So this was how March 7th did it?

"There's something in the wall, holy shit!"

The lights had only gone out for an instant. When they came back on, Weir was still shaken, but there was nothing on the wall his trembling finger pointed at.

"In the wall?"

Himeko fixed her gaze on the wall Weir indicated. It was empty.

The wallpaper was still neatly pasted to the wall. There wasn't even a wrinkle, let alone any damage.

"Weir, describe exactly what you just saw."

"I'm not sure. It might have been a face, or maybe... the skin of a face. It didn't seem to have eyes, and it only appeared for an instant."

"And every time the lights went out, I felt something touching me. Firm muscles, like a burly man's."

Not finding anything now didn't mean there really was nothing there.

"Be careful. We still don't know what might happen here."

After that first incident, the three who lacked Himeko's overwhelming strength became even more cautious, afraid something would suddenly emerge from the shadows and carry them off.

"There's something up ahead."

Himechi Cat, who had been sitting elegantly on Himeko's shoulder, suddenly pointed toward the end of the corridor.

"How do you know?"

"It's true I'm a projection of your inner self, but I'm also a product of this place. I do have a few special abilities."

Himeko didn't question it and quickened her pace.

The other three didn't dare linger along the way, either. If something happened, they would not only cause trouble for others but might also lose their lives.

The corridor wasn't particularly long, and Himeko soon reached the doorknob.

The door wasn't locked. With a gentle turn of the knob, she pushed it open.

As the door opened, the lights in the corridor behind them suddenly buzzed, then shattered.

There was no light left behind them. The corridor sank completely into silent darkness.

"Well, there goes our way back."

They didn't believe there was nothing lurking in darkness that even light couldn't penetrate.

For safety's sake, moving forward was better than turning back.

All four squeezed into the room beyond the door, which measured less than twenty square meters.

Opposite the door was another door. Apart from that, two people in suits stood ramrod straight on either side of the table in the middle of the room, their expressions utterly serious.

Once Himeko and the others entered, the door behind them abruptly shut, locking tight with a click.

Others might have panicked to some degree at being trapped in a room, but Himeko felt no such thing.

She had great confidence in her strength. If all else failed, she would turn the puzzle game into a hack-and-slash.

The people standing on either side of the table were haunted house staff, and they looked almost identical.

But Himeko still noticed a dark bruise around the right-hand staff member's eye. Someone had clearly punched him in the eye socket with considerable force. A closer look also revealed glittering Six-Phased Ice powder on his body.

Himeko also noticed scratches and gouges in the room's floor and walls. Reaching beneath the table, she pried off a fragment of Six-Phased Ice.

Had March 7th been here?

"There's something wrong with the one on the right," Himechi Cat suddenly said into Himeko's ear.

Hearing that, Himeko immediately worked out the situation.

The notice at the haunted house entrance had said that, apart from staff who guided players in collecting items, some [terrifying things] had also slipped inside.

Presumably, after entering the haunted house, March 7th had noticed something wrong with the staff member on the right and given him a beating.

Haunted house... puzzles... signs of a fight...

Putting everything together, Himeko felt she had more or less worked out what March 7th had experienced here.

She couldn't help chuckling at March 7th's behavior.

But since Himechi Cat had said there was something wrong with him, and March 7th had done the same before, what she did next went without saying.

Himeko stepped forward and punched the right-hand staff member in his other eye.

"Aah-!"

The staff member's body immediately began to swell and twist after taking the punch. In the blink of an eye, he became a monster beyond description.

Naturally, a battle broke out between Himeko and the monster.

The monster had multiple wounds on its body. Already injured, it had even less ability to fight back against someone like Himeko, who carried a terrifying great saw with her.

Blood splattered. By the time the battle subsided, the room had suffered a great deal more damage.

The already pitted floor and walls now bore straight, deep, blackened gashes.

After taking a brutal beating, the monster fled in disarray.

It wasn't that Himeko didn't want to kill it and eliminate any future trouble. Its vitality was simply too tenacious for her to kill it outright in so little time, giving it an opportunity to escape.

It pressed itself against the wall, and its huge body merged straight into it and vanished. Even if Himeko wanted to give chase, she had no way to do so.

"Phew. I'm still a little rusty."

Himeko put the Monomolecular Saw back into her briefcase. Behind her, the other three huddled together in a corner. They hadn't dared move during her battle, afraid the broad sweeps of her chainsaw might inadvertently take off their heads or limbs.

"Miss Himeko's methods really are... vicious."

It was their first time watching Himeko deal with an enemy from so close. The visual impact was far stronger than when they had watched from a safe distance before.

"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing. I won't hurt you."

"That may be true, but it's still a little too frightening."

Weir swallowed hard, but with his remarkable ability to take things in stride, he immediately put his earlier tension behind him and approached the real staff member.

"Hello?"

"Hello, player. Next, I will teach you how to identify dangerous creatures hiding among the staff. Please look here. This one beside me is a dangerous creature."

The staff member pointed to the empty space on his other side.

It seemed the one Himeko had driven off was a volunteer used for demonstrations.

"Wait, if March 7th made the same choice I did, doesn't that mean..."

Himeko only needed to give her clever brain a little exercise to picture everything March 7th had encountered.

After entering the haunted house, she had first beaten up the monster hiding in the wall of the corridor with the flickering lights, then run all the way to this room.

With her earlier experience dealing with the monster, she had seen through the monster disguised as a staff member at a glance. Without another word, she had gone up and beaten it until it fled.

Only once the room was safe had she approached the real staff member, then faced their current predicament.

"Hmm... did I act impulsively too? That's hardly how an adult should behave." Himeko reflected deeply on her actions just now and decided to prepare more next time, making sure everything was in order before taking action.

Seeing yet another person who had driven off his teaching aid, the staff member clicked his tongue.

"It's fine. After the lesson, it would have gone out to hunt you players anyway."

So I didn't hit the wrong target after all? That's wonderful.

"If you encounter dangerous creatures you can't handle, you can seek out a staff member. Dangerous creatures cannot initiate attacks when a staff member is nearby."

"Then where should we look for the items needed to clear the game?"

"You'll have to ask someone else about that."

The staff member began passing the buck.

"Miss Himeko, do you think we could beat the locations of every item out of him?"

Once again, Weir offered an efficient but inhumane suggestion.

"Even if they're creatures native to the Amusement Park, they don't appear to be our enemies."

Himeko once again rejected Weir's suggestion.

The meaning of Trailblaze had never been conquest and invasion.