. . . .

  Once the darkness let up, everyone inside regained their vision.

  “What is going on?!” said Luna.

  She saw that the maze had changed a lot. Instead of long and endless corridors with multiple intersections, she is now inside an open snowy field under the foot of a giant snowy mountain to the left. The terrain itself is not flat and is full of small ups and downs here and there, with no specific patterns. But there are multiple doors located behind her, on the far left and far right, as well as far back in the distance.

  “I have no idea what is happening anymore. . .”

  Luna turns around to reach the door behind. She tried to walk with a little bit more power than she would usually walk since the snow all around her was so deep.

  “Eh?”

  But strangely, even though her feet went deep into the snow, she doesn’t feel limited, nor does it feel like stepping on snow. It feels like stepping on any other ground or floor as usual.

  “W-What is this snow?”

  *tap tap*

  She taps the snow a few more times with her left foot to confirm what she’s stepping on.

  “Uhhh. . .”

  *!*

  “Wait a minute, now that I think about it, I don’t feel cold at all! Are these snow just for show then? Some kinda green screen technology or something?”

  *thud thud thud thud*

  Luna proceeds to run towards the door with ease.

  “It really feels like there is no snow here! Just an empty open space with nothing in it.”

  She grabs the doorknob and opens the door.

  *?*

  “Huh? What. . .”

  Behind the door, there was nothing. Just more of the empty snow field. It’s like the door is there just so that there is a door in the middle of a snow field. She walked through the door with an annoyed face.

  She was expecting to simply go past the open door, but she vanished from the snow field and arrived somewhere else. After she vanished, the door behind her closed on its own.

  *!*

  *BLUB BLUB BLUB*

  “EEEHHHHH??”

  Now, she appears to be inside a cave inside an active volcanic mountain. The rocky ceiling above her is only 2 meters away from the ground. There are many ‘pillars’ of rocks spreading throughout the caves where they are thick on the top and bottom, but very thin in the middle part. There’s no giant wall surrounding her, and the cave seems to stretch as far away as the eye can see. The floor below is also covered entirely by magma.

  She’s standing on bubbling magma that even her feet are buried deep into. Yet her feet are fine as she expected them to be.

  “So, all of these really are just visuals. I don’t feel hot even though the lighting should’ve convinced my eyes it would be.”

  Luna walks forward as she casually walks on lava. She looks to her left and right to look for anyone or any door.

  “If there are so many doors now, and the doors lead to other places like this, what happened to the doors with supplies or weapons in them? Are we supposed to know that the doors are different? *Sigh* I wish Quroe-san were here. . . He’s a lot smarter than me; he can probably figure out this stuff really fast.”

  “Now that I think about it, what happened to him? Is he also inside this maze? If that’s the case, then I’ll just have to keep going, and we can easily get out with him present! AH! Now my head is so clear! I’m coming, Quroe-san!!”

  Luna hastens her walking pace, approaching one of the doors to the right. When she almost reached the doorknob, the door opened towards her side instead.

  *!*

  *THUD*

  “Ouch!”

  “Aw!”

  There was a 39-year-old woman, came through the door, bumped into Luna, and they both fell on their butts to the floor.

  They both open their eyes while sitting on the floor and identify each other.

  “Eh? A little kid? A small child like you got caught in this maze as well?”

  “Huh? Why is everyone calling me a child? I AM 15 YEARS OLD!! AND AS FAR AS I KNOW, PEOPLE IN MY AGE ARE CALLED TEENAGERS, NOT CHILDREN!!”

  “O-Okay! I apologize! Where are your father and mother?”

  They both stand up properly from the ground.

  “I am not with them! But I did come here with 4 other people, mostly young adults!”

  *!*

  “Hmm. . . So, you’re basically all alone right now, huh?”

  “Yeah, pretty much! I was so worried about meeting someone dangerous, but thankfully, you don’t look harmful, madam!”

  The woman smiles.

  “Ahahahaha! Of course! I am just an old mother who’s been panicking to search for my missing 7-year-old son. He was with me before this whole thing happened!”

  “I see, I see! Then wanna team up and search for our people together, mam?”

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  Luna offers her hand.

  “Of course! I’d love that!”

  The madam moves her hand to shake Luna’s hand as a sign of agreement. But then she moves her other hand, which she’s been hiding behind her back this whole time, ever since they bumped into each other. She was holding a kitchen knife in her left hand. She moves the knife to stab Luna at the same time she shakes her hand.

  *ZRRRTTTT*

  “KYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!”

