Chapter 38: The Mystery in the Water
[I'll change Oddities or odd here to Anomaly or Spirit]
"An Anomaly aura…"
Asagiri stepped down a few stairs, gestured for the Suit Man and the Woman with Heavy Makeup to move aside, then walked up to the sturdy fire door. As he examined it, he asked Kotoko, "Necro, when you came here earlier, you didn't sense anything behind it?"
"No." Kotoko shook her head, expression flat. "The door simply wouldn't open. I don't have the means to break through something this thick. And at the time, I didn't know what was on this floor, so I didn't act recklessly."
"A locked door, and now there's an Anomaly aura behind it…"
Asuna came to Asagiri's side and studied the fire door as well, her voice thoughtful. "Could the source of the anomaly in this hotel be intelligent? It realized we might come down here, so it deliberately arranged an ambush in the corridor."
Before Asagiri could answer, Asuna shook her head, rejecting her own idea.
"No, that doesn't quite fit. The Red Clothed Female Ghost we encountered earlier was a territorial spirit. It couldn't leave its own floor. The Banshees in this Dungeon should also be territorial spirits that can't leave their territory."
Her gaze sharpened as her thoughts clicked into place.
"Otherwise, there'd be no need for the temperature to rise. If the Banshees could roam freely, wouldn't it be easier to just chase the Players down? That means there's some restriction on the source of the anomaly, but it can still set up ambushes through another method…"
Asuna leaned closer to the seam where the door met the floor and wall, scrutinizing it. She muttered, "No gaps. None at all…"
Then she straightened and looked at Asagiri.
"Leader, my guess is that there's water behind this fire door. Water filling the entire corridor on this floor."
The Suit Man's face twitched.
Asuna continued, voice steady. "The source can control Banshees and spread the anomaly through water. And it can also manipulate contaminated water to set traps, just like the bottled mineral water those two drank."
She pointed at the door, tone turning grim. "If we open it directly, the water that's been held back will rush out immediately. Even if we survive the impact, the contaminated water will get into our mouths, our eyes, our lungs. Once it enters our bodies, we're done."
The Suit Man couldn't hold back. He blurted, skeptical and shaky, "Water covering an entire hotel corridor? That's impossible. Wouldn't the building just… burst?"
Kotoko, still a few steps above them, lifted her cane and tapped it lightly on the floor. Her smile was gentle, almost amused.
"Anomalies violate common sense. That is common sense." She tilted her head slightly. "But as long as you find the anomaly's own rules, no matter how absurd the phenomenon is, it can be solved."
The moment she finished speaking, her expression changed.
Her deep purple eyes narrowed. A warning flashed through her posture like a blade being drawn.
"Leader. Violet. Be careful."
The next second, the Suit Man and the Woman with Heavy Makeup ballooned.
Their bodies swelled like overfilled water balloons, skin stretching until it looked ready to split. The expansion was instantaneous, violent, and wrong.
Asagiri moved as if he'd already seen it coming.
The moment Kotoko warned them, he grabbed Asuna, crossed several steps in a blur, and reached the corner above. With his other hand, he snatched Kotoko up as well and sprinted upward.
"Bang!!!"
A deafening explosion tore through the stairwell. Wet, heavy impacts followed as flesh and blood slammed into the walls.
By the time the two Players burst, Asagiri had already carried Asuna and Kotoko back to the position aligned with the sixth floor. Not a single drop of blood, not a single shred of minced flesh, reached them.
They weren't touched at all.
Kotoko didn't panic. After Asagiri set her down, she calmly adjusted her clothes and straightened her white beret, then smiled.
"Leader's reaction speed really is impressive." Her gaze drifted downward, thoughtful. "So the source can trigger an explosion at will, either through Banshees or through humans who drank the water."
Her tone remained light, but the conclusion was chilling. "It didn't do it earlier for a reason. Maybe this method consumes a lot of power. Maybe it was waiting until we lowered our guard to strike decisively. Or maybe both."
"No matter which it is…" Asagiri said, sounding almost entertained.
He'd just sprinted up multiple flights with one person in each hand, yet he didn't even look winded. He stood relaxed, smiling.
"Using a one time trick like that now means the source is scared." His grin widened. "Cornered dog jumps the wall, stubbornly resisting, mantis trying to stop a chariot. It won't cry until it sees the coffin."
Asuna pressed down the urge to snap back at his nonsense and let out a quiet sigh.
"This Dungeon really isn't on the same level as the novice Dungeon…"
Compared to Kyozan Mental Hospital, where you could clear as long as you kept moving and didn't collapse completely, this hotel was a different beast. The novice Dungeon was forgiving. This one was designed to grind people down.
With a method like this, it was brutal.
As long as a Player drank the hotel's water, the source could use them as a bomb at any time. The moment Players gathered, it could detonate the contaminated one, spray blood and flesh everywhere, and infect the rest.
Even if Players figured out that water spreads the anomaly, they were still human. Humans wanted to live.
A Player who drank the water would probably hide it, terrified of being targeted, abandoned, or killed by the others.
Asuna finally understood the deeper meaning behind Asagiri's special hint about "numerical disadvantage."
It wasn't about Banshees versus Players.
It was about clean Players versus contaminated Players. About how many in the group could be turned into bombs at any moment.
This time, though, the source had failed completely.
Asagiri and Asuna had learned early that water was the transmission route. And on top of that, they had Kotoko, who could sense anomaly auras and identify contaminated people at a glance.
What kind of game was this supposed to be?
A Dungeon meant to torture Players mentally, force suspicion, and drain them through paranoia had been hijacked into something else entirely.
A game of hide and seek.
Except the one hiding wasn't the Players.
It was the source.
And once Asagiri found it…
It was going to have a very bad time.
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