Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work-Chapter 179
Everything is red.
It’s because of the many red things that pour in from the gate connecting to the forest.
The ones who followed the Magic Bunny’s parade.
-♩♪♬♬♩♬♬♩♪♪
Hahahahaha!
They’re carrying snack items made from their own ribs, headbands decorated with their own plucked-out eyes, and balloons made from their former family’s innards.
The unlucky people who have gone mad due to the horrific show happening in the Magic Bunny’s domain and its brutal and terrible demands.
Now, those who have turned into grotesque creatures in the red zone are flooding into the yellow zone recklessly.
And they shout.
“They’re giving out mask awards, they’re giving out mask awards!”
“I wish I could be like them.”
“Have fun in the Magic Bunny Zone! I’m happy! I said I’m happy! Please! I’m happy!”
…The most dangerous things that had been blocked to keep them from entering the resort were finally here.
Dozens, hundreds of these creatures.
They flood in.
‘No.’
Go back.
I quickly pushed the staff back and gathered the basic mascots near the gate.
‘We’ll block it.’
We just need to control them somehow and proceed with the illumination as originally planned…
“Yellow mascot!”
“That’s it!”
“Hahahahahaha!! Hahahahahahaha!!!”
Terrifying guests with grotesque shapes rushed toward the Flower Golden mascots.
‘…!!’
I raised my head.
Beyond the incoming monstrous crowd, the red Magic Bunny at the gate lifts a sign.
Product Event
Tear the flesh from the Yellow Mascot!
1st place: Great Magic Bunny
2nd place: Great Magic Bunny
3rd place: Great Magic Bunny
Ah.
“Yellow!!”
The red guests cling to the basic mascots, clawing at them with their bare hands, digging into their flesh with items branded with the Magic Bunny logo.
The eyes of the mascot costumes are gouged out.
They’re injured.
The horns are torn off, the cotton is burst, and the felt organs inside are shredded.
The yellow mascots are being torn apart, struggling miserably. No… I am being torn apart!!
“I tore it off!”
“Hahahahahaha!”
“Look, it’s sparkling?? Hehehehehe!”
These rude, pathetic, and vulgar addicts from the red zone, with not a single penny to their names, dared to do this in my zone!
How could they still think they’re in the red zone and commit such disgusting acts? This is unacceptable! Absolutely!! NEVER!!
You shall...
Die.
The red guests raise their hands to strangle themselves.
It’s almost time for the ceremony, so don’t do anything to dirty the garden with the red zone’s actions, and don’t even think about getting swallowed by me to become fertilizer for the resort.
Die.
These rude trash have no right to be guests at my resort.
I won’t even send them back to the red zone.
Even if it takes a little time, suffocation would be the cleanest and most pleasant way.
It’s like watching an army of ants invade the office, eating away at documents and supplies on their own.
My anger swelled, my vision going a sharp shade of yellow. No, it wasn’t just anger, it was the kind of rejection you feel when something ridiculously unfair happens.
So...
Die.
The mutants in the red zone shed tears of blood and bow their heads to the ground. The existing resort guests watch the peaceful rhythm with curiosity.
Right. It would make for a more successful ceremony if we use them as entertainment before the illumination…
“Dear Mascot.”
...
“Dear Mascot.”
Huh?
I turned my head.
A staff member with a lizard mask was looking at me.
What did they just call me?
In a soft, almost inaudible voice, they leaned in to whisper.
“Do you remember your name?”
...
So...
Kim
“Don’t say it.”
Ah.
I shut my mouth.
It’s not good to speak your real name in a ghost story.
And I... Well, my name is...
...
‘Kim Soleum.’
Yeah. That’s it.
The yellow mascot I’m wearing is just a mask. Flower Golden is a made-up name, and I’m disguised as a grotesque entity.
There’s something real inside.
I am a human.
‘......’
That’s it.
“Huh!”
The red zone guest who had been strangling himself let go of his hands.
“Sniff...”
“If we win the prize, please return our ■■, please.”
They burst into spasms of laughter or tears, crawling on the floor, desperately running toward the yellow mascot, and I said grimly.
