Chapter 32: Baekya Land - Attraction (3)

[3. Always be courteous to staff. He will not forgive verbal or physical abuse directed at employees.]

Ju-hee was undeniably faster than either Su-myeon or Du-pal.

She darted between the stiffly moving wax figures in an instant, heading straight for the Horror Maze.

'No—she's way too fast......'

Su-myeon thought as he sprinted through the amusement park, colorful decorations constantly blocking his line of sight.

At this rate, the others were going to lose sight of Ju-hee completely.

"No, wait—is it—why is it—this far?!"

Du-pal, the very image of an out-of-shape middle-aged man, was already starting to fall behind.

The distance felt far greater than it had appeared from above.

Just as Su-myeon began to think they were in trouble, the Horror Maze finally came into view.

Please do not damage any property.

Please stop and stay at your desired location.

Please become one with us.

Forever.

"No!"

Ju-hee tore past the prominently displayed rules and charged straight inside with a shout.

Hyeon-seok was stepping into the Horror Maze right before her eyes.

She cried out desperately, but he continued inside as though he had not heard a thing.

"Wait!"

Ju-hee was about to rush in after him alone when Su-myeon shouted.

His voice snapped her back to her senses, and she finally stopped.

"Please enter in order!"

"The line begins over there!"

The staff members scolded Ju-hee for breaking procedure.

In the meantime, the rest of the group managed to catch up.

"If you barge in like that, you could get all of us killed."

"There's barely even a line! Get over here!"

Du-pal immediately moved to the back of the queue and waved Ju-hee over.

She stared anxiously at the entrance where Hyeon-seok had disappeared, unable to keep still, but eventually forced herself to turn away.

Inside the spaces governed by urban legends, breaking the rules could get you killed.

And not only her.

The entire group could die.

A rescue mission could end with everyone dead because of one reckless mistake.

Ju-hee understood that well enough to barely rein herself in.

"Welcome to PAPER IN LOOP!"

"Are you ready to enter?"

As expected, the staff were unfailingly polite, as though every word had been pulled straight from a customer-service manual.

And every single one of them had faces and limbs on both the front and back of their bodies.

Unlike the employees they had encountered so far, however, these staff members were all dressed in office attire.

"We'll guide you into a truly terrifying world of horror!"

"There are emergency exits along the way, so if it becomes too frightening, feel free to escape through one of them!"

Whether they realized that the most horrifying thing in the room was their own fused, two-sided bodies was another matter entirely.

Ju-hee rushed inside before the staff had even finished opening the door, much less explaining the attraction.

The only thing on her mind was catching Hyeon-seok before the distance between them grew any wider.

To avoid being separated, the other three had no choice but to hurry after her.

"......What is this?"

The space they entered looked like an ordinary office.

And like a video playing back on the wrong setting, several people were silently going through the motions of office work.

Just as an ordinary haunted house would have actors playing ghosts—

This place had staff members playing office workers and acting out their roles.

The performers inside busied themselves flipping through documents and working at computers.

Their movements were much like those of the mechanical wax figures wandering outside.

"The haunted house...... has an office theme......?"

Ju-hee sounded genuinely bewildered.

This was nothing like the scenery she had been bracing herself for.

"Baekya Land's central theme is liberation from the duties and responsibilities of real life."

Su-myeon answered while carefully surveying their surroundings.

"So here, the grind of office life—defined by duty and responsibility—is treated as something more terrifying than hell itself."

Du-pal nodded in sympathy.

After more than twenty years of corporate life, he could agree with that sentiment to a certain extent.

"Can't exactly say they're wrong."

Of course, the supernatural horrors he had personally witnessed inside these urban legends were plenty terrifying in their own right.

At least dying from overwork was......

'Well—it's not like that never happens.'

Du-pal's expression turned briefly somber as he looked around.

But there was no time for idle reflection.

Han-su, who had been scouting ahead, spoke up.

"He doesn't seem to be here. Let's go farther in."

At Han-su's suggestion, the group pressed deeper into the attraction.

The farther they went, the more the scenery seemed to move backward through time.

The office furnishings gradually changed into older and older equipment.

Eventually, they found themselves in an era of bulky CRT monitors and cigarette smoke hanging thick in the air.

"There!"

Just as their anxiety began to mount, they finally spotted Hyeon-seok.

But Ju-hee, who had been ready to rush straight toward him, abruptly stopped.

He was not wearing the modern suit she knew.

Instead, he was dressed in an old-fashioned suit with a somewhat thick brown necktie.

More unsettling still, Hyeon-seok sat at the head of the room in a plush black leather chair, his posture faintly arrogant.

As though he were one of the staff members performing a role in the maze's scenario......

"Don't tell me......"

At the ominous words that slipped from Du-pal's mouth, Ju-hee grabbed his arm tightly.

Had Hyeon-seok already been assimilated into this world?

Had he become one of the staff?

No matter how desperately they wanted to deny it, the sight before them did not change.

Amid the silence, he sat as though he owned the place, smoking a cigarette with an imperious air.

Every movement was deliberate.

Artificial.

As though nothing around him existed.

Ju-hee's legs seemed to lose their strength, and she swayed where she stood.

"Things have gotten a little more complicated, but it's not hopeless."

