Chapter 47: The Door to the Other Side

After running for a long time, Yeon-hee suddenly snapped out of it.

“…Eh?”

The surrounding landscape had changed abruptly.

The fog had vanished, and tourists were visible once more.

She had come out through the main gate of the theme park.

“What? How did I get here…?”

She had simply been running blindly through the obscured path.

She hadn’t passed any rides or facilities, yet suddenly, she was outside.

Yeon-hee looked back instinctively, peering through the main gate into the theme park.

“…Ah.”

Goosebumps broke out over her entire body.

The inside of the theme park was full of people.

Their joyful expressions were clearly visible.

“Then what about the fog?”

She hadn’t been able to see even right next to her just a moment ago.

How could she see their expressions now?

– Wow…, they really built this well.

– I think they captured the horror concept perfectly. This looks fun!

Listening only to the Korean among the various languages drifting from near the gate, the conversations were perfectly normal for a theme park.

For a moment, Yeon-hee wondered if everything she had just experienced was her imagination. The scene near the main gate was that natural.

Perhaps she had just been confused for a moment and got separated from Jin-ah unnie, and wouldn’t a call or message come soon to tell her where she was?

With this thought, she even looked into her phone.

[ Yeon-hee… I… don’t know where I am… ]

It wasn’t an illusion.

The last message Jin-ah unnie had sent proved that none of this was a mistake.

“Unnie.”

She didn’t know what it was, but Jin-ah unnie was in danger.

In that case, she had to do something.

Yeon-hee gripped her phone tightly and raised her head.

She didn’t know what to do yet, but she looked around with determination.

Only then did she notice something.

– Eh? When did I get all the way out here?

– Guys, why are there only three of us?

– What? Why isn’t she answering the phone?

It was outside the theme park, not inside.

There were people wearing expressions of anxiety and bewilderment.

Judging by what she could hear, they seemed unable to contact members of their parties who had vanished.

Yeon-hee was certain they were people who had undergone the same experience as her.

Some were approaching the staff members maintaining order outside the gate to explain the situation.

She could hear the conversations between the multi-lingual staff and the Koreans.

– Yes, we definitely got separated inside. The fog was so thick….

– Fog? As you can see, it is a clear night.

– Well, that may be. But we got separated inside regardless.

– Does that person perhaps not have a cell phone?

The staff were responding kindly, but they didn’t seem to think it was a big deal.

Since it was an adult, not a child, who had simply gotten separated from their group inside the park, it wasn’t a strange reaction.

Yeon-hee swallowed hard.

What should she do? If she showed the staff Jin-ah unnie’s message—

[ Yeon-hee… I… don’t know where I am… ]

But if viewed with the assumption that it was nothing special, this message was merely saying she was lost. They might even think she was relaxed enough to send a message.

“…What do I do?”

And suddenly.

The face that had occurred to her even while she was running frantically earlier.

Sun-woo’s face came to mind.

“No, why at a time like this….”

Just because his nickname was the Demon God didn’t mean he could solve something like this.

Yeon-hee shook her head vigorously.

She only stopped when she felt dizzy.

Rather, Sun-woo’s face came to mind even more clearly.

Common sense dictated she should contact the police.

The Japanese police number is 110. She wasn’t good at Japanese, so she wondered what to do while raising her phone.

[ Please help me. ]

Truly, even in her own mind, it was ridiculous, but Yeon-hee found herself sending such a nonsensical message to Pantheon’s official account.

Origin Ent did not block direct messages from fans.

Even so, it wasn’t like a private bubble message.

There was no way Sun-woo could read a message at this hour, so what could he possibly—

“You asked for help?”

“Uwaaaa!!!!”

Yeon-hee ended up screaming in shock.

“Uh? Uwa? Demon God Sun-woo?”

A man with his face wrapped in a hat and scarf on this January night.

However, a unique aura that could not be hidden by any outfit bloomed from his entire body.

