Nidi scanned her surroundings, her gaze finally settling on the glowing moon atop the lighthouse.
"If solving the puzzle the normal way won't work, then let's go all out and make a miracle happen!"
Baldy and Round-Face Sister, the two bruisers, instantly caught Nidi's drift.
They rushed to the glowing moon lamp and started trying to dismantle it, but the thing was sturdy as hell. Without tools, they weren't making much progress.
With no other options, Baldy grabbed a wooden stick and jabbed it hard at the moon lamp. After a few tries, he finally shattered the glass.
Meanwhile, over at the cabin, the ghouls had finally busted open the fridge door. A dozen or so of the monsters poured out, charging straight for the lighthouse.
Their creepy limbs made them freakishly fast climbers, and they were already nearing the top.
"Hand me the stick!"
The priest snatched the stick from Baldy and started fending off the climbing ghouls, managing to knock several of them off the tower.
But the soft sand below acted like a cushion for the ghouls. Not a single one got hurt from the fall.
On the other side, Round-Face Sister was still wrestling with the moon lamp.
"Let me handle it—I don't feel pain! Pass me that curtain!"
Her words caught Black Sister off guard, but she handed over the curtain anyway.
Wrapping the curtain around her hand, Round-Face Sister ignored the broken glass and started dismantling the lamp from the inside. Even with the curtain, her hands got scratched up pretty bad.
Finally, the moon lamp came off, revealing a hidden circular passage.
Black Sister was so excited she nearly jumped for joy.
"We did it!"
The priest glanced back, a relieved smile spreading across his face.
"Amazing! Ladies first! You go ahead, Baldy and I will cover the rear!"
Round-Face Sister and Black Sister didn't hesitate, diving into the hidden passage, followed by Ashley and Nidi.
When it was the priest and Baldy's turn, the priest gestured for Baldy to go first.
"You sure you'll be okay?" Baldy asked, uncertain.
The priest grinned. "I'm a priest. God's got my back!"
Baldy gritted his teeth and slipped into the passage. Now it was just the priest.
He toppled a nearby telescope to slow the ghouls down, but their agility was beyond what he'd expected. They leaped right over it.
Just as the priest's upper body reached the edge of the hidden passage, a ghoul sank its teeth into his leg.
"Agh!"
The priest let out a scream as the ghoul's teeth tore a chunk of flesh from his leg. More ghouls swarmed in.
In the nick of time, Nidi doubled back, pistol in hand. She fired several shots at the ghoul biting the priest's leg, then yanked him up with one hand.
The priest couldn't believe it. He was a full-grown man—there was no way even Baldy could've pulled him up single-handedly.
But Nidi did.
"Climb inside, quick!"
The passage was narrow—once they were in, the ghouls couldn't swarm them.
The priest, dragging his agonizing leg, crawled through the passage on sheer survival instinct. But the ghouls were hot on their heels, their crawling speed far outpacing Nidi and the priest.
Luckily, the passage wasn't too long. They soon emerged, and Ashley quickly slammed the passage door shut. One ghoul managed to squeeze halfway through, still trying to claw its way out.
Round-Face Sister didn't hesitate. She grabbed a brick she'd been carrying—street weapon of choice—and smashed it repeatedly into the ghoul's head until it was dazed and retreated.
Ashley sealed the door and locked the safety valve.
The ghouls kept banging on the door, but their heads weren't made of iron. The safety valve held firm, and after a few minutes of futile banging, the ghouls grumbled and left.
Only then did everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.
Round-Face Sister turned to Nidi.
"Where'd you get that pistol?"
Nidi smirked. "I brought it myself, obviously! My boyfriend told me in a dangerous place like America, it's best to carry a gun for safety."
Truth was, the gun was from an experiment Claire had done. She'd sealed a pistol into a card, which Nidi had kept on her.
In that critical moment, Nidi remembered the card and used Claire's runes to retrieve the gun.
Meanwhile, as the adrenaline faded, the priest couldn't hold back a pained groan, clutching his injured leg.
Black Sister rushed to check on him. His left leg was missing chunks of flesh, some wounds deep enough to show bone.
Worse, many of the wounds were turning black.
"Damn it! Those monsters' teeth must be poisonous!"
The priest's face was ashen, his body trembling from the toxin's effects. He grabbed Nidi's pant leg, pleading.
"Kill me! Use your gun and end it!"
"It's not time to give up yet."
Nidi knelt and pressed her hand to the priest's wounds. A faint white light glowed from her palm, and under its radiance, the black substance melted away instantly.
At the same time, the priest's missing flesh began regenerating at a visible rate. The sight stunned all the second-loop players.
"How… how did you do that?"
"God, it's a miracle!"
After expending some of her holy light, the priest's leg was fully healed. He tentatively moved his foot—no pain at all.
"You should be good to move now!" Nidi said, pulling her hand back and exhaling in relief.
"Can someone explain what the hell just happened?" Baldy clutched his head, struggling to process the scene.
Black Sister, the journalist, had a hunch.
"Nidi, are you… a supernatural?"
Nidi nodded. "Yeah, I've got some supernatural powers."
"What kind of powers?" Baldy was still confused, but Round-Face Sister and the priest were starting to piece things together.
Round-Face Sister, a war veteran, had heard rumors of strange things—after all, the military was dabbling in some weird stuff.
And the priest, as a man of the cloth, knew a thing or two about the church's secrets. Angels had descended through the church a few times, after all.
