Chapter 181: The Emaciated Monster
"That's possible."
Asagiri put the lid back on the metal pot to stop the nauseating stench from spreading, then spoke calmly.
"I don't know whether there are other Players in this Dungeon. Either way, let's stick to our usual routine first and share the special hints each of us received."
"Okay."
This was one of the advantages of a high level Player team. In the last Ajin Dungeon, all four of them had earned an S+ rating, so this time they were once again able to obtain four different special hints.
The system did not hand out special hints to make clearing the Dungeon easier.
Its real purpose was to help high level Players save time, avoid wasting effort on overly cautious information gathering, and quickly grasp the general outline of the Dungeon so they could attempt higher difficulty hidden missions.
Kato Megumi's special hint was:
[There are many dangerous mechanisms within the mental hospital. Please remain cautious at all times.]
Yuuki Asuna's special hint was:
[Mental Patients are difficult to completely eliminate.]
Iwanaga Kotoko's special hint was:
[Some seemingly harmless spirits actually harbor malice. In this Dungeon, there are no friendly spirits that are guaranteed not to harm Players.]
"A mental hospital with dangerous mechanisms inside? Is this really a mental hospital...?"
After the team exchanged their hints, Iwanaga Kotoko, as the strategist, immediately began analyzing them.
"Mental Patients are difficult to kill. If that is true, then they may be similar to the Floating Corpse Evil Spirit from the Hotel Dungeon, Banshees that cannot be eliminated unless their source is destroyed. Of course, it is also possible that the Mental Patients are not Banshees at all, but possess some special physique with extreme survivability, like the Ajin."
She paused briefly before continuing.
"And the hint I received says there are no friendly spirits that are guaranteed not to harm Players. If I think about that from the opposite angle, it also means there are no spirits that are absolutely hostile to Players either. Some spirits may look harmless, but secretly harbor malice. Is the system telling us that negotiation might be possible, but we must remain wary of sudden attacks?"
Hearing Kotoko's analysis, Asagiri spoke calmly.
"Combined with the hint you received and the one I got, the Old man is definitely considered a spirit. But according to the system's judgment, even it might harm Players. That means this Dungeon is the same location as the rookie Dungeon Violet and I entered before, but something here has changed."
"When we came last time, we didn't see any Mental Patients."
Yuuki Asuna frowned slightly as she recalled the rookie Dungeon.
"From the way the attendants told us to leave the room, it seemed they knew there were dangers inside the hospital and had a certain degree of goodwill toward Players. And the public hint warns Players not to attract the attention of the Mental Patients. That means the attendants and the Mental Patients are definitely not on the same side."
Her gaze shifted toward the pot.
"And if we assume that head belonged to an attendant, then who would do something so cruel and hateful as cutting off an attendant's head, peeling off the face, and boiling it in a pot? It could only be the Mental Patients, right?"
"Kyozan Mental Hospital exists in the same world as our Hotel Dungeon. Black Watch went to the Hotel. Is it possible we'll run into them here too?"
Hearing Kato Megumi's question, Asagiri gave a slight nod.
"Hard to say. But one thing is certain. Black Watch is not just an ordinary military force. They have already made contact with Anomalies and have experience dealing with supernatural incidents. They definitely possess some means of countering them."
Just as Yuuki Asuna finished speaking, Iwanaga Kotoko seemed to sense something. Her expression changed, and she immediately lowered her voice.
"A strange entity is approaching."
The four of them had already checked the room. There was nowhere in this kitchen like chamber for them to hide.
Kato Megumi did not hesitate. She immediately reached out and touched Asagiri, Yuuki Asuna, and Iwanaga Kotoko, applying the effect of reduced presence to all three of them before activating her own exclusive talent and entering a state of lowered presence as well.
"Shh shh shh shh~"
Less than two seconds later, a clumsy, off key whistle came from outside the door, drifting closer and closer.
Bang!
The metal door was kicked open.
Faced with the sudden noise, neither Asagiri nor Iwanaga Kotoko, whose nerves far exceeded those of ordinary people, reacted much. Even Yuuki Asuna and Kato Megumi remained calm. After going through so many Dungeons and preparing themselves mentally in advance, they were no longer the sort to be startled by a little noise like this.
After kicking open the door, a man walked into the room.
He was skin and bones, with filthy long hair and a tangled beard. He wore nothing but tattered shorts, with no shirt and no shoes. His upper body and face were smeared with blood and grime. In his right hand, he carried a serrated bloodstained long knife. In his left, he held a human head with its face peeled off, fresh blood still dripping from it.
