Chapter Summaries

Himeko discovered that the Amusement Park’s heart had swallowed March 7th’s Six-Phased Ice and learned the park would close at midnight. After the group exchanged clues, Himeko attacked Duncan, triggering retaliatory abilities that slowed her and left the others fighting.

• Himeko found the park’s heart and learned it was absorbing Six-Phased Ice, potentially making the park’s monsters far more dangerous.
• Taco and Inukai shared their clues with Himeko, while Duncan gave her a false clue about the number of areas in the park.
• Himeko tried to shoot the heart, but a Six-Phased Ice-like crystal blocked her attack.
• After leaving the dark room, Himeko received a notification that her commentator had struck Duncan, and Duncan was sent flying.
• Amerika used Heavy Steps to slow Himeko, while Himechi Cat threatened Duncan and Taco pinned down Inukai and the Nine-Tailed Fox.

Himeko confronted Duncan over the clues he had hidden, then persuaded him to reveal that the Amusement Park had a dangerous second side. By connecting his information to the visitor count and evidence in the Wax Museum, Himeko deduced that the visitors’ bodies had become Wax Figures and their emotions had been divided between the park’s two sides and the Darkroom.

• Himeko stopped Himechi Cat from killing Duncan and asked him to explain the clues he had withheld.
• Duncan admitted he had hidden the Amusement Park’s second area because he wanted to eliminate Himeko, and warned that it contained something capable of killing her.
• Himeko deduced that the Amusement Park had two sides and that the visitors’ emotions had been separated and distributed between them.
• Himeko connected the clue about 132 visitors to the Wax Museum’s Wax Figures and compared her lipstick with the stain on a milk tea straw.
• Himeko concluded that the visitors’ bodies had been turned into Wax Figures, some of their emotions had been put into the heart in the Darkroom, and the rest had been taken to the Amusement Park’s other side.

Himeko warned the others to leave the Amusement Park before its monster emerged, but Inukai stayed, hoping to claim the hidden quest rewards and exploit Himeko. At midnight, the park transformed into a grotesque, living place as its other side surfaced.

• Himeko urged everyone to leave, and Duncan and Taco departed while Inukai refused to abandon the hidden quest.
• Inukai suspected Himeko wanted the rewards for herself, then decided to stay and considered betraying her during the coming fight.
• Himechi Cat suggested turning Inukai into a reward, but Himeko said she had another use for him.
• Himeko found a display showing 11:53 and waited by the Wax Museum's Darkroom for midnight.
• At 00:00, the heart vanished and a surge of energy transformed the Amusement Park into a decaying, living environment covered in red growths and impure Six-Phased Ice.

Himeko investigated the emotions haunting the Amusement Park and discovered a giant kidney fused with the Haunted House that seemed to provoke anger. As she tried to understand how to sever its connection to the heart, the influence drove Inukai toward absorbing the park’s organs into his body.

• Inukai merged with the Nine-Tailed Fox to gain power while Himeko left the Wax Museum and noticed translucent figures expressing visitors’ emotions.
• Himeko inferred that the Wax Museum could strip parts of contestants’ consciousness and influence people through emotions circulating in the air.
• Himeko found a giant kidney surrounding the Haunted House and realized its hostile presence was stirring anger in her and others.
• Himeko ignored Inukai’s angry outburst and approached the kidney to study its connection to the heart.
• An eerie voice exploited Inukai’s resentment and urged him to absorb the organs scattered through the park, and he accepted the idea.

Himeko uncovered the Amusement Park Monster’s scheme and confronted Inukai after he absorbed the park visitors’ emotions and March 7th’s power. With her ordinary attacks failing, she called for the Astral Express’s newly repaired support attack.

• Himeko failed to cut the contaminated Six-Phased Ice and drew Shut Up and three skills, none of which helped her fight the monster.
• The system repaired the Astral Express’s support attack and granted Himeko the skill Long Tone of the Distant Horizon.
• Himeko realized Inukai was adjusting the park’s emotions to gather the monster’s organs and bring it back to life.
• Inukai completed the process, fused with the visitors’ emotions, and became a hidden monster driven by malice toward the remaining contestants.
• Himeko fought Inukai, dodging his Six-Phased Ice attacks and shooting at his head, but his transformed body defended against her.
• Himeko called to Pom-Pom to start the train and launch a support attack.

