Chapter 1486.2

It was a mystery what Chris meant when he said he was bad with it.

Of course, the two were more similar than they thought. Chris eventually braced himself and refused to go in, standing his ground.

Hyun-Ah sighed and said, “I’ll tell the three-legged octopus what a scaredy cat you are.”

“Shit...” Chris, who knew well that the three-legged octopus she always mentioned was Davey, put on a miserable face and slowly, very slowly, entered the haunted house.

“The theme they have going on this time is thalassophobia, fear of the deep sea. They say it’s all illusions, so there’s no actual water. We’ll head down, and if it gets too much for you, we can use the emergency exit to get out.”

The premise was simple. Inside the building was a massive pool that looked like a bottomless blue hole, and they had to go into it.

Of course, it only looked like water. The moment they entered, they would fall into an illusion that made them feel like they were actually underwater while still dry in reality.

In fact, the deep sea environment felt so incredibly realistic that the attraction had received rave reviews from all over. The high quality made sense, as it had been made by none other than Davey O’Rowane himself.

Chris dropped his usual cheeky smile and took a step back, then another, while looking at the pitch-black pool with a pale face. “Hey... I’m really sorry to interrupt our fun, but I’m super hungry right now. How about we go out and grab something to eat?”

“You’re right! I’m getting hungry, too,” Hyun-Ah agreed with a smile.

“Right? Then how about we leave right now—”

“Chris.” Hyun-Ah turned around, walking toward the edge with her hands behind her back.

It looked like a happy smile. However, the sinister aura she gave off made it impossible to see it as just a happy smile.

Chris felt even more despair.

She continued, “Stop playing games and get in.”

That was when she grabbed his hand tightly and jumped straight into the water.

Splash! Splash!

It felt like they had simply gone into water.

Near the surface, light still managed to penetrate. But below, the bottom was completely dark.

“Damn it...”

As the illusion took hold, Chris found himself wearing a diving suit. Hyun-Ah was also wearing a similar pitch-black diving suit, instead of the office outfit she had been wearing the moment before.

Her voice sounded like it was coming through a walkie-talkie as she told him, “Don’t worry about breathing underwater. Everything you see isn’t real, so you can breathe just fine. They say if you get too scared, you can press the escape button on your wristband. But... you’re not going to leave me here alone, are you?”

Soon after, Hyun-Ah fearlessly angled herself downward and quickly descended deeper.

People feared the deep sea for many reasons. The overwhelming water pressure was one, and the darkness that made everything invisible was another.

However, the biggest reason was the fear of whatever unknown thing might be lurking in the darkness.

The problem Chris faced was that the illusion felt so real that it made one forget they were in an illusion. Of course, to fit the attraction’s concept, they had packed it with plenty of terrifying unknown entities and mysterious figures when they created it.

“They say the record here is four hundred meters,” Hyun-Ah nonchalantly informed him. “No one has gone down farther than that.”

It wasn’t a simple problem of depth. As they descended, the presence of an unknown creature grew stronger.

Even though they had just entered, Chris trembled all over because of the creepy feeling he felt.

The sharper your senses were, the more intense the fear became.

Ssss.

Just then, something massive brushed past his leg.

All he could see was Hyun-Ah, descending with a bright lamp on her helmet, so he couldn’t see anything else around them.

Before he knew it, they had descended quite a distance. Checking the depth gauge, Chris realized they had already passed two hundred meters while he mindlessly followed behind her.

He was sweating like crazy in his diver suit.

Thalassophobia. It wasn’t usually severe, but, for Chris who had a strong aversion to the deep sea, the place they’d entered was no different from hell.

Still, the thought of leaving Hyun-Ah alone made him hesitate to press the escape button. He finally began, “Hey, Princess! I’m really sorry, but let’s stop! I seriously can’t do this!”

“What? But we just got down here. I really wanted to try this.”

“I’m sorry... I want to get out of here right now, but I can’t just leave you alone, can I? So... uh, um... I lost. Let’s just get out of here.”

Hearing those words, Hyun-Ah blew a few bubbles like she was disappointed. “You were acting all cocky for nothing. Don’t challenge me next time. Got it?”

As Hyun-Ah made a victory sign with a cute smile, Chris gave a bitter smile. “Okay. Now, let’s see where that escape button is... huh?”

That was when it happened.

Hyun-Ah looked up and down in a panic. She called out in a trembling voice, “Chris.”

“Huh? Please tell me everything’s okay. Heavens, you’re scaring me.”

“I’m sorry... but the button is deactivated.”

There was a problem with the illusion.

Chris’s face instantly turned white, and Hyun-Ah’s expression started to darken as well.

The button’s malfunction meant they couldn’t quit halfway through, forced to complete the ride and fully descend if they wanted to leave.

