Seeing Kaguya Shinomiya's slightly complicated expression, Asagiri Utsunomiya stood up and walked out of the classroom with Kotoko Iwanaga, leaving behind only a light remark.
"Besides, on the first day of school, didn't you warn the students who wanted to cause me trouble? Although I don't need your help, I appreciate the good intention. For now, you are only my opponent, not my enemy."
Watching Asagiri Utsunomiya and Kotoko Iwanaga's retreating figures, Kaguya Shinomiya's red eyes flickered, and she muttered to herself in a barely audible voice.
"For now, only an opponent... Does that mean, in the future... it's possible to become an enemy?"
During the last self-defense class, Kaguya Shinomiya had noticed a detail in Asagiri Utsunomiya's words.
Opponent and Enemy.
Asagiri Utsunomiya seemed to distinguish clearly between the two. For him, an opponent was an opponent. Even if he defeated an opponent, as the victor, there was no need for mockery or humiliation; instead, he would affirm the opponent's determination and courage.
Then...
What about Enemy?
What kind of person would Asagiri Utsunomiya define as an Enemy? And what would he do when facing an Enemy?
Kaguya Shinomiya muttered to herself, "I really can't see through this person at all..."
◆◇◈◇◆
More than ten days later. On Wednesday. Time: Afternoon. Location: Kotoko Iwanaga's house.
"It's already the thirtieth day since the Game started."
Saying this, Asuna Yuuki looked at Megumi Kato, Kotoko Iwanaga, and Asagiri Utsunomiya in front of her, then spoke in a slow and clear voice.
"If we sign up today, we will enter the dungeon on Saturday, which is the thirty-third day since the game started. According to Asagiri-kun's estimation, this time we will be entering the second-stage dungeon after the difficulty increases."
Megumi Kato rested her chin on one hand and said thoughtfully, "I wonder what kind of changes the second-stage dungeon will have compared to the first-stage dungeon..."
"After we enter the dungeon, we'll know," Asagiri Utsunomiya said with a relaxed voice, then took out his phone, tapped on the app with the eye icon, and began confirming his registration to actively participate in the dungeon.
The privilege of Advanced Players is that when they choose to actively register for a dungeon, they will receive keywords related to the available dungeon. This time was no exception.
A blood-red window appeared on Asagiri Utsunomiya's phone screen, but just as the blood-red window was about to display a string of text, a sudden change occurred.
*Bzzzt—!*
Accompanied by a harsh buzzing sound, Asagiri Utsunomiya's phone screen suddenly flickered like an old TV experiencing signal interference. Then, the entire screen was occupied by three words, tightly packed together, varying in size and distorted.
[CoMe FiNd Me CoMe FiNd Me CoMe FiNd Me CoMe FiNd Me CoMe FiNd Me CoMeFiNdMe CoMeFiNdMe CoMeFiNdMe CoMeFiNdMe CoMeFiNdMe CoMeFiNdMeCoMeFiNdMeCoMeFiNdMeCoMeFiNdMeCoMeFiNdMe—]
"This..." Asagiri Utsunomiya whispered, taken aback.
In the next second, a girl's voice suddenly came from Asagiri Utsunomiya's phone. It sounded cheerful, but it contained bone-chilling terror and gave off a somewhat deranged feel.
"Come find me, come find me, come find me, and come be my Player..."
.
.
.
"—Asagiri Utsunomiya!"
Asuna Yuuki reacted the fastest, immediately took out her Exorcist Longsword, and stood at attention beside Asagiri Utsunomiya.
At this moment, a tall black figure suddenly appeared behind Asagiri Utsunomiya.
Without being summoned, Hitoshura appeared on its own.
"Ugh—"
The somewhat deranged girl's voice stopped abruptly the moment Hitoshura appeared. The dense, distorted blood-red CoMe FiNd Me texton the screen disappeared, replaced by a few keywords, just like the last time he actively registered for a dungeon.
[Love]
[Zombies]
[Escape]
[Darkness]
However, at this moment, the girls' focus wasn't on those few keywords at all.
Kotoko Iwanaga frowned and muttered, "That voice just now... what exactly was that? Was it an oddity from another world? To be able to bypass this Game and interfere with our world without entering the dungeon, what kind of existence is that?"
Kotoko Iwanaga and the others hadn't expected such a thing to happen.
Even though they hadn't entered a dungeon, such a paranormal phenomenon occurred. Although it didn't cause them any harm, but still...
Did it mean that the oddities in the second-stage dungeons already possess the power to affect their world?
They hadn't even entered the dungeon yet, not even officially signed up, but Kotoko Iwanaga and the others already realized that the difficulty of the second stage of the Survival Game was absolutely incomparable to the first stage's dungeons, which was very easy like playing house.
"Utsunomiya-kun, we..." Megumi Kato began as she looked towards Asagiri Utsunomiya, then continued: "This time, which dungeon should we enter?"
Logically, Megumi Kato, Asuna Yuuki, and Kotoko Iwanaga would all express their opinions and discuss with Asagiri Utsunomiya, who was the team leader, when deciding on a keyword corresponding to the dungeon they would enter.
However...
After what just happened, even Kotoko Iwanaga, who had the strongest mental fortitude and didn't know what fear was at all, couldn't calm down for a moment.
