Chapter 16

A grotesquely shaped clown stood on the rail.

The clown, dressed as a pierrot, seemed to have a variety of expressions due to the flickering flashlight. The doll, which seemed to be both laughing and crying, was wearing a blood-stained tuxedo. It was probably this creature that made Jiangshan scream in terror.

"Welcome, welcome. I am the kind butler of the Horror Mansion, the clown, sir. The master of the mansion was stabbed to death. Sob, sob, since then, all visitors to the mansion must pass the master's test."

Seun was not usually afraid of haunted houses or horror movies, but he was easily startled. Knowing that the pierrot was a doll, even if it twisted its neck strangely, it didn't really affect him.

But it couldn't be a hallucination, could it...?

Just as Seun was trying to shine the flashlight around the interior of the mansion, the clown turned around on the rail.

"Guest, guest, inside, inside, the place where the banquet is prepared, is the start."

Click, the clown raised its arm and pointed to the left. In the dark mansion, only that place emitted a faint light.

"Please, go, go, there, there."

Seun, shining the flashlight ahead, headed in the opposite direction of what the clown had said.

Where do mad mushrooms grow, anyway?

I remember picking them from trees in the Narakga. ...

"Guest, that, that, is not the way."

Boom! A heavy explosion sounded from somewhere. They must have broken something big again. Seun's heart grew anxious, thinking he might have to pay a fortune to the Tarcheon Guild.

"Guest, if you don't follow the procedure, you might be trapped here forever by the master's curse."

Thud, Seun kicked the annoying clown off the rail. Glancing at the clown lying on the ground, twitching, he resumed his task.

Seun shone the flashlight on the floor and wandered around the mansion. Fortunately, since it was an amusement ride, it was a single-story building, not a multi-story mansion.

The first room was the master's bedroom, where a woman with a knife in her heart lay. The wax doll, with long hair covering the entire pillow, was exquisitely detailed, like a real person. The light flickered when he discovered the dead woman, but he was only startled for a moment.

Just as Seun was carefully examining the wooden bed,

"AAAAH! It hurts! It hurts too much!"

The doll suddenly sat up.

"Ahh!"

He had expected to be startled, but his heart still raced. Seun covered the doll's head with the blood-stained blanket.

<'Elephant Mole Seun's' heart is racing.>

"Stop making nonsense and tell me where the mushrooms grow."

<...>

Of course, it didn't answer. Seun suddenly lifted his head, thinking maybe.

"Kitchen..."

In a horror mansion, there might be poisonous mushrooms in the kitchen?

No message came from the messenger, but he sprinted in the direction the clown had pointed to initially. Creepily, the clown he had kicked with his foot was back on the rail, this time with a knife in one hand.

Clunk, clunk, the clown's forehead, which was running towards him, was wrinkled with anger. The clown was no longer a stiff doll but seemed like a murderer running towards him with a knife.

Is this a trick? If so, it wouldn't actually harm the visitors, but he could feel the clown's murderous intent. As he kicked the clown, who was about to slash with the knife, Seun's body staggered. Realizing he had kicked at nothing, he shone the flashlight again.

The clown was still lying in the same spot where he had kicked it, looking as if it had been poisoned by spores.

Damn, it's resistant...

<Mad mushroom spores currently exist only in the theme park, but if the complete variant leaves the 'Horror Mansion,' the hallucination spores will spread throughout Gyeonggi Province.>

Indeed, it was a variant with a danger level of 5. Once the mad mushroom fully mutates, there will be no way to stop it.

<In the 'Horror Mansion,' where spores are generated, 'Seun' has 15 minutes of immunity left. If the main body that has mutated is not found, 'Seun' will be trapped in his own horror.>

"My horror?"

<'Seun's' terrifying horror.>

Seun, listening to the messenger, headed towards the dining room with a carpet.

Haha, hehe, the laughter of many men and women buzzed in his ears. A grand Western-style banquet was laid out on a 12-person table, and 8 mannequins sat in stiff poses. Seun, who had seen the hallucination of mannequins following him, kicked them all to the ground.

<Limited time 10 minutes, try hard! Violent mole!>

Knowing the time was more of a hindrance.

