Seoul Object Story
Chapter 53: Theme Park (4)

There I was, sitting inside a transport vehicle, swinging my feet back and forth as we rolled up to some research institute.

Clank-! Clank-!

The loud clanking of chains was echoing all over, but not a peep out of these losers. Bunch of cowards, wouldn’t dare draw attention to themselves.

Soon enough, the bus screeched to a halt in the lab’s parking lot making a real loud racket. Cops with sour mugs and researchers with gloomy faces surrounded us.

I stepped out of the bus and landed onto the parking lot. Sizing up the cop in front of me, I asked, “Where we headed now, officer?”

The chump didn’t know what to say, and just hesitated. And ‘cause of that, all the death row inmates around me started snickering, getting a real kick outta it. Well, it didn’t last long. The police shut them up real quick and led us to some kinda containment room inside the institute.

Soon, we arrived in front of a door with < Theme Park Invitation Doll > written on it. Looking inside, I saw a doll-looking Object walking around. The creepy little doll just laughed its head off with that round ass face of its. It was laughing so hard it made me wanna rip its head off.

I looked around, and saw that the tough-guy act of the other convicts had vanished. They looked like they were about to piss themselves. Meanwhile, those researchers looked spooked as well but couldn’t seem to hide their curiosity.

Before long, they lined all the convicts up and shoved them into the room.

Hah, look at them shaking in their boots, what a bunch of morons.

At the end of the day, they’re gonna have to do it anyway, no matter how hard they try to fight it. So why not just roll with it, y’know?

How come every bastard in the group’s an imbecile? Especially, how’d that pig and anchovy bastards even make it this far? Beats me.

As I stood in front of the containment room, they finally took those cuffs off me.

About time I get my freedom back!

I entered the containment room while rubbing my wrists, when the crazy ass doll handed me a letter, grinning from ear to ear.

I read the postcard inside—

Yeah, real funny.

That was when everything went dark.

Hmm, from what was written on the postcard, looks like I gotta survive nine of these deadly rides if I wanna bust outta that hellhole.

Still, whether I make it or not, at least I would be saying goodbye to prison for good.

***

Approximately twenty-one minutes after the arrival of the death row inmates, they all read the letter and vanished into thin air. Not long after, the police officers who had escorted them also left the premises, leaving behind only the minimum number of personnel.

“Seoah unnie… S-she left, right?”

At the sight of the towering death row inmate, Oh Yerin, terrified beyond reason, had scurried to my back and sought refuge behind me.

Director Sehee was probably almost 15cm taller than me, so why did Yerin hide behind me?

“Researcher Oh Yerin, everyone is gone. You can come out now,” I reassured her.

“Huaaa! But didn’t she look so scaaary? She was covered in so many tattoos! She must’ve killed at least a few people!”

As I looked at Oh Yerin’s overreaction, I noticed something odd. It seemed like the size of the < Theme Park Invitation Doll > had increased. It had grown by about 5 centimeters?

What’s more, that wide grin stretching from one ear to the other on the doll’s face felt quite unsettling. The doll danced around the isolation room, chuckling with a mouth full of frayed stitches.

It was really suspicious. Something was clearly amiss. I immediately summoned the researchers in charge of the doll and urged them to measure its size again.

Even as the researchers restrained its limbs, the doll continued to laugh non-stop.

Cackle-! Cackle-!

This was completely unprecedented, I’d never seen anything like this before.

When the measurements were finally complete, it was revealed that the doll’s height had increased by five centimeters.

However, the growth did not stop at five centimeters. Even during the measurements, the size continued to increase at a rate of one centimeter.

Had we been too rash in sending the death row inmates there?

***

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in this unfamiliar place.

The room was all fancy and posh, so much so that I felt out of place. The walls were lined with fancy paintings, there were cupboards full of food, and antique mirrors could be seen around the room.

When I looked at my reflection in the mirror in front of me, I was shocked out of my wits.

I looked like a damn fat pig!!!

I couldn’t stand it, so I smashed that fucking mirror.

Haaa, Haaa.

I felt out of breath.

My fists were dripping with blood, and tears were streaming down my face.

I’ve been wronged, damn it!

Even though this damn room was decorated all fancily, it felt like a goddamn execution chamber to me.

Something was wrong, it just didn’t feel right… To think they dragged me into a place like this…

I didn’t do anything wrong, for fuck’s sake!

Why was I sentenced to death? I just kidnapped a kid and killed him by mistake!

I mean, the brat provoked me first! What was I supposed to do, huh?

“Welcome, dear guests. Welcome to Smile Theme Park!”

“Aaaahhh!”

A monster suddenly shoved its face right in mine.

The monster’s already here?

“W-Who… who are you?”

“Hello there, dear guest! I’m your friendly room attendant, here to make your stay as amazing as possible!”

“The fuck’s a room servant?”