I...
Whether the yellow mascots are torn apart or not, I push them toward the gate.
“Ahhhhh!”
By force, those who were already abnormal to begin with get pushed toward the gate.
Looking at the broken pieces of yellow mascots scattered across the floor, Senior Lee quietly spoke.
“Should we chase them?”
I shook my head.
My heart pounded fiercely, but at the same time, it froze cold.
‘Just now.’
What was I about to do?
‘It’s becoming a fairy tale.’
It was dangerous.
I had to leave. Quickly.
Once the staff’s safety was secured, we had to leave...
‘The ceremony!’
I had to start the ritual!
I anxiously looked at the gate.
...But the more horrific thing came after I sent those guests who had flooded in beyond the gate.
“Saah…”
The Magic Bunny kindly welcomed those who returned through the gate with open arms.
And.
“Ugh.”
It pulls off their heads.
"...!!"
It pulls out their insides and twists their waists.
Like loading passengers onto an attraction, like a playful show, the guests are killed one by one as they come through the gate.
“Ugh!”
"...!"
The voices of the Disaster Management Bureau agents tending to the civilians could be heard in the back. Even the Flower Golden staff, who had become almost immune to the horrific scenes, were temporarily frozen in shock.
Even seeing that, they threw themselves toward the gate.
“Give me the prize!”
“I tore this off, please, give me the prize!”
And the ‘prize’ is given.
Creek
The lifeless bodies of the dead turn into rough Magic Bunny mascots like toy figures.
Right.
The lost or dead in the theme park are recycled into mascot bodies.
So, inevitably, there are... a lot of mascots in the red zone.
‘......’
The chilling realization struck.
In the procession of death, where they die and become mascots at the playful gestures of the Magic Bunny, I stopped even pushing the guests toward the gate with the basic mascots, but the red zone guests didn’t stop.
They continued to cling to the yellow mascots, tearing at their flesh, and threw themselves at the gate.
“Ahhh!”
The gate had already turned into a sight no one could look at with open eyes.
And it doesn’t end there.
The Magic Bunny uses a long wand-like toy goods to jab at those guests who haven’t yet crossed the gate.
"...!"
“Stop it, you disgusting...!”
Thud.
The red guest’s neck snaps and falls to the garden.
In the yellow zone,
They became corpses.
But it was the Magic Bunny that thoroughly contaminated them, and it was the Magic Bunny that killed and disposed of them.
Their form twisted.
"...!!"
“Eek, the... red mascot...!”
The Magic Bunny mascot, shedding its skin from the corpse, rises up from the yellow zone.
And it madly approaches me, the staff.
“Ahhh!!”
But the mascot cannot cross to another zone.
Thud.
The Magic Bunny mascot, which had been walking toward me, staggered as if the wind was slowly deflating a balloon, before collapsing to the ground and freezing.
“......”
“W-... It stopped...”
But the red mascot doesn’t stop its actions.
The playful rabbit figures smack the heads of the unfortunate ones.
“Ah! Aahhh!”
“The great Magic Bunn…”
The ones who died at the gate turned into Magic Bunnies, and while running toward the gate, they collapsed and froze.
An overwhelming waste.
An overwhelming cruelty.
...Soon, dozens of red mascot mutants’ bodies piled up in the resort garden.
The staff, unable to even breathe, stood frozen, watching the scene....
“......”
“......”
I raised my head and looked beyond the gate at the Magic Bunny.
And I realized.
This performance is a threat.
It’s meant to make me angry or terrified, provoking an overreaction, and turning what’s about to happen into something more enjoyable.
Fun!
Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun...
Beyond the gate, the Magic Bunnies are clapping.
Hahahahaha!
Some of the guests in my zone are laughing too.
...They’re laughing?
Are they laughing after seeing this scene? Even though they might miss the dazzling illumination, these people must be rude too!
Silence.
The guests closed their mouths.
The Magic Bunnies, wanting to see more of this, leaned forward from the gate, their heads poking through.
‘Shut up.’
