You say this is a love game?

During the battle with the pool snake, Mizutani Makoto gradually understood the structure of the swimming pool. This was very similar to a horror game he had seen before. A stage was built with the "pool core" as the core, and everything within sight was a swimming pool.

The water in the pool was only above the ankles and had slight ripples.

These tiny pools of water were as if they did not exist to the previously huge swimming pool snake.

Mizutani Makoto looked down at the clear water surface that was shimmering with light, and his eyes gradually calmed down.

There is a spacious underground space with a ceiling above, but the corridor in front is not the real exit. White tiles that stretch as far as the eye can see, blue pool water, towering pillars and intricate passages... many elements are combined together to form a maze built by a swimming pool.

Mizutani Makoto sighed softly, then composed himself and began his exploration of the swimming pool.

But Makoto Mizutani's exploration journey was not smooth.

The entire pilgrimage route was extremely empty. Mizutani Makoto explored this maze and encountered several impassable dead ends in just half an hour, forcing him to turn back and then try and error at different forks in the road. In the end, he wandered around in circles in this maze and could not find a way out after a long time.

"Wow... Wow..."

The monotony is suffocating.

The surrounding walls, pillars, ground, and forks are all exactly the same.

On this pilgrimage route, the enclosed underground space has no windows, no light sources, and no superfluous decorations, leaving only endless repetition and emptiness.

Every time Mizutani Makoto took a step, the only response he got was the sound of rippling water in the pond.

Logically speaking, his movement should have attracted monsters.

"There are no monsters in this place?"

Mizutani Makoto murmured softly, his brows slightly furrowed.

Too monotonous.

The monotonous piling up of materials makes the entire space seem particularly empty and cold. Mizutani Makoto even feels that it would be a good idea to have some monsters. At least the monsters are enthusiastic and will add a bit of interest to this cold maze.

Mizutani Makoto finally stopped, rubbed his temples, and fell into deep thought.

At this moment, he finally realized something.

"Shouldn't I have to draw a map for the maze?"

Damn... trial and error?

Mizutani Makoto's scalp suddenly felt numb.

The scariest part about playing a maze is that you can’t use the God’s perspective, and you have no idea what the maze looks like, or even how big it is. You can only bite the bullet and search for a way out in the monotonous colors... Isn’t this going to drive people crazy?

"When it comes to navigating a maze, there's a trick called 'sticking to the wall.' Whether you're walking on the left or right side, as long as you keep one hand against the wall, you'll be guaranteed to eventually get out of the maze..."

"That's not right. This maze isn't just made up of walls. There are frequent forks in the road and all sorts of messed-up passages. Even if you stick to the walls, you don't know how long it will take you to find the right path through trial and error."

At this moment, Mizutani Makoto suddenly thought of something.

"I've been through a similar situation before."

The boy pondered and opened his backpack.

——[Red Crayon]

At the beginning, when facing the strange story of the thirteenth staircase, Makoto Mizutani was trapped in the infinitely extending staircase, and it was the red crayon dropped by Hanako-chan that helped Makoto Mizutani out of the predicament.

It can help Mizutani Makoto find the right path.

As soon as this [Red Crayon] was taken out, it immediately vibrated slightly, as it was determining its direction.

Then, it began to draw a red line in the void.

There is pool water below, and it cannot be drawn on the water, so it guides the direction of progress in the void!

The red crayon just floated in the air, and the crimson line finally took shape and continued to extend as the crayon ran at a high speed.

"There's a show!"

But the direction in which the crayon was running was the same direction from which Makoto Mizutani came.

"Does this mean that I took the wrong road at the fork ahead?"

"Damn it, there's a wrong maze at the fork in the road?!"

Mizutani Makoto followed. With the help of the red crayon, the return this time seemed particularly simple... This crayon actually took him all the way to the original starting point, which was the teleportation point of the [Pilgrimage Road].

Starting from this teleportation point, it began to draw in the void again, then poked the void hard and ran wildly again.

This time, it led Mizutani Makoto forward and ran for more than ten minutes, finally stopping at a corner.

——Burned out.

Mizutani Makoto looked at the red crayon in the void. It was now only one tenth of its original length, and its accumulated spiritual energy had been drained away.

……normal.

When solving the staircase ghost story, the red crayon was also squeezed dry. Its recovery pattern is similar to that of the [Camellia Blood Cup]. It will recover its spirituality at midnight every day, and then it can continue to work.

"What a good kid."

Mizutani Makoto touched the crayon gently and then put it into his backpack.

Not a big deal.

He had guessed that the scale of this maze might be beyond imagination, so when the red crayon led the way, he wrote down the direction he had just traveled. Based on his observation, this maze would not change. So, he would go there tonight and mark the first ten minutes of the journey. Then, tomorrow he would run to this new starting point and activate the red crayon again...

“This is a long project.”

Yoshiko Satori landed on Mizutani Makoto's shoulder. The one-hour CD had long passed. The girl was now in a red form full of energy. Her ability to avoid danger and seek good fortune was not of much use in a complex maze, but she was still first-class at collecting props.

It is worth mentioning that the Pool Snake has no secret stash.

It seemed that this "pilgrimage route" was isolated from the outside world. It would take more than ten minutes to slide down the slope alone, and there would be no victims falling into the swimming pool snake at all.

The only takeout she had recently had was probably from Mizutani Makoto.

The search for the Pool Snake's treasury was fruitless, but at this corner, Satori Yoshiko landed on the ground. She seemed to sense something and explored this narrow corner with her eyes. Finally, she landed on the ground and trotted out across the pool, pulling out a page of the diary from a gap in the tiles.