An ominous and fearful, yet enchanting aura maximized by the red and dark lighting of the theme park.

It was as if the space he stood in was separate from the background.

As a fan, Yeon-hee couldn’t possibly fail to recognize the Demon God’s silhouette and aura.

“Yeon-hee. Thou art drawing unnecessary attention. Be silent.”

Above all, there was only one person Yeon-hee knew who spoke like that.

The Demon God had descended.

“M-M-M-Demon God-nim?”

“Indeed.”

“Why are you here? Did you read my message?”

“Message? I know nothing of such things.”

“Pardon? Then how did you know I asked for help?”

Yeon-hee felt a sense of awe, wondering if the Demon God could see into people’s hearts.

“Thou wert murmuring while pressing thy phone.”

“…Ah.”

She had simply been talking to herself.

“I have never seen anyone speak exactly what they are writing in a message. By doing so, does everyone around thee not know what conversation thou art having?”

“Ugh. I-I don’t usually do that. Then how on earth did you get here?”

At that, the Demon God waved the pamphlet in his hand.

“Does it not say that this is not a mere concept, but a place built by buying up psychic spots? Why was the writer unaware of this?”

He looked truly indignant.

‘Demon God-nim must really like horror,’ Yeon-hee thought.

But.

Now was not the time for this conversation.

“Demon God-nim, please help! Something seems to have happened to Jin-ah unnie, I mean, Zombie unnie!”

Although she felt relieved for a moment upon seeing the Demon God, Yeon-hee could not be fully at ease until Yoo Jin-ah was found.

“So, what happened was—”

Yeon-hee told him everything that had occurred.

The Demon God listened in silence without interrupting her.

As she told the story, Yeon-hee worried that the Demon God might think she was strange.

It was that difficult of a story to believe.

It was a story that would only make sense if it were a psychic phenomenon.

Would the Demon God-nim believe her? Or would he not?

With these doubts, she finished her story.

“Magnificent.”

“?”

“Very good.”

“??”

A response that exceeded the scope of Yeon-hee’s expectations flowed out.

He seemed to believe her, but why was he smiling at this scary story?

She could only see his eyes curving into crescents above the scarf.

However, contrary to that reaction, the Demon God gently patted Yeon-hee’s shoulder.

“Do not be afraid.”

If thou art left alone in the confusion of the middle of the night, call upon the Demon God.

For I shall stand by thy side after wading through the deeper night.

“For I shall help thee.”

***

And at this moment.

Samkang Enterprise and MusicNet were in a state of immense chaos.

On the night before the MAMA performance, a large-scale disappearance had begun to be reported to the organizers.

At first, they thought they were just people who had lost their parties within the theme park, but the number was gradually increasing, approaching one hundred.

This was too many, far too many.

It was a remote location with no separate exits to the outside. Where could these people possibly be?

Furthermore, as if by agreement, everyone’s phones were cut off.

“What…?”

Chairman Hayasaburo also stood up from his seat after receiving the report at dawn. He continued to check the progress of the situation, but it was only worsening.

The faces of the executives who had also been woken up at dawn gradually turned pale.

A disappearance of this many people would be a major disaster.

Having a horror concept was one thing, but an actual disaster occurring was completely different.

Naturally, all sorts of investigations and compensations would follow, and the theme park might have to close under public condemnation.

And they hadn’t even officially opened for business yet.

“Were the safety measures not certain?”

“Of course. There isn’t even a space inside where one could go missing.”

To the question already repeated several times, the response was also repeated several times.

There was no space.

There was no space anywhere for the missing people to have vanished into.

“Then where on earth have they gone?”

However, the fact that they were missing was a clear reality.

Unless nearly a hundred people had simply ceased to exist, they had to be somewhere inside.

The worst-case scenario was that they weren’t even inside.

If they had been kidnapped to somewhere else, the matter would grow even larger.

