At a distance from the mansion, a building resembling a heavily fortified prison stands tall, stretching across the wall that divides Hell’s Ride and the Training Dojo. Despite its considerable length, there is only one entrance, situated near the shalmali tree. In front of it, a line of souls waits patiently. Beside the short line, two leaderboards stand side by side.

“If you accept the terms and conditions at the gate, your name and face may appear here,” Lisa explains, pointing to the leaderboards.

The attraction requires seven thousand essence for entrance, with a small asterisk below the sign stating, “High risk of death.”

“That’s reassuring,” Wyn remarks.

The rule is simple: navigate through the maze and eliminate any creatures inside to earn points based on their strengths. The top one hundred fastest exit times and scores will be posted on the leaderboards, alongside the current statuses of the leaders. There are no other rewards, except for the right to brag. Notably, the top two on both leaderboards have "diseased" next to their grayed-out faces. Additionally, flying inside the maze incurs a ten-minute penalty for every minute spent airborne. While in line, Lisa appears increasingly nervous.

“Are you okay, honey?” Mira asks.

“Sorry, sis. It’s just that my former team lost a member here a long time ago, and we never revisited it again.”

“Then why are we here risking our lives?” James presses.

“I’m sorry, Mister James, but this is a great place to collect essence, and it’s the closest one to the haunting house.”

Crossing the gate, the team finds itself inside a scanning room. A green light quickly flashes them before the door to the maze opens.

“This reminds me of that anime….Argh! What was it called?” Yu remarks.

“‘That Time I Became Another Man Wearing Someone Else’s Skin But Somehow Still Have Memories Of My Own Past And Also The Man’s And The Skin Owner’s’. This one, right?” Wyn responds.

“Yes! That one! Too bad the third season introduced time travel and the multiverse. It got bad quick.”

The team is standing inside a large green square in a crimson room. Next to it are the maze’s passages, split by towering metal sheets. The maze is home to many grueling creatures. One of them, hattrick, is a transparent creature with the ability to change shapes, depending on which of the three hats it wears. When it dons the blue hat, it transforms into a random soul it has killed; the orange hat grants it the shape of a random regular demon cat; and the red hat changes it into the famous big-nosed plumber. The best way to defeat a hattrick is to remove its hat and keep it off long enough.

The other creature is called the mimic-ii. For an unknown reason, this purple floating orb creature transforms into the most recent soul it has consumed, capturing every detail, including their weapon and elemental abilities. For instance, it can emit water to mimic elemental attacks – forming rapid swirls of liquid to imitate a cyclone or shaping the attack into the form of lightning. The tip of the lightning can be solid rock due to its rock abilities, allowing it to break and scatter upon impact with the ground.

“Ohhh! So the ‘i’ stands for ‘one’ and ‘ii’ for ‘two’ after all!” Anish exclaims.

“I don’t get it. How can a letter be a number?” Mira asks.

“...Yet, you had no issues explaining inflation with boobs,” Wyn replies.

“I’m no mathematician myself, but let’s say it just does,” Yu says.

“So you can't complain the next time I say deep-fried sushi is still sushi because it just is,” James mocks.

“No, that’s not the same! You’re a dentist, so maybe you should just sew your mouth shut forever!” Yu retorts.

As the team observes the maze, the sight of a parasited soul dragging her feet and weapon along the ground sends chills down their spines. The parapsycho is actually a tiny worm, resembling the noble worm but distinguished by its bright, electrifying yellow color. While weak in its original form, it possesses the terrifying ability to gradually take control of any creature with a brain or a similar central organ. Once inside, the parapsycho devours the brain from within, growing into the exact shape of the brain it consumes. It then establishes all the neural connections necessary to control the host's body, even gaining access to their elemental abilities and strength. Once it reaches maturity, the brain divides into worms, feeding on the host's flesh before scattering to find new hosts within a limited time.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The metal sheets lining the maze are designed to help souls detect the parasites, in contrast to traditional bush mazes. Approaching an unidentified parasited host can be risky, though the potential essence rewards are tempting. The base reward includes twenty essence from the parasite, as well as the host’s preserved total essence count.

“This is why I kill worms on sight,” Lisa says.

“That one is missing an arm,” Anish points out.

“It’ll regrow, just like us souls. Also, we’re standing in a green circle right now.”

Since the creatures in the maze are hostile, standing in a green area protects the souls within it with the same green barrier Wyn saw the nerds use on the roof during the city event.

“There’s also one more creature you need to know about before going in,” Lisa says.

Prowling inside are the fake lions, red and yellow creatures that uncannily resemble the lions from traditional lion dances. Their bodies extend horizontally as they consume prey, growing a pair of legs for each sizable victim they devour. Dealing a significant amount of damage to their heads shortens their lengths.

