It was 5 p.m.

  After w for three and a half hours, Ren's shift was finally nearing its end. By now, most of the children had been taken home by their parents, and his work as a mascot was essentially over.

  This granted Ren a half-hour break before he could officially clock out.

  "Good job today, Amamiya," the female store manager said, visibly pleased with his performance.

  "You've been w hard all day without much sg off."

  Though her tone was friendly, her words carried weight. The store manager wasn't blind; she had noticed that Ren was the kind of worker who quietly focused on his tasks without unnecessary chatter or ziness.

  "Amamiya, you've got another half hour of rest now."

  "Are you sure that's okay?"

  "It's fihe store manager replied after gng at the store's current situation. She nodded in satisfa, sidering the day's er flow and how busy they had been.

  "Today's er turnout was higher than usual for a weekend. We've even sold out many of the ice cream fvors. I'd say a lot of it is thanks to your work attrag ers."

  Ice cream, after all, rimarily aimed at children.

  Girls teo avoid it because they worried about their weight, and boys rarely bought it unless apanied by someone. Oher hand, adults bringing their kids to the park often ended up buying treats for themselves too.

  The flyers and balloons distributed by the mascots were quite effective. Even if the flyers only worked within the amusement park, they still enced people to stop by the ice cream shop. paring today's foot traffic to that of a regur weekend made it clear that Ren's efforts had made a difference.

  The store manager withdrew her gaze and tinued, "We're almost done for the day. Let's see how things go over the half hour. If we sell out the remaining ice cream, your work will be done for the day."

  "Don't worry, I'll pay you as agreed."

  "Thank you," Ren replied politely.

  ---

  In the dressing room, Ren took off the heavy mascot e.

  His clothes were soaked with sweat, which wasn't surprising. The e was bulky, and Ren had worked hard all day. Under such ditions, it was impossible not to sweat.

  "Today went a lot smoother than I expected," he muttered.

  "Or maybe… I didn't notice them even if they were already nearby."

  Ren had no way of knowing if someone who had read his diary had e to observe him.

  "Was I too reckless?" he thought, frowning.

  Looking back, exposing his name in the diary seemed like a rash decision. However, it had been part of his effort to test the diary's rules.

  The truth was, Ren didn't fully uand how the diary worked. The diary itself offered no instrus or limitations, making it seem as though there were no rules at all.

  But that couldn't be true. In most "exposure flow" sarios, there were always some restris, either the diary holder could trol who saw it, or the writer retained some authority over it.

  His diary, however, was a record of his daily life. If writing in it was the key to drawing rewards, did the amount of personal information he revealed influehe quality of those rewards?

  He couldn't help but dwell on this question.

  Yesterday, he had impulsively exposed his name while testing the diary. Now, he couldn't shake the feeling that it had been a mistake.

  "If I don't draw something good today, it'll feel like a huge loss."

  Was the "Wild Card" trait he drew yesterday really that bad?

  In hindsight, no, it wasn't bad at all. "Wild Card" was actually a highly versatile skill. It allowed him to aodate multiple personalities while maintaining the uniqueness of his core identity.

  Ren uood its potential. If paired with "Personality Masks," it would be a game-ging ability.

  Most people could only use one "Personality Mask," but "Wild Card" would allow him to switch between multiple masks, giving him a massive advantage in bat.

  The trait was essentially a tool for overing weaknesses and adapting to different situations.

  The only downside was that he didn't have any "Personality Masks" to pair with it yet.

  Still, Ren tried to vince himself that the trait wasn't useless.

  His bigger was the possibility of being captured and forced to write daily diaries as a tool for someone else. But for now, at least, he seemed safe.

  "If this follows the typical rules of an exposure flow, the diary won't be distributed widely at first. The number of people who see it will likely increase gradually over time."

  "If that's the case, the few people who've read my diary so far probably won't act rashly."

  Ren sighed, leaning ba his chair. "This was such a reckless move… I hope everything turns out as I predicted."

  He g to the hope that yesterday's reward wasn't useless and that today's draw might bring him something plementary.

  But that was something he wouldn't know until he finished his diary entry tonight. For now, Ren stayed in the locker room, resting and looking forward to going home.

  ---

  His expectations, however, were shattered after half an hour.

  "Beep! Woo! Woo!"

  The pierg sound of police sirens echoed from the park entrance.

  Still seated in the locker room, Ren immediately tensed. An inexplicable sense of unease washed over him.

  About five mier, the door to the locker room swung open. The female store maood there, her face grim.

  "This… this is really bad. Amamiya, you pack up your things. You don't o keep w."

  "Manager, what's going on outside? Why are the police here?"

  Despite his instinct to avoid trouble, Re it was better to know what was happening.

  "What else could it be? There's been a murder, something happened on the roller coaster."

  "… A roller coaster murder case," Ren muttered, his eyes widening.

  He immediately realized what the police sirens were for.

  "The murder at the start of the story…"