After some back-and-forth from the three second-loop players, Baldy finally got the picture. But then he had another question.
"Why didn't you show off these powers earlier?"
Nidi gave an awkward smile. She couldn't exactly admit she'd been too caught up playing the game, could she?
Black Sister jumped in to help.
"The federal government doesn't allow supernaturals to show their powers in public. There are special agencies that handle this stuff. If Nidi exposed herself on camera, she'd be in serious danger!"
Round-Face Sister added, "Yeah, the military might even snatch her up for experiments!"
That was the kind of reputation the feds had with the public. Even a retired soldier like Round-Face Sister said it, leaving Baldy speechless.
Nidi went along with their cover story.
"You'll keep this a secret, right?"
"Absolutely!" the group chorused.
"I think I hear something weird!" Ashley, who'd been quiet, suddenly spoke up, startling everyone.
They finally took a moment to look around. The environment resembled a maintenance tunnel—not exactly a proper stage transition.
Everyone listened closely and, sure enough, heard strange noises—like something crawling through the tunnel.
Nidi reacted fast. "Crap! Those monsters must've found another way in!"
The group's expressions darkened. They'd either lost or broken their weapons. All they had left was a glass dagger in the priest's hand and Nidi's collapsible fishing rod.
"Quick, find an exit!"
Baldy, with his sewer-crawling expertise, soon spotted an upward ladder and heard sirens and car noises from above.
"Guys! There's a way up, and I hear sirens and cars—we might actually escape!"
But Nidi felt something was off.
From the first stage at the abandoned subway station, they'd descended dozens of meters in the escape elevator to reach the second stage, the bank. From the bank to the third stage, the beach, there wasn't much change in depth.
Climbing the lighthouse to escape the beach stage only took them up maybe ten meters—not nearly enough to reach the surface.
So, Baldy's discovery was likely a room somewhere between the subway station and the bank or beach stages.
But there was no time to explain. The crawling sounds were getting closer, so they climbed.
---
Switching to Roy's perspective…
After taking out the dark web's "cleaner," Roy entered the escape tunnel from the first stage's subway carriage, leaving Clauria to wait at the abandoned station.
The tunnel's entrance was sealed, but that was no issue for Roy. One punch and he smashed through.
The entrance led to an elevator, but it had already gone down. So, Roy free-fell dozens of meters, landing right on top of the elevator.
Prying open the elevator doors, he stepped into the bank lobby covered in green lasers.
"Whoa, they're playing hardball!"
Roy scanned the lobby. No bodies or blood—Nidi and the others must've made it through safely.
Easy enough. Roy spotted the hidden cameras in the lobby, took them out one by one with his revolver, and then strolled through the dense web of green lasers.
The lasers, capable of slicing through flesh, only sparked harmlessly against Roy's skin. His clothes, though, weren't so lucky—they were shredded into beggar rags.
After all, Roy's skin could handle lasers, but his outfit couldn't.
One punch demolished the vault door. As Roy passed through the vault, planning to change clothes, he spotted a ghoul in the cave beyond.
"Huh? Where'd this ghoul come from?"
Ghouls had no vision. Living in the dark underground for so long, their eyesight had long degraded.
But their sense of smell was unreal—way sharper than a dog's.
This poor ghoul caught a whiff of Roy's terrifying aura.
Instantly, it started shaking like a leaf, like a mouse cornered by a cat. It was too scared to even run.
Roy gave up on changing clothes for now, deciding to deal with the ghoul first.
"Hey, can you understand English? Or maybe Chinese?"
The ghoul kept backing away, curling into a ball, clearly petrified.
"Come on, can't you guys learn a language or two? Like those two predecessors of yours? Makes communication such a hassle!"
As Roy closed in, the ghoul finally cracked under the pressure, letting out a piercing shriek.
"Quit yelling!"
Roy kicked the ghoul square in the face, sending it flying out of the cave. He followed, stepping out onto the beach under the night sky.
The quicksand traps on the beach had stopped, but plenty of ghouls still roamed. Spotting Roy, they let out warning roars.
Ghouls were pack-dwelling dark creatures, bottom-feeders in the dark creature hierarchy. Their combat skills were weak—regular people with weapons could take them down.
With a gun, you could handle a few no problem.
Lone ghouls were cowardly, but in a group, they got bold.
Right now, despite sensing Roy's terrifying presence, the dozens of ghouls banded together for courage, growling defiantly.
"Feeling tough, huh? Haki Ghost, you jerk…"
Six months ago, when Roy first arrived in Los Angeles, he could already solo a ghoul dungeon.
Now, half a year later, Roy was on a whole other level.
"Acting tough? Time for a personality adjustment!"
Roy cracked his knuckles, unleashing his aura. It kicked up a small sandstorm.
---
Meanwhile, Nidi and Ashley had just climbed out of a manhole-like exit, joining the others in the fourth stage—a game room designed like a street.
Shops lined both sides, and a rental car sat parked by the road.
"Damn it! We're still in the game!" Baldy cursed, kicking a nearby railing.
The others started scoping out the surroundings. Black Sister noticed a traffic light with a three-minute timer that hadn't started yet.
Then Round-Face Sister spotted sprinklers overhead, and a bad feeling hit her.
"Look at those sprinklers!"
The Puzzle Master didn't put those there for fire safety—that much was obvious.
"Everyone, be careful. Don't touch anything yet. Let's check out the area before the game officially starts."
But even though no one moved, just standing there, the timer started counting down.
Everyone turned to glare at Baldy.