Chapter 184: The Inside Story of Kyozan
"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 immediately 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 embarrassment,
"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 Megumi 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 Megumi 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 mental 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 mental 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 mental patients unless absolutely necessary. We need to conserve both stamina and mental strength."
"Yes, I agree."
Only after Yuuki Asuna, Kato Megumi, and Iwanaga Kotoko had all voiced their agreement did Asagiri continue.
"Although this Dungeon begins with an immediate sense of danger, I believe it still follows the same 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 mental hospital became an Anomaly, what exactly happened to those mental 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 mental 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 me 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 time and revive everyone. If you die, time rewinds automatically. That means 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 same danger? I know you wanted to protect me, but if something 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 immediately turned red. She lightly shoved his shoulder and, at the same time, 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 me 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, nicknamed [Bone Saw Chef]. Hobby: eating humans. Extremely perverted. History of substance abuse. Emaciated physique..."
As soon as she finished reading, Kato Megumi 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 time of admission. Although the man in the picture still looked somewhat different, it was clearly the same 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 crimes Frank Antonio Manella had committed before being locked up in Kyozan Mental Hospital. What caught her attention instead was a short line printed at the bottom of the report.
[Evaluation: Frank Antonio Manella is qualified to become 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 someone like that was still considered qualified as a test subject? What kind of experiment would deliberately choose him?"
Yuuki Asuna thought for a moment, then offered her own guess.
"Could it be because he's a severely mentally ill patient who committed horrifying crimes, so they can use him for experiments without worrying about consequences? Even if he dies during the experiment, no one would hold Kyozan Mental Hospital accountable, right?"
"No, literally speaking, that doesn't quite fit."
Kato Megumi 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 time that Kyozan Mental Hospital isn't really a normal mental hospital? It's more like a heavily guarded prison built specifically for extremely dangerous mental 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 became an Anomaly, shaped by his twisted soul. But we also can't rule out the possibility that the so called experiment 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 same calm tone that made shocking conclusions sound utterly mundane.
"This place was cleaned up by someone."
"Cleaned up... what do you mean?"
"The hard drive is missing from the computer case, and there aren't even any fragments left nearby. Smashing the case was just a cover."
Asagiri swept his eyes across the office.
"Mental patients couldn't have done something like this. That means someone came here before us, probably to hide something or retrieve data. In any case, they took the hard drive."
"Could it be... Black Watch? Are they the ones behind the experiment? But in the Hotel Dungeon, we saw a news report about the riot at Kyozan Mental 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 media unless..."
Mid sentence, Yuuki Asuna suddenly seemed to realize something. 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 immediately understood what she meant. Disbelief appeared in her eyes.
"You mean... that news report was deliberately spread to turn Kyozan Mental 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 phenomena, enough to deliberately create an Anomaly area. Of course, that conclusion only stands if the experiment at Kyozan Mental 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.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]
[One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Soul Land, NBA, and more — all in one place.]