I Activated Cheat Mode in a Bizarre Game

The gazes of the guest entities filling the restaurant were downright chilling.

Just the fact that dozens of expressionless, featureless faces were all turned toward us made my spine crawl.
Amid this suffocating tension, I shouted angrily at the dress-wearing monster, who seemed to be orchestrating the whole /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ situation.
"What the hell do you think you're doing! You think we're some kind of joke?!"

Despite my outburst, the dress monster gave no reaction.
It had clearly understood me.
It merely let out a creaking noise, as if mocking me, and then slowly gestured with one hand.

As if responding to that signal, new entities began to emerge like shadows from the darkness of the kitchen and corners of the restaurant.
They were dressed in crisp waiter uniforms.
Those things, still frozen in mid-motion as if they had been serving food, or contorted into grotesque postures, slowly began to surround our team.

Clack, clack!
Thud, thud, thud!
My team members ran to try the locked door, but it didn’t budge an inch.

“Damn it, we’re surrounded!”
“Team Leader, I think this is a trap!”
“S-Should we use the escape item?!”

Their voices were rising in panic.
Some of their faces had already turned pale.
The sight stirred up a wave of irritation in me.

“Shut up! You call yourselves an elite team?! What, are your combat items just for show?!”
My harsh rebuke seemed to snap them back somewhat—after a moment of hesitation, the team members began to draw their items and assume combat stances.
Only then did things settle a little.
Yeah, this was manageable.

Sure, there were a lot of them—but they were still just entities.
We just had to cut them all down, retrieve the register, and be done with it.
I turned my eyes once more toward the dress monster.

I didn’t know if I’d get an answer, but before we started fighting, I had to at least know the reason behind this.
“Why are you doing this? Is it because of Assistant Manager Kim Hyunsoo? Did he mess something up?”
At my question, the dress monster slowly, and very clearly, shook its head.

Not because of Kim Hyunsoo?
Then what the hell was the reason for this extreme response? I couldn’t begin to guess.
The dress monster, still shaking its head as if to say Kim wasn’t the cause, eerily turned its head toward one part of the restaurant.

Standing there was a man.
“Why is there a person... in a place like that?”
He had a fairly ordinary appearance, with nothing especially notable about him aside from a slightly large build.

Even his clothes weren’t much different from the transport team applicants we had scattered as bait.
And yet the dress monster was saying that he was the reason for all of this.
Not Kim Hyunsoo.

Not the register we were trying to recover.
Not even the trade itself.
Just that nameless man.

It made no sense at all.
I furrowed my brow and studied the man's face closely.
“...I've seen you somewhere before... yeah.”

A familiar face—I dug through my memory, and eventually remembered who he was.
About a month ago, I had personally scouted him.
Back then, I just thought he’d gotten lucky and survived the underground hotel as a rookie.

But somehow, he had made it through the month without dying.
And then a strong suspicion surged up.
‘Why the hell is he here?’

He wasn’t on the delivery list this time, nor was he targeted for punishment.
Just as I was about to raise my voice to resolve this new question, he beat me to it.
“…Does this sort of thing happen often?”

His voice was low, but firm.
The man slowly looked over my team, me, and the surrounding entities as he continued.
“Sacrificing people without a second thought, all for the sake of company profits…”

“What?”
What the hell was he talking about?
I let out a scoffing laugh.

It was laughable.
Because of the massive profits we were making—
The entire exploration team got a four-day work week, and skilled rookies could walk away with ten million won a month.

“It’s not common, no. These kinds of entities are among the few useful ones to us.”
“…”
Entities we could actually negotiate with were the good kind.

There were some we had to risk our lives just to fight.
And then there were others—ones so terrifying, we didn’t even dare to try.
Even beyond this hotel, there were entities that were only manageable by offering them humans.

“If we can pacify an monster with just a few people? That’s a bargain.”
“….”
At my words, the man's expression sank even darker.

His eyes flashed coldly for a moment—then he gave the dress monster a subtle gesture. A hand motion? A nod?
And then, something unbelievable happened.
The dress entity responded to that signal with a sharp creak, raising one hand—and in the next instant, all the waiter entities in the restaurant lunged at us at once.

KIII-KIIII-KIIIK!
“…Shit! Engage—engage now!!”
Reflexively shouting, I raised the machete in my hand.

Goddamn it—everything had gone to hell.
Why the hell was the dress monster taking his orders?!
“HRAAAAH!”

Shhhk!
I swung the machete toward the swarming entities.
This wasn’t just any blade.

