Chương 283: Step Out Of Wonderland

Inside the safe zone, Gilepre stared at himself using a mirror. Eyes sunken, wide open, and bloodshot. With how much he had been forced to hide, his breathing had naturally become extremely quiet, and it was barely if he could even spot his own chest moving up and down with his exhales and inhales. He had been here… For longer than he could count at this point.

Like a children's toy, he had been ragdolled through scenario after scenario, flung in between the habitual shifts, whose difficulty never stopped increasing, and the other random tasks, challenges, and, of course, the other kinds of shifts. Gilepre had no idea how he had survived until now. He could hardly believe that he had survived for so long.

He had come close to death too many times for him to remember all of the instances clearly, but it was nothing short of a miracle that this endless nightmare hadn't gotten him so far. He has gone through several other establishments, all with their own unique automatons filled with murderous intent–The Foxtrotters, Frank and the Farmyard, The Cuddles, Benjack and Nathaniel, The Kidder-Keepers… And even the horrifying clowns he had once met deep inside the backrooms.

Who turned out to be officially called 'The Laughing Executioners', as they had genuinely been built with the intent of doing the work of an executioner by brutally slaughtering those who were forced within their suits of metal. It was all insanity to the captured agent. He didn't even know how long it had truly been since his captivity and torment had begun. All he knew was that he should be getting closer to breaking this nightmare.

The amount of weirder shifts had drastically reduced recently, and the shifts at other places had simply completely gone away. He was left with simply facing against the now horrifically difficult shifts at Glown's Wonderland.

Not only were all of the clown girls now active and more aggressive than ever, but it had apparently been decided that thirteen of them wasn't enough, and three extra clown gals had been added to the mix, as with everything in this awful nightmare, their existence and presence were actually justified. They were special additions to the gang that originally each emerged in other locations of Glown's Wonderland, apparently as a way to celebrate the success of these locations in other countries.

Much to Gilepre's displeasure, this led to their introduction into the main location, where he was stationed in this nightmare. Meaning that he had to learn three new automatons with personalities and ways of attack just as complicated as the rest. Rotma Dunkellin, the special addition from Malkazert, was a red-skinned demoness who was a dancer and juggler for the most part.

Capable of utterly insane movements due to some magnets that were part of her design, which allowed her to walk on walls or the ceiling as she saw fit. To deal with her, the main thing Gilepre needed to pay attention to was the song she was constantly humming. Depending on what she was humming when she arrived at the security office, he would need to do something different. If her humming was friendly, he needed to let her in and act like a normal employee by telling her that this was a restricted zone.

His tone could probably give him away, but he was far too used to all of this to show fear in his voice. … In any case, as long as he did the right thing. She wouldn't attack and kill him. Gefroriri Blaublau was the special addition from Heldinot. She was a nicely dressed penguinfolk wearing a tailcoat–In Gilepre's eyes, she was probably the freakiest-looking of the clown girls in general, and it was definitely due to her beak and eyes being put together. It just made him feel a sense of uncanniness…

She was an automaton who didn't actually seem capable of killing him outright. Of course, Gilepre wasn't going to tempt fate, but her methods of attack were rather peaceful. She wouldn't move from the spot where she was supposed to be inactive after opening hours. She would just wake up every once and then, and he would have to play a quiz.

The difficulty would increase every time he won, and whenever he would fail, she would make some progress, with there being basically no other way to stall her than to play her quiz. There were a few things that Gilepre knew worked on nearly all of them, but they were only to be used in case of emergency, as they were grossly inefficient most of the time, or would only work a handful of times. One time, he had been caught in what he would qualify as a 'combo'.

Schwarzolie, the magician, had the apparent ability to just straight-up teleport. Often forcing Gilepre to find her somewhere in the building, and that could include being directly behind him, or hiding in some of the lockers in the security office. However, when she did this, Schwarzolie would make a very distinct sound that was basically impossible to miss… However, she had another way of attack, a way of attack that Gilepre had discovered firsthand when it was introduced without warning.

She could silently teleport behind him without making any noise, and would even quietly move around to stay out of his vision when he moved. She wouldn't kill him when she did this. Instead, she would freeze the clock, and in this nightmare world, the clock was the representation of passing time. If it were frozen, time wouldn't progress. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. The problem was that Schwarzolie wouldn't stay stuck doing this.

