Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Work-Chapter 182
Light bloomed across the night garden of Flower Golden Resort.
Whoosh.
A single beam shot upward into the sky and burst in dazzling brilliance, cascading over the resort buildings like a waterfall of glittering light.
Wow!
Colorful flowers bloomed into glowing brilliance all around the garden, swaying as if dancing, blooming in staggered sequence. Even the luminous flowers held up by non-human guests lit up, drawing gasps of wonder.
So beautiful it was almost grotesque.
And soon, the resort building itself began to glow.
Light rose in vine-like patterns, climbing past the windows and terraces until it reached the rooftop and exploded into a shower of glowing pollen.
Letters sliced across the air.
FLOWER GOLDEN
At last, he had stepped forward.
The true owner of the resort.
The yellow mascot walked to the center of the garden with a crowd of other mascots, dancing with movements like a choreographed routine. With each step, the light danced along with them.
The cheerful theme park’s theme song played.
–♩♪♬♬♩♬♬♩♪♪
Simultaneously, variations of the same melody echoed faintly from all around.
Sounds drifting in from distant places.
“……”
Team leader of Hyunmu Team 3 glanced sideways with her eyes.
The red zone and the blue zone.
Ceremonies were underway in the other areas as well.
Fireworks over the blue zone, and then—
–Kya-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
The red zone parade.
Led by Magic Bunny, the agonizing, joyful, grotesque, and dazzling procession began from the Magic Palace at the center of the red zone, trailing behind a cacophony of music, screams, and cheers.
Though she couldn’t see the details from this distance, the team leader followed the path of the parade.
And realized, intuitively.
Its destination was here.
It hadn’t been yesterday. But they’d changed its route.
Once this ceremony ended, the parade would stop at the red gate in front of the garden.
And when business hours ended…
"They’ll probably spill in with the whole parade."
“…!”
"Ah, sorry~ didn’t mean to startle ya."
So the dolphin-masked employee had come to the same conclusion.
The team leader glanced quietly at the employee bowing to her and then gave a small nod.
She wasn’t the type to outwardly oppose a shady pharmaceutical company on principle alone.
And after what she’d just witnessed…
–I will
stay
–Nope.
–It’s fine
–Doesn’t seem fine to me.
Right before the event, the yellow mascot had moved all the employees from the garden to the front of the resort building.
As if protecting them from something.
Thanks to that, the employees now watched the illumination from a distance, about as far away as the resort building itself.
Yet seeing Hyunmu team agents gazing at the ceremony as if entranced made her understand just how bizarre this “mascot ceremony ritual” was.
And unless her eyes deceived her…
That dolphin employee had tried to help the mascot protect the employees to the very end.
‘……’
Young agents still ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) often equated the nature of an organization with the character of its individuals, but the real world wasn’t so simple.
The same applied to beings from ghost stories.
Which made it all the more frustrating…
‘Phew.’
She shook off her thoughts.
There was work to do.
And more importantly, it was time to act.
Waaaah!
As the illumination neared its climax, the yellow mascot stood at the center, his horns glowing with blazing golden light as flowers bloomed.
At that moment, the yellow mascot turned toward them and, as if perfectly staged, raised a paw and waved toward the distant watchers.
A will communicated without words.
Go. Now.
“Now!”
At that signal, the employees sprinted as if possessed.
Their destination: the gate leading to the blue zone.
And moments later—
The ground near the gate began to rumble and rise.
The illumination surged toward its peak.
Beneath the yellow mascot at the garden's center, light gathered and lifted him into the air.
A drumroll.
Ooooooh!
Light sprouted from the mascot’s horns, swaying like a massive tree that could cover the entire resort.
Breath-stealing blossoms bloomed.
And as the mascot raised his hand in time with the music’s climax—
Aaaaaah!
His name exploded into light in the sky, solidifying full recognition.
FLOWER GOLDEN.
The master of the yellow zone of the Cheerful Theme Park.
Everyone knew. It had been proclaimed to all.
Congratulations. He was now the complete mascot of this place.
And the yellow mascot received an overwhelming new sense.
‘…!’
He could now sense the entire yellow zone.
He could feel everything happening within his resort zone, could control every mascot as if it were himself, could perceive all the rules and ████ of the Cheerful Theme Park!
He was now the complete master of the zone. The mascot!
Aaaaah!
The instinctive euphoria magnified the spectacle of the illumination, and once again, golden flowers exploded across the entire garden as the ceremony came to its radiant end.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
But meanwhile—
From beyond the red gate, something else began to emerge.
The parade of madness.
The grotesque, overwhelming, dazzling procession led by Magic Bunny.
[The Great Magic Bunny!]
The red rabbit, the wagon, the giant face-shaped balloon, and the various mobile parade contraptions all halted before the gate, having completed their final sacrificial ritual.
And as if to challenge the illumination itself, their lights blazed madly—
Then went dark.
At the same time, the wave of brilliant illumination faded into the final rapture and quieted.
Ending.
What followed was…
–♩♪♬♬♩♬♬♩♪♪
The ending theme.
A warm variation of the theme song began to play.
Closing time was near.
["Attention guests: our theme park will be closing in ten minutes…."]
The garden fell into calm.
Guests who had gathered to enjoy the illumination began to scatter, moving quickly toward the exit gates.
In an instant, the zone returned to its peaceful, orderly bustle.
End of business hours.
The yellow mascots tidied the night garden, kindly guided the guests, and managed the resort’s facilities.
