Hearing Kotoko Iwanaga's words, Asagiri Utsunomiya nodded noncommittally, looked at the small black device, and spoke lightly.
"It should be something similar."
Kotoko Iwanaga was a little puzzled and murmured, "Inside a Special Infected... how could there be a locator? Could it be..."
Asagiri Utsunomiya confirmed Kotoko Iwanaga's suspicions, saying, "Hmm, this city isn't a city that experienced a zombie apocalypse crisis in the usual sense. Instead, it has been cleared by some unknown force, and almost all ordinary zombies have been eliminated, leaving only these Special Infected. They've also had locators installed in their bodies, making it a city like a scientific testing ground."
"A scientific testing ground... No wonder, that explains it." Asuna Yuuki began, her thoughts instantly became clear, "No wonder there are no ordinary zombies on the streets. So they've been thoroughly cleared once. Also, the doubt about the virus not having secondary infectivity can be explained if it was deliberately set up by the experimenters to ensure the experiment was within a controllable range."
After saying that, Asuna Yuuki looked at Asagiri Utsunomiya with a surprised expression and asked, "But how did you figure it out?"
"Read more novels and TV shows, play more games, and combine that with the information we've obtained, and you can figure this out. It's no big deal."
Although Asagiri Utsunomiya said it in a matter-of-fact tone, Megumi Kato, Kotoko Iwanaga, and Asuna Yuuki didn't feel it was really no big deal because of this.
After all, this could be considered the core hidden plot of this dungeon, right?
As a result, how long had they been in the dungeon?
In just half an hour, Asagiri Utsunomiya had deduced this matter and even found a locator inside the Special Infected, providing decisive evidence for his speculation.
As expected, as a Player, Asagiri Utsunomiya was more outstanding than any of them. It was precisely because of this that he could receive generous rewards every time and had obtained Advanced Player privileges.
Perhaps even the Game didn't want such an excellent Player to be eliminated.
At this moment, Megumi Kato spoke softly and raised a key question: "Since there's a locator inside the Special Infected, is it possible for us to encounter personnel belonging to the force experimenting with this city in this dungeon? They... must be hostile to us, right?"
"Most likely not, but we can't completely rule out that possibility."
Whether it was an illusion or Asagiri Utsunomiya genuinely meant it, in short, Kotoko Iwanaga and the others always felt that when he said this, there was some... inexplicable anticipation?
"Being able to clear out ordinary zombies from an entire city, selectively keeping these types of Special Infected, and even implanting locators in them, this is much more difficult than directly eliminating all zombies. The enemy is definitely not just a small-scale organization. At the very least, it would take a regular army that has received professional training and is battle-hardened to be able to do something like this.
"Most Players at this stage, let alone facing a regular combat team, would find it difficult to escape unscathed even when facing amateur thugs holding firearms. Therefore, such troublesome enemies should not appear in the early stage of the Game."
Just as Asagiri Utsunomiya finished speaking, Kotoko Iwanaga's dark purple eyes suddenly lit up.
"Wait a moment, I feel it. There seems to be a presence of oddity nearby..."
"Oddity?"
Hearing that, both Asuna Yuuki and Megumi Kato couldn't help but show vigilance, wondering how the dungeon type had suddenly changed again. There were oddities? Could it be that this dungeon was actually an oddity-type as well?
"Don't panic, it doesn't seem to have any hostility." Kotoko Iwanaga said this while walking forward, finally stopping beside a black ordinary sedan not far away. Afterwards, she took off her white beret, held it gently in front of her chest, made a very standard polite greeting gesture, and said with a smile, "Hello."
What Megumi Kato, Asuna Yuuki, and even Asagiri Utsunomiya didn't expect was that after Kotoko Iwanaga finished greeting, a faint, phantom-like man, covered in bloodstains and with a pale face, actually emerged from under the black sedan.
"He-hello..."
After receiving the other party's response, Kotoko Iwanaga turned her head, looked at the three people standing there, and said with a smile, "It's okay, he's not a specter, just an ordinary spirit here."
Asuna Yuuki asked doubtfully, "A spirit? How can there be a spirit here?"
Kotoko Iwanaga replied in a calm tone. "Of course there would be. Where people die, there will definitely be spirits. It's just that I wasn't sure if the rules of this world were the same as ours, and I wasn't sure if people who turned into zombies counted as truly dead. It seems there are still spirits after all~"
After saying that, Kotoko Iwanaga looked at the spectral man and asked with a smile, "Sir, may I ask if you know anything about what happened in this city?"
"Uh... uh..." The spectral man seemed to be afraid of something, looking hesitant to speak.
