Chapter 117
For 30 minutes, Seojun and Taewoo progressed in a straightforward manner, solving the puzzles created by the game company.
The puzzles were ingenious and fun to play, and viewers responded positively.
Occasionally, there were chats asking him to show the Tang Clan's secret dark art again, but he didn’t.
Because it was a dangerous forbidden technique, he had to seal it at least during the ad break.
“Ah, shit.”
Swish!
A dark silhouette crawled up the wall from below, subtly revealing its presence before vanishing.
As if watching them.
There hadn't been any sudden jump-scare elements yet, but these small details made the game feel terrifying.
Only for Taewoo, though.
“This is the last room.”
“Really?”
They finished the final puzzle and arrived back in the room they had seen earlier.
-How do you know that?
-Did you come here before?
-Gasp. Host, please no spoilers
-Lolololol you guys are all crazy
Stepping through the door, a wide staircase going straight up greeted them, and climbing it revealed a normal-looking interior.
“We just need to find the protagonist.”
Seojun figured this was the end of this chapter.
This was the very room where he had peered through the ventilation gap to look for the protagonist earlier.
So he had a strong hunch that they needed to go to the empty box he’d seen before, and he headed there.
“Follow me.”
“Whoa. Feels like all the toys are watching us.”
The packed boxes lined up on both sides were neatly displayed so their contents could be seen at a glance.
Then Seojun found the spot he had noted earlier and went toward that box.
“This is it.”
“Look closely over there. There’s a note inside.”
[If you want to find me, you’ll have to do what I was supposed to do.]
Something the protagonist had to do?
He had an idea.
It must be to deal with that thing that had been moving along the walls since earlier.
-Shudder shudder shudder
-What do they want us to do
-But why is he so rude? He’s their mom and dad.
-For real lol
What they realized while playing was that the game-within-a-game genre was action-adventure, that this world was a toy world, and that the parts the developers hadn’t finished properly were bizarrely filled in.
So.
Crash.
Something suddenly dropped from the ceiling.
He saw the head of the doll from before.
The doll’s hair was patchy and sparse.
Lowering his gaze, he saw the cylindrical torso attached right below the head, pincer arms, and spider-like legs underneath.
Just looking at it was grotesque.
The doll began to approach them slowly, baring shark-like teeth.
It was obvious the rest had turned out that way because it wasn’t made properly.
“Ah. Wow... I really hate this.”
Taewoo seemed to be panicking.
[Run!]
Running away was the objective this time.
Did difficulty not matter?
Seojun immediately dashed toward the entrance.
“Movement speed is restricted.”
When he tried to run, his feet wouldn’t lift.
Shuffling was the max speed.
-Shudder shudder shudder
-That thing looks creepy as hell
-A chase? Shudder shudder
Click.
The entrance door was locked.
Seojun went back up the stairs and looked around.
“There’s an opening over there.”
Seojun pointed to a conveyor belt entrance on the wall, blatantly wide open as if telling them to come in.
“Hey, over here!”
He called out to Taewoo, who was somehow dodging the doll with shuffling steps.
Seojun waited for Taewoo, and then they both went inside the conveyor belt.
“We probably shouldn’t stop.”
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
The sound of something moving was unsettling.
Luckily, the passage wasn’t big enough for the doll to enter, but it was short.
The passage ended, and they arrived at the huge space they had passed through earlier.
The conveyor belt that had been above them as they solved puzzles now became their escape route.
“Keep going!”
Thud, thud, thud!
The sound kept ringing out, and Taewoo looked back and screamed.
“Aaaahhh! It’s coming! Hey, it’s coming! It’s coming!”
Seojun also moved forward and glanced back.
Grin.
Behind them, the doll was grinning menacingly and closing the distance.
-Ah, I flinched
-That’s so f***ing scary
-Shudder shudder
-I got scared
Fortunately, a passage leading to the next room appeared just before the doll caught them, and they went inside.
Thud, thud, thud!
But they couldn’t relax.
The urgent sound of the doll moving kept going.
And their decision was right.
“Maybe it can’t follow us here? Should we just stop and stay here?”
Thud, thud!
Seojun smirked and pointed behind them.
“I don’t think so. Don’t stop.”
“Aaaah!”
The doll was approaching them inside the passage with its head twisted at a 90-degree angle, wedged tightly.
Perfect.
“It’s blocked ahead! What do we do! Aaaah!”
Taewoo pressed his hands against the wall in front and pushed with all his strength while staring back.
Seeing the doll getting closer, he put even more force into his arms.
There was no way the door would open like that.
-Lolololololol
-His reaction is delicious lololol
-His reaction is freaking hilarious lololol
-Right now, Taewoo can’t see anything in his field of vision except the doll lololol
Because what Taewoo was pushing wasn’t a door, but a wall.
“Turn left, you idiot.”
The viewers loved his blind panic.
When Seojun left Taewoo behind and went left, Taewoo—perhaps driven by survival instinct—followed him.
The passage ended, and they entered the next room.
And the doll also squeezed itself out of the passage and started approaching them quickly again.
