Asuna Yuuki didn't hesitate at all and immediately returned to the morgue, intending to close the door first.
Although she wasn't sure if the morgue's metal door could withstand the attack of so many zombies, she was certain that at least a hundred zombies had flooded in just that instant.
Fighting those things in a narrow corridor was too difficult. Even Asagiri Utsunomiya's Hitoshura would find it hard to withstand the impact of this many zombies at the current stage, and once Hitoshura was destroyed, Asagiri Utsunomiya would have no window at all to resummon it.
The only chance was...
"Captain, use that item!"
The only solution Asuna Yuuki could think of was for Asagiri Utsunomiya to use the Pocket Watch of Reversal to turn back time by one minute. Although using an epic quality item at a time like this felt a bit wasteful, she couldn't think of a better solution instantly.
However, Asagiri Utsunomiya's subsequent actions were beyond Asuna Yuuki's expectations.
She saw him first pull open the metal bed compartment labeled Vomiter with the corresponding data.
Seeing that it was empty, he muttered to himself, "No bile sample... Forget it, hopefully that thing can serve a similar purpose."
Soon after, under the shocked gazes of Asuna Yuuki, Kotoko Iwanaga, and Megumi Kato, Asagiri Utsunomiya directly rushed out of the morgue and even closed the door behind him.
"Asagiri-kun!"
Whenever Asuna Yuuki forgot to use his code name and called out using his real name instead, it meant she was truly flustered.
She immediately ran to the door, wanting to open it and chase after him, but was stopped by Kotoko Iwanaga.
"He's not someone who likes to seek death. Since he went out himself, it means he must have thought of a better solution."
"But..."
Feeling the slight tremor of the ground, and hearing the increasingly clear zombie roars and footsteps even through the metal door as they got closer, Asuna Yuuki couldn't help but show a look of anxiety.
Before she could speak, Kotoko Iwanaga shook her head and spoke sternly.
"Believe in him."
◆◇◈◇◆
On the other side, Asagiri Utsunomiya, who had voluntarily entered the corridor, looked at the dense horde of zombies than ten meters away from him. There was no panic on his face. Instead, he first glanced to the other side and muttered to himself.
"Ten meters... That distance should be about right."
Soon after, Asagiri Utsunomiya turned around without hesitation, and a glass bottle appeared in his right hand.
He directly broke the bottle against the wall. As the transparent liquid flowed out from the opening, a pungent smell of alcohol filled the air.
Asagiri Utsunomiya retreated backward, holding the glass bottle of medical alcohol that was continuously flowing out.
Looking at the horde of zombies in front of him, he spoke with an expression of anticipation.
"Hurry up, dinner is served."
Actually, Asagiri Utsunomiya didn't need to specifically attract them. Although zombies' sense of smell wasn't particularly keen, the pungent smell of alcohol filling the air and Asagiri Utsunomiya himself, who was constantly moving, had already completely attracted their attention.
'Five meters... three meters... two meters...'
Asagiri Utsunomiya retreated while silently calculating the distance in his mind. When he reached about twenty meters from the morgue, the nearest few zombies with ferocious faces were already less than two meters away from him, opening their foul-smelling mouths, eager to tear apart the prey before them.
'Here!'
At this critical moment, Asagiri Utsunomiya suddenly stopped. Soon after, a black summoning device appeared in his hand, pointing at his temple.
'Persona, Hitoshura!'
The tall Hitoshura instantly appeared, using one arm to shield Asagiri Utsunomiya and the other arm to directly swat away the zombies trying to bite him.
After summoning Hitoshura, Asagiri Utsunomiya did not retreat. Instead, under the protection of Hitoshura, he advanced, directly charging into the horde of zombies.
"One meter, three meters, five meters... ten meters."
After penetrating ten meters into the horde of zombies, Hitoshura, whose body had been bitten in multiple places, swung its arms, temporarily repelling the surrounding zombies and clearing a range of about one meter around Asagiri Utsunomiya.
The next second, Hitoshura's figure vanished, replaced by a Tarot Card emitting a faint glow, imprinted with the image of the Grim Reaper.
The card spun and gently landed in Asagiri Utsunomiya's palm. He crushed it without hesitation and said softly.
"Per... so... na...
"Alice!"
The instant Asagiri Utsunomiya's words fell, Alice, wearing a dress, with golden hair and blue eyes, and holding a teddy bear in her arms, appeared. Facing the large groups of terrifying-looking zombies on both sides, her face held a pure and innocent sweet smile, and she spoke with a soft, sweet voice.
"Could you please die for me?"
◆◇◈◇◆
At the same time, inside the morgue.
"The sound... why did it disappear?"
Asuna Yuuki pressed her ear against the cold metal door, listening carefully to the sounds outside, feeling both nervous and worried.
