"Where exactly is this…?"
Iwanaga Kotoko stared at the scene in front of her, then imdiately took out her phone. Just like every Dungeon before, there was no signal at all.
That alone proved this was an other world Dungeon.
But…
Why did it look so normal?
Yuuki Asuna, Iwanaga Kotoko, and Kato gumi had imagined countless scenarios for what they might face after entering a Dungeon. None of them had imagined being dropped into a bustling tropolis, full of towering buildings and nonstop foot traffic, a place that looked no different from Tokyo.
Normal to this degree was its own kind of abnormal.
While the three girls were still frozen in confusion, Asagiri had already taken off his gray mask. He walked up to a young office lady in a skirt suit, stopped her politely, and smiled.
"Hello. My phone died. Could I borrow yours to make a call?"
"Huh? I'm in a hurry to get to work, don't waste my ti…"
She looked up with irritation. Then she saw Asagiri's face.
A faint blush spread across her cheeks. Her entire attitude flipped, turning shy almost instantly.
"Oh… okay. Here."
"Thank you."
Asagiri took the phone, dialed a random number, and lifted it to his ear. About ten seconds later, he handed it back with the sa calm smile.
"It didn't connect. Still, thank you."
"You're welco…"
The office lady nodded, then hesitated, cheeks still red.
"Um… you look like a college student. Can we exchange contact information?"
"Goodbye."
Asagiri did not even pause. He turned and walked back to the others.
"Let's find sowhere quiet first. We need to talk."
…
Five minutes later, in a narrow, empty alley.
Asagiri crushed a tarot card in his palm.
"Co out, Mita."
Crazy Mita appeared in front of them.
"I hacked that woman's phone earlier and got a rough idea of what's going on in this world."
The team's phones were useless here, but Crazy Mita could piggyback off local devices and pull basic information. Of course, it was limited to public news that could be searched normally.
She spoke plainly.
"This is Tokyo."
"Huh?"
Yuuki Asuna blinked in surprise, then quickly felt it click into place.
"No wonder walking around felt familiar… If I think about it, isn't this the Ginza district?"
"It is Tokyo," Crazy Mita said, "but not the Tokyo from your world. The overall structure is similar. Based on what I've found, this world differs from yours in one key point."
Her gaze swept across the four of them.
"There's a creature in this world called an Abyss Man."
"Abyss Man…?"
"Yes."
Crazy Mita nodded and continued.
"An Abyss Man's physical structure is identical to a human's. No detection thod can reliably distinguish them. So Abyss n might not even know they are Abyss n themselves."
She paused for a beat.
"The only way to tell them apart, and the only special trait they have, is this."
"Abyss Man revive after death."
The word revive landed heavily.
Even Kato gumi, usually composed, widened her eyes.
"You an… they can't die?"
"No. They still die."
Crazy Mita let them digest it, then clarified in her usual flat tone.
"They grow and age normally. They get injured. In every way that matters day to day, they are the sa as humans. Their ability only activates at the mont of true death."
"When that happens, they revive, and their bodies return to a healthy, complete state."
She continued, voice cold, almost clinical.
"In this world's common sense, Abyss n are not considered human. They have no human rights. A being that looks like a human but can revive repeatedly has enormous value for clinical dical research."
"Once an Abyss Man is officially confird, they are hunted and wanted. They have no room to survive. That's what I know for now."
As Crazy Mita finished, a grim thought rose in Yuuki Asuna's mind.
"Could the research institute in the Dungeon objective be a facility that holds Abyss n? And the data we need is experintal data about them?"
Her throat tightened.
"If that's true… isn't this Dungeon's difficulty insane?"
Kato gumi and Iwanaga Kotoko shared the sa expression. The implication was obvious.
First, they had to find the institute's location.
Any facility researching Abyss n would be top secret. And Players entering this world had no legal identity. Trying to dig up confidential information like that would be like climbing a cliff with bare hands.
Even if they sohow found the place, an official organization would not leave sothing like that unguarded.