“It’s exactly as it sounds! Think of me as your guide to making the most out of your stay here at the theme park. Anything you need, just give me a shout!”

Even with its eyes and mouth sewn shut, the monster’s voice was all calm and soft.

What the…? This ain’t nothin’ special!

It wasn’t scary at all!

Haha!

I raised my palm and smacked the damn mannequin.

“It’s all ‘cause of you! I was scared ‘cause of you, you hear me?”

I kept stomping on the fallen mannequin, slowly feeling a bit better.

As my anger started to die down, I realized what I’d done.

What the hell did I just do?

I took my anger out on a freaking Object!

Catching my breath, I tried to see how the mannequin would react. It stood up and dusted off its clothes.

“Then, dear guest. May I continue my explanation?”

“N-No… No need. Don’t come back ‘til I call for you!”

“Understood, sir.”

The mannequin bowed and backed out of the room.

Phew…

When the mannequin was gone, I let out a heavy sigh.

As the fear faded, I started feeling hungry and dizzy. Probably ‘cause I finally felt relaxed.

Wasting no time, I scanned the hotel room for any food. Luckily, there were all kinds of drinks, snacks, and food.

I think I remember learning about this kinda situation…

What was it again? Did they tell me not to just chow down on it carelessly? Ah, but I was starving, what’s the worst that can happen?

I looked at the food and saw that each item had some kinda unidentifiable tag on it—red, blue, etc.

Looking closely, the tags were red, orange, yellow, green, blue, navy blue, and purple.

Aha! It’s a freaking rainbow!

A lot of these Object quizzes were based on folk tales, famous anecdotes, those stuff, right?

So does that mean I gotta eat ‘em in the order of the rainbow?

Heh, good thing, I’m so damn smart!

Hehe, it’s been too damn long since I’ve eaten my fill, so I better dig in now. Since it ain’t an Object, it’s probably free game.

I grabbed a ton of tasty-looking food for each tag. Even with like 30 different dishes, the spread didn’t seem to go down at all.

I picked out seven that I really wanted—a salad with a red tag, a piece of bread with an orange tag, cream soup with a yellow tag, fried fish with a green tag, a delicious steak with a blue tag, a cheesecake with a navy blue tag, and a coffee with a purple tag.

This was gonna be my big celebration meal once I got the ransom money for that kid. I tried to remember the course meal I had planned and chose dishes based on that.

Gotta try the stuff I couldn’t before, right?

I grabbed the fork and took a bite of the salad as gracefully as I could.

“Keh-heuk.”

Suddenly I choked, blood spewing outta my mouth, soaking the floor.

“Huh? What…what’s this? What the hell is this?!”

I tried to get up, but I had no strength left and just fell crashing down, taking all the tableware and dishes with me.

Even though I tried to scream, not a sound came out of my throat.

***

The mannequin swung open the door and stepped into the room once again.

“Dear guest, how careless of you to use your room in such a manner~”

The mannequin shook its head in mock disappointment, its lips curling into a sneer as it looked at the pathetic man before it, blood dripping from his mouth.

“Tsk. I knew you were a greedy pig the moment I laid eyes on you, but I never imagined you would eat so much food at once.”

The man could only glare back, unable to move a single finger, as the mannequin continued its cruel charade.

Yet, his mouth constantly twitched, seemingly saying—

Help me. Help me. Help me.

“Ah, the food is all covered in blood, such a pity… We’ll need to prepare it all over again.”

The mannequin said, its voice laced with a twisted amusement, and began gathering the man’s spoiled meal, transferring it into a portable tray.

As it turned to leave, the mannequin paused, its soulless eyes boring into the dying man’s.

“If only you had listened to the explanation sooner, my dear guest. Then, perhaps, you might have had a chance at living.”

The mannequin tossed a crumpled piece of paper at the man’s face, the paper had the room rules written on it.

The man’s desperate eyes scanned through the paper, but it was too late—a pointless act. Yet, he continued reading till his very last breath.

***

Om nom nom-!

I plopped down on the bed, my cheeks stuffed with cheesecake.

It’s so tasty!

It was like a party in my mouth, rivaling the cake I ate in my containment room, the one from that famous bakery.

Chocolate mousse cake, strawberry whipped cream cake, pecan pie, apple pie—it felt like a treasure trove of desserts from all across the world.

Is this place perhaps heaven?

Actually, I had one small complaint.

Why couldn’t each tag have its own special taste?!

I mean, I tried the orange juice with the red tag, hoping for a burst of strawberry sweetness, only to find it tasting as ordinary as… well, orange juice.

I rolled around on the bed, crumbs sticking to my cheeks, when I noticed the rule paper the mannequin had told me about.

Well, rules can wait! It will be fine if I read it later, right?

I stretched out my arms and legs, enjoying a pleasant break lazing on the bed.