The noise, originally mixed with zombie roars and footsteps, suddenly stopped within seconds. What followed was a series of muffled thuds, and then... it turned into an eerie silence.
What exactly happened?
Could it be... Asagiri Utsunomiya died?
That's impossible. If he really died in the horde of zombies, the Pocket Watch of Reversal should have been triggered immediately. How could it turn into this situation?
"Open the door."
Hearing Kotoko Iwanaga's words, Asuna Yuuki nodded and immediately opened the door leading to the corridor. However, after stepping out, the scene they saw next left both her and Megumi Kato completely stunned, unable to even believe their eyes.
The zombies that were like locusts just moments ago had now turned into real corpses. Their bodies were piled up nearly half a meter high, covering the entire floor of the corridor.
And Asagiri Utsunomiya was in a nearby spot, completely unharmed, with not even a crease out of place on his clothes. He was simply walking towards them, step by step, treading on the path paved by the corpses.
"What in the world is this..."
While Asuna Yuuki and Megumi Kato were still in shock, Kotoko Iwanaga looked at Asagiri Utsunomiya, who was walking towards them step by step, and spoke with a smile.
"As expected. You summoned Alice, right?"
Asagiri Utsunomiya walked closer, gently jumped down from the pile of corpses, and replied in a calm tone, "Yes. Zombies have weak mental resistance and like to crowd together, it's really too suitable for using Alice's exclusive ability. Oh right, there seemed to be a Special Infected among the horde, the kind of Charger with one extremely thick arm and the other thin and deformed. It was also instantly killed by Alice's ability."
Hearing that, Asuna Yuuki finally recalled that Asagiri Utsunomiya didn't only have Hitoshura as his Persona, but also Alice, whom he had subdued in the last Haunted Hotel dungeon.
And Alice's exclusive ability...
[Die For Me: When summoning Alice, you can consume a large amount of mental energy to have her perform a curse-attribute attack centered on you, targeting all targets within a ten-meter radius excluding yourself. If any target fails a mental strength check and they do not have immunity to curse-type attacks, they will die instantly.]
Through Kotoko Iwanaga's skill test earlier, the team members already knew that ordinary infected, meaning ordinary zombies, didn't have high mental resistance. The mental resistance of ordinary infected could even be said to be negative, allowing Gaze of Curses, which was originally only meant to cause mental interference, to achieve an instant kill effect.
Coincidentally, Die For Me is a large-area instant kill attack that checks the enemy's mental resistance. Moreover, the range of this ability is completely different from Asuna Yuuki's Stinger skill range. It doesn't select a direction or a ten-meter line, but forms a three-dimensional sphere with a radius of ten meters centered on Asagiri Utsunomiya himself.
Asagiri Utsunomiya had just voluntarily charged into the horde of zombies and calculated the ten-meter distance precisely to ensure there were zombies within ten meters in front and behind him, maximizing the range of Alice's ability. After all, no matter how many enemies were within the range, the mental energy consumed by summoning Alice and using her exclusive ability was the same. It was certainly more reasonable to try and eliminate all the zombies with just one use.
"So that's how it is..." Asuna Yuuki finally understood, and then asked curiously, "You just rushed out voluntarily, were you worried that Alice's skill would affect the three of us?"
"That was part of the consideration."
Hearing Asagiri Utsunomiya's words, before Asuna Yuuki could even feel touched, she heard him add, "The Big Three that were so hard to gather, let's not have me accidentally kill them off."
"You... be serious!"
Asuna Yuuki first said this in exasperation, then paused for a moment. She couldn't help but lean closer to Asagiri Utsunomiya, staring at his face, her eyes showing concern, and spoke softly with worry.
"You consumed a large amount of mental energy, are you okay now?"
Asagiri Utsunomiya nodded and replied calmly, "A bit dizzy, but overall I'm fine. After all, Hitoshura wasn't destroyed this time, so it didn't consume extra stamina and mental energy."
"Then how about resting a bit?"
"No need." Asagiri Utsunomiya refused while waving his hand first, then said nonchalantly, "My condition hasn't been affected too much. It's better to clear the dungeon as quickly as possible and get a high rating, and besides..."
Pausing here, Asagiri Utsunomiya then continued: "Let's not consider why the horde of zombies appeared or why those zombies moved so fast for now. Just thinking from the perspective of game mechanics, the reason for their sudden appearance is either that we did something wrong and triggered a penalty level that shouldn't have appeared, or, like in the last Haunted Hotel dungeon where we had to pass the Earth-bound Specter on the Seventh Floor to reach the Fifth Floor where the Exorcist Longsword was stored, there are hidden rewards here, which is why a difficulty corresponding to the reward's value appeared."