Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work
Chapter 21.2

“……”

“……”

“Isn’t… isn’t there something wrong here, Soleum-ssi? There were clearly other mascots before…”

“Seems like they were all driven out.”

“……!”

The narration we’d heard during the attraction came to mind automatically.

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

So then…

“The yellow and blue ones were killed, and this red mascot took over everything.”

“……”

“Then… what about the other employees who drew pieces of different colors?”

“Who knows.”

The A-squad assistant manager shrugged.

“All missing?”

“……!”

“Does that even matter right now? What matters is…”

The eyes beneath the butterfly mask turned sinister again.

“You seem to have made the wrong choice.”

“……”

“Don’t worry. It doesn’t mean you’ll die first.”

Which could only mean one thing.

There was someone else who would die first.

“It’s already too late anyway.”

“……”

Reflexively, I glanced at the unconscious researcher slung over my shoulder like a deadweight.

B o r i n g

“……!!”

“Wha… what…?”

B o r i n g

The voice echoed in my head.

B o r i n g

Haven’t I heard this somewhere before?

Ah, that talk show, that Tuesday talk show. In that revamped version, like the Choir of Purgatory shriekinglikethescreamofadeadpiganimalsthe mascot!MagicBunny,boredtodeath

“Urgh.”

I clamped my hands over my ears.

B o r i n g

I looked down.

The admission band on my wrist was vibrating.

[(Cheerful) Fantasyland Admission Ticket ■□□]

[(Cheerful) Fantasyland Admission Ticket ■□□]

The sound… was coming from there.

N o t f u n

Screeeech.

The vibration grew, tearing at the wristband.

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

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

1- Keep your admission wristband clean!

If lost or damaged, you are no longer a guest. If not a guest, you are an intruder. Thief! Lawbreaker! Horrible punishment awaits. Or would you…

…prefer to be an employee?

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

No.

I frantically tried to think of a solution.

But there was none.

Nowhere to escape. There was nowhere to run! If I wanted to preserve my dignity as a human being, it would be better to end things before it was too…

– Kim Soleum-ssi

Now I was hearing hallucinations too.

– Kim Soleum-ssi. Can you hear me?

‘……’

A hallucination, no.

I lifted my head.

Nothing was visible in the empty space, but a voice as clear as day echoed in my ears, unmistakably real.

The owner of that voice is…

“…Squad Leader?”

– Yes.

Section Chief Lizard— or rather, Squad Leader Lee Jaheon.

This situation felt like déjà vu, though the roles were reversed this time!

“How did you reach us?!”

– I’m using Supervisor Park Minseong’s specialized equipment.

B o r i n g

The voices overlapped, and the sound of ‘Great Red Magic Bunny’ grew faint.

I barely realized I was on the verge of hyperventilating.

No, that wasn’t what mattered here…

– Are you okay, Roe? Are you alive?

– We’re fine! We just completed all three attractions!

The rest of D-squad’s members were all together. How was that possible?

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

I was certain of it.

‘Only Squad Leader Lee Jaheon was on the blue team, while the others were on yellow!’

– Roe, that’s not the point right now…

“It is important! The three of you wound up in the same place in the theme park, despite being on different teams?”

After a short pause,

– No.

Section Chief Lizard’s calm voice replied.

– I found the other two and then moved.

Several questions popped up simultaneously in my mind, but the most pressing was this:

“…Where did you replace them?”

– On the outskirts of the blue zone.

“…Then, are you currently in the blue mascot’s zone?”

N o t f u n

– Yes.

A shiver ran down my spine.

“The map doesn’t show it, but do you happen to know which point is the blue zone?”

– I don’t.

Damn it.

“You don’t need exact coordinates. Just tell me any nearby attractions, or even which direction!”

– Understood.

After a short silence:

– The west…

He got cut off.

“Squad Leader?”

There was no response.

It was likely the time limit on the equipment had expired.

And more crucially than that…

“W-West?”

The face of the Y-squad newbie, who had been listening intently beside me, turned blank.

A-squad’s superior looked equally unsettled. The reason was simple.

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

Exactly.

The ‘Fantasy Train’ was located near the western edge of the Fantasyland map…

The opposite of the rugged forest on the eastern side, bordered smoothly by castle walls on the west, was this very attraction.

Further westward in Fantasyland than this was… nothing!

B o r i n g

“It seems we might be in separate theme parks? Like a timeline where the blue mascot won. The Darkness always has these kinds of variations.”

In separate places?

Are we really talking about different parallel dimensions?

N o t f u n

“No.”

That can’t be.

“This is a Darkness derived from a board game. If we’re playing the same game, there’s no reason for separate boards.”

“Hey. Shut up.”

The A-squad superior replied coldly.

“No matter how much sense you try to make, if it doesn’t match reality, just drop it.”

This isn’t speculation—it’s deduction.

I wanted to convey that there were numerous cases like this, but I knew they wouldn’t believe me. Right now, all I needed to do was… replace the answer.

Where exactly is ‘west’?

‘Quickly, quickly.’

Think. There has to be an answer.

I looked at the Fantasyland color map again. Every visible area was still painted red.

Ferris wheel, carousel, roller coaster, Viking ride, magic palace. Every single ride was marked with Magic Bunny’s red face.

Every attraction… wait.

“……!”

B o r i n g

Hold on.

I looked over the map again.

And I realized—

“…I found it!”

“What?”

“A different color zone.”

It was here.

With certainty, I moved forward. Whether they sensed hope or were compelled by my determination, my teammates followed.

N o t f u n

We had to move quickly before the mascot noticed us. There was no time to waste—we needed to get out of this attraction immediately.

I g n o r i n g m e ?

Too late.

T/N: Sorry for disappearing for a bit! I went on a trip and I underestimated how exhausting and time-consuming it would be, I thought I’d still be able to scrounge up some chapters somehow

Anyway, more chapters ahead again! I’ll update the other two novels soon too