Kaguya-sama: Love Is War wants me to turn myself in.

Amamiya Natsuki handed over the watermelon she had bought on the spur of the moment. Her gaze swept over the room and saw Hayasaka, Haimu, and Miko all watching TV in the living room.

"Natsuki."

"senior."

"How is Chika-chan doing?"

Several girls looked over.

"It's done. The curse removal worked pretty well." Amamiya Natsuki briefly explained what had happened before heading to the bathroom to wash up.

With so many people around, the succubus girl couldn't sneak into the bathroom to act cute, so she could only obediently continue watching TV.

After taking a shower, Natsuki Amamiya sat down on the sofa. Everyone chatted, some reading, some watching TV. It felt like nothing had been done, and before they knew it, it was midnight.

Then it's theater time.

"Mahjong..."

Miss Sadako's voice was expectant.

"Talk while you fight."

Everyone gathered together and started playing mahjong. During this time, Natsuki Amamiya revealed the game missions from the daytime and asked several employees if they knew anything about them.

Unfortunately not.

Miss Sadako is now completely absorbed in mahjong, happily oblivious to the world around her.

The human-faced dog knew nothing when asked, and lay on the ground grunting as it ate.

"I don't know." The yandere young lady frowned slightly, her voice icy. "I am who I am, not a game NPC in a comic book, and no strange will forces me to do things I don't want to do."

In fact, Natsuki Amamiya had already talked to the yandere young lady about the game. The yandere young lady didn't know anything about the game, only that after the dungeon ended, she would fall into a kind of half-asleep state.

"Kaguya-chan knows about manga?" Kitagawa Kaimu asked curiously.

The human-faced dog looked up with a wronged expression, its tone resentful: "She stole all the comics and light novels that Shayou gave me."

The yandere young lady tilted her head and looked over: "...You have a problem with that?"

"No."

The human-faced dog quickly shook its head.

Silent all night.

The next day arrived in the blink of an eye.

As the theater closed, Natsuki Amamiya summoned the human-faced dog, Sadako, and the yandere young lady, bringing them into reality—

There is strength in numbers.

That eerie phenomenon that has invaded reality must be treated with caution.

"It's so uncomfortable," the human-faced dog Yuko quickly complained. "It's like standing naked in the freezing cold, so empty."

The yandere young lady frowned slightly but remained silent.

Miss Sadako then sneaked up to the television, trying to crawl inside.

"Hold on, don't wander in."

Amamiya Natsuki reached out and pulled Sadako out.

I must say, this Sadako has an incredibly slim waist...

The rest is self-explanatory.

Seeing that the child had quietly slipped home.

Haimeng hummed a song as she went to the kitchen to prepare food. Hayasaka, worried, followed her in to help.

During this time, Natsuki Amamiya received a message from Chika.

He said he dreamed of a strange, faceless woman, just like Mengye described. He experienced sleep paralysis the entire time, and even as a player, he had no chance to struggle and could only watch helplessly as the faceless woman approached... Let alone ordinary people, even players would be mentally exhausted.

There is also good news.

Mengye and Xiaohua have woken up. They slept soundly until dawn. The fact that they were unable to reach the Faceless Woman last night proves that the curse has been successfully purified.

Moe-yori is alright, but when Kohana found out she wasn't having nightmares, she was so excited she burst into tears. Now she's become a loyal fan of the exorcist, Chika-sama.

Eight in the morning.

Student Union Office.

"The intelligence has arrived. Everyone, take a look."

After receiving the information from a random player, Natsuki Amamiya printed it out using the office printer and distributed it to several girls.

"This is way too detailed!" Fujiwara Chika took a look and couldn't help but complain, "In the information age, there really is no privacy at all."

Shopping records, travel records, search records, likes and comments records, etc., are all listed on paper. In addition, there are surveillance videos of Hinata's whereabouts during this period, which can be described as extremely detailed.

Kitagawa Kaimu couldn't help but worry: "Won't the videos I stored on my cloud drive be leaked?"

Amamiya Natsuki raised an eyebrow and looked over: "Can I borrow a phone to talk?"

"These are videos of my cosplay that I filmed before." Kitagawa Kaimu put her right hand on her hip. "I think they look really bad, but I worked so hard to film them, so I couldn't bear to delete them and just put them all in my cloud drive."

Kaguya Shinomiya pursed her pink lips and suddenly said:

"I found it."

Chapter 540 You guys came here for a multi-person game in the escape room, right?

"This is Hinata-kun's search history for the past month." Kaguya Shinomiya picked up an information page. "His previous search history was very ordinary: celebrities, food, cute pets, gossip... until six days ago, the search content changed, and for the first time, there was a search related to nightmares."

Amamiya Natsuki looked down at the paper.