I threw a Magic Bunny mascot lying here toward them with great force.
Thud!
The Magic Bunnies hit their heads and fell backward.
“Gasp!”
At that moment...
Whoosh.
The red mascots who hadn't been hit by the blows all turned their heads and stared at me intently.
This chapter is updat𝓮d by freēnovelkiss.com.
Hahahahahaha
Like they were about to kill me.
Hahahahahahaha
They stood still.
...A chilling fear crept up my spine. Still, I felt like I could survive for a bit longer.
Every time they try to do what they did earlier, this should happen...
“Dear Mascot.”
Even if they don’t call me, I remember that it was my old name.
“Dear Mascot.”
I know!
I turned to look at the one who called me.
It was Assistant Manager Lee Jaeheun.
“It seems you need some help.”
But who can help me?
...Wait a minute.
......?
Could it be...
We’re talking about that button-like item, the emergency escape item I used when that reptilian alien controlled my body? The one that had been really useful before?
It certainly had been useful. But I can’t use it right now. Plus, I don’t have money, so I couldn’t access the space shopping mall…
Button
Gone.
“I see.”
Assistant Manager Lee Jaeheun looked at me without showing any emotion.
“Think about this conversation again after the business hours have ended.”
......?
“When business ends, you should also rest. Have you rested so far?”
No.
“Today, take off the mascot costume and rest.”
I can’t.
After the ceremony ends safely today, I’ll come out and set up the boundary. The red mascots will definitely try something else.
‘...I could die.’
No, it would be a massacre.
The mascot that clearly killed other mascots was an attraction-themed mascot.
They probably know how to kill the mascots, and they will try to execute it.
I can't take it off.
“You can take it off.”
Assistant Manager Lee Jaeheun’s dry voice was heard.
“When the theme park operation ends, your work hours will also be over. At that point, it’s okay to rest in your true identity instead of as a mascot.”
That’s not the problem...
Wait.
Wait, wait.
Did I just hear something strange?
‘So, after the theme park closes, I’ll be able to exist without being a mascot...?’
......!!
I remembered.
The guests who were banging on the lobby door after they couldn’t get back into the resort after the theme park closed.
Let us in!!!
People who fled in fear, disappearing into the night. Those who entered the theme park through the board game and couldn’t leave until closing time, eventually disappearing.
...Unless they were in a special situation like Assistant Manager Lee Jaeheun.
‘And Assistant Manager Lee Jaeheun even said himself.’
“When business ends, there was some weird sound from the theme park, but that crazy rabbit still chased me in the forest, though it was a bit slower.”
If the sound was something typical for the theme park, he wouldn’t have called it "weird."
That sound... was something that couldn’t be heard in a normal theme park.
In other words...
It was a sound that didn’t belong in a theme park.
And after the business hours, that noise came from the red zone, where only the Magic Bunny mascots existed, with no other self-aware employees.
It was so obvious...
‘......’
I looked at the red mascot in the rabbit costume beyond the gate.
What if.
What if, after the theme park closed, the mascot could walk around without its costume?
If Assistant Manager Lee Jaeheun’s explanation was correct.
The reason that mascot could chase after Lee Jaeheun in the forest was not only because it wasn’t in another mascot's zone but also...
What if it wasn’t wearing its mascot costume?
If it was considered non-mascot and thus allowed to cross to another zone?
But it couldn’t have taken enough time to traverse that forest in just one night, so it had to expand its territory to get there.
‘......’
No.
I realized.
How the Magic Bunny could kill the other mascots.
It kills after the theme park closes.
Then, today, with a gate leading straight to the red zone right in front of the resort...
‘...!!’
“Mascot!”
I started frantically tidying up the garden.
‘I need to start the ceremony right away.’
I had to open the third zone and escape before the theme park closed.
Today.
“Yes?”
Today, I pointed to the gate beyond.
Once it closes,
You’ll cross over.
“…!!”
Once it closes, they’ll attack.
Instead of asking how it’s possible, the staff turned pale.
They had already witnessed the crazy acts of the Magic Bunny.
“So, then...”
