"What 'open harem declaration'?" Asuna Yuuki truly couldn't hold back this time and nearly flew into a rage. "How could I possibly let you have a harem..."
"Please wait a moment," Asagiri Utsunomiya said as he raised his hand to stop Asuna Yuuki, forcibly regaining control of the conversation. Then he calmly said, "The existence of my harem isn't entirely due to my own selfish desires; there's a more noble reason."
Instead of being angry and speechless, Asuna Yuuki felt even more curious. She said, "Noble? I wonder how you can connect this kind of thing with the word noble."
"Let me explain in more detail." Asagiri Utsunomiya began, then paused for a few seconds, as if preparing his words. Then, he looked at Asuna Yuuki and said seriously, "First of all, this Survival Game is extremely dangerous, with the risk of death at any moment, right?"
"Yes, but what does what you just said have to do with this Survival Game..."
Asagiri Utsunomiya ignored Asuna Yuuki's words and forcefully continued: "Secondly, Kotoko is a very valuable teammate. With her on the team, our team's survival rate will increase significantly, right?"
"Mm, that's true," Asuna Yuuki nodded and answered honestly.
Although the two often bickered, Asuna Yuuki had to admit that despite Kotoko Iwanaga's overly abstract personality and behavior, her abilities as a teammate in the dungeon were impeccable.
Her intelligence, her logical reasoning, her courage, her initiative, and her talent for sensing the presences of oddity. There was nothing to question about it all.
Just like this time, even though they weren't entering an oddity-themed dungeon, Kotoko Iwanaga was still able to find a rideable vehicle for the team through her Talent for sensing the presences of oddity and her ability to negotiate with spirits, as well as learning the location of the antibody reagent and the truth about the so-called disaster from the white-coated spirit.
Asagiri Utsunomiya looked directly into Asuna Yuuki's eyes and said calmly, "So, the question arises again. In this Survival Game, what is the most important thing for a team to reach the end?"
Hearing this, Asuna Yuuki thought for a long time, then replied, "I think since this is a team, compared to strength, intelligence, equipment, and so on, the most important thing... is actually trust in each other and the ability to entrust one's life to another."
"Right. I think so too," Asagiri Utsunomiya replied as he got up from bed, walked to the window, and looked out at the sunset sky. Then, he said emotionally, "If team members can't completely trust each other, then advantages like great strength, good intelligence, and excellent equipment on one member will actually become a barrier to mutual trust. After all, in this highly dangerous game, if you have to be wary of your teammates while clearing dungeons, it's impossible to survive."
"Mm, you're right," Asuna Yuuki said and nodded in agreement, but then a look of confusion appeared on her face as she asked, "But what does this have to do with the topic we discussed earlier?"
"Of course it does," Asagiri Utsunomiya said.
At this moment, Asuna Yuuki suddenly felt Asagiri Utsunomiya's figure, illuminated by the sunset, instantly become more sublime.
Asagiri Utsunomiya continued: "The so-called absolute trust, a relationship where you can entrust your life to another, this is what is called a bond! And that so-called bond must have a connection!
"For everyone on the team, for our future, so that we won't be eliminated in this cruel Survival Game, so that the team won't fall apart, I will dedicate myself and volunteer to be the bond that connects you, Iwanaga, and Kato!"
Asagiri Utsunomiya paused for a moment, then concluded his speech with words filled with determination, as if about to sacrifice himself.
"This... is my determination as Captain."
Having listened to Asagiri Utsunomiya's words, which even felt a little tragic, Asuna Yuuki was immediately stunned. Her lips parted slightly, but she didn't know how to refute them.
After a moment of silence, she finally opened her mouth, but all that came out were incoherent words, reflecting her confusion.
"This... you, this... isn't... this, is that right?"
When Asagiri Utsunomiya said those words, Asuna Yuuki thought he was just joking, just talking nonsense, but after thinking about it carefully...
There didn't seem to be anything wrong?
Although Asuna Yuuki had never been in a relationship, in middle school, she had seen girls who were once close friends clash, even fight openly, and ultimately break up because they liked the same guy.
