Chapter 30

Chapter 30 - Baekya Land - Attraction (1)

<Baekya Land Rules of Use>

[1. Receive a wristband at the gate before entering!]

All visitors are required to wear a wristband.

Please note that visitors are classified differently by color.

Yellow — Free Pass

Red — ■■ Arrivals

Blue — Permanent Pass

---

"There are rules popping up again."

Ju-hee confirmed the contents and spoke with a grave expression.

Baekya Land was an indoor theme park, not an outdoor one.

An interior enclosed by walls on all sides beneath a massive domed ceiling.

Hanging from the ceiling was an enormous light that mimicked the sun, befitting the name "Baekya"—the land of the midnight sun.

"Then we do as we're told."

As people filed in from the Exit 4 direction, staff appeared at the entrance.

The staff were all mascot-type employees wearing character suits.

Small black-eyed bears—one pink, one mint green.

Cute enough in concept, but the problem was that both colors had been combined into a single figure.

They looked as though someone had sliced a bear plush clean from crown to sole and stitched two different ones together.

One half pink, the other mint green—with faces on both sides of the head, making front and back indistinguishable.

And the seam joining the two halves was nothing but crude, haphazard stitch marks.

"......"

Normally, a mascot costume has a person inside performing ordinary movements.

But these mascots contorted their bodies to attend to visitors on both sides, with no distinction between front and back.

Meanwhile, the crowd arriving from Sadang Station all received blue wristbands on their wrists.

Ju-hee seemed to be scanning the crowd for Hyeon-seok's face, but there wasn't a single familiar one.

"So we give our tickets to those things and get wristbands, right......?"

Du-pal spoke in a tension-filled voice.

There was no avoiding it forever, so Su-myeon sent Han-su to the front.

"Yes. Everyone get yellow ones, and if they try to give you a different color, politely request an exchange."

The group was nervous at Su-myeon's instructions, but all of them received yellow wristbands without issue.

Just as relief was setting in,

"W-wait...!"

The last in line—Su-myeon—was offered a red wristband.

Su-myeon waved his hands frantically.

"I'd like a yellow free pass as well, please."

At Su-myeon's request, the mascot froze as if confused.

Then, with a series of bone-cracking pops, it wrenched its head around to the mint green face on the back—now also staring at Su-myeon.

It didn't stop there—the mascot called over every other mascot that had been fitting wristbands on the Exit 4 arrivals.

Suddenly surrounded by five enormous bear mascots, cold sweat trickled down Su-myeon's spine.

"......Please."

He had no idea why this was happening.

He tried not to provoke them, but the mascots in their character suits wouldn't budge.

Not a single word from any of them—just silent, staring pressure. Su-myeon was on the verge of deciding he needed to do something more when,

"Just do it~"

Cheshire, who had been quietly watching the scene unfold, spoke up.

Only then did the mascots exchange glances with each other before finally fastening a yellow wristband on Su-myeon's wrist.

It was resolved, somehow, but Su-myeon felt like years had been shaved off his life.

"Are you alright?"

"What happened?"

He barely managed to calm his pounding heart as he stepped inside, where Han-su and Ju-hee approached him with worried looks.

Su-myeon waved to indicate he was fine, then picked up Cheshire from his shoulder.

"What was that just now? Why do they listen to Cheshire?"

"Mm......"

But as always, Cheshire only tilted his head slowly at Su-myeon's question.

Whenever Cheshire did that, the answer was always the same.

"Too lazy to explain."

Su-myeon had neither the nerve nor the leisure to press further, so there was nothing more he could do.

Being grateful that they'd made it inside safely was the best he could manage.

"So now we just find that person in here?"

Seeing that Su-myeon seemed to have calmed down, Du-pal refocused on their objective.

With the free passes, they could return to the real world whenever they needed—all they had to do was head back out.

So it was time to concentrate on finding the person they were looking for and getting out.

"How about we try a lost-person announcement?"

At Su-myeon's words, the group turned to look at him.

It sounded like a joke, but Su-myeon's expression was dead serious.

***

<UTG: Baekya Land> was, by and large, an ordinary horror game.

The main content was experiencing Baekya Land alongside a player character who had come for a test-of-courage-style urban legend attraction.

There were multiple endings, but two were the most prominent.

The Normal Ending, where you used every attraction in Baekya Land and received a blue pass—becoming a permanent resident.

And the True Ending, where you uncovered the truth of this place and left before falling under its spell.

'I didn't know the visitors here were all people funneled in from Exit 4, though......'

Knowing both endings, Su-myeon could at least avoid the worst outcome.

He looked out at the hundreds of visitors filling the amusement park and felt a chill.

Most of them wandered Baekya Land with that same awkward gait.

Some had stopped in place entirely, frozen mid-pose like mannequins—preserved as the image of visitors enjoying the park.

"......They look just like wax figures."

That was Han-su's assessment after he'd reached out and touched the hand of a person standing there with a bright smile, clutching a helium balloon.

Most likely, all the people currently wandering this place would meet the same fate in the end.

Wax figures befitting an amusement park.

Freed from the busy, painful grind of real life, they would find freedom in the name of death.

"I want to shut off that goddamn flute first."

Du-pal muttered, irritated by the grating flute sound that rattled his skull.

Su-myeon agreed wholeheartedly.

