Seeing Asagiri Utsunomiya's eager anticipation and overt excitement when he said that, Asuna Yuuki first shook her head, then the corners of her lips curved upwards as she said, "Ah, you really are something. People like you who genuinely play this Survival Game as a game, who even look forward to danger for the sake of enjoyment, are probably very rare among the Player group. But there's nothing I can do about it, as you're the Captain. Since that's the case, let's see together who the mastermind behind turning this city into this state really is."
Although her tone seemed a bit helpless, it carried a gentleness of a girl in love.
Hearing Asuna Yuuki's words, Asagiri Utsunomiya shook his head and said, "No, you leave first."
"Me? Leave first? But..."
"Don't push yourself."
Asagiri Utsunomiya interrupted and pointed to Asuna Yuuki's trembling right hand, which was still holding the Exorcist Longsword, then spoke with a calm voice.
"For the past few hours, you've been killing the Ordinary Infected, as well as the occasional Special Infected. Your stamina must have reached its limit long ago, right?"
"I..."
Before Asuna Yuuki could speak properly, Asagiri Utsunomiya walked up to her, his hand reached out and gently stroked her long hair, and he said with a bright smile.
"Don't worry, I have the Pocket Watch of Reversal. If things really go wrong, I can definitely still clear the dungeon and leave. Besides, your current condition is very poor; you can't exert your original combat power. Leave the matter of gathering information on the mastermind to me. After leaving the dungeon, I can just relay it to you, right?"
"Then... alright."
Although Asuna Yuuki had a personality that disliked admitting defeat and had strong self-esteem, she also knew that Asagiri Utsunomiya was right.
At this moment, let alone assisting him, she might even become a burden to him.
"Then..." Asuna Yuuki raised her head, pursed her lips, her eyes revealing deep worry, and looked at Asagiri Utsunomiya as she said, "You must be careful, and please be extremely cautious, okay?"
Asagiri Utsunomiya nodded and said bluntly, "Then give me a kiss."
"Look at the time, and you're still thinking about taking advantage?"
Asuna Yuuki first said this with a blushing face and feigned anger, then hesitated slightly, still stood on her tiptoes, and lightly kissed Asagiri Utsunomiya's cheek. Then she said in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz, "After you return safely, then you can kiss other places..."
Asagiri Utsunomiya said with a sincere expression, "So, if I say kiss here, will you kiss here?"
"You..." Asuna Yuuki was not an overly naive girl; she immediately understood that Asagiri Utsunomiya was making a lewd joke. She couldn't help but clench her fist and lightly hit his shoulder, then said with a tone tinged with a mix of shyness and anger, "Anyway, if you die, I... I won't be done with you!"
In the next second, after clicking confirm submission in the app, Asuna Yuuki's figure gradually disappeared.
"Haha, if I'm dead, how can you not be done with me? It's not like I can play a resurrection match."
Asagiri Utsunomiya first said this, then the smile on his face disappeared. He put the Ever-Changing Mask back on his face, looked out at the completely dark night sky outside the window, and muttered to himself.
"The mastermind... will it really be those guys, just as I suspected..."
◆◇◈◇◆
Ten minutes later, at the main entrance of Mercy Hospital.
In the shadows of the dark night, many small points of blue light suddenly appeared. Following them were more than a dozen mysterious people, dressed in full black combat suits, wearing tactical goggles and gas masks, full-fingered tactical gloves on their hands, holding black rifles, with not an inch of skin exposed anywhere on their bodies. They advanced slowly in a standard combat squad formation, like special forces... No, they were indeed special forces.
Among this group, there was only one whose tactical jacket and protective gear were also black, but the lining inside was white.
The person wearing the special combat suit raised their left arm. On their forearm armor, there was an LCD screen, which currently displayed nearly twenty red dots located within the administrative office building of Mercy Hospital.
"Fifty meters to the target location, continue advancing."
After this person gave the order, this squad completely ignored the corpses of the Ordinary Infected scattered throughout the hospital and continued to advance towards the administrative office building.
A few minutes later, the squad entered the first-floor lobby of the administrative office building.
Upon entering, they saw a transparent plastic bag placed by the elevators. Inside were nearly twenty trackers, representing the red dots on the LCD screen on the forearm armor of the operative with the special combat suit.
"Hmm?" After the squad slowly approached, one team member cautiously stepped forward, examined it carefully, and then reported to the person with the special combat suit, who was the Commander of this squad.
"There doesn't seem to be a trap. Someone intentionally collected the trackers and placed them here."
"A trap, huh..."
