Seeing what was happening in the corridor in her view, Asuna Yuuki couldn't help but frown slightly and say, "Necro, why don't you come back first? Since the other side has already issued a warning, if you keep going forward, won't you be attacked?"
"That's possible," Kotoko Iwanaga replied with nod, her deep purple eyes looking towards the darkness ahead. Then she lifted her foot, seemingly wanting to step forward and continue, but in the end, she just shook her head, turned around, and began to return.
Seeing that she didn't act impulsively but chose to come back first, before Asuna Yuuki could even breathe a sigh of relief, she suddenly saw a figure slowly crawling out of an oil painting less than five meters away from Kotoko Iwanaga.
The figure was wearing a dirty white dress stained with various colors of paint, with bare feet, long black hair spread out, revealing only a pair of bloodshot eyes filled with malice, and it began to slowly approach Kotoko Iwanaga.
Asuna Yuuki and Megumi Kato's eyes widened in shock. Both wanted to immediately speak up and warn her, but at that moment, Kotoko Iwanaga raised her left hand and made a silencing gesture towards them.
Because she had her back turned, the female specter in the dirty white dress didn't notice Kotoko Iwanaga's actions. The female specter just followed behind her, step by step.
Seven meters...
Five meters...
When Kotoko Iwanaga was only five meters away from the living room door, the female specter seemed to confirm that she wouldn't continue forward, so she stopped, slowly turned around, as if to return to the oil painting she had climbed out of.
At this moment...
*Crack!*
Kotoko Iwanaga directly raised her cane and swept down a framed oil painting from the wall. The crisp sound of glass shattering broke the silence in the corridor and also froze the female specter's movements.
"Oh dear, I'm really clumsy."
Kotoko Iwanaga said this and raised her hand, lightly tapped her head, stuck out her tongue, looking playful and cute. And Cap-Wearing Mita, who had been waiting obediently, saw her make such an expression and imitated Kotoko Iwanaga's actions and expression like a copycat, as if competing with her to see who was cuter.
After Kotoko Iwanaga broke a framed oil painting, the malice in the female specter's eyes clearly intensified. But before she could make any move, Kotoko Iwanaga raised her cane again and, without even pretending, smashed another oil painting.
Seeing this scene, the female specter finally couldn't hold back. She opened her mouth and let out a sharp, ear-piercing screech, extending her dirty hands covered in paint, and pounced madly towards Kotoko Iwanaga, who had her back turned.
"Violet, help me~"
"Coming."
Hearing the scream from behind, Kotoko Iwanaga ran two steps forward and then directly squatted down. As she made this movement, a long sword shimmering with white light appeared in the female specter's field of vision.
"Flashing Penetrator!"
A blinding light erupted from the tip of the Exorcist Longsword, crossing a distance of three meters and directly piercing the female specter's shoulder.
This wasn't because Asuna Yuuki aimed incorrectly, but because...
"Captain!"
Asagiri Utsunomiya stared at Asuna Yuuki, who had reached the female specter due to the momentum of her dash, and murmured softly, "Castling."
In the next second, Asuna Yuuki disappeared, and Asagiri Utsunomiya appeared in her original position.
Seeing this, the malice in the female specter's eyes intensified, but she didn't attack Asagiri Utsunomiya, who was close at hand. Instead, she turned around, wanting to climb back into the oil painting she had emerged from.
"Hitoshura."
Before the female specter could take a step, two black clawed hands had already grabbed her shoulders.
"Ah!!!"
The moment she was grabbed, the female specter suddenly let out a shrill, ear-piercing shriek. The framed glass of the oil paintings hanging on the walls on both sides were directly shattered by her scream.
Dozens of oil paintings fell to the ground simultaneously, and in the next second, just like this female specter, dozens of specters stained with paints quickly crawled out of the oil paintings.
"Calling for companions, huh?" Asuna Yuuki muttered with a frown and quickly stepped forward, swinging the Exorcist Longsword without hesitation, just as Asagiri Utsunomiya had done in the Haunted Hotel dungeon before. She directly severed the female specter's limbs, then grabbed her long hair with one hand and dragged her towards the living room door.
At this moment, several of the dozens of female specters that had crawled out of the oil paintings had already approached Asagiri Utsunomiya.
"Netherworld Grip."
Before those few female specters could touch Asagiri Utsunomiya, a pale, gigantic spectral hand suddenly reached out from the void. Its five fingers, adorned with pitch black sharp nails, quickly closed, crushing those few female specters into pieces, accompanied by their mournful screams.
"Captain!"
Hearing Asuna Yuuki's call, Asagiri Utsunomiya turned around and saw that she had dragged the female specter, who had been reduced to a human stick, into the apartment living room belonging to Cap-Wearing Mita. Without any hesitation, he immediately had Hitoshura block the group of female specters, while he himself quickly ran towards the apartment door.
But when he was less than two meters away from the door, a black, trembling spectral hand, like ink, suddenly stretched out from an oil painting on the ground, attempting to grab Asagiri Utsunomiya's ankle.
In the next second, an unexpected metallic light flashed.
