Chapter 42: Greed is rampant.

The Angel’s Path, which Lee Hyejin highly recommended at the theme park.
It turned out to be a new labyrinthine recreation of the unpleasant path filled with my photos that Hwang Gilsu had created in the Angel Church.

Somehow, I had a bad feeling about it from the moment I heard the explanation.
Now, Lee Hyejin’s ideas were even added,
reaching a point where one had to solve quizzes while escaping the maze.

‘… No, wasn’t this a theme park…? Isn’t that closer to torture…?’

Just hearing the description made my head spin.
This time, Lee Hyejin had truly created it in serious mode, so I already knew how difficult it would be without even seeing it.

Of course, no one was forcing anyone to do it.
Everyone was voluntarily entering.

‘But… why bother…?’

To me, the act of going to experience it itself seemed a bit strange.
What kind of prize did they offer to make people go into that?
Questions filled my mind.

So, for the first time in a very long while, I overcame my laziness,
and with my tongue-tied mouth, I asked my curiosity.

“Wh-what’s… the prize…?”

Lee Hyejin’s eyes widened immensely, and she stared blankly at me.

‘… Huh?’

A puzzling reaction that I couldn’t understand at all.
As I tilted my head in confusion,

“A-Angel…! Did you just act cute for me!?”

Huh…? N-no…?

Lee Hyejin, her face flushed, was making a strange misunderstanding.
Come to think of it, it was the first time she had heard me speak in this state.

I hastily shook my head, feeling an ominous energy.

“… Oh, too bad….”

A chill ran down my spine at Lee Hyejin’s very soft murmur that followed.
It was truly like a horror movie.

‘Th-this person, what was she trying to do to me just now…?’

This time, I was startled and looked at her, but Lee Hyejin merely smiled sweetly.

‘… Maybe it’s better not to know.’

It was a sight that made me instinctively think this.
It was as if there was no need to deliberately peer into the abyss….

I naturally and subtly turned my head,
and only then did Lee Hyejin belatedly open her mouth with an ‘Ah.’

“Oh, right, you asked about the prize, didn’t you? For now, they’re all coins. There’s just a difference in the number of coins per difficulty. And with those, you can buy Angel merchandise, you know?”

It was an answer that was somewhat expected and thus not surprising.
After all, only similar words came from her mouth.

So, I nodded slightly, accepting it as such.
Then, I suddenly saw two very conspicuous men in the distance.

They were carrying bulky travel backpacks, packed full,
as if they were going on a long journey somewhere.

At a glance, their attire was very out of place, completely unfitting for a theme park.
Because of that, I unconsciously found myself staring at them,
and Lee Hyejin followed my gaze, turning her head.

“Ah~ Looking at those people, they must be going to challenge the Angel’s Path advanced course.”

This was a completely unexpected statement.

‘… Huh? Really? But if they’re doing that, why all that luggage…?’

Judging by their attire, it felt like there was a campsite somewhere in the theme park.
Otherwise, the amount of luggage they had couldn’t be explained.

So, I thought, ‘Surely, they’re not trying to complete the full 6-hour course?’
And at that moment, Lee Hyejin grinned.

“Since you’re curious, I’ll have to show you. My masterpiece of careful planning….”

Lee Hyejin, as always, suddenly said something out of the blue.
She carried me in her arms and walked somewhere without hesitation,
and Park Gyutae, who was inadvertently talking to a theme park official, was left behind.

As we moved away, I could see his bewildered, trembling gaze,
but since there was no way for me to stop this, I simply gave up.

The place we arrived at was the monitoring room, where all courses of Angel’s Path could be observed.
They said it was made in case of any unexpected incidents due to the long courses….

‘… Hmm?’

The moment I saw the monitor, my head tilted involuntarily.
What appeared before my eyes was, no matter how I looked at it, not the maze I had imagined nor a suitable scene for it.

Although I had seen it recently, the maze I imagined was…
A winding, suffocatingly narrow path.
A space where one explores in solitude, checking directions, and struggling to escape.

But what I was seeing now was….

Cheers~!
Clink!
Cheers!

People gathered in a spacious clearing, drinking alcohol,
with something like a bonfire lit even in broad daylight.

Ding, ding… ding….

Someone sitting on the ground playing a guitar,
and people leisurely enjoying it.

How much is one gimbap roll?
5000 won, or 5 coins.
… What? Why is it so expensive?
Supply and demand.
Ah, yes….
Miss, it’s 4800 won here.
4500.
No, mister, you just said 5000 won.
Supply and demand.
?

