day.

The meeting room of Daydream Co.'s Research Team 2.

"They said it's B-grade today, right."

"They are paying more points, right?"

People showed their faces one by one. Modern people wearing business suits and bizarre animal masks. They were the employees of the Field Exploration Team.

They were also general team employees who had gathered, risking the hazard of it being a 'slightly special exploration' at the word that points would be paid better.

"Did they say it's Pleasant Theme Park?"

"We must go to this one."

This was because word had spread through whispers.

That although this Dark entity was high-grade, the manual was well-equipped, and the speculation of a certain employee who had explored it previously hit the mark astoundingly well, making it relatively safe.

So when it was said that a special entry was scheduled, they had come while hushing it up among themselves once the words 'Pleasant Theme Park' leaked out.

Though it was slightly unsettling that it was for research purposes, it didn't matter as long as the one who died wasn't them.

'If only there were at least one member from the Site Cleanup Team, I could feel more at ease.'

People narrowed their eyes and scanned the surroundings while pretending not to. But unfortunately, there was no employee who looked like they belonged to the Site Cleanup Team.

However, there was someone who was previously in the Site Cleanup Team.

"Huh?"

A tall employee with long brown hair, wearing a cow mask, was standing quietly against the wall.

"You got assigned to a branch, didn't you? Could you apply for this from there too? It's been a while."

"Well... um. Yes."

It was Jang Heo-un.

He broke out in a cold sweat looking at the employee who came to strike up a conversation with him without even knowing his name properly.

It was a side effect of his spy work...!

"How is the branch? Worth living?"

"Haha, yes...."

Jang Heo-un backed away with an awkward smile.

The people who had spoken to him also did not pursue further and ignored him.

Because they misread it as him acting that way out of embarrassment.

'I heard the branch offices are such a living hell.'

'He's done for getting a Wish Ticket anyway.'

Every person among those from the branch offices who managed to escape to the headquarters shut their mouths tightly and only shuddered in disgust, refusing to even describe it.

And a tag subtly attached to them.

Wouldn't the difficulty of the entrance exam have been different from that of the headquarters' personnel, after all?

Although they didn't know for sure, looking at the treatment or welfare levels, they wondered if even some random dregs could work at the branch offices.

Therefore, there was no one here to share information or engage in friendly chats with a discarded kite whose string was cut—someone who was kicked out from the headquarters to a branch.

'If push comes to shove, he'll die for us.'

'He was originally from the Site Cleanup Team too.'

Thus, an atmosphere of tacit neglect was formed.

"Are you okay?"

Except for this person.

"Um, how have you been? It was cool that you got out of the Site Cleanup Team. Let's do our best today."

"Th-Thank you...."

Supervisor Lee Seong-hae of Elite Team Group C, wearing a dolphin mask, shook hands with Jang Heo-un and sat next to him.

'Pretending to be f*cking nice.'

'Gimmick lover.'

But since she was from the elite team, everyone kept their mouths shut and looked away in a different sense.

And here, there was also a figure with an ambiguous position, hard to view as either elite team or general team.

"It's Manager Lee."

Manager Lee Ja-heon of Group D sat in a meeting room chair in an upright posture like a block of wood, wearing his lizard mask.

'Is that guy going too?'

'He hit rock bottom in the elite team, and now he is doing all sorts of things lately.'

'What a waste of his face.'

However, they avoided making eye contact, perhaps because they were afraid.

Originally, fists were closer than the law.... Even more so if that fist could crush steel.

At any rate, that was the end of the exploration.

"Since everyone has gathered, we will begin the briefing in a moment."

Soon, as a researcher entered and set up the Dark entry method, the employees quickly scanned the people sitting at the table.

1, 2, 3....

"But there are eleven people?"

"What, who didn't show up?"

A few impatient and senior employees stared at the researcher.

But.

"Um, well..."

The researcher was breaking out in a cold sweat.

"......"

......A somehow ominous premonition ran down the employees' spines.