“Wait a minute, we just have to do the ceremony, right? Then we can escape?”
I nodded.
Disaster management agents rushed in and started cleaning the garden.
I assigned tasks to the other staff members.
My nerves were fraying, and I was anxious.
It felt like listening to a countdown to a nuclear explosion.
‘No.’
Other information... Right. Maybe I could hear something that might help.
I sent one of the basic mascots toward the gate in the direction of the Blue Dragon.
I’d bet they would help.
But...
‘...Good friends are over.’
There’s no time to get them.
If we successfully escape today, the purpose of coming here will have been unfulfilled.
And... I couldn’t find any other way to pull the resurrected staff member from the ghost story out alive.
......
I need help...
“What’s wrong?”
...!
I turned my head. Assistant Manager Lee Jaeheun, busy with cleaning, noticed me staring at the Magic Bunny gate and, after looking closely, gently touched his chin.
“Is there something you need from the
[N O V E L I G H T]
red zone over there? You’ve been staring at it so much.”
!!
“Oh, got it. In that case...”
Assistant Manager Lee Jaeheun whispered.
“Should I go get it for you?”
What?
“While you’re doing the ceremony, I’m probably the fastest person here with working legs! I’m not as strong as Assistant Manager Doma, but I’m smarter!”
And he glanced at the gate.
“I think I figured out how that crazy mascot gets here...”
......
I opened my mouth.
It's okay.
I couldn’t send them to a place where they’d die horribly, believing in such a slim chance.
Let’s just proceed quickly, as planned.
“Okay.”
I started cleaning up the already torn-up garden once more.
‘There’s no time.’
Hurry, faster.
The ceremony is the event just before closing time, and of course, I had prepared it according to that time, so there isn’t much time left before the closing.
It seemed like the announcement would come soon.
-♩♪♬♬♩♬♬♩♪♪
Hahahahaha!
The staff and I frantically cleared the surroundings.
Dozens of Magic Bunnies watched us from beyond the gate, but they didn’t act crazy like before.
Still, the tense atmosphere remained.
I sent the staff to give gifts to the guests and personally cleaned up the chaos near the gate with the basic mascots.
...
The Magic Bunnies beyond the gate watched me clean.
‘Don’t show it.’
If they think I’m an easy target, they’ll enjoy it even more. I quickly cleaned up the gruesome blood and flesh and backed away.
‘Is there still time?’
-♩♪♬♬♩♬♬♩♪♪
Hahahahaha!
Here’s fine, and there’s fine.
We’re in a state where we can do the illumination.
I nervously scanned the garden. The only thing left were the Magic Bunny mascots who had lost their function, looking like discarded toys.
Let’s clean up.
The basic mascots grabbed the rabbit costume mascots and moved them.
‘I’d rather just turn them into my mascots.’
But that doesn’t seem possible.
It looks like this is something unique to the Magic Bunny, derived from the red zone.
‘A souvenir, maybe.’
Disgusting, but it seemed that way.
‘......’
Wait, wait!
I stopped in my tracks.
And looked down at the Magic Bunny mascot costume I was holding.
‘Souvenir.’
It was made using a guest’s corpse, with the appearance of a mascot. Soft fur and cotton-filled stuffed toys, cute appearances, and a commemorative item only found in theme parks.
There was another item that perfectly matched this description.
‘...Good friends!’
♩-♪♬♬♩♬♬♩♪♪
So, could it be that a mascot with its functions stopped could essentially be treated the same as a good friend...?
We announce! Our theme park is about to close soon~
...!!
“Mascot!”
I had to decide.
If the ceremony wasn’t completed successfully and we hit the closing time, it would be the end.
And just in case, right now... we needed one more move.
That’s someone who knows the physiology of the ghost story well and has various abilities, while also being on our side.
‘......’
To all our guests, please continue to enjoy our delightful theme park until the end!
I clenched my teeth and made the decision.
“Mascot...?”
I grabbed a Magic Bunny mascot and ran frantically into the resort.
And...
One hour until closing!
I began drawing the ritual summoning circle for the good friend.