"Time to cook again..."
The emaciated man muttered to himself in an excited tone as he walked up to the stove. He set down the serrated knife, lifted the lid of the pot with his right hand, and peered inside.
Seeing that he had completely failed to notice their presence, Kato Megumi quietly let out a breath of relief.
But in the very next moment, she noticed something wrong.
The half cooked human head that had originally been inside the pot had somehow disappeared.
Splash.
The emaciated man casually threw the head in his hand into the pot. A splash rang out.
That sound instantly made both Asagiri and Iwanaga Kotoko feel even more unsettled.
Just moments ago, both of them had already inspected the inside of that pot. There had been no water in it at all, only a half cooked human head. But now, not only had the original head vanished, water had also somehow appeared inside, even though the emaciated man had not added any.
And even more abnormal than that was the man himself.
He was clearly doing something so horrifying, yet he kept whistling, his face full of eager anticipation.
That scene was far too Anomalous.
"Click, click, click..."
The emaciated man twisted the gas knob on the stove several times, but no flame appeared beneath the pot.
"Damn it!"
He cursed loudly, then stared at the head in the pot. His bloodshot eyes were filled with the same greedy hunger as a starving wolf.
Then he did something so disgusting that even Yuuki Asuna and Kato Megumi felt their stomachs turn.
He reached in with both filthy hands, lifted the head out of the pot, opened his mouth wide to reveal two rows of revolting teeth, and lowered it as if he were about to bite into it directly.
"Violet, attack."
The instant Asagiri called out her codename, Yuuki Asuna had already drawn Gleaming Light. Brilliant radiance burst from the crystal like translucent rapier, illuminating the dim kitchen.
[Sword Skill: Stinger!]
A sharp beam of concentrated light condensed at the tip of her blade and pierced forward. Before the emaciated man could react, it struck him squarely in the brow.
Thud. Thud.
The head in the emaciated man's hand fell to the floor with two dull sounds. His own body staggered backward several steps until his lower back slammed into the metal table behind him.
"Hah..."
He did not die.
Instead, a distorted sound escaped his throat. Large patches of skin all over his body began peeling away, drenching him in fresh blood. His elbows, knees, collarbones, shoulders, and other joints, already grotesquely pronounced from malnourishment, suddenly swelled as though the bones inside were trying to tear their way through the skin.
He lowered himself like a wild beast. The hole Yuuki Asuna had pierced through his forehead neither bled nor closed. Meanwhile, the vertebrae along his back began bulging outward one after another.
His appearance now was like...
"Oh, so you can enter Spinosaurus form too?"
Seeing the emaciated man twist into that blood covered monster like state, Asagiri could not help blurting out a line of admiration. Immediately afterward, the familiar black gun shaped summoner appeared in his hand. He pressed the muzzle to his temple, his eyes turning dark gold, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
"Human Asura."
The instant Human Asura appeared, a mass of Black Particles condensed in front of Iwanaga Kotoko, forming a black humanoid figure slightly smaller than Human Asura. One on each side, Human Asura and the black figure slammed into the emaciated man and pinned the now monstrous Banshee to the ground.
Bang!
The force was so great that several cracks spread across the hard tiled floor beneath them.
Yet the emaciated man seemed to feel no pain at all. Grating sounds of bone against bone came from inside his body. He raised his blood covered face, his tangled beard soaked red, looked at Asagiri and the others, and let out a strange laugh.
"You can't get out, hahahaha!"
"You like laughing?"
Asagiri walked over, crouched in front of the emaciated man, and smiled kindly. Then he slowly drove the Rope Dart in his hand into the crown of the man's head.
The emaciated man's laughter did not stop.
If anything, it only became more manic.
"Oh, so you really can't feel pain. Interesting."
Seeing that reaction, Asagiri plunged the entire Rope Dart straight through the man's skull.
The emaciated man's body twitched twice.
Then it melted into a pool of dark red blood that spread over the floor before gradually vanishing.
"Aren't you going to interrogate him? We might get some information."
Hearing Yuuki Asuna's question, Asagiri stood up and answered flatly,
"Impossible."
He glanced at where the blood had disappeared and continued.
"That thing was already insane when it was alive. After death, it became a Banshee driven only by twisted desires, one that cannot feel pain. It can think, yes. It can speak, yes. But it is not something we can negotiate with."
"And even if it did tell us something, we would have no way to verify whether it was true. Information that cannot be verified is worthless. At best, it only misleads us."
TL: Check out my newly released fanfic:
Transmigrated into The Legendary Mechanic
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