Seeing the trembling appearance of the red-clothed... no, now white-clothed Vengeful Spirit, Asuna Yuuki was dumbfounded.
Could something like this happen? Was the effect of the unique Job Diplomat actually this powerful? Could it directly turn a vengeful spirit originally wearing blood-stained clothes into this meek, docile appearance like a wronged kitten?
No, that was not right!
Asuna Yuuki glanced at Asagiri Utsunomiya's profile and thought that if she had the unique Job Diplomat, she definitely couldn't have broken the vengeful spirit's psychological defenses in just a short time like he did.
Passive effects are passive effects, but how much effect they can exert still depends on the user.
Although Asuna Yuuki said she wouldn't have any pity for vengeful spirits, there was one thing about Asagiri Utsunomiya that she could never do.
Asagiri Utsunomiya genuinely found it fun.
The more the vengeful spirit struggled, the more pleasure he felt. He was purely chaotic evil. Let alone the female vengeful spirit, even Asuna Yuuki, who was watching from the side, felt a chill in her heart.
"Can you talk? That's good." Asagiri Utsunomiya first said with a smile of satisfaction, then, without any pleasantries, asked bluntly, "How many vengeful spirits are there in this Hotel? How were the vengeful spirits formed? Is there a weapon in a certain part of this Hotel that can eliminate vengeful spirits? Is there any notable information in the lobby on the first floor? Under what conditions will vengeful spirits attack humans? Is there any way to completely avoid vengeful spirits?"
Hearing this long string of questions, the now white-clothed vengeful spirit couldn't help but be stunned, but facing this human who had just wanted to immerse her in the bathtub, who was more evil than a devil, she didn't dare to hesitate at all and immediately replied in a meek tone, "I don't know exactly how many vengeful spirits there are, and I don't know how I was born..."
"Heh, playing stubborn resistance with me here, are you?"
Asagiri Utsunomiya first said so, then grabbed the vengeful spirit's long hair again, lifted her from the ground, and held her above the bathtub filled with water again; then he said in a flat tone, "Since that's the case, I'll send you on your way."
Seeing Asagiri Utsunomiya intending to throw her into the water, the vengeful spirit quickly replied in a hoarse voice, shouting, "No! Please don't! I don't know those things because I can't leave the seventh floor! But I know the answers to the last two questions! If you enter the area of the seventh floor of the Hotel, I can attack you, but because I cannot leave the seventh floor, as long as you don't actively enter my floor, I can't do anything to you!"
"It's lying." Hearing the vengeful spirit's answer, Asuna Yuuki exclaimed with a frown, took two steps forward, and looked directly into vengeful spirit's eyes; then she said slowly, "If it's really as you say, that you can't attack us if we don't enter your floor, why did you make crying sounds and scratch the wall with your nails at that time? Shouldn't you have remained quiet and then launched a surprise attack on us?"
Facing Asuna Yuuki's questioning, the vengeful spirit opened her mouth, confusion appearing in her eyes. She muttered, "I... I don't know why, I just felt... you absolutely couldn't go down any further..."
After hearing this answer, Asuna Yuuki pondered for a moment, then looked at Asagiri Utsunomiya and said, "Assuming that it's telling the truth, then it should belong to the type of Earth-bound Spirits from legends, and... its duty is not to attack humans entering this Hotel, but to prevent anyone from going down. Combined with the special hint you received, it can basically be confirmed that the first floor of this Hotel is the core of this dungeon."
Asuna Yuuki knew why Asagiri Utsunomiya had just asked if there was a weapon in this Hotel that could completely eliminate vengeful spirits. Because only if such a weapon existed in the Hotel and she had the ability to obtain it, would the special hint she received upon entering the dungeon be valuable.
The app with the eye icon couldn't give completely worthless information.
"Going down is dangerous... Then, is the condition for completing the mission objective to stay put or try to go to the upper floors? No, this isn't a novice dungeon, so the condition to complete the mission objective shouldn't be that simple..."
Asuna Yuuki muttered to herself, took out her phone and glanced at the time displayed on the screen, finding that there were less than ten minutes left until the agreed meeting time. Then she looked up at the vengeful spirit Asagiri Utsunomiya was holding and asked a crucial question.
"Why are you so afraid of water? Is it because your cause of death was drowning, or is it... that the water in this Hotel is... abnormal?"
"Water..." Just as the vengeful spirit was about to say something, her eyes suddenly widened, and her body suddenly inflated.
"Watch out!"
Asuna Yuuki, who had never relaxed her vigilance, reacted extremely quickly. After shouting, she immediately opened the bathroom door, first pushed Asagiri Utsunomiya out, then followed him out herself, and finally closed the door in a hurry.
Two seconds later, a muffled sound, like a water balloon bursting, came from the bathroom.
*Pop!*
Asuna Yuuki could feel something hitting the bathroom door, and the entire room's floor shook slightly. Then, there was only *pitter-patter!* that sounded like water dripping onto the floor.
"Did it... explode?"
Before closing the bathroom door, Asuna Yuuki took a look. After seeing the vengeful spirit's body inflate, she instantly remembered a phenomenon where a body swells significantly due to bacterial gas production after death, which is known as bloating or putrefactive distension and is part of the decomposition process called putrefaction. This gas, including methane, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide, builds up in the body's tissues and organs as bacteria from the digestive system spread and consume the body's tissues.
To be honest, she was indeed disgusted by the scene just now, but that wasn't the point. The point was—
Asagiri Utsunomiya stared at the bathroom door and said softly, "Someone... or something didn't want it to talk, so it was directly blown up.... It seems there is indeed something wrong with the water in this Hotel, and there is a powerful being in this Hotel that is even stronger than that vengeful spirit, capable of controlling it at will."
◆—⊰✧⊱—◆
A few minutes later, Asagiri Utsunomiya and Asuna Yuuki returned to the door of the suite on the twenty-second floor, which was the top floor of the Hotel. When the two arrived, they saw Kotoko Iwanaga already standing at the door, waiting.
Seeing that Kotoko Iwanaga was still alive, and that the white dress she was wearing was not stained in the slightest, Asuna Yuuki secretly breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that sure enough, Asagiri Utsunomiya's guess was correct.
Kotoko Iwanaga had to possess an extremely powerful skill, or a unique job.