However, it wasn’t an attraction the average person could ever hope to complete. Considering Davey was the only person who’d ever made it to the end, it was practically designed for people to quit halfway through.

In fact, the part-time manager had also emphasized that point to him after he submitted it.

“Oh... Jesus fucking... Please.”

As he groaned in a dying voice, Hyun-Ah also looked around with a serious expression. “Uh... I guess we’re just screwed. I can’t go down much further either...”

Hyun-Ah began to panic even more than Chris.

Gurgle gurgle!!!

At the same time, some kind of force from the deep sea floor began pulling the two quickly downward.

“Kyaaahhh!!”

As Hyun-Ah was sucked down, Chris instinctively turned his body downward to reach her faster.

“Wait!!!” Seeing her terrified face, Chris moved without thinking. “This damn attraction! I should just smash it!”

He summoned a flood of courage out of nowhere. Even as the chilling presence closed in around him, he frantically swam toward Hyun-Ah as she was being sucked in.

He then pulled the trembling Hyun-Ah into a tight hug and looked at her wrist.

“Damn it! Damn it!”

Both of their equipment sets and escape buttons were unresponsive.

In that darkness, something enormous brushed past them.

Hyun-Ah froze stiff, while Chris stared at the depth gauge in shock. “Deep sea... two thousand meters deep. How did we get all the way here...”

Considering the record was only about four hundred meters, he figured it had to be an error.

He felt like he was losing his mind. Realizing just how terrifying the attraction was, he tightly hugged Hyun-Ah, who had already fallen into a panic.

“It’s okay! You have me! There’s nothing to be scared of!”

Even Chris, an S-rank hero, felt like he was losing it. Still, once seeing Hyun-Ah panic, he somehow managed to hold himself together. He could only bear it because they were together, unsure he could’ve endured it alone.

He even found himself wondering how that psychotic Saint of Tionis had managed to make it all the way to the end.

Perhaps it was because he was the creator, and already knew what lurked in the deep sea. But even so, the whole attraction felt too real, making it beyond terrifying.

Beep!

That was when it happened.

The escape device on Chris’s wrist lit up, while Hyun-Ah’s device was still unlit.

Chris, who was deathly pale, then checked Hyun-Ah’s condition. As the situation turned more serious and she became too terrified to know what to do, he didn’t hesitate. He took off his wristband and put it on her wrist, swapping hers to his own wrist.

She was stunned. “Chris?!”

“You go first. I’ll see you outside.”

“What are you talking about!?”

The moment Hyun-Ah screamed in surprise, Chris, with a pale face, pressed the escape button he had just put on her wrist.

Whoosh!

She abruptly vanished, and he was left alone.

A terrible fear washed over him. He couldn’t believe such a damned ride even existed. An illusion so terrifying could completely break a person easily.

Lamenting his bad luck, Chris went into a crouch. The pitch-black deep sea, where he was left alone, was the epitome of fear for him.

“GRRR...”

As an eerie cry rang out, all the strength left his body, and he went into the fetal position.

Then it happened.

The sensation of cold water; the chilling current; the strange sound.

Everything stopped.

At the same time, the surrounding scenery completely changed and began to brighten.

As soon as he came to his senses and turned his head, the pale Hyun-Ah rushed into his arms.

“It’s okay... It’s okay,” she softly comforted. “You’re fine now.”

“Ah...”

It seemed Hyun-Ah, who had gone out first, pulled him out.

He was still out of it. “What happened?”

“What happened? Well, it looks like there’s a setting that automatically kicks you out if your fear exceeds a certain psychological limit. You crossed that threshold and got forcibly logged out.”

“Then...”

“I think that crazy three-legged octopus bastard rigged the ride so this would happen when I came here.”

His legs gave out.

Hyun-Ah had always called Davey O’Rowane a three-legged octopus, and this time, he felt a fierce urge to agree with her. “Holy fuckin’ shit, that monster...”

He could only repeatedly mutter about what a psycho Davey was.

“Still... that was a bit... cool...”

Just then, when Hyun-Ah mumbled with a red face, the fear from a moment ago vanished as if he had never been scared.

He turned to her. “Huh? Say that again. What did you just say?”

She was startled. “I... I didn’t say anything!”

“Ah. Now that I think about it...”

Hyun-Ah was holding him in a tight hug. She belatedly noticed and quickly tried to pull away, but Chris had no intention of letting that happen.

“Kyaaa!!! L-let go of me, you loser!”

“That’s a no-no. No way.”

He held her tightly in his arms and said, “He’s a god!”

Chris, who was just calling Davey a crazy lunatic, instantly changed his attitude and praised him. He realized that one move alone had completely shaken her heart.

In fact, while Hyun-Ah rested in his arms, her heart pounded wildly at the thought of what Chris had done for her in the deep sea.