Although there were only about twenty girls in the chat group, most of them were currently in Tokyo. The four slots released by Sudou Ayami were still quite sought-after by the girls in the group.
After Doma Umaru wasted the most crucial few seconds to open a Coke, the four girls who finally grabbed the slots were Kisugi Ai, Ichinose Chizuru, Shiina Mashiro, and Gotoh Hitori.
There was no need to say much about the latter two; the former two also spoke quite often in the group.
Kisugi Ai used her foreign name "Alexia" as her nickname in the group, introducing herself as a German-Japanese mixed-blood studying in Japan, without leaking her identity as Cat's Eye. However, relying on her naturally outgoing personality, her relationship with everyone in the group was quite good.
Although the Mysterious Person had casually mentioned in the diary the reason why the three Kisugi sisters became phantom thieves, she hadn't decided whether to reveal her identity yet.
"Otherworld Navigation APP, the Metaverse formed by the Collective Unconscious, stealing others' twisted desires to make those people turn over a new leaf... This reward is really amazing," Looking at the APP in her hand, a strange color bloomed in Kisugi Ai's eyes.
Being a phantom thief herself, her compatibility with this APP seemed quite high.
Moreover, she could indeed use this APP to help her sisters investigate the truth of that year.
"It seems I have to lay my cards on the table with the girls in the group and my sisters." Kisugi Ai suppressed the urge to click directly into the Metaverse. After all, that Metaverse didn't look safe, so she had to be sufficiently prepared first.
Fortunately, her hands-on ability was not bad; she usually prepared some equipment for Cat's Eye operations herself.
And relying on the reminder in the diary, she knew that the props used by Phantom Thief Kid, who was even more popular than Cat's Eye, were created by Dr. Agasa living in Beika Town.
Spending some time, she also successfully connected with the other party and secretly learned a lot of technology from him. In these days, she had carried out a simple update on Cat's Eye's equipment.
Now she just needed to prepare some more practical defensive props.
Ichinose Chizuru used the stage name "Mizuhara Chizuru." The Mysterious Person had posted manga exposing her affairs a few times while writing filler diaries, and also complained about that male protagonist, so people in the group knew that her goal was to debut as an actress, and she was also a rare college student in the group.
To be precise, even though Ichinose Chizuru was just a freshman this year, the only person in the group older than her was Tsukimi Eiko, who had been struggling in society for many years.
Even Miyano Shiho, who had double doctoral degrees, was actually only 18 years old now. Counting the months, she was really a little younger than Ichinose Chizuru.
However, as the second oldest in the group, Ichinose Chizuru, who grabbed this precious slot, had no intention of yielding to these "younger sisters."
Facing Doma Umaru's crazy regret in the group and the envy of those girls who didn't get the slots, she had absolutely no intention of giving up the APP on her phone.
Because she was really short of money and was among those with the worst economic conditions in the group.
Scumbag dad, sick and deceased mom, grandfather in a car accident, hospitalized grandmother.
It was really not easy for her to maintain a normal personality until she was admitted to college.
And if she wanted to continue implementing her dream of becoming an actress, there would definitely be more places where money was needed along the way. Given her family's current situation, it was really not optimistic.
She hadn't joined that rental girlfriend agency like in the manga yet, but she had already started looking for suitable part-time jobs.
If she hadn't obtained the diary, she felt that her future would probably really go in the direction of the manga.
After all, although the rental girlfriend industry was indeed controversial, the money was good and the work was little, and it did have a certain ability to train acting skills. For her as a college student, it was difficult to find a more suitable way to make money than this.
Now with the help of Shinomiya Kaguya, the "Timely Rain" of the chat group, and Hoshino Ai recommending several crews for her to play bit parts, she was relatively optimistic about her future development.
But if possible, who wouldn't want to solve their financial problems as soon as possible?
If she could really make money through this Metaverse composed of human collective unconsciousness, she naturally wouldn't let go easily.
And she was also somewhat concerned about the concepts of Persona and Shadow.
Although she was a literature student, in order to improve her acting skills, she had indeed read some psychology books. In the process, she had really seen these terms in analytical psychology.
Persona represented the mask of the outermost layer of personality that concealed the true self, belonging to the side that acted according to others' expectations.
Shadow was the innermost layer of personality, conceptually closer to the "Id" mentioned by Freud, that is, the most primitive side of a person.
Although there were some discrepancies with the content mentioned by Ayami when explaining the Metaverse, she didn't think this was a coincidence.
Since these terms were specially pulled out by the production team of that work as settings, there must be a connection between the two.
According to the other party, in the Metaverse, facing the desires of one's own heart directly gave one a chance to summon a Persona for battle.
She felt that if she could achieve this and successfully summon a Persona belonging to herself, it would definitely lead to a breakthrough in her acting skills.
She even wanted to find the Shadow belonging to herself in that Metaverse to see what the deepest negative emotions in her heart were. This would also be a rare experience.
So she definitely wouldn't let go. She even took the initiative to private message Miss Ayami, wanting to know more information related to this APP.
In comparison, Gotoh Hitori looked a little awkward seeing the download qualification she grabbed casually while joining the fun.
As a social phobe, she was good at going with the flow. Seeing a new file in the group, she grabbed it casually. Who would have thought she could really grab this qualification?
Then she looked carefully: Collective Unconscious, Shadows formed by human negative emotions, and Personas that could only be obtained by facing one's heart directly...
What were these things? Just listening to them made her head big.
And most importantly, although she was practicing with her band members in Shimokitazawa when grabbing the slot, she would take the train home later.
Her home was in Yokohama. To escape high schools near her home so as not to meet people she knew, she chose a high school in Tokyo. Just commuting time every day took almost three hours.
