What 'declaration of a harem out in the open'?" Asuna truly couldn't hold back this time and burst into exasperated laughter.
"How could I possibly let you have a hare—"
"Hold on a moment."
Asagiri raised a hand to stop Asuna's outburst, forcibly snatching control of the conversation, and activated his inherent skill: Change of Attack. "Me having a harem is not entirely out of my own selfish desires; there are even nobler reasons."
"Nobler?" More than anger and speechlessness, Asuna felt a surge of curiosity. "I'd like to hear how you can connect this kind of thing with the word 'nobler'."
"Allow me to explain it to you in detail." Asagiri paused for a few seconds, then looked at Asuna and spoke seriously. "First of all, this game is very dangerous, with the risk of death at any time, right?"
"Yes, but what you just said, what does it have to do with this game…"
"Secondly, Kotoko is a very valuable teammate. With her on the team, our team's survival rate will greatly increase, right?"
Asuna nodded.
"Mm, that's true."
Although the two often bickered, Asuna had to admit that, putting aside Kotoko's overly abstract personality and behavior, her ability as a dungeon teammate was impeccable. Her mind, deductive logic, courage, initiative, and the talent to sense the aura of strange things were all top-notch. Just like this time, even though it wasn't a strange-themed dungeon, Kotoko had still managed to find a drivable vehicle for the team through her talent and negotiation with the deceased, and had even uncovered the location of the antibody reagent and the truth of the city's disaster from the white-coated spirit.
"So, the question arises again." Asagiri looked directly into Asuna's eyes. "In this death game, what is the most important thing for a team to reach the end?"
Asuna thought for a long time, then gave her honest answer. "I think since it's a team, compared to strength, intelligence, equipment, and such, the most important thing... is actually the trust between each other, the ability to entrust one's life to the other."
"That's right, I think so too." Asagiri stood up from the bed, walked to the window, and looked at the twilight sky outside, speaking with a hint of emotion. "If the members of a team cannot fully trust each other, then advantages like a certain member's great strength, good intelligence, and excellent equipment will instead become obstacles to mutual suspicion. After all, in this high-difficulty game, if you have to guard against your teammates while clearing the dungeon, it's impossible to last."
"Mm, you're right." Asuna first nodded in agreement, but then her face showed confusion. "But, what does this have to do with the topic we were discussing at the beginning?"
"Of course it's related." At this moment, Asuna suddenly felt that Asagiri's figure, illuminated by the setting sun's afterglow, instantly became taller. "The so-called absolute trust, the relationship where you can entrust your life to the other person, this is the so-called bond!"
"And the so-called bond needs to be connected!"
"For everyone in the team, for our future, for not losing to this ruthless elimination game, for not letting the team fall apart, I will dedicate myself and voluntarily become the bond connecting you, Kotoko, and Megumi!"
"This... is my resolve as the Leader."
Hearing Asagiri's words, which even made one feel a bit tragic, Asuna was directly stunned. Her lips were slightly parted, but she didn't know how to refute him. "This... you, this... isn't... this, is this right?"
When Asagiri first said these words, Asuna thought he was just messing around, completely talking nonsense, but after thinking about it carefully, it seemed there really was nothing wrong. Although Asuna had never been in a relationship, when she was in junior high, she had seen girls who were originally close friends have conflicts, even openly argue, and end up completely cutting ties because they liked the same boy. So, for this kind of thing, is there really no perfect path where no one gets hurt? Asuna originally thought there wasn't, but after just hearing Asagiri say this... it seemed there really was. To say it's right, it seems right, but it also somehow feels not quite right.
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Half an hour later.
"Whoosh... whoosh..." Two men in sportswear, both appearing to be around forty years old, stood at the main entrance of Mochizuki Hospital. One of the men raised his head and glanced at the darkening sky. Then he looked towards the inside of Mochizuki Hospital's entrance, at the bodies of ordinary infected lying everywhere on the ground, a hint of nervousness showing on his face.
"Looking at the situation... it seems other Players have already arrived."
The other man frowned tightly, saying with a look of vigilance, "They didn't avoid the infected, but killed them all. It seems the other party arrived here very early. We don't know exactly how many people there are, but their strength must be above ours. It's best to avoid them and quickly get the antibody reagent to clear the dungeon. There's no need to seek death…"
Just as this man was speaking, a voice with a smile suddenly rang out. "I finally waited for you. I thought no one would come."
Hearing this sudden voice, the two male Players' expressions instantly changed. Under their nervous gaze, a mysterious person wearing black clothes, a gray mask on their face, and a slender figure slowly walked out of the hospital and even waved at them, as if welcoming their arrival.
"You... who are you…"
"Are you alright?" Asagiri, wearing the "Ever-changing Mask," heard the question from one of the male Players, raised a finger to the mask on his face, and chuckled. "Guess why I'm wearing a mask? Can't you ask something more meaningful?"
"Then... what do you want to do?"
"Do what?" Asagiri took two steps forward, saw the two Players retreat a distance with vigilant expressions, slowly took out two glass tubes containing light green liquid from his pocket, and then said with a smile, "This is the antibody reagent needed to clear the dungeon. How about we make a deal?"
"A deal?"
"Yes, you two, take out the most valuable things you have on you, and in exchange, I will give you two antibody reagents."
One of the male Players couldn't help but frown slightly. "What kind of joke is this? We've already gotten here, wouldn't it be—"
Before he could finish, the other male Player raised his hand to stop him, then looked at Asagiri standing there, and the bodies of ordinary infected on the ground behind him, and said with a serious expression, "If I'm not mistaken, the real test of this dungeon actually begins after arriving here, right?"
"Oh, looks like you're the one with more brains. Then I'll communicate directly with you." Asagiri looked at this man wearing a full set of sportswear, who was perhaps a bit overweight in middle age due to sitting in an office year-round, and said with a smile,
"Just as you said, the dungeon's test officially begins after arriving at this hospital. However, I have already collected the antibody reagents. Each Player only needs one tube of reagent to clear the dungeon, and submitting more won't give bonus points for the clearance evaluation. So, you trade something for it, I get something valuable, and you avoid the danger of exploring the hospital. Isn't this a win-win?"
According to the dungeon's hidden PvP rule, if a Player is confirmed dead and you can obtain their phone, you can randomly draw one piece of equipment or item owned by the deceased Player by clicking the eye icon app. The problem lies in this randomness. Even for high-level Players like Asagiri, among the items and equipment they possess, there are some that are of average value, such as the teddy bear toy held during the previous Hotel dungeon, the ordinary quality rapier, and the bottle of medical alcohol just used. For ordinary Players, it would be like having a bunch of junk on them, with only one or two pieces of genuinely useful equipment or items kept as a last resort.
From the perspective of limiting random draws, the game system actually doesn't encourage Players to kill each other. Drawing a piece of equipment or an item is not the real point of this rule either. The real point is actually that after taking the phone of a deceased Player, ordinary people can become Players. In other words, although the game system is screening through dungeons, it does not want the overall number of Players to rapidly decrease due to infighting.
At this stage, Asagiri temporarily has no intention of making someone a game Player, so the best way is not to directly kill other Players and gamble on the chance of a random draw, but to ensure obtaining valuable items or equipment through trade.
The middle-aged man heard this, thought for a few seconds, and then asked in return, "Then how can you be sure that we two actually possess equipment and items that even a Player of your level would find valuable?"
Facing the middle-aged man's question, Asagiri just smiled and said something that made both Players' expressions change in surprise. "Because this is your third dungeon, right?"
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