Chapter 21 : Colorful Doll House
by fnovelpia
“990,000 won paid on the same day?”
In the dark room, Kim Gang-hyeok stared blankly at the ad reflected in the light of his phone.
At first, he thought he had misread it in his sleep.
But suddenly, a thought crossed his mind.
What if it’s real?
His sleepiness vanished instantly.
High-paying part-time job.
990,000 won paid on the same day.
Extra bonus if referred by an acquaintance.
He checked the ratings and reviews carefully,
but it didn’t seem like a lie.
And the job itself seemed simple.
They were opening a large escape room center and needed trial participants.
The explanation was that they would pay a high wage for security reasons.
…Should I give it a try?
Kim Gang-hyeok had been weighed down by overdue credit card bills and loan interest.
He didn’t even have the luxury of thinking for long.
He decided to take a chance and clicked the apply button.
On the outskirts of the metropolitan area, in a newly developed but still unfinished new town,
there stood a lone building.
It was the location for the part-time job.
As the scheduled time arrived, a staff member appeared.
“We’ll give you a brief introduction!”
The friendly staff member explained kindly.
“There are escape rooms with different themes on each of the 3 floors. After the experience, just leave a review!”
Normally, hard work comes with physical exhaustion, but simply experiencing and leaving a review seemed too easy.
This must be a real treat, right?
“If you clear everything within the time limit, we’ll pay three times the wage today!”
3 million won?!
The crowd buzzed.
Kim Gang-hyeok, though still unsure, felt excited.
If this is real, it’s going to be hug
The theme of the room assigned to Kim Gang-hyeok was ‘Colorful Dollhouse’.
It was a cute theme that kids would love.
It’s probably nothing special.
He thought to himself.
The rules were simple.
- Do not leak the theme and tricks of the room to outsiders.
- Do not damage any items, including the locks.
- Especially, do not damage the dolls.
- Clean up any blood you spill yourself.
However, the last rule seemed odd.
Is this supposed to be a horror theme?
It was probably just to create an atmosphere.
The theme was ‘Colorful Dollhouse,’ after all.
He gave a shallow smile and closed the rulebook.
After solving the puzzles, he finally got the final hint to escape the room.
[Find the doll Alice lost and place it in the doll frame.]
…What? This is too easy.
Kim Gang-hyeok slowly looked around the room.
Plush cloud-shaped cushions, colorful slides, and dozens of dolls
Then suddenly, in the corner of the room, one of the dolls fell over by itself.
“…?”
Kim Gang-hyeok was puzzled.
What is this? Is there some special mechanism?
Just as he was about to smile with curiosity,
slip.
The fallen doll slowly stood back up.
The other dolls’ necks slowly twisted, and they turned their heads.
What is this? This feels creepy.
A chill ran up Kim Gang-hyeok’s spine.
“Seems like it really is a horror theme…”
Kim Gang-hyeok muttered briefly and took a step back.
In that moment, the dolls’ eyes changed.
Their smiling mouths remained the same, but their pupils looked like empty holes.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Suddenly, one doll slowly began to approach, making a creaking sound.
Kim Gang-hyeok instinctively lifted his foot to kick it away, but then,
[No damage to dolls allowed]
The warning from the rulebook flashed through his mind.
That moment of hesitation.
It was then.
Crack.
The closest doll lunged at his wrist.
“Ugh! Aaahh!!”
A sharp pain spread as flesh was torn away.
The doll’s mouth opened to reveal sharp, metal-like teeth.
In an instant, one of his fingers was severed and fell to the floor with a thud.
As he screamed and tried to step back, other dolls, as if waiting for this moment, bit into his ankle.
Crunch!
“Aaaahhh—!!”
Kim Gang-hyeok fell to the floor.
Blood poured like a waterfall from his hands and ankle.
“Help me! Please!”
Desperately, he reached out, but
his blood-soaked palms merely slid and scraped across the floor.
Dozens of dolls slowly surrounded him.
Blood splattered on his face.
“Don’t go… come play with us…”
The children’s voices, still smiling, echoed with a tragic tone.
“No! No!!”
Dolls climbed on top of him, tearing at his flesh bite by bite.
Beneath the torn skin, his white bones were exposed.
“Please stop… please…!”
But his screams were drowned out by the dolls’ laughter.
The doll’s hand grasped his neck.
His breath was cut off.
Grrk, grrrrr…
As his throat tore, no scream came out.
Tears mixed with blood and ran down his cheeks.
In his fading consciousness, he saw, at the end of his vision, a small bear doll with a red ribbon, faintly glowing.