"Excuse me, but who is the remaining person?"

"Supervisor Park. You know that properly notifying us about this is also advantageous for the clearing, right?"

"Well, that is."

No matter how low their seniority was, a researcher was still a researcher. Yet showing such panic in itself made people even more afraid.

'What is it.'

'Who on earth....'

At that moment.

Knock, knock.

Suddenly, there was a sound of knocking on the meeting room door.

"......"

"......"

Silence descended upon the meeting room.

People turned to look at the door.

The black door remained motionless after exactly two knocks. As if it could only enter upon receiving permission.

"......"

"...Come in!"

Click.

The door opened.

Black smoke drifted inside.

"...?!"

The smoke repeatedly spread thickly across the floor and then got absorbed back out the door as if sucked away. And in the midst of it....

Parting the smoke, black combat boots stepped onto the meeting room floor.

The smoke was repeatedly entering and exiting along with someone's footsteps as if breathing.

And inside the black smoke, the silhouette of a well-built person was revealed.

Light.

Ooooh-.

A yellow lantern-like light was emitting from their waist and eyes.

People froze at that bizarre sight.

However, they recognized the affiliation at least.

"S-Security Team...!"

A mask completely covering the face.

And countless horns sprouting atop it filled the space above his head like branches.

"...!"

Covered from head to toe in black special equipment, he looked as if he had fully armed himself in custom gear.

Or... was bound by that equipment.

"......"

"......"

*Gulp.* Someone swallowed hard.

Why is... the Security Team here?

-The Security Team does not enter the Dark.

This proposition usually held true. Because even if the Security Team entered the Dark, dreamscapes were not extracted from them.

They would appear solely for the purpose of suppressing situations....

However, sometimes, depending on their specialty, there were bound to be entities that exhibited immense, transcendent capabilities.

"Th-This is the employee who... will be conducting the exploration together with you today."

"...!!"

Feeling like they might faint, people stared at the bizarre employee standing silently in front of the door.

The 'employee' from the Security Team department wore a special outfit with exceptionally many belts, and a mask engraved with a unique logo near the head area.

A strange shape that looked like a distorted square.

The employees recognized it as if struck by lightning.

'It's the special department...!'

The Security Team's special department.

In the Security Team, there many departments operated with only their names listed on the company intranet organization chart, without it being properly known exactly what groups existed under them.

Thus, the rumors that spread when occasionally encountering them under unpleasant circumstances while working in the company were the entirety of what was known.

Among them, the special department had particularly grim rumors.

This was because the dominant reputation was that people witnessed monster-like employees whom it was hard to believe had originally belonged to the Field Exploration Team, with no telling where they had emerged from.

And this researcher, who was breaking out in a cold sweat, had also heard more specific rumors....

-Supervisor Park, if people who belong to the Security Team's special department appear, treat them politely. ...They aren't human. No, I'm not talking about pollution....

-......Seriously, they weren't human from the start.

'A department that hired anomalies of the Dark in human form...!'

A rumor that was a ghost story in itself, stating that they had signed employee contracts with the Dark through Daydream Co.'s 'know-how.'

The back of the researcher, who saw the real thing for the first time, became damp with cold sweat.

Because although he analyzed the Dark and deployed the Field Exploration Team, this was his first time encountering a monster directly.

"......"

Swallowing his saliva, he looked at the bizarre employee before his eyes.

Somehow, the meeting room seemed to have grown a bit darker....

The employee's yellow lantern-like eyes and the flash at his waist swayed even more strangely in the black smoke.

Looking closely, the things wrapping the lantern around his waist were also rib-like horns.

'Urrgh.'

The researcher, barely squeezing out his courage, spoke.

"Um... Hello."

Silence.

"Ah, you may take a seat."

No answer returned.

In the meeting room shrouded in silence, the researcher continued in a voice that sounded almost like crying.

"Um, I will... proceed with the briefing."

Only then did the strange horn-masked figure walk over.

And sat in the seat closest to the door.

