Chapter 35: Baekya Land - Parade (2)

[5. Do not become a front-row spectator of the parade. Their performance is a merciless festival of blood. Unless you wish to become its sacrifice, you must stay away from the parade.]

"Damn, this is insane...!"

Su-myeon panicked when he realized that, of all possible directions, they had run straight toward the parade route.

"Ugh...."

Worse yet, Hyeon-seok was in no condition to run properly. His half-waxified body moved stiffly and sluggishly.

"My body...."

"If you push yourself too hard, it'll cause problems even after you return to reality."

Watching the back of Hyeon-seok's hand crumble like a cracked candle, Su-myeon gritted his teeth.

It was already too late to catch up with Ju-hee and Du-pal.

DUM-DUDUM.

The drums announcing the start of the parade rang out.

He had forcibly cut himself off from the flute's sound and bought them time to move freely, but that window had already closed.

'Is it because there are several of us?'

The rule warning them never to close their eyes while the flute could not be heard was, in truth, impossible to obey indefinitely.

A human being couldn't help but blink eventually.

Only the wax humans could keep their eyes open forever without blinking.

That was why they had chosen to escape in a hurry, even at the risk of being chased by the wax humans.

"What is going on here?"

"The parade is start—"

SCREEEE...

Su-myeon tried to answer Han-su's question, but stopped at the piercing sound of the flute.

Covering his ears, he looked around and saw something ripple in the distance, at the very edge of the theme park.

Soon, a gigantic silhouette came into view, entering Baekya Land as though it had passed straight through the wall.

The Pied Piper had finally appeared in person.

The master of Baekya Land.

The very being that had bewitched countless humans and lured them here.

"Mr. Shin Hyeon-seok, listen carefully."

Su-myeon smacked Hyeon-seok's shoulder as the man stood dazed beneath the relentless drone of the flute.

"Pull yourself together!"

Once Hyeon-seok barely managed to regain his senses from the jolt, Su-myeon quickly recited the precautions.

"All that's left now is to get out of here, so keep that candy in your mouth. Let it melt as slowly as possible."

The parade was beginning.

Judging by the direction they had run, Ju-hee and Du-pal would already be somewhere near the parade procession.

And the parade route ran in a straight line toward the entrance the group had originally used to enter Baekya Land.

It was the fastest route to escape.

"Then we'll run straight ahead, regroup with Ms. Ju-hee and Mr. Du-pal, and head directly outside."

"Will it really be that easy?"

At Han-su's question, Su-myeon let out a short sigh.

There would undoubtedly be obstacles along the way.

But they didn't have time to prepare for every possibility before moving.

The longer they stood around wasting time, the worse their situation would become.

[Attention, all guests of Baekya Land!]

A cheerful announcement began to play over the speakers.

[Soon, the pride of our Baekya Land—the Parade of Radiance—will begin!]

The broadcast continued, announcing the start of the parade and asking everyone to clear the surrounding area.

They no longer had the luxury of considering every possibility.

"We'll have to make it work."

With Su-myeon in the lead, the group sprinted straight toward the escape route.

The path had been cleared for the parade procession.

Before long, they spotted Ju-hee and Du-pal ahead, both clutching their hands over their ears.

It seemed they still hadn't recovered from the lingering echo of the flute, which had bored straight into their minds in an instant.

The moment he saw them, Hyeon-seok shouted.

"Shin Ju-hee!"

...Shin Ju-hee?

Not Go Ju-hee?

Before Su-myeon could even question it, Ju-hee heard the voice and snapped her head up.

The instant she confirmed that it was Hyeon-seok, the rims of her eyes turned red.

For a moment, it looked as though a touching reunion was about to unfold.

But—

"I was worried about you, you bastard!"

Ju-hee shrieked and lunged at him.

Her fury rendered all the respectful "Executive Director" titles she had used for him until now completely meaningless.

And just like that, she smacked Hyeon-seok across the head.

"Good grief."

The blow was so hard that even Du-pal, startled, momentarily forgot the aftereffects of the flute and flinched.

Ju-hee had hit him with all her strength—hard enough that Han-su, equally startled, had to grab Hyeon-seok and keep him upright.

"Ah, seriously...."

Su-myeon was curious about what sort of history the two shared, but now wasn't the time.

If anything, it was fortunate that the absurd scene had jolted everyone fully awake for the moment.

Su-myeon practically dragged them along, trying to put as much distance as possible between the group and the parade procession slowly approaching from afar.

But they were already close enough that avoiding the parade entirely was impossible.

BWOOO.

A deep, rough sound rolled through the air, like the call of a horn.

Countless other instruments mingled behind it, yet all of them sounded muffled, as though heard from underwater.

Only the flute remained unnaturally clear amid the cacophony.

A cloying melody that seemed to promise freedom from every burden and every pain.

The sound lingered in Su-myeon's ears.

Before he knew it, he was listening.

If he could just let go of all this suffering and hardship and be free....

"There's still some distance to the exit! Don't focus on that sound!"

Su-myeon shouted as much to steady himself as to warn the others, his attention repeatedly drifting back toward the melody.

But sound was viciously difficult to escape.

Avoiding it completely until they reached the exit was physically impossible.

Already, the Pied Piper's enormous figure could be seen between the rides and buildings.

He stood at least three times taller than an ordinary human, an enormous, crudely made flute pressed to his mouth.

His skin was a deathly pale blue, and a dark crimson robe hung from his massive frame.

"Mr. Su-myeon. At this rate, we will be caught."

Han-su stated the grim prediction with complete certainty.

Su-myeon couldn't deny it.

"Then I'll have to do something."

With that, Su-myeon raised his Heartphone and opened his Inventory.

It might not rival the flute's range, but Su-myeon had a weapon of his own that was effective from a considerable distance.