Megumi Kato, who had been standing outside the door since who knows when, held a deep purple dagger, the Ominous Dagger. Her expression was as flat as ever, but her movements were decisive and clean. From top to bottom, she directly plunged the dagger into the palm of the black spectral hand.
"Hurry and go in."
After the experience in the last dungeon, Megumi Kato had clearly grown. Even in such a critical moment, her voice was still serene and flat.
After Asagiri Utsunomiya and Megumi Kato entered the door together, Cap-Wearing Mita quickly closed the door and even used their shoulder to hold it shut. However, the world inside the door and the corridor outside seemed to be two completely different worlds. After closing the door, the female specters' ear-piercing screams instantly disappeared, and the entire room returned to quiet.
"What... what exactly were those things?"
Hearing Cap-Wearing Mita's question, and noticing her somewhat panicked expression, Megumi Kato stepped forward two steps and asked softly, "Mita-san, have you never seen those things before, and you didn't know they existed?"
"I don't know..." Cap-Wearing Mita shook her head as she said with a nervous expression. Then she continued: "I didn't even know at first that there were other places in this world besides my own home... This room was my entire world."
Noticing Cap-Wearing Mita's slightly lonely mood, Asuna Yuuki also felt somewhat sad in her heart.
Just as Asuna Yuuki was about to comfort Cap-Wearing Mita, she saw Cap-Wearing Mita smile again and quickly run to Asagiri Utsunomiya's side.
Then Cap-Wearing Mita once again made that cute, slightly swaying movement as she said, "But as long as my Player stays by my side, even if it's just this one room, I'll be very satisfied~"
Hearing this, both Asuna Yuuki and Kotoko Iwanaga seemed displeased. But before the two women could react, they saw Megumi Kato silently, like a ghost, walk between Cap-Wearing Mita and Asagiri Utsunomiya, separating them.
"Mita-san, we can't fully trust you yet, so please stay a bit further away from him, okay?" Megumi Kato said.
"Huh?" Cap-Wearing Mita seemed to understand the situation before her only vaguely. She just stared at Asagiri Utsunomiya, seemingly trying to figure something out from his face.
"That's enough. This is a dungeon. If you want to start a bloodbath, do it after we get back!"
Asagiri Utsunomiya just said this, then looked at the female specter whose hair was being pulled by Asuna Yuuki. She wasn't screaming anymore, just watching everyone in the room with her eyes filled with malice.
Asagiri Utsunomiya slowly walked over, approaching Yuuki Asuna and the female specter.
Asuna Yuuki understood tacitly. Like handing over a plastic bag filled with goods, she lifted the female specter, who had lost her limbs, from the ground and handed her to Asagiri Utsunomiya.
"Can you speak?"
The female specter remained silent, just staring intently at Asagiri Utsunomiya with her eyes full of hatred and malice, as if wishing she could devour him alive...
*Slap!*
Asagiri Utsunomiya directly gave the female specter a loud slap. Because she was being lifted by her hair by Asuna Yuuki, after taking this heavy slap, the female specter's limbless body swung back and forth like a swing.
Seeing this scene, Cap-Weaing Mita clapped their hands from behind, looking very excited. She said, "Let me hit it, let me hit it~ It looks like so much fun~"
"Then you can do it," Asagiri Utsunomiya said, allowing Cap-Wearing Mita to do so.
Under the speechless gazes of Kotoko Iwanaga, Megumi Kato, and Asuna Yuuki, Cap-Weaing Mita walked directly in front of the female specter. A metallic baseball bat appeared in her hand. While doing so, she raised her other hand to adjust her cap, then twisted her hips for power and swung the baseball bat towards the female specter's waist.
*Thump!*
The force with which Cap-Wearing Mita swung the baseball bat was so great that the female specter's body became like a yo-yo. Her long black hair, used as the string, wrapped around Asuna Yuuki's hand following the arc of her body, before dropping down and continuing to swing.
"Woo~ hoo~ Home run~"
Seeing Cap-Wearing Mita like this, Asuna Yuuki couldn't help but ask curiously, "Mita-san, aren't you scared at all?"
Cap-Wearing Mita tilted her head slightly in confusion and asked, "Scared of what?"
Soon after, without waiting for Asuna Yuuki to speak, Cap-Wearing Mita said with a sweet smile, "Oh, I understand what you mean, but it's okay. As long as Player is by my side, I'm not afraid of anything~"
Hearing this, Asuna Yuuki couldn't help but sigh helplessly, supporting her forehead. Then she said, "Alright, alright, I know you like him a lot, so can you stop emphasizing it?"
Asuna Yuuki really didn't know what to do.
Logically speaking, as Asagiri Utsunomiya's official girlfriend, hearing someone openly confess their love for her boyfriend, she should be jealous and dissatisfied. The problem is...
Mita's setting was originally that of a character in a dating simulation game. To be honest, the four of them intruded upon her territory, which ultimately led to this situation.
Asuna Yuuki looked at the playful Cap-Wearing Mita who was constantly swaying there and couldn't help but think to herself: 'This dungeon is really quite torturous...'