The moment they entered the theme park, what greeted the Bureau agents was a grotesque sight.
A blood-red sky and the stained entrance to the theme park. An employee with an animal’s head grafted onto his neck. A clown tearing off arms and handing them out as balloons, and a caterpillar crawling forward as it painted a red carpet across the ground.
Things terrifying by their very existence filled every direction.
But the agents did not panic. They quickly assessed the situation and each readied themselves.
“Inside, the flow of time is different from outside. The watch is spinning like mad.”
Park Mina spoke.
It was a pocket watch that detected not the physical flow of time, but the temporal gap between a strange phenomenon and reality. Its minute and second hands were rotating rapidly.
It meant only one thing.
“Time here is faster than outside.”
“Yes. Five minutes in here will only be a few seconds outside.”
“Then the reconnaissance team and the others didn’t actually die in fifteen minutes. They must have held out for quite some time inside.”
Park Sangcheol, an agent from Team 5, clicked his tongue and took up his shotgun. Kim Iseo also opened her gun case and equipped two pistols at her waist.
“Agent Park Mina, begin work on the manual.”
Mir said as she drew her sword. Park Mina nodded, terminal in hand.
They had entered immediately because one of their agents had been forcibly abducted, but the urgency vanished the moment they saw the scenery inside.
The device that confirmed the survival status of team members had stopped working the instant they entered this place. There was no way to know whether the agent was dead or alive.
But with an environment like this, there was a high chance they had already died and become part of this space.
That might not be the case, but they could not charge in recklessly for something uncertain.
Securing the corpse was important as well, but their objective mattered more.
The Response Division’s duty was to resolve strange incidents or draft攻略 guides. Their role was to choose one of the two according to the will of the agent with the highest authority among those deployed on-site.
And right now, the one with the highest authority was Mir of Team 6.
“With our current personnel,攻略 is impossible. Given the nature of a space like this, it cannot be resolved through simple armed conflict. Even if we eliminate an administrator-class entity, things won’t improve.”
It was a type of strange phenomenon that parasitized the space itself. Even if the administrator died, from the theme park’s perspective, it could simply appoint a new one.
Thus, resolution through force was deemed impossible. In cases like this, they either had to collapse the space through a specific gimmick, or carry out a bombardment on such a massive scale that the theme park itself would judge permanent closure inevitable.
Neither option was possible with their current numbers.
Mir made her judgment quickly.
“Therefore, we give up on resolution. We switch to攻略. From now on, record everything that happens here and begin drafting the corresponding攻略 guide. Classification is Stage 4, Calamity-class.”
“Confirmed.”
Park Mina nodded. She immediately plugged a device into the terminal and attached a silver sticker to her temple.
At the same time, a description of the theme park began to appear on the terminal screen.
[This strange phenomenon, commonly known as “Magic Eden,” is hereby classified as Stage 4, Calamity-class, based on the Response Division’s provisional assessment.]
[The moment one enters the theme park, one falls into another space. The flow of time is faster compared to reality, and communication with the outside appears impossible. No signal can be detected. Given that both the device indicating team member survival status and the Bureau’s communication equipment are nonfunctional, it has been confirmed that the phenomenon has completely severed the external and internal worlds on a dimensional level.]
[However, the terminal remains usable. It has been confirmed that this攻略 guide is being registered in the Bureau database.]
[Exploration will continue. An external description of the theme park will be written below, so please verify it.]
Click.
The terminal finished recording. Park Mina nodded, and Mir approached the employee standing at the theme park entrance.
“Welcome! Are you guests?”
The employee responded with a cheerful smile. Park Sangcheol hooked his finger around the shotgun’s trigger, and Kim Iseo also exhaled tensely with one pistol in hand.
Trying her best not to provoke him, Mir held out the ticket in her hand.
“We will enter.”
“Confirmed! However, the parade is currently in progress, so we will guide you inside after it ends! Please wait a moment!”
“……Parade? Can you tell me what that is?”
“Ah, I’m sorry. It is our policy not to leak information about our parade to the outside. I’m afraid I cannot tell you.”
“……I see.”
“Yes! But you’ll enjoy it once you see it for yourself! More importantly, what will the others be doing? Will they be entering as well?”
The crushed dog head turned toward the other agents.
They immediately held out their tickets to the employee.
“Five minutes, confirmed! Please wait just a moment until the parade ends!”
The employee took the tickets and returned toward the entrance. The agents remained on guard while waiting for guidance.
A short while later, he opened his mouth again.
“The parade has ended! You may enter!”
“Thank you.”
Mir bowed her head politely to the employee, passed through the ticket gate, and entered the theme park. The others followed behind her.
On a shelf filled with brochures, a severed human head shouted at them to take one. The agents each picked up a brochure and rode the escalator up.
“Record everything written in the brochure.”
“Yes.”
Park Jia answered. The rest of them looked through the brochures and exchanged opinions.
“This place is absurdly huge. It’ll take a full day to look around everything. Is searching for survivors even possible?”