“More long bois? What’s with us and long-bodied creatures?” Yu remarks.

“I’m already having nightmares about the choo choo mcface, the centimillipede, and the ‘hentacles’ from the kraken,” Anish adds.

“I think you have the names all wrong,” Yu comments.

“Choo choo? Centimillipede? Kraken? Sounds like you’ve been through a lot more than I have, Mister Yu and Mister Anish,” Lisa says.

To help guide souls to safe areas, there are flying creatures known as butterflus. These buttery yellow beings, with butterfly wings, tend to circle around the green squares. However, they become hostile toward anyone who approaches these squares. Physical contact with a butterflu may result in light to moderate irritation lasting for hours.

“Let’s go in. This way, maybe?” Wyn suggests, avoiding the path with a parapsycho inside.

There are five paths to choose from, excluding the one Wyn tries to avoid. The team holds a vote, where members say aloud the numbers they want from one to four. Winning with three votes, they embark the furthest path near the crimson wall.

The passage is spacious enough for the team to form two lines of threes with more room to maneuver should they engage in a battle. Wyn, Anish, and James take the lead, taking the team to the first right turn.

“A butterflu! I can’t believe it’s not butter! Let’s follow it, eh!” James says, pointing ahead and upward.

Though a butterflu is in sight, navigating to it is no simple task inside the maze. The team follows the path, and after a left turn, they’re faced with a choice between going left or right. Hearing a sharp scrape against the metal sheet from the right, they opt for the left path, only to hit a dead end. As the scraping sound grows nearer, Wyn signals the team to prepare for battle.

“That’s a zombie!” Yu says.

The parasited soul’s eyes are a vacant white, its arms and feet dragging, with one shoulder pressed against the metal sheet. It wields a protective glove that extends from the hand up to the shoulder. Sensing its prey, the enemy punches the air with the weapon, sending a barrage of rocks hurtling toward the team. Swiftly, Wyn and James summon pillars to block the attacks. Meanwhile, Yu lifts himself and the girls with water streams from the back. Fused with Mira, Lisa fires fiery lasers from her weapon, accompanied by small homing electrical shocks aimed at the parasited host’s head. But in a sudden move, the enemy dashes forward, evading the attack and smashing through the defensive pillars with its weaponized arm.

Wyn barely manages to block the punch with his chakrams, though the impact sends him stumbling back, taking Anish with him. James, unaffected by the blow, strikes the enemy’s other shoulder with his weapon, encasing it in ice. As the enemy prepares to retaliate against James, Yu thrusts his blade forward. Catching a glimpse of the attack, the enemy raises its protected arm to block the thrust. Yu then summons a water fountain beneath the enemy, hoping to lift it off the ground, but the creature remains firmly rooted and sweeps Yu backward. Yu’s weapon begins to glow.

“Landon, throw your weapon at its head!” Wyn commands.

James misses the mark, only lodging his rapier in its neck. Head tilted from the frozen neck, it summons a pillar underneath James, sending him up. Lisa fires another round of lasers. This time, the enemy reacts by erecting a pillar. Her beams pierce through the pillar, though they merely push the enemy backward. Wyn follows up with a descending cyclone, bringing Mira’s whip down with enough force to create an explosive impact on the enemy’s head. Still standing but electrifying pulsing brain exposing, the enemy is trying to balance itself. Lisa, having fully charged her next attacks, fires her weapon, erasing the head of the enemy in a blink of an eye.

“Holy shit! That thing took a beating before it went down!” Wyn exclaims.

“Guys! My weapon!” Yu calls out.

“Yeah, I’m okay, guys. Thanks for asking,” Landon says with a hint of sarcasm.

Yu’s weapon has evolved, now featuring a shinier appearance, especially on the round golden guard. The blade is larger, with serrations along the bottom edge. A new feature allows the blade to be dislodged and thrown as a weapon. Additionally, the handle can now extend to twice its original length.

“That’s cool!” Anish exclaims.

“It looks cheap. It’s shiny like it’s laminated,” James remarks.

“You can talk when yours evolves, you sushi hater,” Yu replies.

Wyn and Anish’s essence counts are now nearing ten thousand, while Yu’s and Mira’s are just shy of nine thousand. Eager to join the ten-thousand club, Wyn continues leading the team through the maze. They return to the split and this time take the right turn, then left, arriving at the first green square without a butterflu circling it. As Yu steps into the square, he spots a hattrick standing on the other side. Suddenly, a fake lion zooms past, instantly vanishing the hattrick. All Yu and the others can see now is a long section of the lion’s body passing through.