Breaking out in a cold sweat, I stared at the bracelet.
[◎ (A Fun) Fantasy Land Membership Pass ◎]
But the letters that had changed from ride ticket to membership pass did not change back, and neither did the strangely more ornate, luxurious material.
R-right....
It was an unexpected situation, but even so, what I had to do had not changed.
Scan the bracelet at the gate and leave.
'Membership pass or not, I just never have to come back.'
"Thank you."
I swallowed.
"Um... I'd like to go home now as well."
The blue mascot tilted its head slightly to the side.
I tried to step up to the gate device and scan the bracelet.
But the mascot blocked me.
'Please.'
Why are you doing this.
I felt like crying.
"I'm not as good a child as you seem to think...."
G o o d
c h i l d
t h a t ' s
r i g h t
The Blue Dragon mascot's claw gently, ever so gently, covered my bracelet.
And then its voice rang out.
To one who knows honor,
it is precious.
...!!
"Cough."
A cough burst out of my mouth.
It was blood.
'Wh-what just....'
Could it be... because it changed from a ride ticket to a membership pass instead?
The Blue Dragon mascot, seemingly flustered when I coughed up blood, fidgeted for a moment, then pulled something out from its bosom and held it out.
[Blue Soda Churros]
It seemed to be a snack sold inside this theme park.
"...Thank you for the food."
Yes. I absolutely was not going to eat it.
"But I'd like to eat it after I get home."
P l a y
m o r e
The mascot was firm.
How firm?
It turned off the gate device.
"...!!"
Pik. At the north exit, the lights went out, and the shutter came down.
I stared blankly at it.
It was going this far?
I truly could not grasp what kind of situation this was anymore.
But I did not do anything stupid like pressing the issue.
'If I do, I might end up like the researcher.'
I wanted to avoid that at all costs.
For now, for now... it wasn't immediately dangerous enough in here to kill me, so I needed to look for an alternative.
I stepped back from the gate.
The Blue Dragon mascot kept watching me as I ran away....
"This is driving me insane."
I came into the water park's locker room and sank down to the floor.
I was scared to death.
"What even is this."
To sum it up, the mascot suddenly called me a "good child," handed me a membership pass, and lowered the gate shutter.
In other words, I was trapped here.
"..."
Trapped.
No, before that, what even was this good child thing.
The researcher was a bad child, and I was a good child....
Ah.
'...Is it because I saved team members a few times!'
Right. That was the most plausible reason.
By sheer circumstance, I had looked after people in danger a few times... so was this my reward, letting me play in the theme park forever?
'This is insane....'
This was inside a B-rank darkness.
No matter how friendly and relatively safe that mascot seemed, it meant I had no idea what danger or bizarre lunacy might break out, when or where.
Besides—
'...There isn't even a single exploration record of anyone staying more than twenty-four hours.'
The moment it passed twenty-four hours, everyone either died or went missing.
If I interpreted it in the absolute best possible way, maybe that was only because ride tickets were one-day passes, and as a membership-pass holder I might be okay—but the important part was that I had absolutely no information.
'Damn it.'
Feeling like I wanted to bite my tongue, I forced my mind to work.
Maybe because of the exhaustion from the past few hours, my thoughts were turning sluggishly....
'What can I even do?'
It wasn't as if I could fight the mascot and win.
And I couldn't sneak in and turn the gate device back on.
'I used up all my coins earlier.'
Seeing the Group Y rookie, Mr. Jang Heowoon, go down, I had panicked and thrown whatever I could grab. That had been a blunder. I pressed my fingers to my eyelids.
And it wasn't as if I had a button that could contact the outside, so I couldn't expect help from Group D either.
'The items I have are....'
A Smile Sticker? No, that wasn't something to use in a situation where the problem was already that its favorability was too high.
The x2 Potion and the 0.5x Cookie were the same. Those only meant something if there was another effect to create synergy with.
'Is there really nothing?'
The more I thought, the more it felt like sinking into a swamp.
