Hayato withdrew his thoughts and walked straight toward the hotel sofa with heavy steps.
"You two rest too, but don't fall asleep."
Tonight, they'd have to pull an all-nighter no matter what.
Hayato sat down completely, leaning back against the cushions.
His muscles relaxed slightly, tension draining away and getting greatly soothed.
During the time stop, his "violent output" and "carrying and dragging people around" all consumed his stamina and energy reserves. He also suffered losses and made real sacrifices.
After this ends, I need to properly train this body.
He'd already been selected by the "death game." Unless he cleared it successfully, there was no chance of exiting this nightmare.
The body was core for survival in death game. Hayato definitely had to train it properly. Even with "time stop," he couldn't afford to let his guard down.
"Hayato-kun..."
Suddenly, Hoshino Ai sat cross-legged on the bed. She brushed aside her purple-black long hair, turning to face Hayato directly. Her eyes quietly watched him with soft attention.
"What is it?"
"How about... I give you a massage? You're so tired. You must need a massage to relax!"
This was one of the few things she could actually think of to do for Hayato.
"You, an idol, can massage?"
"No."
Hoshino Ai shook her head honestly.
"But me, an idol, can learn. Besides, massage isn't necessarily that hard to figure out."
She blinked her star-sparkling eyes, waiting for Hayato's answer with barely concealed hope.
Accept? Or refuse?
What was there to even say?
"To be massaged by the popular idol Miss Hoshino Ai, I think I'd be the only one in the world."
Hayato didn't refuse and directly walked toward the large bed. He lay face down on the soft surface, completely defenseless, exposing his back to her.
Hoshino Ai's smile grew even brighter, lighting up her whole face. She straddled Hayato's back carefully. Her hands and ten fingers landed on Hayato's shoulders, slowly pressing down with uncertain force.
"How's this pressure?"
"Not bad."
"Then I'll use a bit more force."
"Sure."
"How about... I use my feet instead?"
Hayato: ???
"Aren't there fans who really like... being stepped on by... their favorite idols?"
Hoshino Ai's words came out a bit embarrassed. Her face even reddened slightly with the suggestion. But the corner of her eye still watched Hayato's profile for his reaction.
"Too bad I'm not wearing black stockings right now."
You woman are trying to tempt me, aren't you in this death game?!
"Mai in black stockings would definitely be amazing though."
Hoshino Ai: ???
She was unhappy. She felt wronged by the comparison. She even instinctively slapped Hayato's back hard in retaliation.
"Ah!"
"Sakurajima Mai wouldn't even massage you like I am!"
"Mai's so gentle and beautiful. How could she do something like massage for someone?!"
"I'm also gentle and beautiful."
Hayato immediately turned to look at Kuroda Hikari.
"Kuroda-san, is she gentle and beautiful?"
A death question!
How could Kuroda Hikari dare answer that?
"My stomach... hurts so much. Uhhh, I... will faint."
She directly lay down on the bed, closed her eyes tightly, and pretended to sleep.
Hoshino Ai couldn't help but almost laugh out loud at the obvious avoidance.
"See, Kuroda-san must think I'm gentle and kind, so she's like this."
"Looks like Kuroda-san's eyesight isn't great then."
"Uugh, can I bite you?"
"Where do you want to bite?"
"Ugh..."
Ten minutes later, Hoshino Ai couldn't persist anymore, her hands were tired. Hayato let the girl go rest on the side. And Kuroda Hikari, seemingly to repay Hayato's life-saving grace earlier, provided ten minutes of earnest massage after Hoshino Ai.
Hayato enjoyed a total of 20 minutes of relaxation time.
It was something the girls actively wanted to do for him. He had no reason to refuse their kindness.
This world was so dangerous and terrifying. Couldn't he at least enjoy himself a bit?!
Everything seemed to have quieted down completely, as if there would be no more dangerous things for the remaining time until morning.
Time finally reached 1 AM.
Five more hours until 6 AM checkout.
The long night was exceptionally hard to endure. Time that would normally just require sleeping through now could only be suffered through consciously, waiting for each minute to pass.
Hayato also felt quite bored. This was painfully hard to kill time.
His gaze once again landed on Hoshino Ai. Right now, Hoshino Ai was drowsy, yawning with her hand raised to cover her mouth.
But it was precisely this simple action that jolted Hayato's brain much more awake.
"Hoshino."
The sudden voice immediately made Hoshino Ai wake up and snap her eyes open, looking less confused.
"What's wrong, Hayato-kun? Did you hear some strange sound again?"
"The infection worsened."
"Huh?"
One minute later, all three confirmed the current situation.
Without exception, all three infection degrees had visibly deepened. Just judging the infection degree by the darkness of the gray patches spreading, they'd definitely gotten much worse compared to an hour ago.
"Why is this happening..."
"What the hell is going on?"
She couldn't figure it out. Couldn't figure it out at all, no matter how hard she tried.
Hoshino Ai couldn't find a single useful clue.
And Kuroda Hikari even more so. Walking to this point, she'd basically coasted along on others' efforts. If not for Hayato and Hoshino Ai protecting her, she'd probably already be among the corpses.
Hayato thought deeply, his mind working. All the clues and information he'd obtained were recalled and sorted once more.
"Our infection... deepens step by step as time passes forward..."
"The shower water lets us clearly see others' true infection status..."
"And among our six people, Tanaka Ichiro and Kamimura Miho in room 304 completely became supernatural entities. Most likely, they were influenced by those moaning sounds from ten to twelve and did things they absolutely shouldn't have done, so they directly transformed into supernatural entities...."
"But we didn't touch anything weird or do anything wrong!"
All Hoshino Ai could think of after wracking her brain, besides the strange shower water, was absolutely nothing else.
"There's one more thing. We all touched it. And we've been in contact with it for a long time continuously."
"What?"
Both girls' gazes converged on Hayato's face urgently.
Hayato raised his finger and pointed around them.
"This hotel. No, it should be the hotel rooms specifically... we've been in contact the whole time."
"The rooms are poisonous?"
If this was the real reason, then the deepening infection had a reasonable explanation, but... how could they possibly solve it? There was absolutely no way to solve it at all.
Both Hoshino Ai and Kuroda Hikari felt suffocated by the realization.
This was simply a complete dead end with no escape.
We're done for! There's absolutely no solution. At the current infection rate, in at most one or two hours, we'll be covered in pitch-black patches and become supernatural entities ourselves.
They absolutely didn't want to become ugly supernatural entities. Not at all. The thought alone was horrifying.
Knock knock knock!
Knocking sounds rang out suddenly.
But this wasn't knocking on room 306's door. It was knocking on a room door at some distance away down the hall.
"Room service."
"Does the guest require cleaning service?"
Late at night, a room-cleaning service person came knocking on doors.
Were they cleaning trash, or people?!