What?! The Gamemaster And The Top Player Are Dating?!

It was an old man with a single leg. Surely it wasn't that horrible to see a person with physical defects as such, but what really came as a shock was that the old man's leg had an open wound as if it were amputated not long ago. The blood was still dripping down and chunks of meat were still hanging from the edge of the half-left leg. 

The old man's face could not be seen clearly due to the lack of light. They could make out his silhouette and before they could focus on his appearance, the man disappeared. He disappeared without a trace as if he was never there—as if their eyes had played tricks on them.

"That was... Please tell me I wasn't the only one who saw that...?" Hasumi questioned as soon as the old one-legged man disappeared.. 

Zhihao, "Everyone saw that."

"..."

The group was certainly spooked out and didn't know what they were to do. 

The thoughts they previously had about going back was thrown out of their minds. There was no way they were turning back now. They had come too far out and just weren't going to go back to that devil station. It was a bad idea but that didn't mean, the way ahead was going to be any better. 

Hasumi suddenly regretted her decision to walk out of the station. She should have just waited for sun-rise. The morning was much better than night. Unbeknownst to her, it really didn't matter if she stayed on the station or not. Her ending would still not be as peaceful as she'd want it to be. 

Alvi, "We should keep moving."

Hasumi, "We should?"

Zhihao nodded, "We should."

Li Ling, "..."

The group ignored the fact that they had met a one-legged ghost who warned them not to walk on the tracks and kept on walking on the tracks. They had hearts made of steel, strong, and unafraid. 

Hasumi, "Could that have been a..."

She didn't complete her sentence and she didn't need to as the others already understood what she had wanted to say. 

Zhihao, "A person who died on the tracks. Maybe lost his one leg here."

"..." Hasumi would be lying if she said she was okay. 

At moments like this, it was best to not speak of such things. Staying positive and ignoring unnatural things was the best she could do at the moment. She wanted to do that but this man in front of her was really too courageous. 

He was ready to mention ghosts at this hour of the day. 

It was freaking one in the morning. 

The group continued walking forward with nobody daring to speak anything any further. They just didn't want to discuss it in detail. At night, in the middle of nowhere, getting off at an unknown station and trying to walk on the tracks in hopes of finding their way back, they were bound to come across something like this. 

They were lucky if it had stopped there. One poor soul was enough for them for the day, they didn't want to meet any more. 

After walking a bit further, the sound of the drums and bells started getting closer. The town was near, the festival was near. They were almost there. They were going to survive this or at least Hasumi hoped they would. 

They finally got a glimpse of the tunnel in front. This was the tunnel they had passed on their way over to the station so they were sure that they were on the right way. If they made a run for it through the tunnel, they would probably be safe. 

Till now, nine minutes and some seconds had passed. They hadn't got the character background yet nor the mission they were supposed to complete. Another few seconds and they would know what they were supposed to do. 

Just a few more seconds of blindly following this foolish girl who was bad at making decisions. Zhihao was waiting for those few seconds to be over soon. 

When they reached the tunnel, they could now read the name of the tunnel. It was called Isanuki Tunnel. 

Zhihao had never heard of such a tunnel but that was only natural considering the fact that he was Chinese and hadn't been to Japan nor did he know the places here. He had heard a bit from here and there but that was it and his knowledge of the place was equal to nothing. He hadn't heard of such a station nor had he heard of such a tunnel. It was lucky that Kanji existed and was based on Chinese characters; they were the only words Zhihao could understand. 

Hasumi, "I've never heard of such a tunnel."

Of course, she hadn't. 

Hasumi searched up the name on the internet, and as she flipped through the search results, she frowned as she spoke, "There is no information on the internet."

Of course, there wasn't.

An unknown tunnel that led them to an unknown station. It would have been more shocking if Hasumi had found something about it on the internet. 

Li Ling, "Should we go?"

There was no other better option left so Zhihao agreed to him and so did Hasumi who was a bit reluctant but still ended up nodding her little head. 

Zhihao, "We should make a run for it."

They should, but Zhihao wouldn't want to bother with that. Although Li Ling nodded at Zhihao's suggestion, he didn't move. He wouldn't be running. No one will. Hasumi was too tired to run and the others didn't want to bother running. 

"Let's just walk fast," Hasumi suggested and this was a much better option. 

Alvi seemed to be the happiest person among them as she walked in front of all of them, inside the dark tunnel without any fear. She was a bot, what did she have to be afraid of?

Zhihao didn't know what was inside the tunnel but he knew it wasn't going to be anything he liked. He was waiting the whole time, waiting for something to pop out and try to scare them or kill them. So far, no zombies had popped out so at least there was that.