It was like a proctor saying, "30 minutes left, 15 minutes left," making the tension build up with unnecessary information.

"Seun."

Seun's body convulsed. As he carefully examined the wooden floor, he lifted his dazed gaze. At the table where the mannequins had been sitting, his father was sitting.

The perfectly tied tie and neatly ironed suit jacket made him feel suffocated.

On the table were steaming doenjang stew, spring vegetables, and crispy mackerel, but there was only one set of rice and utensils.

"A person who can't do their job doesn't deserve to eat."

The father, who looked so big, made Seun instantly spread his hands. The bones in his hands were still thin like a young boy's.

"I heard from the academy teacher about your mock exam results. What's wrong with you? Are you just stupid?"

"..."

"If you're stupid, at least be diligent. Jaeun is already in high school math, but you, who will be in middle school next year, are still struggling with the third-year curriculum. I thought we would raise you well and only have one child, but if this child is going to cause so much stress, it would have been better not to have you at all."

Rumble, his stomach growled, but the father only frowned like a pierrot. As the father started eating alone, his sharp teeth were visible.

"Jaeun only takes one math tutoring class. Seun, are you going to keep making me pour water into a bottomless barrel?"

Every time he opened his mouth, he inevitably hurt Seun.

Slap!

Seun slapped his cheek hard. When he opened his eyes, he saw the fallen mannequins. If the father's nagging was his horror, then he was even more insignificant than an elephant mole. On the table, where the banquet was laid out, there was a piece of paper he hadn't seen before.

Curious, he approached and shone the flashlight.

[Genetic Test Request Form]

It was a paternity test result.

How disappointed must he have been with his child to request a genetic test, hoping his child wasn't his? When he saw the test result, which was deliberately left out for him to see, the father said,

'I hope this will be a shock therapy. Do better, son.'

Yes, he admitted it.

The fear and trauma that had developed in the winter of his thirteenth year.

<3 minutes>

Seun slapped the other cheek to regain his composure. There was no time for this.

Boom! The explosion, which had only been heard from a distance, now sounded nearby. The door of the mansion flew off, and light streamed in. Standing there with a sword was Chahaya.

Seun quickly turned off the flashlight to avoid being seen by Chahaya, who was in a hallucination. Not knowing what hallucination he was seeing, he crawled on all fours and cautiously surveyed the surroundings. More concerning was that Chahaya had come here alone. Could Jiangshan or Handonhee be seriously injured or dead?

Damn, if I had known this, I would have insisted on handling it alone from the beginning.

"Seun."

Seun, who was crawling on all fours, convulsed. Had he found him, or had he broken free from the hallucination? But Chahaya wasn't even facing him.

<1 minute 30 seconds!>

Is Chahaya also seeing the same hallucination as me? If so, I can just get up and find it in the remaining time.

<Get up if you want to die.>

Seun, who was about to get up, flattened himself again.

"Seun, let's go home together."

Chahaya, dragging his sword, entered the master's bedroom. The tender words, "Let's go home," almost made him run out. What kind of hallucination is Chahaya experiencing now? Is he also trapped in his own horror, like I am?

<30 seconds, 29 seconds, 28 seconds,>

Shut up, I get it. Seun, wanting to check the places he had seen again, crawled under the table like a rat. The carpet was still stained with blood. When he lifted his head to look under the table, he reached <20 seconds>.

"!"

Under the table, small mushrooms were densely packed in a 1) mycelial ring. Though not visible, it seemed to be emitting spores that made his vision blur. Seun picked up a small pebble-sized mineral from among them. The glowing small mineral was likely a byproduct of the pre-mutated variant. He didn't know which one would become the mutant mushroom.

Seun, who had evolved from a quadrupedal animal to a bipedal human in an instant, overturned the table. However, he had no lighter to burn the mushrooms or a machete to cut them.

Since the mushrooms were still weak, he hoped that stomping on them would be enough. Just as he was about to stomp on them, he heard a child's cry from somewhere. The cries, not just one but dozens, stirred a strange sense of sympathy. As Seun clenched his teeth and moved his foot,

<1 second>

"I found it."

Chahaya's white cosmos-imbued sword stabbed out like a spear through his heart.

1) Mycelial ring: A circular arrangement of mushrooms.