Six days ago, a junior high school girl's search history included questions like "Why do I have nightmares all night long?" and "Why can't I move in my dreams?"

obviously.

The nightmare curse has appeared.

Fujiwara Chika asked curiously:

"So, Hinata-chan encountered the nightmare six days ago?"

Kaguya Shinomiya shook her head and said:

"To be precise, it was seven days ago."

"Huh?" Kitagawa Haimu blinked in confusion. "Why?"

“I understand.” Zian Yan’s eyes lit up. “That junior high school girl only searched for things related to nightmares on her phone the day after she had the nightmare, so the actual time she had the nightmare was the day before.”

Amamiya Natsuki looked at him with admiration: "Senior is so smart."

"Perfunctory."

Zian Yan's eyes sparkled, and she turned pale with a charming smile.

I'm a high school student, after all. Even elementary school students can do this kind of simple reasoning!

“Seven days back, that’s exactly one week,” Kitagawa Kaimu said thoughtfully, hands on her hips. “That is, last weekend?”

"That's right, the focus should be on checking where Sun Shangxiang went and what he did over the weekend."

"..."

After confirming the time, the group searched for information and quickly completed the Sunday activity log of the junior high school girl.

"The surveillance footage shows that the junior high school student, Hikaru, left home a little after 10 a.m. and met up with a girl named Misaki at a dessert shop for dessert."

"The two then went to a bookstore to buy books."

"After leaving the bookstore, the two went to the shopping mall, had lunch there, and spent the afternoon shopping and watching a movie."

"I left the mall at 5:10 p.m., took the tram home, and got home at 5:36 p.m. I haven't left the house since."

In short, this elementary school girl's Sunday activities are very simple: eating, drinking, and having fun. She doesn't do anything reckless like exploring abandoned haunted houses or playing spirit summoning games with her friends.

Kaguya Shinomiya stood in front of the small blackboard, chalk in hand. It was a pity she was missing a pair of glasses; otherwise, she could easily have won the title of most beautiful teacher. She analyzed:

"The schedule for Sunday is as described above. There are a few points worth noting."

"First of all, the nightmare phenomenon did not have a large-scale outbreak, proving that the strange place Hinata encountered was not a public place, and only Hinata was infected with the nightmare curse, while her friends were not infected."

“That makes sense.” Fujiwara Chika rested her chin on her right hand and nodded in agreement. “Just seeing a sketch can infect you with a nightmare curse. If it were to break out in public, I feel like the whole of Tokyo would be in danger.”

Zi'an Yan pursed her pink lips: "It's fortunate that we encountered a mission. If it were those dark-hearted criminals who spread that sketch widely on the internet, wouldn't the whole world be infected with the nightmare curse?"

Amamiya Natsuki feigned shock and looked over:

"Senior is so scary. Chika was only thinking about the danger in Tokyo, but Senior has already considered cursing the whole world?"

"I didn't." Zi'an Yan's eyes darted around, and she pouted at him playfully. "Judging from the current situation, the possibility of widespread infection and transmission certainly exists, doesn't it?"

"I have a question!" Kitagawa Kaimu raised her right hand and asked, "Kaguya-chan said that the strange faceless woman doesn't appear in public places, but all the places where Hinata is active are public places, right?"

“That’s right,” Fujiwara Chika nodded. “Bookstores, restaurants, shopping malls, and movie theaters are all public places.”

Kaguya Shinomiya remained calm and said:

"It is a public place, but there must be a place where someone is alone. This is exactly the area we need to look for, such as restrooms, photo studios, and a newly opened escape room in the mall."

After a pause, Kaguya Shinomiya continued:

"In fact, bookstores and dessert shops can be ruled out now. Although there are not many ordinary people infected with the nightmare curse, Hinata is not the only one. There are already posts on the internet complaining and asking for help."

Regarding the Nightmare Curse, Natsuki Amamiya didn't hide anything and clearly explained it in the mutual aid group. The hacker player who accepted the commission naturally knew the implications and, without Natsuki Amamiya's reminder, thoughtfully compiled and sent over information about the Nightmare Curse that had recently become more prevalent online.

Finding only Hinata is indeed difficult, but by summarizing the movements of all the Nightmare Infected, the final intersection will be the answer.

"In conclusion," Kaguya Shinomiya circled a location on the blackboard with chalk, "there is an over 80% chance that the location of the faceless woman is within an escape room venue."

The gameplay of escape rooms is similar to that of haunted houses, but it leans more towards adventure and puzzle-solving. Not every corner or every prop will be explored; you'll only find out what's inside once you've been there.

Natsuki Amamiya sat below and said sincerely:

"Thank you for your hard work, Kaguya-sensei."

Fujiwara Chika: "Thank you for your hard work, Kaguya-sensei."