Faced with the complicated situation, he chose the simplest and most physically certain solution.

"If I smash the flute to pieces, he won't be able to play it."

Su-myeon pulled his K2 rifle from the Inventory.

He still had around twenty rounds left.

With such an enormous target in front of him, there was no reason to hesitate.

Su-myeon immediately took aim.

BANG! BANG!

Gunshots cracked through the air, accompanied by fierce bursts of gunpowder.

At the end of those shots, the enormous flute—and the Pied Piper's fingers wrapped around it—were punched through.

Pitch-black blood streamed from the gigantic hand.

FWEE.

Instead of a clear note, air hissed uselessly through the damaged flute.

The Pied Piper had drawn steadily closer along with the parade procession, and his appearance was now clearly visible.

He was mounted atop an enormous parade float.

The gigantic figure bent his head almost ninety degrees, as though displeased by the interruption.

With the playing halted, even if only for a moment, Su-myeon didn't stop.

BANG!

He fired one more shot to make absolutely certain.

The bullet struck true.

Half of the enormous flute snapped off and fell away.

As though taking a moment to assess what had happened, the Pied Piper stared down at his own hand.

The broken flute.

The fingers streaming with blood.

Once the creature seemed to grasp its condition, it slowly rose to its feet.

CRASH—!

The enraged Pied Piper planted his feet with a heavy impact and stood.

At first glance, the float beneath him appeared white.

But that whiteness came from what it was made of.

As the Pied Piper rose, he violently crushed down on the structure, revealing that the entire float was built from bleached bones.

Between the shattered bones, organs were exposed, throbbing like those of a living creature.

Was that thing also some corrupted living being, like the wax humans?

The thought crossed Su-myeon's mind, but he had no desire whatsoever to learn the answer.

"M-Mr. Su-myeon!"

"Let's just run for now!"

For the moment, the flute had stopped.

The others urged Su-myeon to run for the exit again.

But Su-myeon calmly raised his rifle once more.

He didn't believe for a second that he, a slow runner, could outrun that giant once it broke into a full sprint.

"Run on ahead!"

After telling the others to go first, Su-myeon adjusted his stance again.

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

The ground shook heavily with every step.

Aiming at the Pied Piper as it charged directly toward him was comparatively easy.

Two more gunshots rang out.

BANG! BANG!

Both bullets struck squarely in its eyes.

The Pied Piper unleashed a monstrous shriek.

The indescribable scream tore from its throat as blood poured like tears from its ruined eyes, sending tremors through Su-myeon's entire body.

"H-Hurry!"

Only after confirming that the Pied Piper had collapsed with a monstrous shriek did Su-myeon turn at his companions' frantic urging.

CLATTER—

Just then, something caught against Su-myeon's foot as he turned.

They weren't spent shell casings.

A dozen or so familiar Rose Coins lay scattered across the ground.

The instant he saw them, Su-myeon didn't hesitate.

Almost reflexively, he dropped into a crouch and swept up a fistful of coins—as many as one hand could hold.

"Mr. Su-myeon!"

"Hurry!"

Following the shouts of those already running ahead, Su-myeon kicked off the ground like a sprinter launching from the blocks.

The exit soon came into view.

But it was much farther away than he had expected.

His breath rose into his throat, and his lungs felt ready to burst at any moment.

It was too far to sprint the entire distance like this.

Forget escaping the Pied Piper—Su-myeon could barely even catch up with the people he'd told to run ahead.

<Little Mermaid's Breath>

Breathe freely anywhere, even underwater.

Su-myeon popped the blue candy Du-pal had pulled from the capsule machine into his mouth.

In an instant, his breathing became effortless, and running grew much easier.

His legs, pushed nearly to their limit, were still trembling slightly, of course.

But with his breathing alone freed from strain, the sprint became far more bearable.

***

There was no one named Shin Hyeon-seok among the people holding the title of Executive Director within Shinseong Group.

In particular, the position of Executive Director at Shuin, the cosmetics affiliate, was officially listed as vacant.

"How is that even possible?"

Hwi-yeon asked the subordinate who had relayed the information.

The staff member tilted his head as well, equally puzzled, and answered uncertainly.

"Well, the thing is... it looks strange to me too."

Shinseong was one of the country's largest conglomerates, with only a handful of peers on the same level.

Moreover, Shinseong's cosmetics affiliate, Shuin, had achieved worldwide recognition and was a major company in its own right.

And yet the position of Executive Director at a company of that scale had supposedly been left completely vacant for years, without explanation?

"This isn't the kind of thing the shareholders would just sit quietly and accept, either...."

The current head of Shinseong Group was extremely old.

It was a time when not only Shinseong's second generation, but even members of its third generation, were fighting to expand their share of management authority however they could.

"An Executive Director position sitting vacant in the cosmetics division at a time like this... and no one touches it? That's far too strange, isn't it?"

The situation was deeply unnatural.

Hwi-yeon was beginning to think there was a growing chance that Young-cheol's claims were true.

In fact, it made more sense to assume the position had once belonged to someone—and that the person occupying it had simply vanished.

Because in a society as fiercely competitive as South Korea's, there was no conceivable reason for a seat like that to remain empty without cause.

"Check it one more time."

With an uneasy expression, the staff member picked up the receiver again.

He clearly had his own doubts, so another confirmation seemed necessary.

"Yes, about the matter I asked you earlier."

Lee Hwi-yeon.

She was an agent of South Korea's National Intelligence Service.

And not just any agent.

She held a section-chief-level position and was the youngest person in the NIS to lead a team of her own.

"......What? What did you say? No, but earlier......."

The team member who had been gathering information at her request shifted the receiver to his other hand, his expression turning troubled.