So, for something like that, is there really no perfect path where no one gets hurt?
Asuna Yuuki initially thought there wasn't one, but after hearing what Asagiri Utsunomiya said... it turns out there was one.
Saying that it was true, it was indeed true, but it felt like something was very wrong.
◆◇◈◇◆
Half an hour later.
*Whoosh, whoosh!*
At this moment, two men in tracksuits, both looking around forty, were standing at the main entrance of Mercy Hospital.
One of the men raised his head and glanced at the gradually darkening sky. Then, he looked inside the entrance of Mercy Hospital, at the corpses of Ordinary Infected lying scattered on the ground. A hint of nervousness appeared on his face. He then said in a low voice to his companion beside him, "Looking at the situation... it seems like another Player has arrived."
The other man heard this, his brows tightly furrowed, and said with a look of vigilance, "They're not avoiding the Infected, but killing them all. It seems the other party arrived here very early. We don't know exactly how many people are there, but their strength is definitely superior to ours. We'd better avoid them and quickly get the antibody reagents to clear the secondary objective as soon as possible. There's no need to court death..."
Just as the man was halfway through his sentence, a cheerful voice suddenly rang out.
"I've been waiting for someone for a long time, and I thought no one would come. Luckily, you've finally arrived."
Hearing the sudden voice, the two male Players' expressions immediately changed.
Under their nervous gazes, a mysterious figure dressed entirely in black, wearing a gray mask, and tall and slender, slowly emerged from the hospital and even waved at them, as if welcoming them.
"You... who are you?"
Asagiri Utsunomiya, wearing the Ever-Changing Mask, heard one of the male Players' question, pointed his index finger to the mask on his face, chuckled lightly, and said, "Guess why I'm wearing a mask? Can't you ask something more meaningful?"
"Then... what do you want to do?"
"Do what?"
As he asked back, Asagiri Utsunomiya took two steps forward.
Seeing the two players retreating a distance with wary expressions, Asagiri Utsunomiya slowly took out two glass tubes filled with a light green liquid from his pocket and said, "This is the antibody reagent needed to clear the dungeon. How about we make a deal?"
"A deal?"
"Yes, a deal. Alright, you two, take out your most valuable items, and in exchange, I'll give you two antibody reagents."
One of the male Players frowned at Asagiri Utsunomiya's words, then said, "What kind of joke is this? We're already here, aren't we..."
Before he could finish his sentence, the other male Player raised his hand to stop him, then looked at Asagiri Utsunomiya standing there, and the corpses of the Ordinary Infected on the ground behind him, and spoke with a serious expression.
"If I'm not mistaken, the real test in this dungeon only begins after arriving here, right?"
"Oh, it seems you're the smart one. Then I'll talk to you directly," Asagiri Utsunomiya replied, staring at the man in full tracksuit, who was middle-aged and somewhat overweight, perhaps from working in an office all year round. Then he said, "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 icon of the Survival Game app three times in a row within 24 hours.
The problem lies in the word random.
Even for a top Player like Asagiri Utsunomiya, among the items and equipment in his possession, there were some that were of average value, such as the Teddy Bear of Dirty Jokes, an Ordinary Rapier, and a recently used Bottle of Medical Alcohol.
For average Players, they likely owned a lot of junk, with only one or two truly useful pieces of equipment or items saved as a last resort.
Given this random draw, this Survival Game didn't actually encourage Players to kill each other.
Drawing equipment or items wasn't the real point.
The real point was actually that after taking the phone of a deceased Player, ordinary people could become Players.
In other words, although the Survival Game was screening through dungeons, it did not want the overall number of Players to rapidly decrease due to infighting.
At this stage, Asagiri Utsunomiya temporarily had no intention of making someone a Player, so the best way was 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.
After hearing Asagiri Utsunomiya's words, one the middle-aged men, the level-headed one, thought for a few seconds, then asked, "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 Utsunomiya just said something that made both Players' expressions change in surprise.
"Because, this is your third dungeon, right?"