"Is it really that interesting...?"
Seeing Yuuki Asuna's slightly helpless expression, Asagiri answered with complete seriousness.
"Of course. Going through a horror Dungeon with beautiful girls, enjoying the thrill while also getting to admire those tearful eyes, trembling with fear yet still trying to act strong, that pitifully cute look... isn't that a kind of pleasure?"
"You... are you a pervert...?"
Hearing those words, Yuuki Asuna imdiately recalled how she had been on the verge of tears and collapse over the weekend, only for it to excite him even more. Her pretty face flushed as she muttered in embarrassnt,
"You... you're definitely a pervert..."
"Really? You like that sort of thing?"
Iwanaga Kotoko's eyes lit up at once, and she eagerly raised her hand.
"Hey, hey, I can cry too. I'm really good at crying!"
Kato gumi sighed. Her voice was soft, but it carried the authority of an elder trying to keep unruly children in line.
"The three of you, can we save the discussion about crying until after we clear the Dungeon?"
Asagiri's brows twitched in surprise.
"What, you want to cry too?"
Kato gumi adjusted the hair tie holding up her ponytail and replied quietly,
"If you keep acting this abstract, I might actually cry."
"All right, back to business."
Asagiri switched from abstract mode to serious Player mode with astonishing smoothness. The smile vanished from his face as he looked down the dark corridor ahead and began considering their current situation.
"First, we can confirm that Chris Walker was not only the most dangerous patient in this ntal hospital while he was alive, but after becoming an Anomaly, he is most likely the most terrifying one as well. If the four of us went all out, we might be able to eliminate him. But according to Necro, this entire ntal hospital is itself an anomaly, so we cannot rule out the possibility that even if we kill Chris Walker, he will simply revive like that emaciated ghost from before. Because of that, it's best not to fight those ntal patients unless absolutely necessary. We need to conserve both stamina and ntal strength."
"Yes, I agree."
Only after Yuuki Asuna, Kato gumi, and Iwanaga Kotoko had all voiced their agreent did Asagiri continue.
"Although this Dungeon begins with an imdiate sense of danger, I believe it still follows the sa two route structure as the previous ones. One path is for ordinary Players, the other is for those aiming for a high level clear evaluation. Based on the current information, escaping is the main quest for ordinary Players. As for high level Players, their hidden objective is probably to uncover why this ntal hospital beca an Anomaly, what exactly happened to those ntal patients, and the truth behind all these bizarre events."
He paused briefly.
"If the difficulty of this Dungeon were only sneaking around to avoid the ntal patients while collecting information, then with Phantom on our team, we wouldn't have much to worry about. But..."
At that point, Yuuki Asuna suddenly frowned. She stepped directly in front of Asagiri and stared at him with a serious expression.
"Why did you let crawl through first just now?"
"I..."
Asagiri had barely opened his mouth before Yuuki Asuna cut him off.
"You're the only one in the team who can reverse ti and revive everyone. If you die, ti rewinds automatically. That ans this is our one true insurance. You absolutely cannot be the one left behind. What if Chris Walker catches you without killing you, and you can't commit suicide to trigger the rewind? Or what if even after rewinding a full minute, you still can't escape the sa danger? I know you wanted to protect , but if sothing like that happens again, I'll be the one who stays behind."
"It wasn't about protecting you."
Faced with Yuuki Asuna's unusually stern words, Asagiri simply smiled.
"I just wanted to sneak a look from behind while you were crawling. You've got a good figure."
"Go away."
Yuuki Asuna's cheeks imdiately turned red. She lightly shoved his shoulder and, at the sa ti, understood that he was deliberately using nonsense to defuse the tension.
Asagiri was not the type to think about lewd things in the middle of a dangerous Dungeon. And besides...
He had already seen her entire body in more positions than she wanted to count. Did he really need to sneak a peek now?
"Don't worry, I understand."
Asagiri reached out and gently pinched Yuuki Asuna's cheek, smiling as he spoke.
"If we run into that kind of danger again, I'll leave it to you."
"That's more like it."
Yuuki Asuna turned her face away, blushing, and said in a slightly shy voice,
"You... you can rely on more. I don't mind that at all."
"Huh... You two, can you stop acting so mushy?"
Iwanaga Kotoko puffed up her pale cheeks, unable to hide the jealousy in her voice.
"Can we move already? Let's keep exploring."
...
Twenty minutes later, the four of them found themselves in a room that resembled an office. Several desks were lined up inside, along with computers and filing cabinets.
"It won't turn on..."