Kotoko Iwanaga noticed that his gaze occasionally drifted towards the direction where Asagiri Utsunomiya, Asuna Yuuki, and Megumi Kato were standing. After a moment's thought, she immediately understood and gently reassured him.
"Please don't be afraid. Those three are my companions. We have no ill intentions towards you. We just want to ask a few questions."
"Really no ill intentions?"
The spectral man looked timid and hesitant, carefully, like a thief, secretly glancing at Asagiri Utsunomiya standing there. The moment his gaze met Asagiri Utsunomiya's, his body couldn't help but tremble.
"He... that thing he just summoned... and on his body, there's a kind of... presence that makes me very scared..."
"Oh, it's okay, it's okay." Kotoko Iwanaga waved her hand, still looking kind and gentle. "As long as you answer my questions honestly, he won't attack you, but..."
At this point, Kotoko Iwanaga suddenly changed her tone and spoke coldly.
"If you beat around the bush, it's hard to say what might happen."
Seeing Kotoko Iwanaga looking as if she had suddenly become a different person, both Asuna Yuuki and Megumi Kato were inwardly startled.
All along, Kotoko Iwanaga had appeared before them as someone who would occasionally say something abstract, always with a sweet smile on her face, like a funny, quirky girl. This had almost made them forget that she was not just a love-struck high school girl, but someone who bore great responsibility, had already come into contact with supernatural phenomena before entering the Survival Game, and was the God of Wisdom for the Oddities, responsible for maintaining the balance and order between humans and non-humans.
How could Kotoko Iwanaga, with such an identity, be the type of person who only giggled and had no deterrent power?
It was just that when she was with Asagiri Utsunomiya and the others, she showed the side of a normal high school girl.
"I... I'll talk... Please, please don't let that guy come over!"
The spectral man seemed very afraid of Asagiri Utsunomiya, his body trembling. Without waiting for Kotoko Iwanaga to ask, he quickly spoke up on his own initiative.
"Most of my memories from before I died are blurry. I only remember dropping my car keys on the ground, then I wanted to go back and pick them up, and then... there was pain, and finally, darkness."
Asagiri Utsunomiya took two steps forward and said in a calm tone, "Are your memories blurry? Actually, I also know a bit about memory recovery techniques."
Although Kotoko Iwanaga didn't know what the memory recovery techniques were, just by looking at Asagiri Utsunomiya, she knew what he wanted to do and advised against it.
"No, he should be telling the truth. Many spirits are like this. After death, as time passes, their memories of their life become increasingly blurry, leaving only those memories with deep obsession."
Soon after, Kotoko Iwanaga looked at the spectral man and spoke.
"You just said you dropped your car keys? Do you remember where they fell?"
"Just... just over there... in front of the right front tire of that car..."
Kotoko Iwanaga walked a few meters in the direction the spectral man pointed. Sure enough, in front of a car tire, in a spot hard to notice because it was blocked by the tire, she found a dusty electronic car key lying quietly there.
"Heave-ho~" She bent down and picked up the car key, blew on it a few times to try and remove the dust, then tossed it to Asagiri Utsunomiya and said with a smile, "Aren't we going to Mercy Hospital in the city center? Twenty kilometers is too far to walk. Let's go by car~"
"Going by car is fine..." Asuna Yuuki began with a slight hesitation. "But... does any of you know how to drive?"
Megumi Kato shook her head: "I don't."
Kotoko Iwanaga also shook her head: "I don't either."
Under the expectant gaze of the three girls, Asagiri Utsunomiya nodded with a smile and said, "I do."
"As expected."
For some reason, Asuna Yuuki wasn't surprised at all that Asagiri Utsunomiya, a high school student, knew how to drive. After all, after interacting with him since meeting him in the novice dungeon, her threshold for shock had already been raised by him.
Suddenly, Asuna Yuuki pursed her lips and hesitated for a moment before speaking.
"But if we drive, is it possible that it might attract the attention of Special Infected? The one just now moved even slower than ordinary zombies, but the Special Hint I received said there are Special Infected with high speed and agility. This means there are at least two, or even more types of Special Infected. For the sake of caution..."
"Let's not be cautious anymore. Our strength definitely crushes the so-called Special Infected. Besides, can't you also get stronger by killing them?"
Without waiting for Asuna Yuuki to finish her words, Kotoko Iwanaga interrupted first, then sighed with a face full of sincere emotion and spoke plaintively.
"Also, can you please consider my feelings? We've been walking for so long; I can't take it anymore. If we walk twenty kilometers, my prosthetic leg will break. Please, I'm begging you, let's take a car, okay?"