And then, just as I was stagnating—
A light sparkled above my head.
[Darkness Exploration Record Real Goods Box]
-New goods usage permission unlocked! (!)
"...!!"
The black memo pad, the goods box.
'Please!'
Without even breathing, I pressed it immediately.
Was it a lifeline? No, anything would do. I needed even the smallest hint, anything at all....
Thud.
A piece of goods dropped out.
'...!'
I picked up the transparently plastic-wrapped item.
It was small enough to fit in my palm, fluffy—
a plush doll.
---------------------=
Darkness Exploration Record / Baekilmong Co., Ltd.
/ ■■■■■
Good Friend
Your cute little animal doll. It will always go with you and protect you.
Always.
-'A Fun Theme Park Souvenir Shop'
Item description on the packaging
---------------------=
Ah.
I recalled the writing on the board game box.
-Be the fastest team to ride three fantasy attractions together and receive a prize!
The team that rode the three attractions first in A Fun Theme Park could simply take one item of their choice from the souvenir shop as a prize.
'Come to think of it, the senior staff said earlier that they got a prize too.'
And of course, in the souvenir shop inside a Ghost Story theme park, eerie and bizarre items were not uncommon.
'There was even an exploration record that separately sorted only the list of prizes people had taken....'
And this was one of the most famous items among them.
Good Friend
In the original work, it had been a plush doll small enough to fit into a young child's arms, but once it was turned into goods, it had been reborn as a small keyring doll, now sitting in my hand.
'So the permission to use these goods was for users of A Fun Theme Park.'
If you weren't someone who had personally visited the theme park, it was nothing more than a plush doll with no function at all. But since I had used up my ride ticket, it seemed I had gained permission.
And the ability of this plush doll was—
---------------------=
A bizarre object that invites someone from the reverse side world and lets part of their mind dwell inside the doll, turning them into your friend.
It rarely appears in the souvenir shop of .
For detailed invitation records, see below.
---------------------=
This was it.
"..."
Normally, I would have thought it through very carefully and tried only after putting in every safety measure I could manage.
Inviting someone from the reverse side world sounded exactly like the perfect setup for the opening of a creepy Ghost Story.
But right now, I had neither the time nor the luxury for that.
'Let's do it.'
Because right now, I desperately needed advice from someone who understood how Ghost Stories worked.
For the first time in a while, I took out my smartphone fitted with the memorial grip tok and opened the Good Friend tab in
The required materials were as follows.
---------------------=
· Materials needed for the invitation
Matches (or a lighter)
100 ml of water
A spoonful of salt
A coin (clean)
An item related to your friend
---------------------=
And a quiet space.
'Which makes this locker room perfect.'
Outside, it was noisy with water sounds and music, so this was probably the best place.
And as for the lighter, water, and salt, I could probably somehow get those inside this theme park. Whether I stole them from a shop or asked for them.
The problem was the next two.
A coin (clean)
An item related to your friend
I had used up all my coins, so I had none.
And as for an item related to your friend... honestly, that was there for the fun of the Ghost Story. If you put in a storybook, for example, a monster based on that fairy tale motif would come.
'What can I do that would be safest?'
No, more than that, I felt reluctant to offer up something from this theme park as an item related to the friend.
Wasn't this place itself already a Ghost Story?
"..."
In the end, after thinking it over, I settled on two substitute items.
Hoping this substitution would work.
And a little while later—
"Whew."
I set down the torch and salt I had obtained on the floor in the farthest corner of the locker room.
'That was creepy.'
I had gotten them all from a snack truck. When I saw they were selling a menu item called Roasted Marshmallows, I took a chance—and sure enough, they had both.
'...And when it saw the membership pass, it gave them to me for free.'
Rather than making me happy, that only made it feel even more ominous.
I wiped my mouth, then opened my smartphone again.
I had to start quickly.
