Down on the farm

Mimoko sighed as she stared at herself in the mirror. Now clothed in the costume again, she was now completely hairless and painted a pale blue. Iori was the same, while Carol now sported a pink latex suit and gag ball.

"Wow, that shit looks tight. That why you booked a nude shave to ensure you were smooth?" Iori asked as she smacked Carol's bald head.

Carol moaned in affirmation as Mimoko shook her head in dismay.

"I share your pain," Miga sighed as she wrapped her arm around Mimoko."

"Miga-chan? You're bald?"

"Yes, and stuck cosplaying as a cheerleader for the night. Ugh, why does it have to be me?"

"Hey, you get in on an awesome collab, so why complain?" Lada grinned as she joined in the huddle.

"That's right. We could always use an extra hand for the film crew considering this is a 24-hour plus stream," Astrid smirked as she patted Ina on the shoulder.

"And just what are we gonna do for 24 hours?" Mimoko groaned.

Leona grinned and ushered everyone over to 7 life-size pods. "We snooze in these until it's time to stream. In fact, we'll be transported to the farm in these."

"Sorry, but no. I'm not getting in any more pods."

"Come on. The whole point of our outfits are that we're the garterbelt girls from Bleu moon," Iori pouted.

From director, Bella Bleu, Bleu moon was a sci-fi flic about some girls that were sent to fend for themselves on the moon. Though they were modified in hopes of ensuring survival, the girls eventually start fighting with each other leading to only a single survivor. The film ends with the lone girl, Ellie, left to live the rest of her days in solitude in a crater on the moon.

"Relax, these pods don't put you to sleep, they just make it easier to sleep. Besides, if you don't wanna get in one, have Miga here take your place while you handle the All-nighter," Astrid smirked.

Though it looked as though the former might be the easier of the two for Mimoko to handle, she opted for the latter. As such, she was required to constantly down caffeine while the others were sealed in pods until just before 6 PM on Halloween night.

"So how do you plan to stay awake?" Ina asked.

Mimoko smiled brightly. "By playing chess around the clock."

Truth be told, Mimoko had always wanted to attempt a marathon chess event. She wasn't going to be breaking any records, but she felt that given the opportunity, she'd might as well see how long her stamina would last. Thus, she'd play her games against Ina and the other staffers hired to help out with the event.

...

As 5:45 PM rolled around on October 31st, all that were within the pods were released.

"Ah, guess this means the marathon is over," Mimoko trembled.

"Whoa, what were you doing?" Iori asked.

"Chess, yet after the first few hours, I beat everyone, so I resorted to online matches with viewers... Some of the opponents were high-rated, but I only drew... a few?"

"Pretty admirable to attempt a marathon stream. But now, we got a maze to conquer," Astrid nodded as she looked out at the cornfield.

The farm of Kagamiishi, Fukushima was famous for it's corn maze, which during the Halloween season, featured all sorts of spooky spectres. But on Halloween night, the maze was said to haunted for real by the ghost of a man named Argus Angus.

"YO! It's your girl, Leona!"

"Hej, Astrid, here."

"Welcome to the Halloween horror stream! We're live in Kagamiishi with many guest, all of which are bald like Astrid... and me now."

"So ya'll seen the movie, Ghouslish Lovesung? Well some say this farm right here was the basis for the movie. Seems there was a Scottish farmhand named Argus Angus, who one day got speared by a bull's horn, at least according to the official reports. Some say it was a demon's horn, or that he was stabbed by someone using a horn. Either way, we might be seeing his ghost tonight."

"And that's why we'll be raiding this massive maze until 3 AM on November 1st. But we won't all be going at once. Lots will be drawn with each person getting an hour's worth of time to try and get through the maze. So first, let's reintroduce everyone that's playing..."

Once the intros were done, lots were drawn to determine who would go through the maze first. Unfortunately for Mimoko, she drew the lot for the 11 PM to 12 AM slot, meaning she'd have to stay awake for another 6 or 7 hours. Carol was up first, yet kept her gag ball on for the entire thing, which ended up not being the greatest idea as she found herself being constantly spooked and screaming by the farm staff. She ended up reaching the end of the maze at 59 minutes, 59 seconds exactly, just barely passing.

Lada was next at 7 PM, and while she did manage to finish faster than Carol at 50 minutes, 54 seconds, she ended up not getting quite as spooked by her. Once 8 PM rolled around, Leona went in, and while she was constantly getting spooked, she always made sure to scream, "ASTRID BRAND AMBASSADOR, HERE!" as she ran. She ultimately finished the maze with a time of 43 minutes, 52 seconds.

Astrid was next at 9PM, yet finished with a time of 45 minutes, 3 seconds, just barely losing out to Leona. "Just to reiterate, loser gets drenched in corn syrup and turned into living candy corn," she stated.

"And that bet's between both us and whoever becomes the ultimate loser, who so far is Cece-chan," Leona added.

Douga went next at 10 PM, and managed to win the award for being the least spooked. If anything, the only angst she felt was towards the end when she realized she was almost out of time. She just barely finished at 59 minutes, 6 seconds, just edging out Carol.

Then, it finally came time for Mimoko's turn at 11 PM.

"Just so you know, if you don't finish in time, the staff will escort you out," Astrid stated.

"Huh? Ugh, I wanna sleep," Mimoko groaned as she staggered into the maze.

Little did she know she was walking into far more danger than she bargained for. At first, it was just some simple spooks like a scarecrow chasing her, but unlike the others, someone else was watching her in order to try and ambush her.

As she ran and screamed, Mimoko eventually ran into a large scarecrow with a jack-o-lantern head. It towered over her at nearly 200 cm, but what really frightened Mimoko was the fact that it had a machete in its hand. The specter viciously slashed, however, Mimoko was unharmed as Caïssa's blessing activated.

"As expected, I can't finish you off so easily. But in your state, that shouldn't be an issue," the scarecrow snarled as he pulled out a DESPER.

The fear in Mimoko's eyes quickly turned to determination as she shot the scarecrow a glare. "So you want to battle me in chess."

"Yes, and if you lose, you die."

"And should you lose, life-time sentence at the WWCF holding facility."

The scarecrow nodded and activated the DESPER. A simple clear barrier sprung up, encasing Mimoko and the scarecrow, but allowing the film staff to still see what was going on inside.

"I've been watching the stream to pinpoint the exact time I could ambush you. I'm known as Korb Drithërues, the menace of Memaliaj. And... I'm 2707."

Mimoko wasn't deterred in the least. "So you're a grandmaster then, bring it. I've had nothing but chess on my mind these past 24 hours!"