“We brought life-sign detectors, so it shouldn’t be difficult. The question is whether any survivors are truly left in an environment like this.”
Even at a glance, it was not a place an ordinary person could survive. It was an ominous place where even the agents would lose their heads the moment they relaxed. Hoping that the abducted victims were alive and unharmed was asking too much.
They were not thinking optimistically. Most humans caught up in phenomena like this ended up dead. Only with heavenly luck could one barely preserve one’s life.
And even then, there was a high chance they would not be in one piece.
“Ride at least three attractions…… Ha. That’s basically the same as telling us to die.”
Park Sangcheol muttered as he crumpled the brochure.
Kim Iseo folded hers and put it in her pocket.
“Then the people most likely to be alive are those who haven’t used any rides. Or those hiding somewhere.”
“Whatever the case, the fact that we have to rescue them doesn’t change.”
At Mir’s words, Kim Iseo nodded.
“We still aren’t picking up any life signs. Most of them are strange entities. Humans are—”
The moment she said it, two green dots appeared on Kim Iseo’s device. Her eyes widened, and she spoke to everyone.
“Two human presences detected above the escalator. Survivors.”
“……! Let’s go. Securing them comes first.”
“Yes.”
The group hurriedly ran up the escalator themselves.
What they saw there was a number of strange entities scattering off somewhere, and two humans wearing cat masks.
One was a woman with a guitar case slung over her back, and the other was a man wearing a coat. The two stood still, staring at the Bureau agents.
Gripping her sword tightly, Mir looked at the two and asked,
“Are those the two?”
“Yes.”
“……Their aura is strange. They’re definitely human, but something feels unsettling.”
“Isn’t it because of the masks? It looks like they’re wearing them to survive.”
“……That may be. Still…… Mm, never mind. In any case, they are definitely human, so let’s rescue them quickly.”
Mir spoke, and the agents nodded.
“P-please save us!”
It happened at the same moment. The masked man suddenly shouted and ran toward the agents. The woman beside him also ran after him.
At the sudden unexpected action, the agents’ faces hardened. They did not stop the two, but their eyes narrowed sharply as they guarded against the surrounding strange entities.
Fortunately, the strange entities showed no particular interest and continued walking along their way. Some occasionally glanced at them, but that was all. None approached.
“Phew……”
Park Mina let out a sigh of relief. Kim Iseo also released the finger she had placed on the trigger and received the two who had come right up beside them.
“Are you survivors?”
“Yes……! We got t-tickets and came here to have fun, but th-then suddenly, in a place like this……!!”
“Please calm down. We are agents dispatched by a government agency. We came to rescue you.”
“……! I-I knew it!”
The man said in a bright voice, as if he had expected as much. Behind him, the woman who had only poked out her head murmured in a trembling voice.
“Th-then can we leave now……? I-I want to get out quickly. Just i-imagining what happened here…… Ugh.”
“……I’m sorry. We cannot leave immediately either.”
“Wh-what?! Wh-why?”
“It seems there are conditions for escape. As you saw in the brochure, you must ride at least three attractions.”
Kim Iseo said in a calm voice.
The woman teared up and buried her face behind the man.
“Uu, hic…… Mom……”
“……I-I understand. Then what should we do now?”
Lightly stroking the woman’s hair, the man asked in a tense voice. This time, Mir answered instead.
“For now, follow us. We will guarantee your safety as much as possible. It may sound strange coming from us, but we are specialists who have encountered phenomena like this many times. Staying with us will be safer for you as well.”
“O-okay. We’ll follow you.”
The man nodded. So that the two would not be frightened, Mir carefully sheathed her sword and asked,
“By the way, how did you come to wear those masks?”
“It was a basic condition for participating in the parade. The atmosphere felt like they would kill us if we didn’t wear masks, so we had no choice……”
“I see. Can you take them off?”
“N-no. When I tried to take it off, it felt like my entire face was being torn away……”
“Mm.”
Mir examined the grotesquely shaped masks from various angles, then nodded as if she understood.
“For now, understood. Then let us move. Do not stray from us under any circumstances.”
“Y-yes……!”
“Agent Kim Iseo, take care of those two. We’re moving.”
“Yes.”
Kim Iseo placed her pistol in its holster and guided the two right beside her. Then she smiled gently and reassured them.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to protect both of you.”
“……Thank you.”
“Sniff…… Thank you……”
Listening to their words of gratitude, Kim Iseo began walking.
In that brief opening.
The moment they moved, taking advantage of the scattered gazes, Ian wrote letters on Yuna’s palm.
[Use them for now.]
Understanding his meaning, Yuna gave a small nod.
The two trembled all over again like frightened victims as they walked with the agents.
*
Meanwhile, the grimoire that Ian had thrown into the grass the moment he discovered the Bureau agents—the Hand of Re-Creation.
It lay facedown on the ground, then vibrated briefly and vented its displeasure.
Wooong!