That… that was the answer…
But now, he couldn’t even stretch out his hand.
The dolls from all sides tore at his body, pulling, biting, and ripping.
His bones shattered, muscles were shredded, and his severed limbs scattered across the blood pool.
…I want to go, I want to leave…
That final thought was completely shattered.
The dolls continued to feast like that for a while longer.
Then, the room returned to a completely innocent, cute atmosphere, as if nothing had happened.
As if nothing was ever wrong from the start.
The Future Anomaly Research Institute.
Zone A, Control Room 2.
“Next participant, entering.”
With the mechanical announcement, the screen flickered.
The staff leaned back in their chair and leisurely looked at the monitor.
Even though the man who had been torn apart not long ago was still fresh in his mind, the thrilling aftertaste remained.
What despair would the next one bring?
What screams would he hear?
A slight smile tugged at the staff’s lips.
The door to the room opened.
On the screen appeared a tall man.
He had broad shoulders and a solid build.
But what caught the staff’s attention was not his appearance.
Why do his eyes look like that?
Through the screen, a chilling aura could be felt.
His gaze was ominous, inhuman even.
There was something off about it.
But the staff simply shrugged.
Anyway, this man will be no different.
In the end, he would just become the dolls’ next meal.
Soon, he would scream and beg, drenched in blood.
The thought made the staff member feel a rising sense of excitement.
That’s what was supposed to happen.
But then,
“Huh?”
An odd shift began.
The man casually glanced around the room without any tension.
If he’s that relaxed, this won’t be fun.
The staff member clicked their tongue.
In that moment, something moved in the corner of the screen.
One of the dolls slowly rose.
Then, one by one, the other dolls turned their heads simultaneously.
But something was off.
Normally, the dolls had hungry, beast-like eyes, searching for their next prey.
But now…
It was like a puppy had found its owner,
looking up at the man with joy.
What is this?
The staff member furrowed their brows, staring intensely at the screen.
Then their heart sank.
In the corner of the room, the small bear doll, the one that should have been the “key,” was walking on its own.
“What…?”
The staff member instinctively leaned closer to the screen.
The bear doll slowly and carefully made its way up to the man’s feet, almost as if it was wagging its tail like a dog.
The staff member’s lips trembled.
“Shit… what the hell is going on…”
The man briefly looked down at the doll.
Then, without any change in expression, he picked it up and walked toward the door.
He slowly brought the doll to the sensor.
Correct.
The cold, mechanical voice echoed.
The staff member felt cold sweat running down their back.
Something was wrong. This should never have happened.
This room was supposed to be filled with human fear and despair.
The dolls were anomalies, hostile creatures with a deep hatred for humans.
They were meant to tear, trample, and devour, so why were they acting differently toward this man?
Could he be an agent from the Anomaly Control Bureau?
The staff’s heart skipped a beat.
So they’d noticed after all.
The staff wiped away their cold sweat and shook their head.
“No… no way.”
They tried to steady their mind.
The man had only passed through the first floor, guarded by E-class anomalies.
The real problem was the next floor.
On the second floor was a true monster, one that crushed humans like toys.
No matter how much of an agent he was, that floor would be tough.
Yeah, the next floor will be different…
The staff repeated that to themselves, trying to calm down.
After passing through the doll room, the door opened automatically.
I walked down the corridor toward the next floor.
What is this?
This was really just a simple escape room.
There were no complex deductions or clever puzzles.
The fact that the dolls were anomalies was unusual, but compared to others I’d dealt with, they were rather tame.
The “Pyramid Beast” had bitten off arms at first sight, and “Mountain Dancer” had turned humans into flowers.
The “Giant Beast” had swallowed people whole…
Compared to those creatures, the ones I just encountered were almost cute.
“Do I just go up here?”
I headed toward the stairs leading to the second floor.
The second floor.
That’s where I was supposed to meet Section Chief Baek.
When I looked up, the sunlight felt unusually harsh, like the time I had gotten sandblasted on a construction site and rubbed my eyes.
It was then.
One side of my vision blurred slightly.
From between the shaking stair railing, something slowly began to seep out.
In the dark hole, countless “eyes” stacked up and looked down at me.
For a moment, it felt like I was going to suffocate.
…What is this?
As I blinked in surprise, the illusion vanished completely.
The empty stairs greeted me, as if nothing had happened.
What the hell was that?
At that moment, a voice from the blue-clad figure flashed in my mind.
“If those eyes start to hurt… try finding the Gyeongukin.”
For some reason, those words lingered in my mind.
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