She would continue doing her usual stuff, meaning that time wouldn't stay frozen until Gilepre realised that she was behind him, and also, the camera she was on wasn't relevant at all, so he never checked it, as it would be wasting time that should be spent elsewhere, meaning that he never saw whether she was gone or not. He had been entirely relying on the sound she made to know if she moved… As such, on the shift in which she gained the ability to not only mess with spatial law, but with the law of time.

His shift was made to be far longer, leading to him answering way more questions from the penguin, and thus, the difficulty ramped up, and she eventually made it to his office. She couldn't be kept out. Even the emergency lockdown of the doors was useless, as she would just patiently wait to enter. Surprisingly, even once she was inside, she didn't change much of what she did. The only difference was that the quizzes were now performed in person, and she would pat his head and praise him when he answered correctly.

The difficulty of the questions seemed to be reset, and now, instead of progressing, each bad answer would just make the clock go in reverse. The Schwarzolie and Gefroriri Blaublau combo was nothing short of cruel and unusual torture. Especially when you had to hear the latter speak all the time, either praising you like she was talking to a child, or encouraging you after a bad answer. Gilepre had never tried to ignore a question, but he felt that this might be what could trigger the penguin to turn violent…

Wustelimie Sonnegelb was the last of the extras, and she came from Giorsalbe. She was indeed quite the exotic addition, being that she was a sword-swallower and flame-breather. She was also the most confusing of the three newcomers. The desert clown was extremely erratic. She was either mimicking the method of attack of any of the other clown gals, or she would start performing. When doing the latter, if Gilepre saw her on a camera, the CS would be locked.

He would be unable to switch cameras and would have to wait until her performance was over. As such, she was yet another automaton that required constant tracking, as the only way he knew that she was performing was through a message on the S. C and nothing else. If he didn't know where she was when that happened, or if he didn't see her preparing to perform, then he was highly likely to stab himself in the foot and lose access to his primary tool for survival. Despite it all, he made it through again and again…

Until he was met with the weird system panel once more, but this one bore a message that filled him with hope and determination. Congratulations, Gilepre! You have reached the final mandatory shift. Complete this shift, and you will not only defeat the pre-final trial but also receive a reward for being the first to ever defeat a pre-final trial! Good luck, you are being watched Gilepre was so pumped up that he simply ignored the four final words. He felt invigorated like never before.

This was better than a full night of sleep for him. It was the confirmation that not all had been in vain. He could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Immediately, the clown gals surged to life. Most of them immediately got off their stage, but Purpurnita stared directly at the camera. It was like she knew this was the last shift for him. The leader of the group was naturally the worst to deal with.

She might move slowly, but when she had first activated, she had brought with her a whole new dimension to the shifts at Glown's Wonderland. Purpurnita had the bad habit of giving directions to her fellows, sending them either on a straight line toward Gilepre or accurately telling them to go to the worst possible place. Basically, when Purpurnita was involved, all sense of randomness was removed. The automatons would make the most optimal decision possible…

There wasn't much that could be done to stop this reliably. He had no way to force her to go back on stage, but he could divert her from her course by making false reports concerning children being lost or in danger. It would cause the clown leader to immediately go investigate. This trick wouldn't work many times, but it was the main weapon he had against her. Apart from giving orders, she would also do something no other clown gals did, and that was attempt to sabotage machinery.

Gilepre could defend them, but it was capital that he did not allow her to get some of the more sensitive pieces of machinery. The rooms containing these machines were secure and had heavy doors that could be closed remotely, but the problem was that Purpurnita was considered to be akin to an employee, so she could get these doors to open, forcing Gilepre to pay close attention. Sending her away from these doors was not a good idea.

It was best to conserve his lures for when she tried to make her way to the office, because when she went for it, she would make a straight line and not give a damn about anything. Tricking her into going to assist a child that did not exist was the only way to get her to move away. Gilepre reached a level of focus he hadn't believed himself capable of until today. He knew how they moved, he knew how they thought… He knew how to defend himself against them.

He had everything he could possibly need to survive this last shift. Even then, he came close to death many times. The timings required at times were nigh impossible to meet. He had to make concessions and take risks at times. He made sure to keep Schwarzolie out of his office so as not to have to spend even a second longer than normal here. Until the final minute passed, and… All the lights went off inside the building.

Silence permeated everything, and the sound of Gilepre swallowing his saliva felt like a deafening boom to his own ears. Had he won, or… Was there more to this shift than met the eye?

"Shit…" His first instinct was to try to get out through the emergency exit, but it wouldn't even budge, no matter how hard he tried.

"... I guess I have no other choice but to head for the entrance…" He could feel his heart beating inside his chest. It was time to reach the end.