I Activated Cheat Mode in a Bizarre Game

An unexpected spatial distortion and the disappearance of the entrance.

Had it been an ordinary team, this would have led to panic and confusion, but our response was swift and systematic.
The team leader acted quickly.
“Research team, is there an anomaly related to dolls or workshops?”

He immediately used the compact signal amplifier item at his waist to attempt direct contact with the Frozen Land’s research team, even in this space cut off from the outside world.
Accompanied by static noise, the research team’s analysis results were soon transmitted through the communicator.
The team leader smiled.

“This phenomenon has been identified as the ability of a test subject that escaped from the Frozen Land’s lab. Prepare the oil.”
“Prepare the oil.”
Because the anomaly had been directly created by the Frozen Land with countless resources, its abilities and countermeasures had already been thoroughly recorded in the research team’s database.

There was no need to panic.
“Here it is.”
One team member pulled out a small vial, and the oil inside was carefully distributed across the gloves of each member.

Everyone applied the oil-like substance to the muzzle of their guns or to their daggers.
It was a special oil that would ignite in response to anomalies or anomaly phenomena.
After ending the call, the team leader issued a new order.

“Eliminate the test subject. It could act as an annoying variable for us.”
His judgment was rational.
Since we knew the countermeasures, there was no reason to hesitate.

Without any objections, we obeyed his command.
Following the team leader’s instructions, we maintained a two-person formation and began infiltrating the inner parts of the workshop in silence.
“...Is it living together with the anomaly?”
“No way. It must be using him.”

We reached a tentative conclusion that the test subject had used the target, Kim Minjun, to escape from the lab.
It must have lured the naive human to use him as a means of escape. A textbook method of anomaly breakout.
We advanced silently through the workshop, and before long, we encountered the test subject among countless doll materials in the deepest part of the workshop.

“That’s...”
It looked like a young girl at first glance, making us momentarily wonder if it was human.
But the fact that it was calmly sewing in this kind of situation proved that this girl was the anomaly.

“Test subject.”
Even after spotting us, the test subject showed no sign of surprise. She merely stopped sewing and looked at us.
The girl stood up from her seat and spoke while bowing politely.

“Please go back.”
Her voice was clear, but her will was firm.
Naturally, we refused.

The team leader responded coldly.
“Test subject, return to the Frozen Land immediately. Resist, and you will be eliminated.”
“How did you come here? Was it because of me?”

“We’re here to eliminate the target.”
“If it’s the target... Ah...”
Then the girl narrowed her eyes, showing a genuinely regretful expression.

“In that case... it can’t be helped.”
She murmured in a sorrowful voice.
“I was against it, but... majority rules must be followed.”

Majority rules?
With those enigmatic words, the girl quietly turned her back and walked deeper into the workshop.
“Terminate her.”

The team leader’s command had barely left his lips when we simultaneously opened fire on her back.
But just before the bullets reached her, a pure white scrap of cloth fluttered into view and effortlessly blocked all our shots.
We were briefly shocked that our special rounds had been blocked by nothing more than a piece of cloth.

Then, with a whoosh! the cloth caught fire, but by then, the girl was already gone.
“...The light...”
Blink, blink.

The surroundings began to darken.
The bulbs that lit the workshop went out one by one with a sizzle.
“Night vision.”

“...Not working.”
“...”
Even our night vision gear couldn’t pierce this darkness.

In an instant, we were engulfed in pitch-blackness, unable to see even an inch ahead.
Static noise came from the communication device, and the presence of our comrades, which had been perceptible moments ago, grew faint.
And in that darkness, we began to hear a different sound.

Creak, creak.
The sound of dolls displayed on shelves beginning to move on their own.
In the darkness, we could feel hundreds of fake eyeballs simultaneously turning to face us.

We couldn’t see them, but somehow, those doll eyes felt vividly present.
“Everyone, hold.”
With our vision restricted, our other senses became extremely sensitive.

The shuffling of a comrade behind me, their heavy breathing from tension, and the unfamiliar smell of wood and cotton dust unique to the workshop.
Everything grated on our nerves in this tense moment.
Then, the team leader’s quiet yet unwavering voice came through the communicator and brought our focus back.

“Everyone, do not waver. Maintain formation. Cut down anything that approaches.”
He was right. Since we were already in formation, it was most rational to stay in place and eliminate any approaching dolls.
That would prevent us from giving away our position in the darkness or, worse, accidentally attacking one another.

And then, as if on cue, we heard the sound of dolls tumbling off the shelves, followed by countless tiny footsteps charging toward us.
“They’re coming!”
We swung our swords and daggers toward the front.

Our countless training sessions and experience allowed us to instinctively slash at approaching enemies even without seeing them.
With our physical enhancements and items, our senses had already surpassed those of ordinary humans.
We felt the repeated sensation of something cottony being cut in the dark.

At that moment, the oil applied to our blades lit up.
Whoosh!
The flames that burned the doll bodies illuminated the surroundings slightly.

