The three of them entered the amusement park cautiously. The amusement park was something that should incite fun… not fear. It should amuse people. However, that was what an amusement park was. As for an abandoned amusement park, especially an amusement park that had been abandoned for almost a decade, it wouldn’t be amusing to enter it anymore. Instead, it would be creepy to walk around it.

That was what they felt as they entered the amusement park. Because people had left this amusement park for almost a decade, vegetation crept on the building around them. Mir recorded everything carefully. She couldn’t see the buildings around her due to the black miasma and the countless number of ghosts. However, none of them were recorded on the camera. So, in the camera, she could see the information center and the mascot of the amusement park, which was some kind of animal that looked like a lion. Or a sunflower with a human face.

She turned around and saw a creepy mask on the ground. It was a clown mask. However, because of time, the white part of the mask turned brownish and the eyes turned black. Perhaps it was because of rain as well, Mir thought. She didn't want to touch it though.

Raleigh slowly took out a weapon from his waist. Mir thought it would be a talisman or something like that. But she never expected it to be a wooden wand. Yes, that was right. It was a wand. And it looked as simple as… well, a branch of some trees that he randomly picked.

“That’s your weapon?” The ghost asked deridingly. It seemed the ghost had the same thought as Mir.

“What?” Raleigh replied, but he didn’t look at the ghost.

“I mean, come on! You are a ghost hunter! Aren’t you supposed to have a better weapon? Proton Pack, maybe? And if you want to use a sword, I think silver is a better weapon than this… this wooden branch you pick from somewhere, isn’t it?”

“How rude. Silver is expensive, you know? I don’t even have money for food and a taxi, how do you expect me to have money to buy a silver sword? Not to mention they break easi—” Just as his attention was distracted for a moment, tens of ghosts suddenly attacked him. Fortunately, Raleigh was young. And he was quite nimble with a good reflex. He immediately created a barrier made out of his spiritual energy to block those ghosts. And the plain-looking wooden weapon, somehow, amplified his spiritual power a little.

“Sword of Banishing Evil! I’m relying on you!!” Raleigh shouted loudly. Usually, when he shouted, he would feel his power increased by a tremendous amount. And that was actually what happened now. His power increased along with his shout.

…but that was not enough. The ghosts were strengthened by the black miasma, so they were far stronger than normal ghosts. Blocking one ghost was his limit. His barrier broke, along with his wooden sword. It happened so quickly that the ghost and Mir couldn’t react before Raleigh was thrown ten meters because of the attack of tens of ghosts.

“Brat!!” The ghost shouted in worry as it tried to save him. Even though it was reluctant to save him, the ghost knew that it would be better to stick together. In horror movies, the one who was separated from the others tended to die first after all.

“…Raleigh!” A beat later, Mir also shouted his name. Just as they tried to help him, the ghosts around them started to move. They swarmed both the ghost and Mir, effectively separated the two of them. The ghost tried to fight back like usual, but unlike the weaker ghosts where they looked like a ball of pale blue flame, these ghosts couldn’t be beaten with its attack at all. The ghost managed to absorb the energy of the attacking ghosts, however, it felt that the consumption rate was terrible. It was slowly losing its own energy rather than absorbing more energy.

As for Mir, she had the most trouble repelling the ghosts. She didn’t have any technique to deal with the ghosts at all. The best she could do was to endure it. And enduring it was what she did.

The ghosts didn’t inflict physical damage at all. No, it was not the ghost that didn’t inflict physical damage. Ghost was, after all, a form of energy. It was twisted energy that was created from negative energy. And just like any other form of energy, it could be transformed into any kind of energy, including kinetic energy. And that form of energy might harm human that didn’t have protection against such energy.

That was right. Against people who didn’t have protection against such energy, ghosts were dangerous. Something like ghosts grabbed someone’s feet in the water was real. It was because they used their energy to pull them down and drowned them.

However, even though Mir never trained her spiritual power before, she was still gifted with a huge amount of spiritual power. Not like an ordinary human, who only had a small amount of spiritual power.

Even though she didn’t know how to manipulate her spiritual power, that spiritual power made her like a huge boulder to the ghosts. Even though ghosts swarmed her and attacked her with their negative energy, it was as if they were normal humans that tried to move a big boulder without any tools. Well, tens of them were enough to move Mir though, albeit only a little bit.

That was not a problem though. The problem was the mental damage Mir received. Unlike the weak ghosts without any forms that usually attacked her, these ghosts were able to speak almost normally. No, they were not ‘speaking’. They were transferring their experience to Mir through a unique connection. It was the first time Mir experiencing such a thing. She experienced the whole emotions of the ghosts that attacked her.

“—be careful! Don’t be eaten by their malice!” Somehow, the ghost managed to warn both Mir and Raleigh. Its voice was weak and it sounded like it was far away, however.

However, Mir couldn’t process it. She had already been overwhelmed by the hatred brought by those ghosts. No, they were more than malice. They were more than hatred. There was something more than simple words like malice and hatred. It was something that she couldn’t describe, but Mir knew that it was not something simple like hatred.