“We have woken up all the staff to search the surroundings. And we are also scouring the inside of the theme park, but… the thing is…”

“Speak up!”

Sensing a certain ominousness from the executive who swallowed his words, the Chairman urged him for an answer.

The executive finally spat out the words he had swallowed.

“Disappearances have begun to occur among the staff as well.”

“What?”

The staff members who set out to find the missing people had become missing themselves.

In that case, it was difficult to even force the search operations to continue.

“And the police have contacted us….”

Since missing persons reports had been filed with the police, it was a natural progression.

The police had also initially thought it was just a case of getting lost in the theme park, but now they seemed to be taking it seriously.

“They say they will be dispatched and are requesting cooperation.”

Lamentations flowed from the mouths of several executives.

Once the police were dispatched, there was no turning back.

“What should we do?”

At an executive’s cautious question, Chairman Hayasaburo replied in a strained voice.

“What else can we do? Proceed according to procedure.”

This was a major accident.

A major accident capable of causing the company’s image and destiny to plummet in an instant.

‘Could there really be an evil spirit?’

The Chairman’s brow furrowed deeply.

***

And at this moment, MusicNet was also in a state of emergency.

The production crew, who had been working nearly all night for the next day’s event, were appalled by the snowballing reports of disappearances.

“What on earth is this situation? There are this many missing people?”

PD Choi Ji-seung clutched his head.

Most of the missing people were fans who had come to see MAMA.

If such a situation occurred, the next day’s event could not proceed.

Forcing the event to continue would be improper, and if they did, they were bound to face immense criticism.

Song Hwi-na was clutching her head in the same way beside him.

“What do we do? There’s no way to handle this?”

There was no way MusicNet could handle something that Samkang Enterprise was unable to touch.

All the production crew and staff remained silent, occasionally uttering a word of worry before falling silent again; that stifling time continued to flow.

“I’m here!”

A staff member entered.

It was the staff member in charge of the artists staying at the resort provided by Samkang.

His assigned mission was to check if any artists had left their seats—or more frankly, if any artists had gone missing.

Since the awards ceremony and performance were tomorrow, he expected them to be sleeping after practicing, but artists were sensible and different from ordinary people.

So he had them check under the guise of a simple headcount.

Now, that staff member’s complexion was ghostly pale.

He had a face that clearly showed something major had happened.

“What is it? Speak up quickly!”

When the PD and writer urged him, unable to bear it.

“Well, that is, Zion of Novior…”

Zion, who was scheduled to be the MC tomorrow?

“They say they can’t reach him.”

“What? What do they say over there?”

“They said he went to look around the theme park because he’s originally a horror fan. He reportedly went out with his designated manager. They didn’t seem to care much about him being unreachable though.”

That was because they didn’t know the situation yet.

The PD put his hand to his forehead.

A member of Novior, a first-tier group with a global fandom, suddenly went missing while trying to participate in MAMA?

Samkang Group was responsible for the operation, but the broadcasting station would not be able to escape criticism either.

The aftermath was terrifying just to imagine—no, it was unimaginable.

“Oh, and—”

“What? There’s more?”

“One more person has vanished.”

The staff member recalled the name and continued.

“Sun-woo of Pantheon; he was not in his room either.”

The disappearance of another idol.

In an instant, the meeting room was swept up in shock once again.

“It’s over. If it goes on like this, everything is over.”

***

At this moment, inside the theme park.

“Oh, it is here.”

“Pardon? How did you know when I haven’t even said anything?”

“Hmph.”

The Demon God looked at the passage next to the gift shop.

To a human, it would look like an ordinary path, but to the Demon God’s eyes, the shimmering distortion of space was very clear.

“To have accomplished something of this magnitude.”

It was on a different dimension from an evil spirit that merely clung to a single human and confused their mind.

It meant it was a powerful evil spirit capable of even turning into a demon if left alone.

Gauging that power, the Demon God spoke a serious word to himself.

“It seems it will be quite delicious.”