---------------------=
· Invitation ritual
On a smooth floor, dip your finger in water and draw the enclosed hexagram pattern. Place Good Friend in the exact center of the hexagram. Place the coin on Good Friend's belly. At this time, there must not be any water left on your fingers. Hold a spoonful of salt in your mouth, and burn the item related to your friend in fire. When Good Friend begins to speak, swallow the salt and kindly return the greeting!
If the coin has disappeared, it is a success! You have met a dependable friend. Please treasure them and keep them with you always!
※If the salt does not go down, or develops a strange taste,
or turns to ash, or blood appears,
run away.
---------------------=
"Whew."
First, I drew the exact same hexagram on the marble locker-room floor.
It was a little intricate, but not difficult.
'...It's coming to me strangely vividly.'
But the finished hexagram was excessively smooth, its surface gleaming without a single streak where the water had jumped.
After completely drying the water from my fingers on the hem of my clothes, I picked up the Good Friend keyring with trembling hands and placed it in the exact center of the hexagram.
'Why did it have to be a rabbit doll.'
It felt a little unpleasant, but remembering that when I bought it at the pop-up store, I had definitely thought, Damn, this little thing is cute, made me feel slightly better.
And as for the coin....
'This.'
I placed one of the items I had, Silver Coin Snake, on top of it.
'This definitely still counts as a coin... right.'
I had figured that instead of trying to obtain one in this Ghost Story, an item from the alien shop in the real world would probably be safer.
Considering the price range, it seemed like quite a valuable item, so maybe it would even produce a better effect—that was how I was consoling myself.
And then, with salt in my mouth, the last thing.
'An item related to your friend.'
This also absolutely had to be something that did not belong to this Ghost Story.
That something was... me.
"..."
I took off my necktie and held it.
'If it's an item that belongs to me, then it definitely isn't part of this place.'
A friend related to a necktie? I didn't know who that would be, but it had to be better than a kitchen knife or something.
I turned on the torch.
Then brought it to the tip of the tie.
Fwoosh.
The flames took with absurd speed, wavering as they cast shadows over the plush doll atop the hexagram.
The shadow swayed.
Sway.
Sway.
At some point, it had grown dark all around me.
All I could see was the flame devouring my necktie, the hexagram reflecting that light, and the plush doll in its center.
Sway.
Sway.
My dizzy mind did not melt away.
Instead, the salt in my mouth melted down with a sharp briny taste, making my tongue sting.
And in the middle of that—
Sway.
Sway.
The mouth of Good Friend, hugging the coin, opened.
-Behold!
-I am the owner of a million faces, the lord of chaos, the pinnacle of madness, the dream of pleasure and amusement, the instigator of war, the father of science, the lowly four-legged beast,
...!!
It was too much.
It felt like my head had turned into mud.
I wanted to cover my ears, but I had no free hands. I was holding the tie and the torch!
What was this?
-I am the desire of the crawling things, the lord of stars, the abyss of fantasy, the mouth of wisdom, the roar of impulse, the far side of the moon...
The plush doll in the middle of the hexagram was convulsing.
At its center, something round and silver was burning away.
'Silver Coin Snake.'
Did I use the wrong coin?
-I am...
My head hurt too much, too—
-friend.
-Is my friend in pain?
I raised my head.
-That won't do.
A kind and gentle tone flowed out through Good Friend.
-You mustn't be in pain....
"..."
The swaying subsided.
The tie burned all the way down, and the fire went out.
The coin that had been sitting atop the convulsing rabbit doll had disappeared at some point.
So had the moisture from the water I had used to draw the hexagram.
"..."
Silence.
Looking at Good Friend lying there without moving, I swallowed the salt.
But I heard nothing.
'Don't tell me.'
"Did it... fail...."
-Mr. Roe Deer?
"...!!"
A bright, pleasant voice rang out.
But....
-Mr. Roe Deer?
It was a familiar voice.
Before I knew it, I opened my mouth.
"...Mr. Host?"
-Ah, so it really is Mr. Roe Deer!
Tuesday Quiz Show.
The voice coming from the doll was the very same TV-head host who had been running the live broadcast in that Ghost Story.
-Nice to meet you, my friend!