Breaking in would an facing ard security, maybe even elite mobile units.
The enemies they had faced before were terrifying in their own way. Anomalies, Special Infected, monsters, even Crazy Mita's world.
But firearms were different.
Who could tank bullets head on?
Even Asagiri, if he took a shot to a vital point, could die. For most Players, one mistake would be the end.
So how were they supposed to clear this Dungeon?
"Calm down."
Just as helplessness crept in, a warm sensation wrapped around Yuuki Asuna and Iwanaga Kotoko's palms.
Asagiri had taken both of their hands. His smile was relaxed, like this was still a normal day.
"Did you forget? The system won't give an impossible objective."
He squeezed lightly.
"It only feels exaggerated because we don't have enough information yet. We can't give up before we even understand the full picture."
Asuna and Kotoko steadied themselves, the panic easing. Then they realized what he was doing, one hand holding each of them, and both of them went slightly stiff with embarrassnt.
"Uh…"
Kato gumi, who had been almost invisible since they arrived, suddenly spoke in a soft voice.
"Looking at this atmosphere, is there any space left for ?"
She tilted her head with calm seriousness.
"Should I hug the Leader's leg?"
"Please don't."
Asagiri imdiately shook his head, expression suddenly earnest.
"What is this, hugging my leg? It's a good thing we're only a four person team right now. If we were six people, four of you would grab my limbs and one would pull my neck. I'd be torn apart. Please don't."
The absurd line broke the tension. The air beca lighter, even if only by a little.
Then Asagiri's tone returned to that focused calm of a Player.
"Alright. Let's check the special hints we each received."
"Okay."
All four of them took out their phones and opened the Dungeon hints.
Yuuki Asuna's hint was:
[When facing certain targets, severing their limbs may be wiser than killing them directly]
Iwanaga Kotoko's hint was:
[In this Dungeon, there are targets whose ntal strength far exceeds yours. Deal with them cautiously]
Kato gumi's hint was:
[Even if you activate your exclusive skill, you may still be noticed by certain people]
Those hints all felt personal, like warnings tailored to their roles.
Asagiri's hint, however, had nothing to do with combat. It seed tied to his special profession, Diplomat.
[Including you and the other Players, there are three factions in this world]
Yuuki Asuna read everything again, then spoke slowly.
"My hint, Kotoko's hint, and gumi's hint all sound like warnings about certain people."
She frowned slightly, thinking it through.
"And since Mita said there doesn't seem to be supernatural power in this world besides Abyss n, we can assu the targets the system is warning us about are Abyss n."
Her gaze shifted to Asagiri's screen.
"And the Leader's hint…"
She rested her fingers against her chin.
"Three factions. Players are one. The officials are one. So the third… is it Abyss n?"
She continued, piecing it together.
"If the system considers Abyss n a faction, that ans they aren't completely helpless even if the officials hunt them. At minimum, they have enough power to be categorized that way."
"But if all they have is revival after death, I don't think that alone would make the system rate them as a full faction."
Her eyes sharpened.
"Which ans there has to be more. Beyond public knowledge, Abyss n likely possess so other power."
"Hm. That's possible," Asagiri said calmly. "But with this little information, we can't lock anything in yet."
Iwanaga Kotoko lifted a finger, expression thoughtful.
"But there's another key detail."
She looked at all of them.
"When we registered, the system warned us this Dungeon would take at least more than twenty four hours to clear. Why impose that kind of expectation? There are two possibilities."
She held up two fingers.
"First, the research institute is not just hidden, it's remote. Far from any city. Otherwise, if we found it quickly and took a train, we might be able to clear within twenty four hours."
She lowered one finger.
"Second, the institute's defenses are impossible for Players at our stage to break through by force."
Her voice dropped slightly.
"But starting twenty four hours after we entered, sothing will happen that causes the defense system, which was originally unbreakable, to collapse."
She t their eyes, steady and serious.
"Whether it becos a frontal breach or an infiltration route, the window might only open after that point."
.....
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