Himeko defeated Inukai with a Trailblaze train attack and unlocked the amusement park as a permanent Astral Express stop. She returned to the train with Himechi Cat and Shut Up, while Pom-Pom wondered where Himechi Cat could stay.

• Himeko summoned the Astral Express as a Trailblaze attack and struck Inukai, scattering his remains and defeating him.
• Himeko received the hidden reward, which made the amusement park a permanent stop she could revisit and opened the way to further stops.
• The fleshy plants withered, the amusement park returned to normal, and its employees emerged to restore the park.
• Himeko left the amusement park with Himechi Cat and Shut Up, confident Himechi Cat could travel beyond the Wax Museum.
• Pom-Pom welcomed Himeko back, then worried that the train had no suitable room for Himechi Cat.

Himeko claimed the Realm Anchor reward, planted it at the Amusement Park, and took the Astral Express to the Mist District, where a new mission required her to recruit a passenger or find a missing Nameless. Meanwhile, Neon's commentators debated whether to resurrect Inukai and finally proposed flipping a coin.

• Himeko installed an Imagenesis body in Himechi Cat, received the Realm Anchor, and planted it at the Amusement Park entrance.
• Himeko took the Astral Express to the Mist District, where the system set an exploration target and tasked her with recruiting a passenger or finding a missing Nameless.
• Himeko tried to make Himechi Cat count as a new passenger, but the system rejected the attempt, so she set out to explore the Mist District.
• The commentators for countries with eliminated contestants received the choice to resurrect them or select replacements, while Neon's commentators argued over Inukai.
• One of Neon's commentators suggested deciding Inukai's fate with a coin flip, and the other two agreed it was a great idea.

After the Amusement Park, surviving contestants fled from pursuing monsters while Himeko explored a misty district and encountered a future where people relied on String Bean and cyberware. She discovered that the district’s shops valued her body and detected her Trailblaze Power, leaving her facing an alarming offer to rent herself to a cyberware company.

• The contestants who had cleared the Amusement Park raced onward as a giant python pursued Duncan and a horse-drawn jeep, while Weir fled a mob of cannibals.
• Taco sped along in an upgraded Go-Kart with a tiger clamped around his head, repeatedly crashing because he could not see the road.
• Himeko asked a passerby for directions, and he consulted String Bean before explaining that maps had been replaced by navigation systems and brain-computer interfaces.
• Himeko entered a self-service cyberware shop and scanned herself to learn the prices offered for her limbs, eyes, and organs.
• The shop’s scanner detected Trailblaze Power in Himeko and said she could receive up to three billion in compensation by renting herself to a cyberware company.

Himeko explored an implant shop in Night City and installed a brain-computer interface on Shut Up so it could use chips. She decided to earn money by selling items made with Imagenesis Technology, while armed watchers began tracking her as a possible match for the wanted criminal Dan Heng.

• Himeko examined the shop’s implants and learned about its brain-computer interfaces, then earned an achievement that let Shut Up accept interface chips.
• Himeko installed an interface in Shut Up, who gained control access and revealed a five-slot chip tray.
• Himeko rejected selling herself or Himechi Cat and decided to make goods with Imagenesis Technology to sell for currency.
• Himeko and Himechi Cat walked with Shut Up through the streets as Shut Up joked about becoming a Hime-Rider.
• Armed observers identified Himeko’s energy as similar to that of the person who destroyed a company building and continued surveillance instead of arresting her.
• The observers’ wanted poster named Dan Heng as a criminal of the highest danger level.

Himeko and her companions were confronted by street thugs who planned to sell her organs, but she quickly subdued them and questioned their lives in the city. She learned that AI chips and quality implants were far beyond the reach of the poor, leaving the gang’s motives and the city’s dangers clearer as she continued exploring.

• Himeko noticed that people relied on AI assistants for ordinary conversations before street thugs cornered her and tried to claim her and her companions.
• Himeko used her Monomolecular Saw to disable Mohawk, while Himechi Cat and Shut Up stopped the other thugs.
• Himeko dragged the surviving thugs into an alley and questioned Mohawk about why people did not rely on AI.
• Mohawk explained that AI chips cost over a hundred thousand, while poor workers earned only a few thousand a month and sold body parts for little money.
• Himeko found a crude chip in Mohawk’s Brain-Computer Interface and learned that better implants cost over a million and required special connections.

Himeko connected Shut Up to the local network, contacted Dan Heng, and dealt with the wanted thugs before her salvaged chip burned out. At the junkyard, Buer received a Brain-Computer Interface reward for Gaul, but Dan Heng warned him about the device and set out to find his companions.