“…”

…why their hatred is so… strong? Is it because they were killed by a ghost in this place? No, they are… they should be normal ghosts. Like the normal ghosts… but why? Is it because of the miasma? No, it doesn’t make sense… I don’t understand…

Mir bit her lips in frustration. She couldn’t understand. She wanted to understand, but she couldn’t. Moreover, the hatred started affecting her. Frustration was a negative emotion. The ghosts flamed up the negative emotion, and because of that, they became even stronger. And the stronger they were, the more they could affect Mir’s emotion.

…calm down. It’s just like usual. As long as I calm down, they will just go away, like usual.

Mir closed her eyes and tried to calm her emotion. It was difficult. It was even more difficult than usual. However, if she couldn’t do that, she wouldn’t be able to do anything at all. She wouldn’t be able to move around nor she would be able to escape from this amusement park.

Just as Mir closed her eyes, she suddenly saw something she shouldn’t see. It was like an illusion. Or a dream. Mir was in the amusement park before it was closed down. She hurriedly pulled someone’s hand, urging them to move forward as they moved to the roller coaster. The hand was far bigger than her hand. But she couldn’t see the face. No, she couldn’t see the face of everyone in the amusement park. It was as if a veil of darkness covered their faces. All Mir could see was that there were a lot of people who made a long queue at every ride in the amusement park.

…is this the memory of someone…? It feels like a memory of a little kid…

Mir understood suddenly that the illusion was in fact, memories. She was looking at the memories from the first-person point of view. She was pulling someone whose hand was bigger than her. She assumed that it must be her parents’ hand or at the very least, her guardian. Maybe her big brother.

And now, they were going to ride a roller coaster. Mir grabbed the handrail in front of her tightly. It should be the first time for her, no, the owner of the memories to ride the roller coaster. No, it was also the first time for Mir as well. Her beating heart overlapped with the owner of the memories’ beating heart. She was not sure whether she was scared because of the roller coaster, or because she guessed what kind of ending the owner of the memories would have while riding the roller coaster.

As the roller coaster reached the zenith, Mir held her breath. And the next moment, she screamed. It was a scream of fear and joy. Feeling the wind brushing her long hair was enjoyable. But looking at the scenery that moved so fast that she barely could see anything was not so enjoyable. So, she closed her eyes, because she didn’t want to see the scenery and because the wind stung her eyes.

And then, she suddenly felt it. She felt her heart sunk. It was as if all of her inner organs dove deeper into her body. She opened her eyes to see what was happening… but she regretted it dearly.

Because the instant she opened her eyes, she saw a tree was only a meter in front of her. And that was the last thing she saw before she felt pain running through all over her body and then, she lost her consciousness.

When Mir opened her eyes once again, she was back in the present. She was still swarmed by countless ghosts. There was a little different to her situation from before though. Unlike before where she was calm, this time, she was sweating as if she just ran at full speed for five whole minutes. Her breathing was rough and it was difficult for her to breathe, she had to gasp air desperately.

The pain of dying painfully… she still remembered it. It was as if she was dying earlier, and that almost broke her down. She hugged her body, but the pain wouldn’t go away. No, the pain had gone, but she still couldn’t forget the pain. It was something that might be called phantom pain… though she still had her body whole.

“…gh.” Mir groaned painfully as she couldn’t wash away the memories of the pain she just received. Fear started to creep into her heart. She wouldn’t be able to calm down like this. She was sure of that.

She had to move or she would be really overwhelmed by those ghosts, she thought. But even if she moved, those ghosts would follow her. But it should be better than her being swarmed without doing anything at all.

And so, Mir started to move. She couldn’t see anything but the countless numbers of ghosts that tried to attack her. However, she was able to use the camera in her hand to see where she should go.

And her destination was the direction where Raleigh was thrown earlier. She remembered him being thrown in the direction of the Doll Castle earlier. So, going to the Doll Castle was what she did at the moment.

She walked slowly. It was as if she had to walk against the wind. The attacking ghosts couldn’t throw Mir as they did to Raleigh. However, that didn’t mean they couldn’t move her. Or slowed her down. But Mir kept on moving while pointing her camera at everything around her.

Just as she arrived at the front door of the Doll Castle, she suddenly heard something. She hurriedly pointed her camera to the direction of the sound, which was upward. If she didn’t point her camera upward, she wouldn’t be able to see anything. But when she saw from the camera, she saw a giant wax doll was tilting slowly. She was sure that ghosts were pushing that giant doll and soon, it fell right to her position.

She wanted to jump back to dodge the giant wax doll, but the ghosts wouldn’t let her do that.

“…ugh.” Mir let out a voice of frustration. She couldn’t move back. After a bit of hesitation, Mir decided to jump forward with all her might. With the power of her legs, and adding with the power of the ghosts that blocked her from moving backward, Mir jumped out of the giant doll area of effect. But the giant doll blocked the only path back. And so, she had to move forward into the Doll Castle…