Just as the Commander was about to issue an order, a faint sound of footsteps suddenly echoed in the originally dead silent lobby.
The moment they heard the footsteps, all squad members simultaneously turned their rifles towards the direction of the sound. However, in the scene they saw through their tactical goggles, which was as bright as day, there was actually a...
"A little girl? Human? How could she be here?"
Just as they were feeling puzzled, wondering why such a blonde, blue-eyed little girl holding a teddy bear would appear in this city, the Commander looked at the little girl approaching step by step and issued an order.
"Open fire, shoot her."
Facing such an inhumane order, the team members showed no sign of objection, not even hesitation. One of them had already aimed the muzzle of his gun at the little girl's forehead, but before he could pull the trigger, the little girl suddenly spoke in a sweet, soft voice.
"Could you..."
.
.
.
"...Please die for me?"
The moment the little girl's words fell, four squad members wearing black combat suits suddenly fell straight to the ground, instantly losing their breath.
"Open fire!"
Noticing their teammates dying in such a bizarre manner, the remaining squad members showed no panic. Instead, they aimed at the little girl standing there and pulled the trigger.
The muzzle flashes illuminated the originally dim hospital lobby.
But before the bullets could hit, the blonde, blue-eyed little girl vanished instantly, as if she had never been there.
"She disappeared... Could it be a paranormal creature?"
The Commander did not panic. Instead, he raised his hand, pressed the communication button, and then spoke.
"Report, Team A encountered a paranormal incident, requesting dispatch of support..."
Just as he was halfway through speaking, another voice echoed from not far away.
"Per... so... na..."
.
.
.
"...Hitoshura."
The moment this voice fell, a tall black figure, slightly over two meters tall, appeared in the first-floor lobby.
The moment it appeared, it approached at an extremely fast speed, directly grabbing an operative in a black combat suit with both hands and tearing the person's body into two from the waist.
*Pew, pew, pew!*
Even seeing the bloody scene of their team member's body being torn apart, the remaining operatives did not hesitate at all. Instead, they immediately turned their rifles and pulled the trigger on the tall black figure.
The bullets instantly tore the tall black figure's body into pieces, and it then disappeared into the air.
Soon after, the operatives quickly advanced towards the direction from which the voice had just come. After turning the corner, they found that there was no one there.
"That voice just now..." The Commander looked at the empty corridor and muttered to himself. "So, it is not a paranormal incident... but man-made? Who on earth could pass through our monitored outer areas and secretly infiltrate this city..."
◆◇◈◇◆
[Congratulations, Player: Asagiri Utsunomiya, for clearing the dungeon.
[Hitoshura's Characteristic, Reconstruction of the End, has activated. Piercing Resistance increased.
[In this dungeon, your special bonus actions were: deducing part of the truth of the disaster, killing Special Infected, meeting and engaging the mastermind behind the disaster, successfully killing five of their members.
[Rating: S+
[Please begin customizing the quantity and type of rewards you wish to obtain.]
"""Asagiri-kun(-san/Utsunomiya-san), you're back!"""
Seeing Asagiri Utsunomiya appear on the sofa, Kotoko Iwanaga and Megumi Kato, who had woken up after sleeping, and Asuna Yuuki, who had just left not long ago and had been worried, immediately rushed over to him.
"You... your condition..."
Before Asuna Yuuki could finish her sentence, Asagiri Utsunomiya waved his hand, and although his face looked very tired, he said in a relaxed tone.
"It's nothing, just some consumption from summoning Persona. I didn't get hurt at all."
"That's good." Hearing Asagiri Utsunomiya's words, Asuna Yuuki breathed a sigh of relief first, then tentatively asked, "You said you summoned Persona, which means..."
"Yes." Asagiri Utsunomiya nodded, looked at Asuna Yuuki, Kotoko Iwanaga, and Megumi Kato in front of him, and slowly began to speak. "I encountered the mastermind behind the city's disaster, and I fought them. It was just as I thought; the Men in Black that Alice once mentioned, and the army the white-coated spirit in the hospital spoke of, are actually all personnel belonging to a single military organization."
Hearing this, Kotoko Iwanaga couldn't help but frown slightly.
The mastermind who had entered that Haunted Hotel but didn't deal with the Specter of the Drowned Corpse, and the mastermind who injected survivors with the virus and planted trackers on Special Infected during the previous dungeon, essentially experimenting on an entire city – could they really be from the same organization?
"That's right." Asagiri Utsunomiya paused briefly after saying this, then spoke softly, "The name of that mysterious organization they belong to is..."
.
.
.
"Blackwatch."