• Himeko installed a secondhand chip in Shut Up and contacted Dan Heng, who said he was at the junkyard and that March 7th had hit him with a car.
• Himeko sent Dan Heng the Astral Express's location, but the chip burned out before she could finish messaging him.
• Himeko checked the wanted notices, killed Mohican and his accomplices, and claimed their bounties by uploading their Brain-Computer Interface serial numbers and photos.
• At the junkyard, Dan Heng told Buer not to touch Brain-Computer Interfaces, but Buer installed one and received a combat chip reward that unlocked interface technology for Gaul.
• WarGreymon noticed that Himeko and Dan Heng had Golden Tickets and concluded that Dan Heng's warning meant Brain-Computer Interfaces were genuinely dangerous.
• Dan Heng put on a mask and headed out to find his companions while Buer followed him.

Himeko explored Los Angeles and its black market while learning about the city’s cyberware and smart chips. After discovering a wanted criminal harassing her, she killed him in the crowded underground plaza and caused the market to panic.

• Himeko recorded what she had learned about Los Angeles, its Corporation, cyberware, and the scattered Astral Express crew, then headed for a nearby black market.
• On the way, Himeko tested how people with smart chips behaved and observed that poorer residents relied on modified or salvaged chips.
• In the underground passage, Himeko dealt with several people who tried to steal Shut Up and Himechi Cat.
• Himeko asked Shut Up to identify a man as Nailhead, a wanted criminal with a bounty of twenty-five thousand, then hurled him into the plaza and shot him with the Banner Spear.
• The crowd fled shouting that the killer had arrived, and Himeko unlocked the Cyberpsycho achievement.

Himeko wrecked the black market to draw out its owner, while Dan Heng cautiously made his way toward Los Angeles and stopped Taco’s runaway Go-Kart. The chapter left Himeko heading to meet the black market boss and Dan Heng introducing himself to Taco.

• Himeko destroyed valuables and beat black-market enforcers until Bastion emerged and invited her to meet his boss.
• Shut Up’s scan of Bastion’s military cyberware failed because it lacked chip permissions, and its combat system advised retreating from Himeko.
• Dan Heng avoided surveillance on the outskirts of Los Angeles and mistook an approaching engine for an enemy attack.
• Dan Heng stopped Taco’s Go-Kart, freeing him from the tiger that had bitten him.
• The tiger fled, crashed into a utility pole, and died, while Dan Heng introduced himself to Taco as the Astral Express’s guard.

Dan Heng encountered Taco and agreed to take him and Buer toward the Astral Express after Taco described looking for Himeko. The group headed toward the train in central Los Angeles, where Dan Heng warned Taco about the Brain-Computer Interfaces as Taco took in the vast city.

• Dan Heng set down the Go-Kart and explained that he had come to find his companions, while Taco searched for Himeko and described her unusual weapons and cooking.
• Dan Heng recognized that Taco knew Himeko and trusted him more, but Buer objected to bringing another contestant along.
• Taco activated Harden and threatened Buer, who backed down and urged Dan Heng not to risk exposing their movements.
• Dan Heng said Himeko had sent him the train’s location and invited Taco and Buer to follow him to the Astral Express.
• Dan Heng warned Taco not to touch cybernetic implants, especially Brain-Computer Interfaces, and Taco noticed Buer’s implant and marveled at the enormous city.

Taco joined Dan Heng and Bull as they headed toward central Los Angeles, while Bull hoped to exploit the city’s advanced technology and wealth. After learning that cybernetics could control their users and that Dan Heng was wanted, Bull received a message offering him part of Dan Heng’s bounty if he helped capture him.

• Taco accepted a call from Samba Country’s commentators, who urged him to install a Brain-Computer Interface and cybernetics to gain strength and technology for his country.
• The commentators warned Taco that Himeko was negotiating in the Underground Black Market, Weir was fleeing cannibals, and Dan Heng was a wanted criminal with a huge bounty.
• Taco asked Dan Heng why he had warned against cybernetics, and Dan Heng compared them to Demonic Swords that could erode their wielders’ consciousness.
• Bull received a message identifying Dan Heng as a high-threat wanted criminal and promising him part of the bounty if he stayed beside Dan Heng and helped the authorities capture him.

Buer used cyberware supplied by the Mobile Unit to track Dan Heng, but the advanced eye overloaded his brain. Meanwhile, Himeko negotiated with a black-market boss and demonstrated the military exoskeleton’s strength as she prepared to use more forceful diplomacy.

