Hearing what Asagiri Utsunomiya had spoken to the oddity in the form of a blonde little girl in a white dress, Asuna Yuuki and Kotoko Iwanaga exchanged glances, both with expressions of disbelief.
What did he mean by—
—Be his Persona?
What did that mean?
Just then, Asagiri Utsunomiya's phone suddenly vibrated, he didn't even need to look to guess what the content of the notification was.
"Let me go with big brother?" The blonde little girl first muttered, then took the teddy bear from Asagiri Utsunomiya, hugged it gently, a sweet smile appeared on her cute face, and nodded vigorously, saying, "Okay, I want to go with big brother!"
The moment the blonde little girl finished speaking, her originally blue eyes suddenly turned a bright golden, the same color as Asagiri Utsunomiya's eyes when he summoned his Persona.
Soon after, the little girl's figure turned into a spots of light, which then condensed into a semi-transparent, rotating card, gently landing in Asagiri Utsunomiya's palm.
[Persona: Alice
[Introduction: Alice is an entity born from the fusion of the oddities and deaths in a certain haunted Hotel.
[Advantages: Mental Strength
[Disadvantages: Lacks independent combat ability
[Exclusive Ability: Die For Me
[Die For Me: When summoning Alice, you can consume a large amount of mental strength to have her perform a curse-attribute attack centered around you, targeting all targets within a ten-meter radius except yourself. If any target's mental strength fails the check and they do not possess immunity to curse-type attacks, they will die immediately. (Note: The range and effect of this skill will increase as your own mental strength grows.)
[Corresponding Tarot Card: Death (Upright)]
Unlike Hitoshura, Alice herself had no combat ability. As a Persona, she only had one ability, which was to perform a mental strength check on all targets within a certain range, except for Asagiri Utsunomiya himself.
Mental strength not strong enough to pass the check, and unable to be immune to curse-type attacks?
That's instant death!
Looking at the ethereal card with the Death Tarot card pattern, which gradually merged into Asagiri Utsunomiya's palm, Asuna Yuuki's lips parted slightly, saying in disbelief, "You, you... you let that little girl... become your Persona? You can actually do something like this?"
Asagiri Utsunomiya waved his hand and replied calmly, "What little girl? Don't talk nonsense here. She was originally just a pure oddity born in this Hotel that gathered too much oddities and deaths. She doesn't belong to the specter category, let alone any creature. If you really want to define her, she should be considered a pure curse. Of course, I can let her become a Persona. Otherwise, why would I have three Persona slots?"
Asuna Yuuki slightly furrowed her brows and said hesitantly, "Huh? Then in the future, if you encounter any difficult enemies, you can just directly take them as your Persona... wouldn't that make you invincible?"
"It's not that simple." Asagiri Utsunomiya first refuted, then shook his head and explained patiently, "Although any kind of existence can become my Persona, the prerequisite is that the target must completely obey me. There are many types of obedience. Feeling extreme fear towards me is fine, respecting me is fine, or like Alice, having full favorability towards me is also fine, but this prerequisite must be met."
"Is that so... It seems the effect of the unique job is not only very compatible with you, but also has perfect compatibility with your exclusive talent..."
Asuna Yuuki first said that, then let out a sigh of relief as if a heavy burden had been lifted and said, "But now, there really isn't anything valuable left in this instance dungeon. Are we leaving early like this, or..."
Asuna Yuuki paused for a moment, looked at the darkness outside the Hotel's transparent glass door, and slowly said, "Go outside and explore this world?"
"No. Not this time." Asagiri Utsunomiya first shook his head and denied, then looked directly at the darkness outside and said thoughtfully. "The mission objective for this dungeon is to survive for twelve hours, but there is no restriction on not being able to leave the Hotel area. It's possible the app thinks that people who can escape the Hotel definitely have the ability to survive for twelve hours, so there's no need to add it. But I think the more likely possibility is that the outside world is too dangerous, and if Players leave this Hotel, they will certainly die."
"Well, I trust your judgment."
Asuna Yuuki first said that and nodded to Asagiri Utsunomiya, then looked at Kotoko Iwanaga, hesitated for a moment, and finally asked, "Necro, regarding the team-up, I need to confirm your thoughts..."
"I know what you mean. No need to say more." Kotoko Iwanaga first interrupted, then continued speaking with a smile: "You want to confirm whether I only want to be your teammate during the dungeon run, or the kind who can act together in the real world, discuss combat plans and future development directions together, and are truly trustworthy teammates, right? I choose the second option. Let's exchange email addresses. Although there's no phone signal now, you can just email me after returning to the real world."
Hearing Kotoko Iwanaga's answer, Asuna Yuuki breathed a sigh of relief and returned the smile, saying, "Mm, then let's contact each other after returning to the real world."
Compared to teammates who only act together in the dungeon, Asuna Yuuki felt it was best to be like her and Asagiri Utsunomiya; even if they couldn't see each other every day, they should at least be able to meet in the real world and advance or retreat together. Only then could it be considered a truly trusting relationship.
◆—⊰✧⊱—◆
Along with a thick blood-red mist appearing before Asagiri Utsunomiya's eyes, he and Asuna Yuuki returned to the real world, to his home in Shibuya, and the app with the eye icon on his phone also showed the notifications.
[Congratulations, Player: Asagiri Utsunomiya, for clearing the dungeon.
[In this dungeon, your special bonus actions were: deciphering the truth of the dungeon's bizarre events, leading the action to eliminate the source of oddities, successfully eliminating the source of oddities, and successfully subduing the most powerful oddity in this dungeon—Alice.
[Rating: S+
[Rewards:
[1. Equipment: Vampiric Chain Dagger
[2. Job Exclusive Equipment: Ever-Changing Mask
[3. Skill: Castling
[4. Item: Pocket Watch of Reversal
[Due to your exceptionally active performance in this dungeon, your Player Level has been upgraded from Official to Advanced, and more app permissions have been unlocked.]