...It was next to Jang Heo-un.

'Ha.'

Thank goodness it's not me.

People swallowed their saliva and tried their best to avoid looking in that direction.

'Please don't let us be in the same group.'

'Please...!'

As long as they weren't in the same group, it was fine!

Although the name and zones of the theme park changed every time one entered, the only thing identical was the rules.

-Follow the mascot's rules.

-If you cannot follow the rules, move to another mascot's zone.

-The four group members who drew the same colored piece must always accompany each other.

Meaning that if they weren't in the same group as that monster, they could clear it without ever running into him.

If they got a good zone, they could just ride attractions three times, obtain high-grade dreamscapes, and rake in a massive amount of points.

The problem was... that this was a special entry.

That it was an entry for research purposes containing another objective.

And no matter how they thought about it, the 'variable' this time... was that employee.

'Please.'

The employees looked at the researcher doing the briefing.

Surely he wasn't going to tell them to find that employee and follow him around, right?

"And as for special instructions for this entry... there are none."

Whew!

"However, um, they say whatever that Security Team employee does inside... do not interfere."

"......"

"Everyone... got that?"

Yes.

The Field Exploration Team gathered in the meeting room nodded their heads desperately.

And the culprit who instilled this fear in them, the 'Security Team special employee,' was....

'The performance is truly reliable....'

He was breathing a sigh of relief.

Indeed. It was Kim Sol-eum!

* * *

I scanned the people in the meeting hall and suppressed a sigh.

Well, even if I sighed, it would be blocked by the mask, and only black smoke would puff out.

'I didn't expect Director Ho to go this far.'

-It's equipment that was produced as a prototype, and I'm very glad we can test it out like this!

He had embezzled the Security Team's equipment directly.

The so-called Suit that Shows the Inner Side.

A monster resembling you is visible over the suit.

It was written that way in the development notes that came with the suit, which looked like combat gear in a game.

Why they were developing a Security Team suit that made humans pretend to be monsters, I desperately avoided asking.

I felt that knowing would not be good for my well-being....

'It is probably for a project.'

Anyway, although I didn't know the operating principle, I had heard about the characteristics.

'Did they say the manifested appearance differs from person to person?'

And I ended up looking like I was carrying a pile of horns on my head.

My appearance would be... well, something like a monstrous lifeform trying to burst out, forcefully locked inside a human suit.

'Hmm.'

I strove to avoid scratching my head even by mistake.

'Strangely, it somehow seems to remind me of my original mask....'

Recalling the wooden horn mask that had given me the alias of Roe Deer, I felt a bizarre sensation.

"Um, I will explain the entry method for Pleasant Theme Park."

In the meantime, the briefing had reached almost its final stages.

The entry method.

'We have to go to the theme park where that blue dragon mascot is.'

Whether exactly that place would be set as the playing board this time was a question, but somehow I felt confident about that part.

It was an inductive confidence gained through experiencing ghost stories so far.

'Probably... that side will call me.'

Like a certain talk show's TV-headed host, who had assured that he would go as long as I called him with 'a suitable medium.'

"......"

"Um, you just need to draw your pieces...."

The researcher politely held out the capsules containing the board game pieces with both hands.

For some reason, it was starting with me.

'Actually, I think I am the youngest here....'

But since I couldn't show it, I reached out pretending to be nonchalant and grabbed the capsule....

"Ack!"

"......"

"Gasp, s-sorry......"

This guy... seems to have a temperament that makes it hard to survive long in the research team.

'I recommend looking for a career change.'

Politely ignoring the terrified researcher, I grabbed the capsule again.

And shook it.

With a clattering rolling noise, the piece fell out of the capsule.

A vivid yellow color.

"Yellow piece!"

Okay.

I picked up the piece and passed the capsule to the next person.

"Ah...!"

It was none other than Mr. Jang Heo-un.

...I didn't know why Director Ho had recruited someone who was already busy as a spy, but it made me break into a cold sweat thinking that he made him spend his precious holiday.

