@sun@shitposter.world @coolboymew@shitposter.world yeah, looks like it: The carnival artwork is real and deliberately present, so it is reasonable to suspect that designers once considered making it accessible. But the code does not preserve the expected scaffolding for a removed level: No fifth overworld node.No unused destination attached to the area.No bush-specific event.No conditional map variant.No removal flag.No active custom overworld hook.No dormant level-start call associated with the nearby record. The best-supported interpretation is: The carnival is inaccessible scenery or an abandoned map-design idea whose gameplay code was either never implemented or was removed completely. The final ROM does not show evidence that a finished fifth stage was merely disabled at the last minute. The bush itself is implemented using ordinary map/marker machinery rather than a conspicuously hacked-out event. Therefore, “they blocked an unfinished route” is plausible from the artwork, but “they lazily disabled an already-programmed level at the last minute” is not supported by the ROM.