Afraid that the shock might make her do something reckless—

Su-myeon quickly steadied her and continued.

"At least he isn't going anywhere from that spot. Let's get outside first and think."

Ju-hee, dazed and hollow-eyed, allowed Su-myeon to guide her toward the exit.

Fortunately, a large blue emergency exit sign was nearby.

"......Sound."

"...Sorry?"

Ju-hee, who had been leaning on him as they approached the exit, suddenly planted her feet and looked back.

"He can still hear us, right? He just can't move on his own?"

The entire rescue operation had been based on the assumption that Hyeon-seok had retained his sense of self.

Su-myeon nodded.

Standing in front of the exit, Ju-hee gripped the door and shouted.

"Shin Hyeon-seok!"

There was no grief in her voice.

Only raw determination and stubborn resolve.

After coming this far, Ju-hee had absolutely no intention of leaving empty-handed.

"Just hang on...... Just a little longer! Just hang on a little longer!"

I'll be right back......

Her voice trembled beneath the tears she was struggling to hold back as she stepped through the door.

Su-myeon was the last to leave.

As Ju-hee's voice faded, he carefully watched Hyeon-seok's expression.

They were close enough that the words had undoubtedly reached him.

Something shifted, ever so slightly, in Hyeon-seok's eyes.

Su-myeon was almost certain of it.

"You said there was a way. Right?"

The group emerged from the midway exit into some corner of Baekya Land.

The moment they were outside, Ju-hee turned to Su-myeon and asked again.

He nodded.

"......There is."

Su-myeon recalled the game walkthrough.

In the game, there were times when the protagonist wandered for too long and eventually lost control of their own body.

When that happened, there was an item required to restore their agency.

"Follow me. We need to hurry."

He immediately set off, leading the group toward the arcade.

Dream Arcade.

Inside were the kinds of machines one could find in almost any ordinary arcade.

Naturally, however, there were details that were anything but ordinary.

"Ugh......"

Most of the games featured grotesque and horrifying imagery.

Even something as simple as whack-a-mole required the player to smash open a rat's skull and splatter its brains in order to score points.

The drum used in one rhythm game—the kind meant to be struck in time with the music—was made from actual human skin, flayed from a body and stretched taut.

They passed machine after machine that no one wanted to touch until Su-myeon finally stopped in front of a claw machine.

"This is it."

The machine was called "Lip Collector," yet its interior was filled entirely with candy.

Similar machines stood in a row beside it.

Eyeball Collector.

Finger Collector.

Ear Collector.

And more.

The others appeared to contain actual human body parts.

Only this machine held candy.

"We need to win one of those."

Su-myeon pointed at a particular piece inside.

It was large and round, wrapped in paper.

A candy as crimson as the tongue of the prince who had awakened the princess from her eternal slumber.

"'Restores consciousness and returns the subject to a sound state.'...... That's what it says here, right?"

Du-pal read the description of the crimson candy from the product card attached beside the machine.

"If he eats it, he should at least come out of that state."

At Su-myeon's explanation, Ju-hee finally managed a relieved nod.

That was assuming Hyeon-seok was still capable of eating, of course.

But Su-myeon believed there was still hope.

There was no reason to burden Ju-hee with that possibility yet.

After examining the machine from every possible angle, Ju-hee spoke.

A label on the machine instructed players to insert Baekya Coins.

"So we need to buy special coins?"

"For now, yes."

Su-myeon planned to check first whether the Rose Coins in his possession could be exchanged for Baekya Land's currency.

If not, they would have to earn the local currency separately.

And that would cost them precious time.

The group headed toward the arcade counter.

"I'd like to purchase game coins. Do you happen to accept—"

"Yes! Please tap your Heartphone here."

Before Su-myeon could even finish his question, the employee was already asking for his phone.

He pulled out his Heartphone.

Carefully, he tapped it against the device the staff member held out.

DING—

[Balance: Ellis Hotel Voucher ₩49,500,000]

To his surprise, the charge was being deducted from his Ellis Hotel voucher.

"Oh! Then ten coins, please."

Come to think of it, the voucher he had received back then covered 4,444 hours.

Roughly 180 days of use.

He still had several months remaining.

Coins stamped with a sun emblem came clattering out, and Su-myeon caught them almost reflexively.

Then another question occurred to him.

Leaving aside the fact that the voucher was still valid—

How could it possibly be used here?

"......"

The inside of the counter booth was too dark to make out clearly.

Considering how disturbing every employee they had encountered in Baekya Land looked, Su-myeon had not thought to inspect the cashier closely.

But now, something compelled him to look.

He tilted his head and peered into the booth.

The cashier's head was not covered by a mascot costume.

Nor was it one of the grotesque, double-faced heads stitched together with wire.

"Step back, please."

Su-myeon spoke quietly, almost under his breath.

The others immediately shuffled backward together.

Sitting inside the booth was a staff member with a white head marked by a heart.

Exactly like the employees they had seen at Ellis Hotel.

Su-myeon was just beginning to retreat when—

GRAB—

The Heart staff member's hand shot out and clamped around Su-myeon's wrist.

He reflexively tried to wrench himself free.

The grip was impossibly strong.

He could not move his arm even an inch.

"The Red Queen has been desperately searching for you, sir."