Chapter 68: Kotoko Iwanaga, Who Rendered Great Service
Asagiri gave a noncommittal nod, eyes on the black object among the mess.
"It's probably something like that."
Kotoko frowned slightly, murmuring to herself.
"An implanted locator… inside a Special Infected? How does that even… unless…"
Asagiri spoke softly, as if finishing her thought for her.
"This city didn't fall to a zombie apocalypse in the usual sense. It was cleaned up by some unknown force. Most of the ordinary zombies were eliminated, and only Special Infected were deliberately left behind."
His gaze sharpened.
"And those Special Infected were implanted with locators. This place is less like a ruined city and more like a controlled testing ground."
"A testing ground… so that's why."
Asuna's eyes widened, her thoughts snapping into place.
"No wonder the streets are empty. It was cleared once, thoroughly."
She inhaled, then continued, voice steady as the conclusion settled.
"And the zombie virus not having secondary infectivity… that also makes sense if the experimenters designed it that way. They wanted the situation contained, controllable."
Then she looked at Asagiri, openly surprised.
"But how did you figure it out so fast?"
"Read more novels and TV shows, play more games, and combine it with what we've seen." Asagiri shrugged as if it were obvious. "It's not that complicated."
He said it lightly, but none of the three girls felt it was "not complicated."
This was the hidden core of the Dungeon, the kind of thing most Players would miss entirely. Yet they hadn't even been here long, and Asagiri had already pieced it together, then dug up proof from inside a Special Infected.
It was hard not to feel it.
Asagiri really was on a different level.
Megumi raised a hand slightly, speaking in her soft voice, but the question hit the center.
"If Special Infected have locators… does that mean we might run into the people behind the experiments?"
She hesitated.
"And if we do… they'd be hostile to us, right?"
"Probably not." Asagiri answered calmly. "But we can't rule it out completely."
Kotoko and the others couldn't tell if they were imagining it, but when he said that, there was a faint, inexplicable hint of anticipation.
Asagiri continued in a measured tone.
"To clear ordinary zombies from an entire city, selectively keep Special Infected, and implant locators… that's harder than just wiping everything out. Whoever did this isn't some small group."
He looked at the dead parking lot around them.
"At minimum, it would take a professional, battle hardened force to pull this off."
His conclusion followed naturally.
"At this stage, most Players couldn't survive contact with a trained unit. Most of them struggle against amateurs with guns, let alone a proper combat team. So enemies like that shouldn't appear in a first stage Dungeon."
The moment he finished, Kotoko's dark purple eyes lit up.
"Wait. I feel it."
She tilted her head slightly.
"There's a strange aura nearby…"
"Strange?" Asuna and Megumi immediately went alert, hearts tightening.
Had the Dungeon shifted again? Was this actually another Anomaly type Dungeon in disguise?
"Don't panic." Kotoko's tone stayed calm as she started forward. "It doesn't feel hostile."
She walked until she stopped beside a black sedan not far away. Then she removed her white beret, held it lightly against her chest, and performed a polite greeting like she was meeting someone at a formal party.
"Hello."
What none of them expected was what happened next.
A faint, ghostly man, pale and covered in bloodstains, slowly drifted out from beneath the sedan.
"H hello…"
Kotoko turned her head, smiling at the three behind her as if she were introducing a classmate.
"It's fine. He's not a Banshee. Just a wandering soul."
"A wandering soul?" Asuna frowned, confused. "How can there be one here?"
"Of course there can." Kotoko answered evenly. "Where people die, wandering souls appear."
She tapped her cane once, thoughtful.
"I just wasn't sure if the rules in this world matched ours. And I wasn't sure if people who became zombies counted as truly dead. Looks like they do."
She turned back to the spectral man, smile gentle again.
"Sir, may I ask if you know what happened in this city?"
"Uh… uh…"
The man hesitated, clearly afraid. His gaze kept drifting toward the direction where Asagiri stood.
Kotoko noticed immediately. After a brief pause, she reassured him in a soft, comforting tone.
"Don't be afraid. Those three are my companions. We have no ill intentions. We just want to ask a few questions."
"Really… no ill intentions…?"
The ghost still looked nervous. Like a thief checking for guards, he stole another glance at Asagiri.
The instant his eyes met Asagiri's, his whole form trembled.
"H he… that thing he summoned… and there's something on him. An aura. It scares me."
"Oh, it's fine, it's fine." Kotoko waved her hand lightly, still smiling, still kind. "As long as you answer honestly, he won't attack you."
Then her tone changed, turning cold enough to make the air feel sharper.
"But if you keep dodging my questions… then it's hard to say what might happen."
Asuna and Megumi both felt their hearts skip.
Kotoko always wore that sweet smile, always joked, always acted like a quirky, funny girl. It was easy to forget what she truly was.
She wasn't just a high school girl with odd habits. She carried responsibility. She'd dealt with supernatural phenomena long before entering this "game." She was the God of Wisdom for yokai, a figure meant to maintain balance between humans and yokai.
Someone like that could never be harmless.
She simply chose to look harmless when she was with them.
"I I'll talk!" the spectral man blurted out, trembling harder. "Please, just don't let that guy come over!"
He spoke quickly, not even waiting for another question.
"Most of my memories from before I died are blurry. I only remember dropping my car keys. I went back to pick them up and then… pain. Then darkness."
"Blurry memories?" Asagiri stepped forward two paces, voice calm. "I actually know a bit about memory recovery techniques."
Kotoko didn't know what he meant by that, but she could tell from his face alone that she needed to stop him.
"No." She spoke firmly, without looking away from the ghost. "He's telling the truth."
Her tone softened slightly.
"Many wandering souls are like this. After death, as time passes, their memories of life grow more and more vague. Only the memories tied to strong obsession remain."
Then she looked at the spectral man again.
"You said you dropped your car keys. Do you remember where?"
"J just… over there," he said shakily, pointing. "In front of the right front tire… of that car…"
Kotoko walked in the direction he indicated. Sure enough, hidden by the tire, there was a dusty electronic car key lying in a spot easy to miss.
"Heave ho."
She bent down, picked it up, and blew on it a few times to clear the dust. Then she tossed it to Asagiri with a bright smile.
"We're heading to Benevolence Hospital in the city center, right? Twenty kilometers is too far to walk. Let's drive."
"Driving is fine…" Asuna hesitated, lips tightening. "But does anyone here even know how to drive?"
Megumi shook her head. "I don't."
Kotoko also shook her head without a hint of shame. "Me neither."
Under the expectant gaze of the three girls, Asagiri nodded with an easy smile.
"I do."
"As expected." For some reason, Asuna wasn't surprised at all. After everything she'd seen from him, her threshold for shock had been raised into the stratosphere.
But she still hesitated, cautious to the end.
"If we drive, won't it attract Special Infected? The one earlier moved even slower than ordinary zombies, but my special hint said there are Special Infected with high agility and speed. So there are at least two types, maybe more."
She took a breath.
"For safety—"
"Let's stop being cautious." Kotoko cut in with a sigh, looking deeply sincere. "Our strength absolutely crushes the Special Infected."
Then she leaned on her cane dramatically, face full of heartfelt suffering.
"And can you please, please consider my feelings? We've been walking for so long, I'm at my limit. If we walk twenty kilometers, my prosthetic leg is going to explode."
She clasped her hands together as if praying.
"I'm begging you. Let's take the car, okay?"
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