PAK! THRRRRRRRK!
The moment it made contact with a mannequin monster, the blade began to spin like a chainsaw, shredding everything in its path without hesitation.
The arm of the waiter monster rushing me flew off like a piece of paper.

It staggered, trying to charge again—but this time I brought the blade down like a bolt of lightning and severed its head clean off.
The rest of the team was also holding their ground, using their own items to fight back against the attacking entities.
Some were struggling a bit, but as expected of Dongto’s elite, they didn’t collapse easily.

Gunfire and item discharges filled my ears to the point of ringing.
The restaurant was quickly overrun with the stench of gunpowder, smashed plastic, and metallic blood.
THRRRK!

SHAA-KK—THRRRK!
I ground through another two mannequin heads.
“What the hell is with these mannequins...?!”

Still, more stood in the back, waiting like they were next in line.
If this kept up, we were going to take serious losses.
We wouldn’t lose—but the damage would be bad.

I screamed again at the goddamn dress monster.
“If you don’t want everyone here to die, stop this now! Whatever that guy proposed to you, we can match it!”
But the dress entity didn’t even flinch at my desperate cry.

It merely glanced briefly at that rookie bastard—then from deeper inside the restaurant, from the kitchen, sent out a new wave of entities.
Ones dressed like chefs.
They looked more grotesque. Stronger.

Why?
What the hell was that rookie that made this monster go so far?
It made no sense—but one thing was clear.

He was the core of the problem.
If I could just take him out—if I eliminated him, everything would return to normal.
The dress monster wouldn’t avenge him. There was no way it would be loyal.

“…I’m going.”
I made my decision.
I slammed the heel of my plain-looking combat boots against the floor.

A faint mechanical hum and a blue glow surged from the shoes.
Normally they were just comfortable footwear—but when activated, they granted explosive speed. A special item.
TAK-TAK-TAK!

I launched off the floor and sprinted forward.
“T-Team Leader?!”
“Shit! Fill the gap! The Team Leader's charging!”

Before the entities could even react, I slipped through like lightning.
I could hear the panicked voices of my teammates as I suddenly vanished from their view, but I ignored them.
This would all end if I killed that bastard.

And just as I expected—
The dress monster didn’t even try to stop me as I blew past her toward that rookie. She even stepped slightly aside, as if making way.
She gave a faint shake of her shoulders and let out another mocking creak.

It sounded like laughter. It made my skin crawl.
Focus only on him.
I reached him in an instant.

He still had a dumb, confused look, like he hadn’t processed the situation.
I aimed for the center of his forehead.
Putting all my strength into it, I thrust the spinning machete blade straight for it.

“Die—!”
SHHHK—!
The machete almost touched the bridge of his nose.

And then—
The ceiling of the restaurant spun into view.
“…Huh?”

WHUMP!
“K-Khhhk!”
At the same time, a crushing impact slammed into my back and knocked the wind out of me.

Only then did I realize it.
I—Team Leader of Exploration Team 5—had just been flattened to the ground by him.
“Guh... ugh...”

Groaning in pain, I turned my head slightly.
He was standing over me, looking down with cold eyes.
There was no emotion in his gaze.

Just a numb, dispassionate stare—like one would give to an insect.
He looked down at me for a moment, then turned without a word and began walking toward the restaurant exit.
As he approached, the door opened automatically.

In the wake of his departure, I heard the familiar clicking of heels again—the dress monster approached.
Her shadow fell over me.
With a graceful yet threatening movement, she stood right in front of me.

Her faceless mannequin head seemed to tilt toward me.
“You, you...!”
Only then, as sensation returned to my limbs, did the full weight of the terror hit me like a tidal wave.

The dress monster picked up the machete I’d dropped—then slowly brought it to her own neck.
WHRRRRRRRRRRR!
THRRRK... THRRRK... THRRK...

The blade spun violently, but it couldn’t even scratch her neck—and eventually, it ground to a halt.
Then she laughed.
She had no face, but I could feel her smiling.

This machete was never going to hurt her.
Only the escape item could get us out of here.
Through the edge of my vision, I saw a few team members who had grabbed their escape items and were disappearing.

The ones who didn’t make it in time collapsed where they stood, paralyzed with despair.
CLINK, CLINK.
The guest entities began to tap their plates with knives and forks.

As if urging them on, the chef-mannequins approached—each holding massive, brutal kitchen knives.
“U... UWAAAAAAAHHH!”
Overwhelmed by raw instinctual fear, I screamed—a scream so pathetic and desperate, I couldn’t even believe it came from me.

For a moment, it felt like all other sounds in the restaurant vanished.
Only my shriek echoed throughout the gloom.