  But Luna has already anticipated her move since the beginning. Because when she first saw her, the woman had always kept her left hand behind her back, no matter her position, even her posture when she got up was strange because of it.

  Luna used her taser swiftly at her knife, and it zapped her hand. The zap made her drop the knife and made her jump as well that she fell on her back on the floor. Luna grabs the knife and walks slowly towards the woman.

  “I am sorry, Madam! I’ve spent my whole life being chased by bad guys with Faith powers! You think an old woman who suddenly thinks she can commit murder when her son is in danger can outsmart me or something?”

  “AAkkkhhhh----!!”

  The woman is still enduring the pain from the zap. She could not talk back for a moment despite Luna’s mocking.

  “I don’t wanna sound mean, but the fact that you don’t care about my life, like at all, just because you have a son is all I need to know about you! You’ll lose your humanity just for the sake of being a mother! I am taking this knife from you! Feel free to look for another door to get another weapon, ma'am! Goodbye!!”

  Luna disappears into the room next door.

  .

  .

  .

  “What the heck is this?”

  Hana found herself standing on a gigantic bridge that spans infinitely into the distance both forward and backward. The width of the bridge is two meters across its entire length. The bridge has no railings, and it's just a gigantic pitfall to the right and left. There is nothing but the skies all around she looks, even to the bottom. There are rocky mountains all around, far in the distance. The height of the bridge was so high that clouds were everywhere near the bridge. Some of the big clouds even swallowed the bridge floor every so often. The clouds are also moving really fast as if it’s very windy, yet Hana doesn’t feel any breeze of air on her skin.

  “*Sigh* Thank God I don’t have any fear of heights! Otherwise, I’d freak out needlessly.”

  Hana runs forward.

  “What happened to the doors? I don’t see any.”

  After running silently without finding anything significant, someone shouted at her from behind.

  “HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYY!!!”

  *!!!*

  “HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYY!!!”

  Hana turns around and sees that there is a man far back in the distance.

  “K-K-KAITO-SENPAAAIIIIII??”

  “HEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYY!!! LADY WEARING REEDDDD!!!”

  “KAITO-SENPAAAAAIIIIIII!!!!”

  Hana’s overwhelming happiness overflowed her heart, and her Faith power was activated. Her entire body glows red, and she jumps forward, immediately reaching the man, skipping the entire distance in under two seconds, who called out to her.

  *THUMP*

  Hana lands directly in front of the man. She regains her stance and is about to lunge at him.

  “KAITO-SENPAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!! I MISS YOUUUUUUUUUU!!!”

  “Eh? Who?”

  *!!!!*

  Hana stops herself before she actually jumps. Upon closer look, the man only looked like her boyfriend because of the similar color of his clothing. His face looks nothing like Kaito's at all.

  “. . .”

  Hana’s Faith power deactivates as all of her power and strength immediately leave her body. Her happy face immediately turns to a frown within milliseconds.

  “Hey there.” said Hana with zero enthusiasm.

  The man looks to be in his 20s. He’s 170cm tall and weighs around 66kg. He’s wearing a pair of glasses. His hair is short and spiky, which waves towards the front. He’s wearing a gray short-sleeved T-shirt with a V-neck, a pair of dark gray pants that reach past his knees a bit, and a pair of dark gray running shoes.

  “Thank goodness! I finally found somebody! I’ve been all alone since the start of this freak show!”

  “. . .”

  “My name’s Kevin Freighter! What’s yours?”

  “Sakurai Hana. Very pleased to meet you.” said Hana with a very flat facial expression.

  “Say, wanna go together, miss?”

  “Sure. Please lead the way, cuz I don’t know where to go.”

  “Right! Right! I think we should go this way!”

  “Okay.”

  Hana and the man proceed to walk in the opposite direction.

  The man keeps talking to Hana, but Hana only answers with very short responses like mumbles and the sort, and occasionally with one word, like ‘sure’ and ‘right’.

  After ten minutes of walking, the man stops and looks to the right.

  “Oh! Here! Look! Sakurai-san!”

  “. . .”

  “Huh?”

  Kevin points at something, but after a closer look, Hana realizes that there is a doorknob floating in the air.

  “Wow! I’ve walked past this and I never noticed. So essentially, this is still the same corridor just with different visuals?”

  “That’s at least my current deduction.”

  “Hmm. . .”

  Hana places her foot against the side of the doorknob.

  *!*

  Hana’s foot touched something even though there was nothing visible there. She expected to at least tumble a little bit, seeing how she hung over her one leg over the side of the bridge.

  “This is the wall! Oohhhhh!! So, this is one giant visual overhaul, then! And a lot smaller as well, since I actually met you, sir, just from walking for a few minutes.”