People running all sorts of businesses, and.

What’s the answer to the type of crab Angel caught on the deserted island?
What? You don’t know that? You don’t know that?
So what is it?
You’re here without even knowing that?
No, what is it?
Tsk tsk, how pathetic, how pathetic. This guy was pure bluff.
… Hey, follow me.
Oh!? Look, a quiz battle is popping up!

Finally, even people engaged in some incomprehensible fights….
Truly, all sorts of humans were gathered.

‘Is this… a maze…?’

I stared blankly at the monitor, speechless,
and Lee Hyejin spoke triumphantly beside me.

“How is it!? Isn’t it awesome!?”

…… Awesome, you ask…?
Uh… honestly, if it’s just about awesomeness, it is awesome….

Well, there are statues and such…
And the grass is trimmed into animal shapes, so it’s really awesome, but….

‘But, is this… a maze…? No matter how I look at it, those people just seem to be here to have fun….’

Negative thoughts naturally kept coming to my mind.
Then, I suddenly realized one important fact belatedly.

‘…… Huh? Come to think of it, this is a theme park, isn’t it…?’

Then it’s natural for people to come to play, isn’t it…?
Why was I even bothering with this…?

It wasn’t like they were being punished,
and there was no need for them to struggle to escape the maze.

It seemed I had been infected by Lee Hyejin’s usual mindset.
So, now that I finally let go of my obsession with the maze and relaxed,
Lee Hyejin added an explanation.

“Oh, by the way, that’s the halfway point. The fastest person took… let’s see. Ah, 5 hours.”

…… You said the course was 6 hours…?

I instantly understood why those men had packed so much luggage.
The average value for escape would naturally have been thought up by Hwang Gilsu and Lee Hyejin,
and ordinary people couldn’t possibly meet that standard.

However, it was still a sufficiently wondrous sight, so I continued to feel interest and curiosity.
And as I watched Angel’s Path for a long time…

[ XX News ] Korean Angel Theme Park Receives Worldwide Acclaim!

Korean Angel Theme Park, opened on XXth of XX month.
‘Angel’s Path,’ created based on the concepts of ‘Survival/Quiz/Adventure/Escape/Healing/Battle,’ has been revealed online, receiving worldwide acclaim from people…

Somehow, even though a whole day was spent, instead of my promotional video,
another promotional video ended up being filmed.

But the interesting part here was…

“What did Senior say?”

“Huh? Uh, uh… the director said the higher-ups had a good reaction and we don’t need to film a new one? She said this is enough…?”

Anyway, something had been resolved by this.

Two weeks had already passed since ‘laziness’ manifested in Angel.
The conference room of the Angel Research Lab, except for the sounds coming from the video,
was enveloped in a quiet silence. The reason was simple.

That’s because they had already replayed the same video so many times
that everyone had memorized the scenes completely and had nothing more to say.

But that was about to end soon.
Finally, as the umpteenth video ended, one of the researchers shuffled through documents and said.

“Hmm, it seems correct.”

Immediately, other researchers also agreed.

“I think it’s correct too.”

“Yes, in fact, there’s nothing else to suspect at all besides that.”

A unanimous opinion among everyone in the conference room.

“Accumulated voluntary use of powers affected her state…. Hmm, it is certainly a quality opposite to laziness, and that seems to be the most likely possibility.”

Choi Eunju also nodded slightly in agreement,
and deeply considered the questions filling her mind.

‘Then… that wasn’t a coincidence?’

Unlike other Angels, the Korean Angel didn’t know how to use her powers.
Instead, perhaps, she was free from desires.

In short, if using her powers was the problem after all.
Then it was no different from them forcibly manifesting her desires.

‘Did we really turn her into an Angel…?’

Moreover, even those powers were used voluntarily to save humans,
in places like the folk village and the deserted island….

‘Hmm… I feel quite bad….’

She was someone who thought nothing of sacrificing the small for the sake of the big, for experiments and results.
But for some reason, she suddenly recalled the unnecessary experiments she had conducted and felt regret.
Although it was something she had done unknowingly,
Angel had somehow become the ‘big’ for her, not the ‘small’.

‘… Is there a way to reverse it….’

She pressed her forehead and stared blankly at the documents.
But the thought that there was no such way kept coming to mind, and as she sighed deeply inside…

Ding.

Her phone, which should have been on silent except for a ‘specific number’, chimed an alarm.

‘… What is it?’

So, wondering what was happening, she immediately checked it.