I had barely managed to take leave, so wouldn't this person have barely scraped his together as well?

'Why on earth did you apply...!'

Even though you almost threw up last time after entering and seeing the entrails parade in the Magic Bunny zone!

Needless to say, I couldn't ask now.

And Mr. Jang Heo-un....

"Yellow!"

"Nice!"

He drew the same piece as me.

For the record, it was not Mr. Jang Heo-un who spoke just now.

The other employees were rejoicing while clenching their fists. That because someone else drew the yellow piece, the probability of them getting it had decreased.

Because they didn't want to be with me.

'Haha....'

In the midst of that, Mr. Jang Heo-un bowed his head to me.

"Um, I look forward to working with you."

"......"

I nodded slightly to Mr. Jang Heo-un.

Thank you for understanding my situation where this is the best I can do....

However, a slightly embarrassing situation began to unfold from then on.

"Please...!"

Everyone was blatantly wishing not to get yellow.

"Ah! Red!"

And upon drawing red, they rejoiced almost to the point of cheering.

"......"

Excuse me, you read all the exploration records I left behind, right? Then as soon as you see Magic Bunny, you just have to run like crazy to the blue zone....

Still, the fact that the familiar faces in the midst of it were calm gave a fair amount of stability to my heart.

It was like this.

"Oh."

I verified that Supervisor Lee Seong-hae drew the red piece. And....

"It's blue."

...Also that Group Leader Lee Ja-heon drew the blue piece.

'No, why is that Lizard Manager here.'

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't shake off the suspicion that Director Ho had inserted him as a whip in between the carrots.

...Warning me that he already knew I had shared all the progress with Group D as I entered his project.

Prompting me once again not to do anything foolish.

'Is he making it so that I can't let my guard down even when receiving favors?'

I really want to resign.

'Whew.'

"Now, this is the last one."

At any rate, the distribution was almost completely finished.

Having drawn the yellow piece, I ignored the employees wearing the field mouse mask and the ladybug mask who stared at me while stiffened tight.

'Let's ride the attractions quickly.'

Because I was going to send them off first and then look into my own business.

Clatter.

And the moment the last employee drew a piece.

-Departing for Fantasy Land~

The board game board flew up into the air and swallowed everyone's vision.

Entering.

Because I had already experienced it once, I could review my future plans with a bit of composure.

Let's see, there was no zone for the yellow piece.

'Did they say Magic Bunny killed the yellow mascot?'

So the memory of escaping by activating the gate to the resort, the ruined yellow piece zone, came to mind.

'We'll probably go straight to the blue zone.'

Let's make sure to check the souvenir shop. Thinking that way, I blinked my eyes in my fading consciousness....

Before long, my mind became clear.

Now was the turn for the lively theme park's theme song to reach my ears....

.......

'...Uh?'

All around was silent.

"......"

I opened my eyes.

In the dim indoor space, walls with completely peeled-off paint and a dusty lamp were visible.

In that place without any light, even the windows were completely shattered.

A musty, dead space.

"......"

What is... this?

It wasn't the inside of an amusement park. This was absolutely not an amusement park....

"...!"

I immediately rose and ran to the window to look outside.

A crumpled, massive signboard, swaying precariously in the wind with one side of its brackets fallen off, was visible....

[Flower Golden Resort]

"...!!"

I blankly stared at the twinkling lights of the blue water park far away.

Looking down, ruins were visible.

"......"

I had opened my eyes in the ruined yellow zone.

'What kind of...'

It was at that moment.

With a click, the lights in the indoor space where I was began to flicker and return.

"...!"

I realized that where I was was not a simple room.

A desk, a chair, an old cabinet.

Inside the open door of the old cabinet, a massive machine was visible.

It was a space like a small office or a management room.

And placed on the desk... a sheet of paper with formal politeness.

"......"

I walked over and read the paper.

Welcome to your inauguration as the new mascot of Flower Golden Resort!

"...!!"