It really was a chase.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
Seojun felt the doll’s speed was incredibly fast.
Fast enough that it should have caught them long ago.
Taewoo checked behind him again and voiced his confusion.
“It’s gone?”
“Hey, look in front.”
“Aaaah!”
It seemed the doll had moved under the conveyor belt or through the side wall, caught up, and climbed back onto the conveyor belt they were on.
Typical of the thing that kept crawling around these dark walls, making its presence known.
Taewoo froze, mouth agape, at the doll that suddenly appeared in front of him.
The doll lunged at him with a grotesque laugh.
Then Seojun grabbed the frozen Taewoo by the scruff of his neck and jumped into a path that escaped to the lower right.
-Lolololol this is so freaking funny lolololol
-The host flinches every time he meets the doll’s eyes, but as soon as he sees Taewoo, it all clears up
-How can someone be that scared? Lolololol
-Ha, this is delicious lolololol
Taewoo’s survival instinct worked well this time too.
After Seojun tugged him along, he miraculously kept his balance and started running again with his shuffling steps.
They passed through this passage, and another room appeared.
Seojun judged quickly and shouted.
“Left first!”
Behind them, the doll was trying to get out of the passage but seemed slightly stuck and couldn’t come out right away.
And the entrance ahead was closed.
There was no side path either.
That meant they needed something to open that entrance, and the only suspicious things were the hanging flaps some distance away, obstructing their view.
He needed Taewoo’s help.
With trembling hands, Taewoo immediately activated the air gun, and the flaps lifted with the force of the wind.
Seojun, having loaded the nail gun, shot while moving and hit all four buttons—two on each side.
Then the door ahead opened.
In the last room, the door was also closed.
This time, a puzzle appeared where Taewoo had to go first and change the trajectory.
But.
“This is my specialty.”
In this urgent situation where they had to finish before the doll came out of the narrow passage again, Seojun knew a faster way.
-Ahh, he was trying not to use this
-Saying he wouldn’t use it, then brings it out 30 minutes in lololol
-Using shortcuts again lololol
-If you’re jealous, you use it too, viewers
Without needing Taewoo to move first, Seojun just had to reload and it was over.
They leisurely entered the last passage, exited it, and reached some interior.
Was the chase over?
“Wow, damn. Seojun, thank you so much. For real.”
Taewoo relaxed.
-The host hard-carried him lololol
-For real lololol
-Carried because he felt sorry for his friend
-Is it over like this?
-Whew, but that was seriously terrifying, shudder shudder shudder
It was definitely tense.
The footsteps that constantly reminded them they were being chased, and the fear of seeing that terrifying doll approaching every time they looked back, must have been intense.
In fact, Taewoo screamed in surprise every single time he saw it.
But was this the end?
Just then.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
-Huh?
-??
-Shudder shudder shudder, this isn’t right
“Ah, please.”
Contrary to Taewoo’s wish, the doll burst out of the passage they had come from in an instant and thrust its face forward.
* * *
They died.
They respawned in a place piled with toys.
Taewoo despaired at this fact.
“We have to do this again? I’m not doing it. No, I can’t. It’s freaking scary, seriously.”
Meanwhile, Seojun thought about what had gone wrong and realized.
They should have closed a door next to the passage.
There seemed to have been a control panel. As if.
Actually, he had known, but because Taewoo was so scared, he purposely didn’t close it so they could do it once more.
Seojun grinned wickedly and said.
“Come on, let’s do it again and finish it.”
“Ha… Fine, let’s go. Ah, I really hate this.”
They went back to the protagonist’s box to start the chase again.
Crash!
The doll fell from above, and Taewoo flinched slightly.
But now he had some composure, so he took a deep breath and walked slowly toward the conveyor belt.
However, when he looked to the side, his friend was doing something strange.
“Seojun, what are you doing?”
Seojun was now standing in the opposite direction, walking backward.
In other words, he was facing the doll.
“Ah. The viewers were too scared, so I thought I’d try running while constantly looking at it. The speed seems manageable.”
So right now…
He means he’s going to run while facing backward?
“What about the path?”
“I memorized it all.”
“And those, the gimmicks?”
“Same.”
Seojun smirked leisurely.
“Why? You wanna try it too?”
“Really… crazy bastard.”
* * *
Then, finally.
-You ask if it’s possible to do what veterans do just by watching once? Yes, it is, lololololol
-Walking backward lolololololol
-Why are you shooting nails when there’s no damage? Lololololol
-It suddenly turned from horror into a comedy lolololol
-Looking at it constantly like this… maybe that doll is kind of cute?
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
“Taewoo, I told you not to look back.”
“I said I can’t help it!”
A glance.
“Aaaah!”
Taewoo kept voluntarily, needlessly, looking back and screaming.
On the other hand, Seojun walked backward, greeted the doll when their eyes met, and when he had time, even shot nails into its head, performing the gimmicks.
This chase, where the two contrasted so starkly, was posted on the community with the title “Newbie vs. Veteran in a Game Less Than 3 Hours After Release.”
And it became a huge sensation.