Wasn't there a fancier name?

A brutal beating would indeed make it easier to get information, but that went against Himeko's original intentions.

"Can't I really give him a beating?"

Weir looked disappointed.

Since entering the Amusement Park, he hadn't yet experienced beating up a monster. It would be a shame not to try it once.

"Let's go. Unless something unexpected happened, the companion who arrived before me should have already completed the process. Following the traces she left behind shouldn't make clearing this difficult."

Himeko walked to the other door in the room and pushed it open.

The space beyond was much larger than Himeko had imagined. It was even open to the sky, a full half a soccer field in size.

Cool moonlight fell from the full moon overhead. An enormous tree stood in the very center, with fruit of many different colors hanging from its thick branches.

"From outside, this haunted house just looked like a fairly small building. It actually uses bigger-on-the-inside technology too?"

"What technology is that, exactly? Why does it have such a plain, easy-to-understand name? Isn't there a fancier name?"

"It's a way of utilizing space, not a particularly rare technology. The underlying principles might differ somewhat, but achieving that final effect isn't unusual."

Himeko thought that since even the Amusement Park could use this technology, the contestants' vehicles would probably have it to some extent later on.

"This place is huge, and there aren't any quest markers or anything. Didn't they say there would be staff?"

Taco looked around but saw none of the supposed staff.

"It's not like there aren't any. Look, aren't there a few people in uniform up ahead?"

Washana pointed beneath the tree. Sure enough, three uniformed staff members stood there.

"Huh? Where?"

Taco stared hard at the spot Washana was pointing at, completely unable to see the staff she mentioned.

"You don't see them?"

Himeko realized something was wrong and also looked beneath the tree.

In her eyes, three staff members were huddled together, whispering about who knew what.

Weir could see them clearly too.

"Is something wrong with your eyes?"

If it had only been Washana and Weir, Taco would have suspected the two were messing with him. But Himeko speaking up changed the nature of the situation.

"Could it be... something wrong with my smart glasses?"

Taco took off his glasses, but he still couldn't see the staff the three of them mentioned.

It seemed the glasses weren't the problem.

"Is there any chance I've gone blind?"

"Before questioning your eyes, you should question your brain."

Himeko looked thoughtful.

"Don't worry, Taco. Describe in detail what the world looks like to you."

Taco surveyed his surroundings and faithfully described everything he saw.

"Hmm... it's broad daylight, there's nobody around, and there's a dead tree in the middle, frozen in Six-Phased Ice... This stuff actually comes in chunks that big?"

Six-Phased Ice?

"What else can you see?"

"There are lots of ice sculptures on the ground... Oh, not ice sculptures. They're frozen people. Now I know where those staff members you mentioned are."

Himeko thought for a moment, then motioned for the other three to stay where they were. She went forward alone, walked beneath the tree, and began talking to the staff.

The three staff members differed little in either clothing or appearance.

The beginner's tutorial in the small room had also been disrupted when the teaching material was beaten into fleeing in panic, leaving the staff entirely unable to teach them how to identify dangerous creatures.

But Himeko had her own unique way of identifying them.

For instance, Himeko could tell at a glance that the one with two black eyes like a panda was definitely a dangerous creature.

March 7th had given it one, and she had given it the other. How could she fail to recognize it?

The instant the dangerous creature met Himeko's eyes, it realized it had been exposed. Without hesitation, it turned and ran.

Himeko didn't let it get away with that. Her suitcase shot out with a whoosh and struck it squarely in the back of the head.

No matter how it thought about it, it couldn't understand how Himeko had recognized it.

Himeko found it strange too. Didn't they know to check a mirror and tidy up their appearance before heading out on an assignment?

The three behind her watched Himeko beat the air for no apparent reason.

"What is this? Mime?"

"I get it."

Weir suddenly exclaimed, "So that's it! No wonder things look like this!"

"Can you just say it all in one go?"

Weir cleared his throat and laid out his conjecture.

"The four of us seem to be together, but we're actually in different spaces. That's why we see different things. Himeko looks like she's beating the air, but she's actually found a monster and is locked in a life-or-death battle with it!"

A battle in which Himeko lived and the monster died.

"What Washana and I see might be similar, but there must be differences we haven't noticed. As for Taco, the space you're in was damaged too badly by the Nameless Ms. Himeko mentioned. That's what made it so easy for us to notice something was off."

Taco was utterly lost, but Washana readily understood what Weir meant.

"So the three items needed to clear this might be hidden in the spaces we're in?"

"Right, exactly!"

"That doesn't sound right, does it? Other people visited the haunted house before us. If they already took the items, what are we supposed to do?"

"That's the question. I suspect that each of the spaces the three of us occupy contains one clearance item. As for where Taco is, that might be a bug."

Weir tried to make his conjecture hold together.

"The haunted house can't make it impossible for players to clear it. After the previous player leaves, they should immediately replace the items that were taken. The space that appears after a player enters should reset too."

"Maybe that stuff called Six-Phased Ice was too hard to deal with, so the space failed to reset. Then, because there were too many of us, Taco ended up straying into a space that hadn't been reset yet-don't forget, if it weren't for Himeko, we wouldn't have gathered together at all."

Washana thought Weir made a lot of sense, but she also raised a question of her own.

"If we're actually not together, like you said, doesn't that mean we'll encounter those monsters too?"

"That's true. More importantly, we still don't know how to tell what the monsters look like. That's a real problem."

On that subject, Taco felt much more at ease.

As far as he could see, there wasn't a single living thing around. Everything that could move had been frozen immobile in that brightly colored ice.

"What are you worried about? We've still got Miss Himeko. She'll definitely have a way."

"That's true."

Weir nodded. He thought so too.

After all, Himeko had already worked out everything from Taco's few words when he himself had needed so long to reason it out. With her intelligence, solving their current predicament couldn't be simpler.

"Ms. Himeko really is a hundred times wiser than us."

[How did this turn into sucking up to her?]

[Being powerful is one thing, but Himeko's this quick-witted too?]

[She's great in every way, except she's a bit of a bleeding heart.]

[Wait, aren't people still sharing that video of Himeko getting thrown out of some office building? Her eyes look so innocent. She doesn't seem all that smart.]

[That's her mingling with the people and not making a fuss over those security guards.]

[That monster has it so rough. It's been beaten up several times without doing anything. Didn't Himeko say the meaning of Trailblaze wasn't to make enemies everywhere?]

[Not making enemies requires the other side to be a person first!]