“Keep cutting.”
As we continued to cut down the approaching dolls mechanically for a while, all of us realized something was wrong.
The dolls weren’t approaching to attack us.

They were simply running away.
‘...From what?’
They didn’t care that they were being slashed, that their limbs were being severed—they ran only to survive, desperately dashing toward the entrance behind us.

Even though the entrance was blocked, they gathered there as if it were their only refuge.
They weren’t attacking us—they were using us as shields, passing us by in their desperate flight.
“Front! Something’s coming! Aim your guns!”

At the team leader’s shout, we reflexively aimed our muzzles into the darkness.
The flaming limbs of the slashed dolls illuminated the area like torches.
And finally, out of the darkness, they appeared.

A jet-black cat that seemed to absorb all light around it.
And next to it, a small tiger with golden fur that seemed to glow in the dark.
Even their eyes glowed as they pierced through us.

They both had the appearance of young animals, but somehow, their presence was nothing like ordinary creatures.
It was obvious at a glance—they were both anomalies.
“Damn it.”

The team leader clenched his teeth and muttered a curse under his breath.
We could all tell that the situation wasn’t going well.
Through his special glasses, he must’ve seen numbers that should never appear.

His voice came through the communicator.
“All units, aim. Focus fire on the golden one. Fire.”
At his command, we reflexively pulled the triggers.

Ratatatatat!
Dozens of special rounds shot out in a straight line toward the tiger.
And in that instant, a blinding flash of light erupted from the tiger’s body.

We thought it was trying to escape with a flashbang-like trick—but no.
“...What is this...”
When the light vanished, all we could see was a massive, dazzling golden-striped pattern.

It was the torso of the now-enormous tiger.
Our bullets, upon touching the pattern on its body, lost all speed and stopped.
Then, like ice melting on a hot iron plate, the bullets silently dissolved and sank into the pattern.

The tiger’s black stripes grew longer.
We took our fingers off the triggers.
The guns were useless.

“All units, discard firearms. Switch to melee items. Activate them and charge the tiger! Scatter and strike simultaneously!”
The team leader’s voice rang through the communicator.
At his command, we mechanically discarded our guns and drew our items.

One teammate’s long sword crackled with blue lightning, while another’s dagger began to vibrate faintly.
They each held menacing weapons that exuded ominous energy, activating their items to full power and charged through the darkness toward the tiger.
Tatadat!

We followed close behind.
Our Team 2’s physical abilities were nearly anomaly-level, but those two in front—especially—moved on another level entirely. Though we started at the same time, they surged far ahead.
One with the lightning-clad longsword, the other moving so fast he left afterimages—both charged at the tiger from different directions.

“Ah—”
But they never reached the tiger.
To reach it, they had to pass through the darkness.

The dagger wielder who entered first—when he emerged from the darkness, his right arm was gone.
“...Huh.”
He didn’t even scream, still running forward.

Then his body reentered the darkness, and when he emerged again, his remaining arm and both legs were gone.
Thunk, thunk.
His now-limp ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) torso tumbled out of the darkness and collapsed.

The same happened to the other one.
Even as he charged valiantly, wreathed in lightning, each time he passed through the darkness, one limb vanished—swallowed as if by the darkness itself.
And finally, after his last entry into the dark—

Thud. Thud.
His weapon and item were spat out, rolling weakly from the shadows.
Then, the earlier black cat slowly walked out from the darkness and crunched down on the item with a snap.

“All units... halt.”
The rest of us could only stare blankly at this surreal scene unfolding before us.
“...”

“U-Urgh!”
“Stop! Stop!”
For the first time, we acted without waiting for the team leader’s orders.

Or rather, it wasn’t action—it was instinct.
Our brains rejected rational thought, and primal fear of death seized our entire beings.
The exit. The place we had entered. The same place the dolls had desperately tried to escape to.

We had to get there.
We sprinted madly toward it and hurled every item we had at the piled-up dolls, shelves, and wallpaper.
Explosions erupted, blades slashed the air, shockwaves blasted in every direction.

We did everything we could to escape this hellish workshop.
We began attacking the very wall that blocked the exit.
But it didn’t break. It didn’t break. It wouldn’t break.

Despite all our attacks, despite all our items, that wall remained perfectly intact, without a scratch.
The dolls trembled on their shoulders as if mocking our futile efforts.
At last, our strength spent and our hope extinguished, we collapsed helplessly in front of the wall.

We were buried among the torn dolls we had cut down ourselves.
This was the end. All that remained was to wait for the cat and tiger in the dark to choose us as their next prey.
It was just then.

From the opposite side of the very wall we had tried so hard to destroy, someone’s voice rang out.
“What the hell is all this?”
A completely ordinary, slightly annoyed male voice.

And immediately after that—
BOOOOOM!
The very wall we had tried so hard to break came crashing down—from the outside—in a single blow.

Through the cloud of dust, the silhouette of a man came into view.
He brushed off his knuckles and looked back and forth between us and this grotesque workshop with a face full of disbelief.