This didn't seem to meet the requirement that this APP was limited to use in Tokyo.
Gotoh Hitori, who unknowingly exploited a bug, thought so while trembling.
And perhaps because her socially phobic personality was already quite famous in the group, after it was discovered that she also obtained a slot, several girls flooded into her private chat interface immediately.
There were also many girls in the group who were not in Tokyo wanting to run to Tokyo to experience what the Metaverse looked like. Facing these people's inquiries, Gotoh Hitori had already started sweating cold sweat.
Finally, it was Shinomiya Kaguya speaking in the group that made these private chats subside a lot.
Shinomiya Kaguya: "According to Ayami, there are various hidden desires and negative emotions of humans in the Metaverse. Although everyone is not old, you should also know that this world is not so clean. Fighting those Shadows will definitely be dangerous, and you will definitely come into contact with a lot of filth beyond your imagination in this process. If you don't have supernatural power yourself, or can't awaken a Persona in the Metaverse, I think everyone should be more cautious and not be so excited."
This sentence instantly calmed down the girls in the group a lot.
Before, they had always been thinking about farming money and items in the Metaverse, and somewhat ignored that these things needed to be obtained through fighting.
They even forgot Sudou Ayami's own words that she summoned the Persona in danger.
Sudou Ayami also stood up and explained again the "difficulty" of fighting with her parents.
Of course, these were all statements arranged for her by the Mysterious Person yesterday.
Ayami: "When I received the reward, I also gained a lot of knowledge about the Metaverse, and then went in with a knife I recently bought. In the beginning, I defeated some low-level Shadows relying on Breathing Sword Techniques. Then, when heading to the location of my parents' Shadows, I was surrounded by Shadows in the Metaverse, and awakened the Persona at a critical moment. Afterwards, when fighting my parents' Shadows, I spent a lot of energy to change their hearts. During this period, I kept using Reading Value to recover energy, but finally, when I left the Metaverse, I slept directly until noon before waking up."
Sudou Ayami also created several pictures of Shadows in the Metaverse based on her memory and posted them in the group, so that people in the group could have a basic impression.
Yukinoshita Yukino: "The Mysterious Person also mentioned that both Personas and Stands are extensions of mental power, and there are many common points between the two. Therefore, using Personas to fight should also consume a lot of energy. If mental power is not enough, it is better not to consider going to the Metaverse."
Shinomiya Kaguya: "Among the current four slots, only Mashiro should have supernatural power, right? Are the remaining three of you mentally prepared to face danger and those twisted desires directly? If not, I think we can adopt renting or auctioning to obtain the usage rights of that APP on your phones."
After explaining the pros and cons, Gotoh Hitori, who didn't have much desire to fight, surrendered on the spot.
Bocchi: "Um, my current energy is on the band. Just commuting and practicing every day already costs me a lot of energy. I estimate I don't have time to fight in the Metaverse anymore. How about you guys replace my phone with a new one, and I'll directly take out my current phone as a shared account in the group?"
Shinomiya Kaguya blinked. Originally, she wanted Gotoh Hitori to choose renting or auctioning to decide the whereabouts of that phone, so that she could also rely on her own financial resources to occupy more usage rights of that phone.
But this wasn't bad now.
Although there were many girls living in Tokyo, after more than a month of investigation, there were not many women with firm wills and a desire to fight among them.
Moreover, those girls still had to go to school. After she transferred from Shuchiin Academy next month, usually during school time, only Yotsuya Miko and she could go to the Metaverse to practice during this period.
Thinking of this, Shinomiya Kaguya expressed affirmation in the group without much hesitation, and even directly proposed that materials and money obtained using Gotoh Hitori's phone in the Metaverse in the future should be shared with Gotoh Hitori.
At the same time, she also directly sent Hayasaka Ai speeding over to receive Gotoh Hitori's phone. After all, as the richest person in the group, it was most reasonable for her to manage this phone temporarily and allocate usage time according to the needs of the girls in the group.
However, except for Gotoh Hitori who could directly leech off the benefits, both Kisugi Ai and Ichinose Chizuru expressed that they didn't have this idea for the time being. Judging from their attitudes, they both wanted to go around the Metaverse first before making a decision.
Sudou Ayami: "Then how about I take you to see the surface layer of the Metaverse at 9:00 PM tonight?"
Since the Mysterious Person wanted the girls in the group to improve their strength as soon as possible to show their value, she would work a little harder. This could also be considered her repayment to him.
Her Persona ability had been tested by the Mysterious Person. Currently, it possessed physical skills plus curse skills.
As long as they maintained caution, they basically wouldn't encounter any danger on the first floor of the Metaverse.
Gotoh Hitori's phone would likely fall into Shinomiya Kaguya's hands. She now had strength comparable to Grade 1, plus that Shiina Mashiro also obtained rewards, so her strength shouldn't be weak either.
If the remaining two girls who obtained slots could awaken Personas tonight, they could almost go explore deeper areas.
"I wonder if the girl who contacted the Mysterious Person earlier will be among these few," Sudou Ayami sighed, and then began to prepare for tonight's Metaverse trip.
On Miyauchi Hikage's side, he was indeed preparing for Shiina Mashiro.
Although it was not Shiina Mashiro's first time entering the Metaverse, this was indeed her first time entering with others without his company.
Even if they would likely just wander around the first floor for a while and come back tonight, Miyauchi Hikage still prepared Shiina Mashiro thoroughly.
He confirmed she was wearing the full set of Pictomancer equipment and applied reinforcement magecraft. A set of Wild Cards imbued with the power of calamity ensured Shiina Mashiro wouldn't encounter danger. There were also plenty of supernatural ingredients made into snacks to maintain endurance.
"If you really encounter any danger, secretly call out my name, and I will rush over to help immediately."