Beyond the dark red gate, no movement was seen.
The yellow mascots, lightly congratulating one another on today’s event, checked the lobby to ensure no guests remained.
Beyond the dark red gate, no movement was seen.
Before long, only a gentle glow through the lobby windows remained, casting a serene light on the quiet resort building. The yellow mascots standing inside waved to guests exiting through the gates.
Beyond the dark red gate, no movement was seen.
And then the lobby doors closed.
Thud.
“See you next time~”
…….
…….
…….
Beyond the dark red gate—
Dozens of red eyes began to emerge.
***
The Magic Bunny parade swarm crossed the gate as it was.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
The sound of bodies—both corpses of guests and something still living—being crushed beneath the wheels, used as a carpet so the wagons wouldn’t get caught on the gate. The gate turned red with blood.
The wagons rolled forward. From the music box device attached to the wheels, a quaint little melody chimed out. In rhythm with that tune, the ones wearing Magic Bunny suits staggered forward in a grotesque parade into the resort.
The mascot suits melted sluggishly.
No longer bound by the hour of business, the red mascots abandoned their forms to cross into another zone.
Creatures beyond the rules and regulations—no longer needed now that the park was closed.
Aaaaaah!
Bipedal red masses fused together like veins, forming a collective body. The parade, no longer hiding behind the illusion of a theme park, warped into something that couldn’t be disguised.
But the parade continued.
With the sound of the music box still echoing, they trampled across the yellow zone’s garden and surrounded the resort building in a massive parade-body swarm.
They moved in spirals, tightening slowly around the building.
Closer.
And closer.
Crushing inward.
The yellow mascots watching from inside the lobby took up defensive positions as they saw them.
They drew closer.
Aaaaah!
The lobby’s glass windows shattered as the parade surged into the resort building.
Hell broke loose.
Murderous rage and destructive madness spilled forth, unfiltered by mascot protocol. Dozens of yellow mascots were grabbed and slaughtered.
Some of the yellow mascots tried to fight back or gang up on lone attackers, sometimes managing to overwhelm a few—
But only for a moment.
They were quickly ripped apart like toys, stuffing flying, their bodies ceasing to function.
Mascots falling from rooftops, heads bursting, others nailed into the walk-in freezer.
Horrific. Brutal. Breath-stealing carnage.
Magic Bunny’s occupation.
Magic Bunny’s overwhelming power.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
From within that chaos, a single yellow mascot fled in a panic.
The one with the ornate horns.
The very mascot that led tonight’s illumination ceremony.
The original.
Kya-ha-ha-ha-ha!
Magic Bunny’s decorative fireworks exploded with laughter. The flame shot out and burned the fleeing mascot’s leg.
It fell. Crawling now.
The lead wagon of the parade charged down the narrow hall after it, bearing down like a beast.
Toward the facilities office.
Clack!
The yellow mascot slipped into a restricted space meant only for staff of the yellow zone, slamming the door shut just in time to block the wagon—
BANG!!
The gaudy decoration at the front of the massive wagon shredded the door and burst inside.
A brightly colored wagon, decked in string lights, once leading the parade.
The symbolic vehicle of Magic Bunny.
The huge red smiling face mounted on the front split open.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
Its eyes burst, its mouth cracked wide, powder burst into the air—and from within, finally, something slithered out.
Aaaaah!
The true body of Magic Bunny.
Something that had been consumed and digested by the red mascot.
A grotesque mass that had long lost all traces of its pre-mascot form spilled out from the wagon.
Attached here and there, like trophies or replacements, were various human body parts.
Countless eyes, ears, limbs.
Aaaaah!
It shuddered in delight as it approached the yellow mascot.
Slowly, slowly.
How joyous!
A hunt in the raw. Raw pleasure!
Revenge and release!
The thrill of theft!
The yellow mascot, leg crippled and leaking stuffing, could no longer run.
It could only look up—at something so terrible, so overwhelming—
And opened its mouth.
I di ot.
At that instant—
BOOM!!
With a deafening explosion, the ceiling of the facilities office caved in.
Whether the red mascot meant to devour the yellow mascot’s head didn’t matter. It wasn’t just the ceiling that collapsed.
KA-BOOM! CRASH-CRASH-CRASH!!
The resort blew apart.
Massive construction materials came crashing down onto the swarm of parade creatures chasing the yellow mascot.
Aaaaah!
A new kind of indiscriminate destruction.
But the blasts didn’t stop there.
The resort, crushed under its own weight and gravity, caved in on the first floor, collapsing downward.
Countless Magic Bunny masses were caught beneath, crushed to death.
Alongside the yellow mascots.
KA-BOOOOOM-BOOM-BOOM!!
Even the facilities office—where the largest Magic Bunny mass had emerged.
A slab of concrete and a twisted metal pipe slammed down onto the desk.
On that desk… lay a document.
I’ve decided to demolish the resort today.
Why?
Because I feel like it. Someone once advised me this resort was too modest. Seems the previous manager had no taste.
It’s better to blow it up and build something nicer from scratch.
Unfortunately, I had to refund tonight’s guests and kindly escort them to the exit.
During the mascot ceremony, I planted the explosives.
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Maybe I’ll blow it up tomorrow morning to generate some buzz…
Then again, I might just blow it tonight.
Doesn’t matter.
Because I’m the true owner of the yellow zone.
And—
Everything that was still in the resort at that moment…
Should be demolished together with it.
I’ve made that my will.
The resort was now completely destroyed and burning.
Along with everything inside.