  “Yeah! This situation is bizarre, but at least this scenery is breathtaking, ain’t it?”

  “. . .Yeah. You’re right.”

  “Eh?”

  The man was confused at Hana’s sudden drop in mood.

  “(*SIGH* If only I could share such a beautiful view with Kaito-senpai. WHY DO I KEEP SEEING AMAZING THINGS WITHOUT KAITO-SENPAI?? GRRRRRRRR!! WHEN I SEE THAT GAME MASTER GUY, I’LL DEFINITELY CRUSH HIS SKULL!!)”

  “S-Sakurai-san? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”

  “T-Then let’s go inside this door! See where it leads us!”

  “Fine.”

  “Ladies, first! Sakurai-san!”

  Kevin opens the door for her with a gesture to respect women properly.

  “Alright.”

  Hana enters the door, and Kevin follows after.

  *!!*

  What they found behind the door was something entirely different than whatever they had in mind.

  “W-Woooowww. . .”

  “Now this is truly out of this world. No pun intended!”

  They are now standing in the vacuum of space with millions of stars shining as small as dots far away in the distance. There are many clusters of galaxies, varied in size, that look like shiny gas clouds everywhere. In the center of the room, there is a giant 3D model of a certain blue planet that floats above the two of them.

  “That’s where we are, Sakurai-san!”

  “R-Right. . .”

  “(Beautiful. . . and yet. . . No Kaito-senpai in sight. . . *Sigh* Why must I suffer like this?)”

  They both walk on their own for a little bit as they try to walk and observe the amazing view of the void of outer space. There are multiple doors far away in the back, to the left, and to the right. This looks like a large square room with a green screen on, with the background setting set to outer space.

  *BING BONG BING BONG*

  *!!!*

  “Erhem! ERHEM!! HI EVERYONE!! IT’S THE GAME MASTER AGAIN!! SO, YOU SEE, IT’S BEEN QUITE A WHILE SINCE THE VERY FIRST MURDER, BUT NOBODY HAS COMMITTED ANY MURDER WHATSOEVER!! LIKE COME OOOOOONNNNNN PEOPLE!!! THIS IS A GAMESHOW!!! WE NEED THE ACTIONS!! WHO WANTS TO WATCH 24000 PEOPLE RUNNING AIMLESSLY THROUGH AN INFINITE MAZE!! THAT’S BORING AS FUCK!! GET TO KILL EACH OTHER!!! I TOLD YOU THAT THERE IS NO WAY OUT UNLESS YOU OBEY THE RULES OF THE KILLING GAME!!”

  “This guy is mad. . .” said Hana.

  “Ahahahaha! He wouldn’t have started this freak show if he weren’t!”

  “True enough.”

  “*SIGH* ALRIGHT GUYS!! I’VE ADDED ONE MORE MOTIVATION!! I’VE SENT MY FRIENDS TO THE MAZE!! THEY HAVE BLEND IN WITH THE OTHER PARTICIPANTS!! I’VE TOLD THEM TO KILL ANY OTHER PARTICIPANT THEY’VE ENCOUNTERED, BUT I DID TELL THEM TO MAKE THE KILLING INTERESTING, OR OTHERWISE THE NON-BELIEVER PARTICIPANTS WOULD STAND NO CHANCE!!!”

  *!!!*

  “What did he say?”

  “NOW!! LET’S SEE HOW THE GAME GOES WITH ALL OF MY ‘OFFICERS’ WORKING HARD!! LET THE KILLING GAME BEGIN ANEW!!”

  And the game master’s voice disappears, followed by a loud silence.

  “Not only do we have to worry about running into people that might kill us, but now there are people whose sole purpose is to kill us? That guy really is a freak! Why would someone want others to play this game? What is his purpose? Does he find this fun??”

  Hana angrily expresses her frustration. Mostly from the fact that she can’t get out and hasn’t seen her senpai for a while now.

  “What do you think, Kevi---!!!!”

  *ZRRAAASSSHHHH*

  *!!!!*

  Hana turned around to Kevin as she spoke. But all of a sudden, she was pierced on her right shoulder before she fully turned around. A silver katana pierced through her shoulder deeply.

  “URRGGHHH!!!”

  Hana was shocked that Kevin was the one holding the silver katana, piercing her shoulder.

  “Y-YOU--!!!”

  “Don’t take it to heart, Sakurai-san. I have absolutely no grudge towards you. We just met for a few minutes, after all. I am just here doing my job!”

  *!*

  “(He’s one of them!!)”