If possible, it'd be great to do exactly that while they were here...

KNOCK KNOCK.

"Excuse me."

Su-myeon entered the Customer Service Center building and knocked on the office door.

The door swung open.

"Yes! How can I help you?"

The staff member who greeted them with a bright smile was a woman in a cute pink dress.

"......"

No—no, she wasn't.

Su-myeon had anticipated this from the game, but the rest of the group instinctively looked away.

Like the mascots, the staff inside the office all had the same front-and-back, two-people-fused-together form.

As if two people had been forced back-to-back and stitched together, the staff member's body had a front and a back that existed independently.

A woman in a pink dress and a man in mint green overalls.

The seam where they'd been joined—seemingly by wire, with merciless force—looked nothing like conjoined twins.

The stitching along their joined backs was swollen with puckered flesh and crusted over with dark, reddish scabs that reeked of decay.

"I've...... lost a member of my group. I'm here to file a missing-person report."

Seeing the real thing made it even more horrifying than the game, and Su-myeon's voice trembled slightly.

At his words, the woman's face broke into a smile.

"Oh my! What a shame."

The man's face on the other side beamed as well, chiming right in.

"You must be so worried! Just one moment, please!"

The double-sided fuss was disorienting, but Su-myeon managed a nod.

"Just fill out the description and details, and we'll make an announcement for you!"

With a cracking sound, the staff member twisted at the waist, and the mint-green-overalls side extended a form.

Unlike the mascots, the human-type staff were only fused at the back, so each side had its own arms and legs.

Four legs and four arms. Su-myeon took the form from the spider-like figure and handed it to Ju-hee.

"Let's start by letting him know we're looking for him."

There was a deliberate reason he'd chosen the announcement. This was the first objective.

A signal to Shin Hyeon-seok that someone had come for him.

Even if he lacked physical freedom, if his sense of self remained, it could give him time to prepare himself.

Ju-hee began filling out his information with a tense expression.

Meanwhile, Su-myeon scanned the interior of the Customer Service Center.

Matching the scenery outside, every piece of equipment inside was dated enough to suit the 90s.

"Um, will this...... be enough......?"

Ju-hee carefully held out the completed form, trembling as she handed it to the staff member.

The spider-human scurried over to Ju-hee on four legs with a rapid patter of steps.

The body looked like it should be unwieldy, but it moved with surprising ease, as if long accustomed to it.

"Yes! We'll make the announcement right away!"

The cheerful woman's hand passed the form to the man's hand on the other side.

Another burst of rapid four-legged steps carried the staff member to the broadcasting equipment on one end.

CLICK.

First, the music that had been playing on loop was switched off.

Finally, the maddening flute intertwined with the theme song—the one that had been giving them all headaches—stopped.

"The tape."

Han-su pointed at the tape inserted in the machine.

True to the outdated system, the background music had been playing from a tape.

If that was gone, they wouldn't be able to play that bizarre sound anymore.

"A brief announcement from Baekya Land, where the sun never sets."

Meanwhile, the staff member's cheerful voice launched into the broadcast.

But on the back of the man speaking into the microphone, the woman's form—fused to him—watched the group with a broad smile.

To steal the tape while avoiding that gaze,

'There's only one way.'

Su-myeon walked right up beside the spider-human staff member, who was in the middle of broadcasting.

The instant the eyes on both sides of the staff member turned toward Su-myeon—

"Oh, please! Find him quick! Hurry!"

Du-pal bellowed at the top of his lungs.

Startled, the man on the microphone clutched it tightly and blocked the sound from going through.

The woman on the back looked at Du-pal in alarm and gestured frantically.

"Sir......! Please don't worry so much......!"

"Ah, uh...... Ahem. We are currently looking for a missing person......!"

The male side stammered in confusion and resumed the broadcast.

While both sides of the staff floundered, Su-myeon quietly pressed the eject button on the tape player.

"We are looking for Shin Hyeon-seok, age 30, wearing a suit. If anyone has this person in their care, please come to the Customer Service Center immediately."

"Oh, I'm worried sick...!"

"S-sir......!"

The male staff member reading the description from the form, and the female side trying to rein in the loudmouthed Du-pal.

Grotesque appearance aside, it was a display of the woes of the service industry.

Offering a moment of silent tribute to the spider-human—being two and yet one—Su-myeon slipped a small pebble into the tape player and closed it.

'If it plays like this, the machine will break.'

Even if they had spare tapes, at least no one would have to hear that twisted sound anymore.

Han-su and Ju-hee, who had been ready to create a diversion themselves if needed, quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

"We'll keep searching outside and come back."

"If he shows up, could you make another announcement for us?"

Acting as naturally as possible—like ordinary visitors to an ordinary theme park.

The spider-human staff member responded warmly to their composed behavior.

"Of course!"

"We're sorry you're going through this, but please try to enjoy Baekya Land!"

After thanking the relentlessly smiling spider-human one more time, the group carefully slipped out of the Customer Service Center.

As inconspicuously as possible.

Their cautious steps grew faster the further they got from the center.

By the time that cautious walk had turned into a run, the cheerful background music of the theme park started up again.

FWEE— EE.

But the sound soon began to skip and stutter.

SCREEEEEE.

And with an ear-piercing screech, it stopped completely.