Asagiri tried to power up one of the computers, but there was no electricity. Then he bent down to examine it more closely and discovered that the computer case had already been damaged.
"Looks like we won't be getting any information from the computers."
"Leader, look at this."
With a flashlight in one hand, Iwanaga Kotoko placed a file bag on the desk. Under the beam of light, she read the words printed on it aloud.
"Frank Antonio Manella, nicknad [Bone Saw Chef]. Hobby: eating humans. Extrely perverted. History of substance abuse. Emaciated physique..."
As soon as she finished reading, Kato gumi reacted.
"The ghoul we encountered in that kitchen earlier... that was this [Bone Saw Chef], right?"
"Based on the appearance description, it should be."
Iwanaga Kotoko opened the file bag and pulled out several printed sheets. They contained more detailed information on [Bone Saw Chef], as well as a photo, probably taken at the ti of admission. Although the man in the picture still looked sowhat different, it was clearly the sa gaunt man they had seen earlier, the one with matted hair, an unkempt beard, and a human head in his hands.
Iwanaga Kotoko had little interest in how many horrifying cris Frank Antonio Manella had committed before being locked up in Kyozan ntal Hospital. What caught her attention instead was a short line printed at the bottom of the report.
[Evaluation: Frank Antonio Manella is qualified to beco a test subject.]
"Test subject?"
She frowned, her cyan eyes narrowing as she thought aloud.
"Frank Antonio Manella's physical condition is terrible. He has a serious history of drug abuse. His strength, stamina, health, and basic bodily functions all fall below the average for a normal adult male. Yet soone like that was still considered qualified as a test subject? What kind of experint would deliberately choose him?"
Yuuki Asuna thought for a mont, then offered her own guess.
"Could it be because he's a severely ntally ill patient who committed horrifying cris, so they can use him for experints without worrying about consequences? Even if he dies during the experint, no one would hold Kyozan ntal Hospital accountable, right?"
"No, literally speaking, that doesn't quite fit."
Kato gumi extended a fair finger and pointed to the line at the bottom of the page.
"If every patient here could be used, then there would be no need to add a note like this, right? Didn't you and Leader already conclude last ti that Kyozan ntal Hospital isn't really a normal ntal hospital? It's more like a heavily guarded prison built specifically for extrely dangerous ntal patients. If that's the case, then every patient should already qualify. There would be no point in specifically evaluating them."
"Exactly."
Iwanaga Kotoko nodded, continuing her analysis.
"According to the records here, Frank Antonio Manella was just an ordinary human while he was alive. A cannibal and a psychopath, yes, but still just a normal person, without any supernatural power. The form we saw before, blood drenched body, protruding bones, all of that may be power produced after he beca an Anomaly, shaped by his twisted soul. But we also can't rule out the possibility that the so called experint is what turned him into that kind of monster in the first place."
As soon as she finished, Yuuki Asuna turned toward Asagiri, who was still examining the computer.
"Leader, did you find anything?"
Asagiri pulled his head back out from under the desk and answered in the sa calm tone that made shocking conclusions sound utterly mundane.
"This place was cleaned up by soone."
"Cleaned up... what do you an?"
"The hard drive is missing from the computer case, and there aren't even any fragnts left nearby. Smashing the case was just a cover."
Asagiri swept his eyes across the office.
"ntal patients couldn't have done sothing like this. That ans soone ca here before us, probably to hide sothing or retrieve data. In any case, they took the hard drive."
"Could it be... Black Watch? Are they the ones behind the experint? But in the Hotel Dungeon, we saw a news report about the riot at Kyozan ntal Hospital. With Black Watch's capabilities, they shouldn't have made that kind of mistake. And even if they did, it shouldn't have been leaked to the dia unless..."
Mid sentence, Yuuki Asuna suddenly seed to realize sothing. She turned sharply toward Iwanaga Kotoko.
"Necro, you said before that human opinions and rumors can also turn a place into a strange area, right?"
Iwanaga Kotoko imdiately understood what she ant. Disbelief appeared in her eyes.
"You an... that news report was deliberately spread to turn Kyozan ntal Hospital into an Anomaly zone that no one would approach? But if that's true..."
"Just like I said before."
Asagiri spoke calmly.
"Black Watch clearly has experience dealing with Anomaly incidents. They also possess a great deal of knowledge about supernatural phenona, enough to deliberately create an Anomaly area. Of course, that conclusion only stands if the experint at Kyozan ntal Hospital really was led by Black Watch. We still can't state it as a fact yet. Right now, it's only a reasonable possibility."
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 10–50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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