• Buer installed an advanced cybernetic eye and Intelligent Chip, then used them to find Dan Heng and Taco’s route before collapsing from brain overload.
• Buer learned that upgrading his Brain-Computer Interface and cyberware would cost 4.73 million, but resumed pursuing Dan Heng for the bounty.
• The Mobile Unit’s captain ordered the newly arrived outsiders without the power of [Trailblaze] placed on a watch list and reviewed Himeko’s group as a serious threat.
• Himeko met the black-market boss, who offered to trade money or chips for her talking fox or joke-telling machine.
• Himeko presented the military exoskeleton, and the boss connected it to his body and stopped Bastion’s heavy mechanical strike with one hand.

Himeko questioned the old man behind the Black Market about Dan Heng’s wanted status and the secrets of Brain-Computer Interfaces and prosthetics. She left with military-grade chips and money, then contacted Dan Heng, who said he was bringing Taco to meet at the Express.

• Himeko asked the old man why Dan Heng was being hunted, and he explained that Dan Heng had attacked company headquarters and killed the chairman’s son.
• Himeko told the old man that Dan Heng was family and asked what secrets lay behind Brain-Computer Interfaces and prosthetics.
• Himeko demonstrated a hand-cranked intelligent model, prompting the old man to give her three military-grade chips and transfer five hundred million to her account.
• Himeko asked who the old man was, and he identified himself as the boss profiting behind the Black Market or an old man nearing death.
• Himeko installed the chips in Shut Up and messaged Dan Heng, who replied that he had found Taco and would meet her at the Express.

Dan Heng told Himeko that the corporation's Intelligent Chips secretly exploited and could take over users' brains, and that a third party had caused the heir's death. On her way back to the Express, Himeko was declared a wanted criminal, escaped the Mobile Unit with Shut Up and Himechi Cat, and stole a flying car despite having no license.

• Dan Heng sent Himeko his findings that Intelligent Chips mined users' brains, learned from their memories, and sometimes took over their bodies.
• Dan Heng explained that the corporation's president planned to transfer his consciousness into the heir's body, but a third party had killed the heir and left Dan Heng wanted.
• Himeko headed back toward the Express with Shut Up and Himechi Cat, then noticed surveillance cameras watching them.
• A sniper and the Mobile Unit attacked Himeko after she was declared a maximum-threat wanted criminal, so she fled to avoid endangering civilians.
• Himeko leaped onto a Mobile Unit flying car, threw its occupants out, and drove away without a license.

Himeko fled a mobile unit pursuing her through the sky and raced toward Dan Heng, while Duncan secretly harvested a bystander’s cybernetic implants. Dan Heng met Himeko’s car on the outskirts and raised a dragon-shaped barrier as the pursuing officers identified him as a high-risk wanted criminal.

• Himeko drove the flying car through several lanes to escape the mobile unit and avoid fighting over a populated area.
• Shut Up accessed the mobile unit’s system, found Dan Heng’s location, and guided Himeko toward him as Himechi Cat returned fire.
• The mobile unit broadcast Himeko’s alleged crimes, while contestants and livestream viewers watched the chase unfold.
• Duncan killed a bystander, stole his Brain-Computer Interface and cybernetic implants, and planned to have the interface installed.
• Dan Heng told Taco to hide, then leaped onto Himeko’s car and surrounded it with a dragon-shaped barrier as the mobile unit flagged him as a high-risk wanted criminal.

Dan Heng and Himeko escaped the Los Angeles Special Task Mobile Force, with Dan Heng using two draconic spirits to drive back the captain and pursuing officers. They reached Dan Heng’s scrapyard hideout, where Himeko saw how crudely he lived.

• Himechi Cat appeared beside Dan Heng, offered him coffee, and was pulled back by Shut Up as Himeko drove through the pursuing police cars.
• The mobile force captain ordered an attack, but Dan Heng’s ocher dragon spirit knocked down the officers and disabled their hovercars.
• The captain activated his cybernetic implants and charged at Dan Heng, who summoned a second, blue-green dragon alongside the first.
• The captain flew into the sky after taking the full force of Dan Heng’s attack, while the remaining officers called for backup and watched Himeko escape.
• Himeko abandoned the hovercar at the edge of Dan Heng’s scrapyard and followed him to his makeshift hideout, asking if it was where he lived.