"Which dungeon to enter..." Asagiri Utsunomiya muttered as he glanced at the keywords on the phone screen, then raised his head to look at the three girls in front of him and continued with an amused voice: "I am dying to taste the feeling of falling in love, and they invited me so enthusiastically... how could I not go?"
"Eh?" Asuna Yuuki couldn't help but be stunned for a moment after hearing his words, then said hesitantly, "You mean... we should enter the dungeon with the Love keyword? You think that voice just now, and the text on the screen, were caused by the entity in this dungeon? But..."
Asuna Yuuki, who had always been decisive, paused for a moment. She looked very hesitant at this moment. Then, she continued: "We currently know nothing about how high the difficulty of the second-stage dungeons is. Judging from the fact that the entity in that dungeon could transmit information to us in a different world through a phone, it's highly likely that the dungeon she is in is one of the highest-difficulty ones, even within the second stage. I think... the risk is too high."
"My opinion is exactly the opposite of Asuna's."
Only after Asuna Yuuki finished speaking did Kotoko Iwanaga speak.
"The reason is simple. According to the standard for choosing dungeons last time, we should choose the dungeon that is most suitable for our team composition. Zombies, we experienced it last time. Escape and Darkness, these two keywords, also don't allow us to determine the type of enemy in the corresponding dungeon.
"But if the entity from just now is really in the dungeon corresponding to the Love keyword, judging from the fact that she could affect our world through Captain's phone, she is likely an oddity-type enemy.
"And oddity-type dungeons are precisely the type of dungeon we are best at at this stage. Therefore, I agree with Captain's opinion."
After speaking, Kotoko Iwanaga looked towards Megumi Kato, who was sitting there without saying a word.
"Megumi, what's your opinion?"
"Hmm..."
Seeing Asagiri Utsunomiya, Asuna Yuuki, and Kotoko Iwanaga, her three teammates, all waiting for her to express her opinion, Megumi Kato thought seriously for a while before finally replying.
"I think... this is the first time we've encountered something so... bizarre before entering a dungeon. Maybe this isn't caused by the difficulty increase of the second stage, but rather we've opened the so-called hidden level? If that's the case, if we miss it this time, we might not encounter it again next time. Asuna-san's words also make sense; this choice has some risk, but..."
Megumi Kato looked towards Asagiri Utsunomiya and said in her trademark flat and casual voice, "According to Utsunomiya-kun's personality, since the other party dared to transmit information through his phone, he wouldn't possibly miss the opportunity to enter the dungeon where the other party is and eliminate them thoroughly, right?"
Sage Megumi revealed the secret of heaven with a single sentence, and Asuna Yuuki and Kotoko Iwanaga suddenly understood.
Indeed.
If they didn't enter the dungeon where the owner of that girl's voice was this time, but chose to enter another dungeon, what if the other party used Asagiri Utsunomiya's phone again to do something unpredictable?
As the saying goes, 'Cut the weeds but not the roots, and they will grow again with the spring breeze'.
"Want me to go find her? Alright!" Asagiri Utsunomiya exclaimed, then heavily slapped the table and suddenly stood up, then said with full momentum and undisguised excitement, "Ghost girl? I'll make sure she comes but never returns!"
Asuna Yuuki couldn't help but burst into laughter and commented with an amused voice, "It's not her coming to find us, but us going to find her, right? What 'comes but never returns'?"
"Oh, right, then I'll rephrase," Asagiri Utsunomiya replied first, then said, "How can I allow others to snore beside my bed!? The ghost girl hunt begins!"
Seeing Asagiri Utsunomiya's resolute appearance, Megumi Kato couldn't help but curve her lips upward and then said with a faint hint of amusement in her voice, "Just looking at Utsunomiya-kun's appearance, you'd think we were the BOSSes in the dungeon and that Ghost Girl was the Player."
Kotoko Iwanaga stood up, straightened the hem of her skirt, and said with a sweet smile, "It's also that fellow's bad luck. Of all people to scare, she just had to scare Asagiri-san. Now she's brought it upon herself; she's seeking her own death."
◆◇◈◇◆
Three days later. On Saturday. Time: 9 AM. Location: Kotoko Iwanaga's home.
The moment the time reached nine o'clock, Asagiri Utsunomiya, Asuna Yuuki, Kotoko Iwanaga, and Megumi Kato all felt that familiar sensation, and blood-red window with black text appear on the screens of their phones.
[Player: Asagiri Utsunomiya(Yuuki Asuna/Kotoko Iwanaga/Megumi Kato) is about to enter the dungeon.
[Location: Game
[Time Limit: Eight Hou–]
Just as the notification text was halfway through appearing, the four people's phones simultaneously erupted with a harsh buzzing sound, and the text on the screens began to rapidly distort, transforming into three large characters filling the entire screen.
[CoMe FiNd Me CoMe FiNd Me CoMe FiNd Me CoMe FiNd Me CoMeFiNdMe CoMeFiNdMe CoMeFiNdMe CoMeFiNdMe CoMeFiNdMeCoMeFiNdMeCoMeFiNdMeCoMeFiNdMeCoMeFiNdMeCoMeFiNdMe—]
And in the next second, the view in front of Asagiri Utsunomiya and the others was covered by a thick blood-red mist.