[Pilgrimage Diary Fragments]

[Description: Are we really in the right place? It's all trees here... Is this a dense forest? No matter how long we walk, we can't get out... We seem to be lost.]

Dense forest?

But this is clearly a pool...

Mizutani Makoto pondered for a moment and put the diary away.

He turned around and glanced at the fork in the road, but had no desire to explore further.

"That's all for today."

In the end, Makoto Mizutani committed suicide.

It was mentioned before that if Makoto Mizutani wanted to log off voluntarily, he had to log off near the Torii Gate, but Makoto Mizutani was in the maze of this pilgrimage route...it was too troublesome for him to log off, and it was far less refreshing than self-destruction.

I just have to comfort Kako's mother who is a little depressed.

"But anyway..."

"Two powerful spiritual cores."

That night.

Mizutani Makoto crawled out of the bed and played with the two strong-level spirit cores in his hand. The promotion to the "strong level" was getting closer and closer.

"After defeating the boss in the hospital over there, we can go find Miss Furuya to level up."

"That pilgrimage route now has a teleportation point. Can we defeat that boss now?"

"If we want to be more cautious, we can wait until the real dungeon is released before pushing it..."

"Wait a moment, there's no rush for the next two or three days."

Mizutani Makoto recalled it carefully.

With his genius, he spent 33 days to climb from the lower level to the middle level, and then spent another 17 days to climb directly to the top level through several tasks that came one after another.

Of course, during that period, his spiritual power was purely accumulated, but other things had not yet increased. Even the configuration of the Shikigami was relatively weak, which led to his low combat power.

The same is true for He Mogami. Mizutani Makoto, who rushed up through the mission, if he does not take drugs, his frontal combat ability is far inferior to that of Gyoutiao.

Next, he was stuck at the top, and he was stuck there for 37 days.

"Let's do the math... 87 days?"

In nearly three months, the gifted young exorcist reached a realm that most exorcists would never dare to imagine in their entire lives.

"As expected of me."

This is my talent and hard work.

It was late at night, and a refreshing evening breeze was blowing outside the shrine. Makoto Mizutani was sitting indoors enjoying the air conditioning, his hands behind his head, his gaze slowly falling on the ceiling, ignoring Yoshiko Satori and Mai Yajima who were resting their heads on his arms.

Mai Yajima pouted and rubbed twice in a cute way. Yoshiko's sleeping posture was quite quiet, she just lay there motionless, cosplaying the cool ice bag.

He thought about it and took out his cell phone from the pillow next to him.

[Gegegege: You actually still remember your brothers? Oh, the brothers are all traveling, and you're the only one not joining the group.]

His good buddy.

During the Solar Eclipse Battle, many people in Night Light City were affected. Fortunately, among the acquaintances that Makoto Mizutani knew, that group of good brothers did not suffer a major disaster... This was also related to his timely rescue.

Among them, Nakano Takeya, who was tortured by the ghost doll, came back to life. This guy threw away all the action figures at home and is now learning fishing from Kubo Shinji. The group took advantage of the summer vacation to leave the Night Light City, and the young man directly organized a group to travel abroad.

Mizutani Makoto was also invited. The group thought about his family situation and planned to pool their money to take him out for a trip. However, Mizutani Makoto's summer vacation was relatively busy, and the Night Light Market had not yet completely ended, so it was impossible for him to go abroad with others.

Regret missing it.

Even this summer vacation, he didn't have much free time. After dealing with the Solar Eclipse Battle, Mizutani Makoto hurried to Kyoto City. While others were traveling and having fun, he continued to suffer in the cracks, still fighting for his strong rank fragments.

“Maintaining social interaction also requires time.”

But how can the troubles in friendship be calculated using “cost”?

How many friends can a person meet in his lifetime?

Makoto Mizutani and his close friends are a group of young men full of high spirits. Leaving behind the mess in the exorcist circle, Makoto Mizutani is still willing to take some time to return to his life.

[Gegege: You're not going to stay at the Night Light Market for the entire summer vacation, are you?]

[Blue-haired water monster: Thanks for the invitation. I'm in Kyoto.]

[Blue-haired water monster: Address link.]

[Gegegege: That's good. I thought you'd get a summer job at Night Light Market and work yourself to death. It's nice that you're willing to go out and have a look around, but there's so much fun to do in Kyoto... Wait, damn, why did you choose to stay in a shrine?]

[Gegegege: What time is it now? Are you still staying overnight at Inari Taisha Shrine?]

【Blue-haired water monster: Photo JPG】

Mizutani Makoto adjusted the angle and took a photo, which showed that he was in the shrine.

[Ge Ge Ge: It feels like you're making big news behind your brothers' backs...]

【Gegegege: Let’s not talk about this for now.】

[Gegege: Now I remember, before the school explosion, didn't we discuss where to go for summer vacation? Didn't Ota and Nishimura come up to us at that time? They said they were going to Kyoto, but I don't know if they actually went... You could talk to them about it.]

Ohta? West Village?

Members of the Love Activities Club.

"..."

Mizutani Makoto slapped his forehead and suddenly thought of his extremely bad black history.

He is now the deputy director of the dating activities department.

Bah, he wants to form a One Hundred Demons Night Parade, who would be willing to lead a love activities department?

That being said, fate is indeed wonderful.

……

……

The next day.

Mizutani Makoto used the refreshed [Red Crayon] to explore the map, and pieced together a journey of about 30 minutes. He then spent an hour in the hospital to refresh souls, and at nine o'clock he went to the dojo where Kamiizumi Nao was.

He couldn't stay in Kyoto forever.