A-squad consisted of three people wearing a butterfly, praying mantis, and teal duck mask.
Then, the person wearing the teal duck mask from A-squad spoke up.
It was the voice of an energetic, older woman.
“Oh, so you’re that famous Employee Kim Soleum?”
“Yes. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
I instinctively bowed my head, but cold sweat started to form.
‘That’ Kim Soleum? What kind of rumors are circulating about me?
“Right, right. If we get the chance, let’s meet sometime. You’ve got a bright future ahead, kid.”
The woman passed by me and took her seat.
…That must be the leader of A-squad.
Assistant Manager Eun continued explaining.
“And… the ones without the gold marks on their masks are the Y-squad.”
“……”
Three people wearing masks without gold marks, plus the new employee with the cow mask that I recognized. There was a somewhat gloomy atmosphere surrounding them.
“The leader of Y-squad isn’t a manager, just a regular employee, but don’t worry about it. Just stay quiet.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I already knew that, too.
Supervisor Park whispered to me.
“Um… Roe. The people you met today from the other squads, especially the Y-squad, just keep things light with them, okay? I’ll tell you why later.”
“Yes, sir.”
I nodded without question. I already had a rough idea of what that ‘later explanation’ might be.
But suddenly, Supervisor Park sitting next to me seemed touched.
“Huh. Honestly… I love that you’re like a more tactful version of the section chief.”
“I think so too.”
“……”
Was that… a compliment?
“Alright, if everyone could take their seats, let’s get started with the briefing.”
Kwak Jaekang stood in front of the board without even turning on the prompter.
“I was going to explain the ghost story you’ll be entering today, but…!”
Kwak Jaekang let out a chuckle.
“The truth is, we don’t know much.”
“……??”
“What do you mean by that, Section Chief Kwak?”
“There’s only one piece of information from a civilian escape!”
“…Hoh.”
In the silence, a few documents were handed out. I looked over the brief page, which was more like a memo.
While playing a board game during a club retreat at Hanmaeum-gadeuk Pension in Gangwon-do, all 12 university students went missing.
The board game in question is presumed to be a creation of Cheerful Research Institute* under the trademark ‘Cheerful Theme Park! ~Joyful Fantasyland Adventure~’.
The survivors stated that the board game was ‘already placed inside the pension’.
The pension owner denies this.
Result : After 17 hours, some members returned.
They testified to ‘living inside a theme park within the board game’. Various symptoms such as delusions, PTSD, and mild to severe neuroses were reported.
Survivors : 4
Missing : 1
Deceased : 7
The next page contained brief statements from each survivor about their time in the ‘board game theme park’. The descriptions were fragmented, likely due to their severe psychological trauma.
But even that was enough for me to recognize it.
I swallowed hard.
‘It’s about time for this one.’
It finally arrived.
A ghost story requiring a large group to participate!
“The player limit for this board game must exceed 10 people? That’s why the group size is so large?”
“Yes, yes, we tried to recreate the conditions as closely as possible.”
Kwak Jaekang winked.
“But! Despite the harsh circumstances, my team has figured out the best way to enter.”
“You just brought the board game, didn’t you?”
“Haha! Don’t be so harsh, Assistant Manager Jin. We even got the game rules.”
The A-squad employee in the butterfly mask didn’t respond, but Kwak Jaekang didn’t mind as he placed the board game on the table.
“Here it is.”
[Cheerful Theme Park!]
~Joyful Fantasyland Adventure~
: Be the first team to ride all three fantasy attractions with your teammates and win spectacular prizes!
The front of the nearly brand-new box was adorned with a colorful depiction of Fantasyland.
When the box was opened, it revealed a map of the theme park divided into zones and brightly colored coins.
“Now, let’s split into teams and start the board game.”
He says it so cheerfully, urging us to enter a ghost story where more than half the people died.
“Should we just form teams based on our squads?”
“Oh, actually… you’ll draw game pieces from these capsules, and your team will be based on the color you draw!”
Kwak Jaekang pulled out a small capsule from one side of the box and showed it to everyone.
“If you shake it, the piece will drop from this hole.”
“It’s random, then.”
With sighs, people began shaking the capsules and drawing game pieces one by one.
‘Blue, yellow, red… huh.’
As expected, this kind of thing usually goes in order of seniority, so my turn was almost last.
The piece I drew was…
“Employee Kim, you’ve got red.”
Of course, I got the red piece. In the world of ghost stories, red isn’t exactly a lucky color, and I wasn’t feeling great about it.
‘Well, the color doesn’t really matter in this ghost story.’
Even if people draw the same color, different things happen, after all.
I swallowed hard, feeling nervous.
Anyway. Are we entering now?
“Once the game board is set up, we’ll begin the entry!”
However, even after Squad Leader Lee Jaheon unfolded the game board, nothing happened.
“……”
Um?
A sudden thought crossed my mind, and I counted the number of people.
Four with yellow, four with blue.
And those who drew red, like me…
Assistant Manager Jin from A-squad, the new employee from Y-squad that I recognized… and me.
Three people in total.
“……”
Ah.
‘The red team doesn’t have enough players.’
“We’re missing one person,” Lee Jaheon said, turning his vertical pupils toward Kwak Jaekang.
“It seems we can’t enter with just 11 people. We need all 12 to try again.”
“Oh, that?”
Kwak Jaekang casually responded and tossed the capsule containing the game pieces.
“Supervisor Lee, catch!”
He threw it to the gambling-addicted researcher standing nearby.
“Wh, what?!”
The researcher caught the capsule reflexively.
Thud.
Inside, the remaining red piece fell out.
“……?!”
“I…I drew it?!”
Wait a second.
– Departing for Fantasyland~!
The game board shot up into the air, swirling before swallowing our surroundings.
“Uwaaahhh!”
“Hahahahaha!”
I heard the researcher’s scream echoing in my ears, followed by Kwak Jaekang’s laughter.
“……”
I recalled the back pages of Kwak Jaekang’s <Dark Exploration Records> entry on the wiki.
========================
Ghost story-obsessed psycho.
Mad scientist.
When exploring ghost stories with little information, he often manipulates the situation by suggesting dangerous combinations or actions, leading to obvious deaths in order to gather peculiar data. He is a major contributor to expanding exploration records.
For details on
Kwak Jaekang’s disciplinary records, see the
#ExplorationRecords(Supplementary) page.
========================
…I had always been wary that a day like this might come.
“What the— What is this?!”
I had a suspicion when we were grouped with a large number of people, including both A-squad and Y-squad…
‘He intentionally messed up our survival chances.’
This wasn’t about trying to clear the ghost story with the highest survival rate.
The setup was for everyone except A-squad to die.