God, is there no good news?

The park wraith alone showed that beneath this amusement park's cheerful exterior, there was no shortage of hidden dangers.

After dealing with the wraith lurking in the Rocking Ride, Himeko saw the National Destiny Instance notification show that the amusement park's exploration progress had risen slightly.

[Amusement park exploration: 1%]

[Exploration progress is shared by all contestants. Once exploration reaches 50%, all contestants may proceed.]

"So all the contestants share the same progress? Does that mean I can run into the contestants who attacked me in secret here? But it's already been an hour. Why hasn't anyone come?"

Himeko was puzzled. Could they not drive trains, and were they still fiddling with their engines back at the starting point?

What she did not know was that not everyone could get an entire train right at the start. Most of them were trudging along miserably on foot.

All contestants sharing one exploration progress was about the worst possible news for the countries that had just attacked Himeko.

[Our commanders have salmon for brains! If the instances were separate, we could have just followed Himeko's steps to clear it without attacking her. Now look, we're all in the same instance. The moment that idiot Inukai steps into the amusement park, Himeko will saw him into mincemeat with her chainsaw!]

[Not necessarily. There's still a chance! Himeko only knows which countries attacked her, not who's who! As long as Inukai doesn't do something stupid like run up to Himeko and tell her his real identity, we'll be fine!]

[Exactly! Besides, Himeko looks like an inexperienced young girl. She might not actually attack a person.]

[Really? She didn't hold back at all when she killed that park wraith.]

[Wraiths are wraiths, and people are people. You can't lump them together.]

[The right thing to do is make those three idiots commit seppuku to atone, then publicly apologize to Huaxia and ask them to persuade Himeko not to hurt our contestant!]

[Exactly! What commentators? They're practically traitors to Neon!

Himeko deliberately waited at the amusement park's entrance for a while, but still saw no other contestants appear at the gates. Only then did she slowly follow the path farther into the park.

"To raise exploration progress, I should probably look around the park more. I'll treat it as a chance to relax. Little March would probably love this."

Himeko casually took a park map from the newsstand beside the path.

The park had four entrances and a wide range of attractions.

Besides standard attractions such as bumper cars, a Ferris wheel, and roller coasters, the amusement park also had a few more unusual places.

"The Wax Museum. That doesn't look like a standard attraction. It's worth a look."

By "worth a look," Himeko meant that it contained plenty of lifelike human sculptures, which might hide plenty of dangers, and she could go inside and beat them up for coin drops.

The other standard attractions could be left to the other contestants arriving later.

Just a few minutes after Himeko left, Amerika's Duncan appeared near the amusement park with an admission ticket he had picked up along the way.

Unlike when he first set out, after his horse grazed beside the road for a while, a notification showed that it had enough experience to level up.

Duncan decisively chose to upgrade it, and a rather crude wagon immediately appeared behind his horse's rump.

On his personal interface, his mount was no longer a horse, but a Freight Wagon.

Duncan spent some time carefully reading the instructions for upgrading his train. Only then did he learn that every subsequent upgrade would also apply to the wagon behind his horse.

Each upgrade would bring rewards to Amerika. For example, after he upgraded his horse-drawn wagon once, the working efficiency of horse-drawn wagons in Amerika increased by 20%.

"Don't tell me that even after I turn this wooden wreck into a train, it'll still have to be pulled by a horse???" Duncan's attention was not on the rewards at all, but on what the hell this horse would turn into in the future.

What use was the working efficiency of horse-drawn wagons? Modern equipment utterly crushed those antiques.

He parked the wagon beside the road and took the ticket out of his pocket.

"An amusement park? Why does it look kind of creepy?"

He looked around. There were no other contestants' vehicles nearby, so he gave it no further thought and strode inside.

The moment he stepped into the amusement park's grounds, several notifications entered his mind.

[Amerika contestant: Duncan has arrived at the first stop, the amusement park.]

[Communication unlocked. You may now communicate with the three commentators in your livestream for ten minutes each day.]

[After killing another contestant inside the amusement park, you may loot their items and abilities, and receive substantial rewards.]

[If you die inside the amusement park, your country will receive an additional punishment.]

[A commentator has requested communication. Accept?]

[A commentator has requested communication. Accept?]

[A commentator has requested communication. Accept?]

"What's going on? Why so many?"

Before Duncan could finish processing the information, he instinctively chose to accept the communication request.

At that very instant, the commentators scrambled to deliver some bad news to Duncan.

"Duncan! I know you might find what we're about to say hard to accept, but you have to take this seriously. We're not joking!"

"That Huaxian woman named Himeko inside the amusement park is a devil who carries a chainsaw around! Whatever you do, don't be fooled by her gentle appearance! And don't reveal your nationality! Just say you're from the Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets!"

Duncan frowned, not quite following.

"Why?"

"Because we just launched an attack on Himeko and nearly killed her."

"?"

Duncan's face gradually turned red.

"What did you say?! You three sons of bitches made an enemy for me without me knowing a damn thing about it?!"

"Calm down! You just need to pretend you're not Amerikan!" the commentator tried to soothe Duncan. "Himeko doesn't know who you actually are either. As long as you don't say anything..."

"Bullshit! If you can contact me, can't the Huaxians contact her? Fuck, why did the National Destiny Instance choose you three morons as commentators?! With you around, Amerika's going to be destroyed any minute!"

Duncan's mouth began spewing filthy language like a machine gun. The three commentators' faces grew darker and darker, until one of them finally lost his composure.

"Just do what we tell you for now!"

"Like hell I will!"

Duncan no longer trusted the three commentators chosen by the National Destiny Battlefield. His eyes were bloodshot, and he panted like a bull.

"From now on, I'm in command! All of you shut up, okay?"

The three commentators said nothing more, though their faces remained grim, and they took considerable exception to Duncan's words. Since he was the contestant, they could not openly fall out with him.

Over those ten minutes, Duncan learned plenty about Himeko from the three commentators.

"She summoned a max-level train right at the start?"

"Even with a whole list of negative effects stacked on her by twenty countries, she still sawed the danger in the amusement park to death?"

"Because of what you did, she just spent over half an hour waiting for us in the amusement park, with no intention of stopping her saw?"

"God, is there no good news?"

The three commentators fell silent for a moment before finally offering one of the few pieces of good news they had. To Duncan, however, it was barely any better than none.

"Her Guardian Deity has no offensive capabilities and can't leave the train? From your description, she's far more powerful than that so-called Guardian Deity."