"The aura of an anomaly..."
Asagiri stepped down the stairs, motioned for the man in the suit and the woman with makeup to move aside, and walked up to the sturdy fire door. He examined it while asking Iwanaga Kotoko,
"Necro, when you came here before, did you not detect any anomalous aura near the door?"
"No."
Iwanaga Kotoko shook her head, her tone calm.
"The fire door was simply stuck shut. I don't possess the means to break through such a heavy fire door, and at that time, I wasn't sure what was on this floor, so I didn't act rashly."
"An anomalous aura suddenly appeared behind a stuck fire door..."
Yuuki Asuna walked up to Asagiri's side, examining the fire door in front of her, musing out loud.
"Is it possible that the source of the anomaly in this hotel possesses intelligence? That it knew we might come to this floor and enter the corridor, so it deliberately arranged an Evil Spirit ambush?"
Before Asagiri could reply, Yuuki Asuna shook her head, refuting her own suggestion.
"No, that shouldn't be the case. The red-dressed ghost we encountered earlier was an Earthbound Spirit unable to leave its assigned floor. The Evil Spirits in this Instance should all be Earthbound Spirits unable to leave their territory. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any need for the temperature to rise; the Evil Spirits could just chase the Players down, right? The source of the hotel's anomaly must be limited in some way, but... it can also set up ambushes for the Players through some means, and the information we know is that the way it can do this is..."
Yuuki Asuna leaned closer to the fire door connecting the stairwell and the hotel corridor, meticulously observing it and muttering to herself.
"There's not the slightest gap between the wall and the floor... I see..."
At this, Yuuki Asuna looked toward Asagiri.
"Leader, I deduce that behind this fire door is water, water that completely covers the entire hotel corridor floor. The source of the anomaly in this hotel can not only manipulate Evil Spirits and spread the anomaly through water, but it can also, conversely, manipulate the water contaminated by its anomaly to set ambushes for the Players, just like the bottled mineral water those two drank. If we open the door directly, the water blocked by the fire door will instantly surge out. Even if we somehow survive the pressure of the water, the anomaly-contaminated water will certainly enter our bodies."
The man in the suit nearby looked deeply skeptical.
"Water covering an entire hotel corridor floor? Is that really possible... Wouldn't it burst out?"
"An anomaly, by its nature, violates common sense. That's the common sense of the anomaly."
Iwanaga Kotoko, standing on the steps, raised her cane and gently tapped the floor, smiling as she spoke.
"But as long as we can find the anomaly's internal logic, any anomalous phenomenon can be easily resolved."
Just as Iwanaga Kotoko finished speaking, she suddenly seemed to sense something. Her violet eyes flashed with vigilance, and she immediately warned,
"Leader, Violet, watch out!"
The next second, the bodies of the man in the suit and the woman with makeup instantly swelled up like water balloons. Their skin looked like it was about to burst, on the verge of exploding.
Asagiri seemed to have anticipated this. The moment Iwanaga Kotoko warned them, he immediately picked up Yuuki Asuna next to him, instantly leaped across several steps to the upper corner of the staircase, and also snatched up Iwanaga Kotoko with one hand, sprinting up the stairs.
"Bang!!!"
A deafening explosion echoed throughout the stairwell, accompanied by the sound of fragmented flesh slapping against the walls.
By the time the two Players' bodies burst, Asagiri had already carried Yuuki Asuna and Iwanaga Kotoko back to the landing corresponding to the hotel's sixth floor, completely avoiding the blood and shattered meat that flew out during the explosion. They were utterly unaffected.
"Leader's movement speed is truly fast."
Iwanaga Kotoko didn't seem flustered at all. After Asagiri put her down, she merely adjusted her clothing and hat, speaking with a cheerful smile.
"I see. It seems the source of the anomaly can manipulate anomaly-infected Evil Spirits or humans to explode at any time. It might have held back before because this method consumes its power, or it wanted to wait for us to relax our guard to strike a decisive blow, or both."
"In any case..."
Having carried one person in each hand and ascended so many steps in just a few seconds, Asagiri showed no sign of effort. He still looked relaxed, speaking with a smile in his voice.
"Using a one-time move like this at this moment shows that the source of the hotel's anomaly already feels threatened. Heh, going all out, a cornered dog jumping over the wall, resisting desperately, a mantis trying to stop a carriage, a dead duck still talking tough—I see it won't weep until it sees the coffin, or give up until it hits the Yellow River. Based on initial analysis, I confirm that it wants to be brutally attacked by Arsène."
Yuuki Asuna suppressed the urge to complain and sighed slightly.
"However, the difficulty of this Instance is truly not on the same level as the Rookie Instance..."
Compared to Mount Massive Asylum—the Rookie Instance, which could be cleared regardless of the rating as long as the player could walk, or even crawl, requiring virtually no skill—the difficulty of this hotel Instance had indeed increased significantly.
With the anomaly source's ability, as long as one Player drank the hotel water, it could manipulate the infected Player to explode when the Players gathered, splattering blood and fragmented flesh to infect the other Players with its anomaly.
Even if Players somehow realized that "water" transmits the anomaly, Players are still human. As long as they are human, they want to survive, and it is highly likely that a Player who drank the water would conceal it to avoid being targeted or killed directly by others.
The numerical disadvantage Asagiri received in his special hint actually referred not to the comparison between Evil Spirits and Players, but to the comparison between "uninfected Players" and "anomaly-infected Players who could be manipulated to explode at any moment."
However, this time, the source of the hotel's anomaly was thoroughly out of luck.
Not only did Asagiri and Yuuki Asuna know the crucial information that "water" transmits the anomaly early on, but they also had Iwanaga Kotoko, who could directly sense the anomaly's aura and instantly identify who was infected.
How do you play that? How do you even win?
What was originally intended as an anomalous-type Instance designed for mental torment and internal conflict among Players, testing their caution and psychological endurance, was immediately turned into a game of hide-and-seek by these three people.
And...
The one hiding wasn't the Players, but the source of the anomaly. Once Asagiri finds it...
It's going to have a very bad time.