"Instead of standing there in a daze, why not search this room for mental patients to see if you can find any clues that help clear the level."
Hearing Asagiri's words and seeing his actions as if he was observing something by the window, although Asuna still held some vigilance in her heart, she couldn't help but ask.
"Mr.Lucifer, How do you know that this is a room for mental patients?"
"Isn't this obvious at a glance?"
Asagiri stepped back two steps and pointed at the window. Asuna looked in the direction of his finger and saw that the window of this room was only about thirty centimeters long and wide, and it was also installed with steel bars as thick as a thumb.
"The hint says that this is a sanatorium, but just looking at this window, it's clear that this room is similar to a cell, and there's also this..."
Speaking of this, Asagiri walked to the hospital bed, reached out and put his hand on the iron railings on both sides, and after carefully rubbing them, he said in a calm tone.
"This railing is not the kind of safety railing installed in ordinary hospital rooms to prevent patients from falling out of bed while sleeping. It's the kind that cannot be put down, and there are obvious signs of wear near the head and foot of the bed. This is because when someone was lying on this bed, their hands and feet were restrained on the railing and they struggled constantly, leaving behind these marks."
"The edge of this bed sheet also has traces of dried blood, which is consistent with what I just said, proving that someone struggled constantly, causing their wrists and ankles to be worn out."
"Judging from the above clues, this is either a room for mental patients, and they are the kind of mental patients with strong aggressiveness who cannot be unrestrained even when sleeping, or it is the scene of a sadist's crime. However, a sadist should not deliberately put a hospital bed so that the person they kidnap can lie down, and the APP hint also said that this is a sanatorium of unknown name, so the former is more likely."
Hearing Asagiri's analysis, Asuna couldn't help but feel a flicker of surprise.
It wasn't his intelligence or sharp observation that caught her off guard. After all, anyone with a clear head could have noticed the same details in the room and arrived at similar conclusions. It wasn't exactly a feat of genius.
What truly puzzled her was something else entirely.
Wasn't this person—this mysterious guy calling himself "Lucifer"—adjusting a little too quickly?
Suddenly appearing in an unfamiliar place, most people would at least be stunned for a moment. The first instinct should be to check their phone, try to contact someone, maybe even call the police. That would be a normal reaction.
But him?
He glanced at his phone once, seemed to confirm something silently, and then immediately began calmly analyzing the situation like it was just another puzzle to solve.
This guy... is his mental state actually normal?
"That... there seems to be something padded inside your clothes?"
Hearing Asuna's cautious question, Asagiri, who was standing there, waved his hand and replied in a calm tone as if it were a matter of course.
"Honestly, it's nothing special—just stuffing some magazines and books under my clothes, and wrapping a few more around my arms and legs with tape. Since I'm about to enter the Dungeon, I figured some basic protection couldn't hurt."
Asuna was left speechless.
From the moment the app appeared on the phone to the point of entering the instance, there had only been about ten minutes to prepare—wasn't that right?
Assuming this "Lucifer" had gone through the same experience as she did, that meant in just ten minutes, he had padded himself with books and magazines, grabbed an electric drill and a chainsaw, and stepped into the instance without hesitation?
That kind of response time… wasn't it a bit too fast?
He hadn't even paused to consider whether the app was a virus, or if his phone had been infected with some kind of Trojan? Not even a moment of doubt?
Asuna's doubts were reasonable, but Asagiri's situation was different.
Asagiri Utsunomiya, who is currently sixteen years old, the same age as Asuna, and according to the time in the real world, should officially become a high school student today, is a transmigrator.
For him, since even transmigrating to a completely different world can happen, the sudden appearance of the Main God Space and being selected as a Player is not that incredible.
"Instead of continuing to be curious about me, why not combine the information I just found and think about how to escape?"
Hearing Asagiri's words, Asuna finally came back to her senses. Although she still didn't quite understand the current situation, she still tried her best to calm down and began to think seriously.
First of all, she was sure that the real name of this mysterious person who was in the same room as her was definitely not "Lucifer". The reason was simple. If the other person told her their real name so easily, what was the point of wearing a mask and sunglasses to cover their face?
Moreover, just now, when she chose not to say her name, the other person also said, "You're quite vigilant, good."
It was obvious that he was testing her.
However...
In this situation, regardless of whether this "Lucifer"'s mental state is normal or what kind of person he is, the most reasonable choice is obviously to cooperate with the other person and absolutely not become an enemy. After all, Asuna did not think that she could defeat this male who was over 1.8 meters tall and was holding an electric drill and an electric saw with just a kitchen knife.
Thinking of this, Asuna recalled the red text she saw before entering the instance and muttered.
"Escape within sixty minutes, which is one hour... This is the 'Player's' mission objective, but it doesn't say what the penalty for failure is. Is there no penalty? Or is it that escaping this place within one hour is the only way to survive, so there is no need for a penalty?"
Asuna paused here, first looked at the window with steel bars, then at the electric saw on the ground next to Asagiri, but finally shook her head.
"No, there's no way. Leaving aside whether a chainsaw can cut through steel bars of that thickness, even if it can, with the size of that window, we can't climb out through the window. The only way to escape is to open the door and leave this room... But what exactly are the so-called 'caregivers'...?"
Just as Asuna was halfway through her sentence, her peripheral vision happened to flick toward the hospital room door.
In that instant, it felt as if the blood in her veins turned to ice. A sudden, visceral fear seized her body, leaving her frozen in place.
Set into the door was a small, transparent observation window—just like any standard hospital room.
But now, pressed against the other side of the glass, was a grotesque, blood-smeared face.
Its bloodshot eyes were locked onto hers, unblinking, filled with a chilling intensity.