The talisman had already indicted a demon to be near them so could this tunnel really be safe? If anyone thought that, they'd just be uselessly optimistic and that was Hasumi, who thought she could cross the tunnel and get out safely. 

It was no use panicking for no reason and in such situations, it was better for them to be calm and collected, but Zhihao found Hasumi's calmness to be a bit too unsettling. This woman was walking as if this was her own hometown. She looked a bit scared but that was it. At a point in time, Zhihao even questioned if this woman was just acting scared. 

They rode a train that didn't go where it was supposed to go, they got off at a station that didn't exist and they were walking along a track at night with nothing in sight except for a tunnel they had never heard of.

The station they had gotten off at was named Devil station so it was really easy for Mastermo to guess that whatever jumped at them now would not be some friendly thing. 

They had to be careful and needed to be aware of their surroundings. 

Hasumi was a bit too enthusiastic to follow Alvi into the tunnel as she thought it was a safe road back home, but Zhihao was a bit skeptical. 

[Alert: Someone used the gambling bar.]

Zhihao didn't know what this meant exactly, but before he could ask Alvi what was wrong, he heard Hasumi crying out in worry as she stopped in her tracks. 

"My phones dead."

"..."

Hasumi, "How can this happen? It was fully charged."

[This was caused by the gambling bar]

Zhihao suddenly understood that whoever had used the gambling bar was a negative better who didn't seem to like Mastermo very much. 

If a negative better had turned Hasumi's cellphone off, it meant her phone was something useful. 

With her phone turned off, she could no longer text the people who she was asking for advice. 

Even with a dead phone, Hasumi still speed-walked inside the tunnel. 

Zhihao looked behind them at the empty tracks one last time before continuing to follow Hasumi inside the tunnel. 

The tunnel, as it had appeared from the outside was dark with a few lights every 25 meters or so. Some rats were running along the sides of the tunnel and Alvi was thoroughly disgusted with the rodents. 

Suddenly a notification sound popped up and Alvi spoke.

[Congratulations on surviving the first ten minutes]

[You have entered Isanuki Tunnel.]

[Mastermo is playing the demon Taki1]

[Devilmagiclover is playing the passenger named Itsuki1.]

"..."

[Taki is the demon tasked to lead the ghost festival tonight. He has a cold yet playful personality and usually likes to play with humans before he leads them into the other world from where they may never return.]

[Itsuki is a high school student who was heading home as usual but fell asleep on the train. He has an introverted personality and doesn't like talking to people he just met. He lives with his grandmother who is a shaman.]

[Your mission is to lead Hasumi and Itsuki to the other world and make them participate in the annual ghost festival.]

Zhihao didn't know if he wanted to laugh or cry. He had thought the antagonist of this story to be the girl in front of them, but to know that the real demon he was afraid of was none other than Zhihao himself. It was certainly a situation he should laugh at on but he didn't. 

Li Ling, who heard Alvi speak, immediately smiled as he heard Mastermo being the demon.

Well, the 'Mo' in Mastermo's name already meant devil magic so it wasn't like the role didn't fit him. Now Mastermo could proudly say that he was an actual demon named Taki.

Zhihao had questions for Alvi but he was still afraid of the OOC alert so he didn't dare voice it out. When this level was over, he'd ask Alvi about it. If they were not allowed to talk to Alvi about anything that gave out a hint, what was even the use of Alvi?

As Zhihao planned this, Li Ling didn't think further, and straightforwardly asked Alvi.

"What is this tunnel?"

Hasumi looked back at them, "Huh?"

[This tunnel is the doorway to the other word.]

That was right. Alvi was not bound by a character. Although she was with them disguised as a ten-year-old, she was still not a player and didn't have OOC restricting her actions. If she didn't want the NPC to hear something, Hasumi really couldn't hear her.

Zhihao and Li Ling were the only ones who heard Alvi's answer.

Hasumi looked back at them and got no response from them so she gave up, thinking that she might have heard it wrong.

As they continued to walk inside the tunnel, the sounds of drums mixed with the ringing of bells started getting closer and closer, it was indeed coming from the other end of the tunnel.

"We should go back but I'm afraid to turn around," Hasumi commented and Zhihao thought the girl wasn't entirely wrong.

There were walking on the entrance to the other world so there was no way she would be able to safely get out of this. If she turned around at the moment, it would mean she was turning her back on the demons she was walking towards.

This was really not an ideal situation to be in. On one hand, this girl was walking with a demon named Taki and on the other hand, she was walking towards her doom, if she turned around now, she still won't be able to save her pitiful life.