Kumagai Mai opened her eyes and saw Takumi sitting not far away.
Their exchange did not take long. In about ten minutes, Mai had come to understand the fact that Takumi himself had been "cursed" and had no choice but to clear the Fujihana Middle School Instance in order to leave this place. She also learned that he had successfully contained two of Alice's Obsession Items and shattered the false surface layer of this Instance.
As for how he had achieved all this, Takumi did not explain in detail, and Mai did not ask. Although she found it utterly absurd that Takumi could defeat Alice of Fujihana Middle School after roughly grasping the situation, the fact that he had truly pulled her out of the dollhouse Alice had hidden her in and brought her back to life proved that he indeed possessed extremely formidable strength. It was enough to treat him as both a savior and a partner.
In this regard, Mai had always been open-minded and optimistic. If she weren't that kind of person, she wouldn't have become part of the upper ranks of the Slacker Crew. It was precisely because she could accept anything with a carefree attitude that she could stay in such a uniquely styled player team.
However, when it came to what they had to do next, Mai's attitude was extremely pessimistic.
"So let me get this straight. The two of us, plus an ordinary high school girl with perception abilities stronger than even Red Moon-level players, and more than twenty complete deadweights who can't do anything—we're supposed to explore a completely unknown Red Moon-level Instance with zero prior experience, and not only that, we have to solve everything during the exploration phase and directly destroy the Instance. That's what you're saying, right?"
Mai leaned back against the wall and sat on the floor, a cigarette in her mouth. After thinking for a while, she tried to summarize what Takumi had said.
"That's right. At the very least, if I don't do this, I won't survive."
Takumi's attitude was completely candid.
"It's fine. I'm dead anyway. None of us are getting out alive."
Mai nodded lightly as she spoke in a relaxed tone. She looked even more at ease than when she had been revived in the third loop.
Yeah… she had probably already accepted that she was doomed.
Takumi felt a bit awkward about that, but he had to admit that there were indeed many unreliable aspects to all of this. Still, what he said was also the truth. Under the requirements imposed by the black watch-like cheat, no matter how absurd it sounded, he had to resolve the core Obsession of the Fujihana Middle School Instance—he had to fulfill the obsession of that so-called "Japan's Number One Gunslinger" who had shot him dead three times, allowing him to dissipate and pass on. Otherwise, no matter what he did, he would never be able to leave this place.
However, this time, it wasn't as if he had no advantages compared to the previous three loops.
First of all, the "lunch break" period truly seemed to be free from any disturbances. Judging from the situation in this hospital, until the time reached 14:10, Takumi did not need to worry about anything observing this ward. It was just that the "individual adjustment treatment" afterward would likely be quite troublesome—he had no idea what kind of situation that would be. In any case, for the first time, he finally had actual rest time, instead of being forced to stay on edge from beginning to end without any chance to relax.
And now, he also finally had the time and opportunity to revive the second veteran player.
"You're planning to revive this player called Toyama Akira? Hmm, Toyama Akira… a player from Japan. I don't remember him that clearly. I think I've had drinks with him a couple of times, but only in the sense of casually meeting at banquets. I really don't know what kind of person he is."
After seeing Takumi take out another doll, Mai thought for a moment before speaking uncertainly.
"You mean he might not cooperate with our actions?"
Seeing her attitude, Takumi paused and asked seriously.
"No. I can still judge his character—he's a very kind person. In a certain sense, you could call him a classic 'nice guy.' But that's not the issue we're facing."
Mai shook her head, her expression turning serious.
"I have a special blessing that allows me to overwrite my own personality, so I'm not afraid of things like mental contamination or psychological collapse. No matter what kind of torture I go through, I can endure it. But whether this Mr. Toyama has that kind of ability is hard to say."
"Being turned into a doll and still remaining conscious, stuck in a half-dead, half-alive state—that in itself is already an extremely terrifying form of torture. Even if he's restored now, whether he can still maintain a normal mental state, whether he can still communicate… that's very hard to determine."
"If he ends up senile or completely brain-dead, that's actually fine—at least he won't cause us any trouble. But if he's completely gone mad, then things won't be fun at all. So, Takumi-chan, you'd better think this through carefully before you decide whether to let him out. You got lucky drawing me the first time, but whether you'll have the same luck the second time is another matter entirely."
After giving this serious warning, what Mai saw next was the calm, natural smile on Takumi's face.
"I know. I'm very clear about things like this."
Takumi nodded lightly in response, his tone carrying a trace of calm resolve.
"But I've already made my peace with that level of risk. I've come this far—there's no way I can turn back now. If that's the case, the potential risk brought by a single player isn't really a problem. At worst, we'll just find a way to escape to another area of this Instance. I might not be able to leave Fujihana Middle School, but this psychiatric hospital looks pretty big. Hiding for a while shouldn't be an issue."
As he said this, Takumi had already torn open the outer layer of the doll and taken out the pills.
After thinking for a moment, however, he decided to feed only three pills into the remaining flesh of this veteran player, instead of the four pills required for a full restoration.
Even if he had mentally prepared himself, necessary precautions still had to be taken.
Thinking this, Takumi saw that the flesh inside the doll had already begun to stir. He set it down to one side of the ward, then carefully retreated a certain distance. Mai also stood up and moved over to his side, remaining on guard. She positioned herself slightly ahead of Takumi, so that if something went wrong, she could react faster than him.
The flesh was growing.
From incomplete chunks of meat, it began to form bones, then blood vessels and nerves, gradually transforming into the shape of a complete human body.
Because it was missing one pill, this veteran player's recovery was clearly much slower than Mai's, and it felt somewhat lacking in follow-through. However, judging from the way the flesh was forming, restoring a complete human body should not be a problem. He would probably just be extremely weak—like an ordinary person who had gone two days without food or water.
"By the way, you said this Toyama Akira is a very friendly person?"
While waiting for the flesh to finish forming, Takumi glanced at Mai and tried to make conversation.
"Yeah. He's the kind of guy who's cheerful no matter who he's dealing with. Even if a stranger asks him for help, he'll do his best to see it through. I can only describe someone like that as a 'nice guy.' I've heard that within his player team, he played a role similar to a mediator. Whenever conflicts broke out between people, he'd step in to resolve them. Because of him, the atmosphere in that team was extremely good—so good it's honestly a bit enviable."
Mai answered calmly, her gaze never leaving the mass of flesh. Her body remained tense and motionless.
From the sound of it… he really did seem like a genuinely good person.
Just as that thought crossed Takumi's mind, he felt a chill radiating from the gradually growing mass of flesh.
In the next instant, a sharp intuition made him realize that something unexpected had occurred.
Buzz—buzz, buzz—
From within the flesh that had already gathered into a human shape, the sound of something mechanical turning began to ring out.
Before Takumi could react, Mai had already understood what was happening. She immediately raised a hand to block in front of him and flung him straight toward a corner of the room.
The blood-formed figure, still without fully grown skin, had already risen to its feet.
Mai abruptly raised her head. At that moment, her Bronze Eye flashed with light, freezing the blood figure in place. But in less than a second, it broke free from her control, moving again. Its body trembled as it thrust a hand into its own chest, pulling something out from within.
"Don't come over! An Obsession Item has gone out of control. He has at least two Dark Night-level or higher Obsession Items that have gone berserk—right now, the Aberrations inside those two items have taken over his body!"
Shouting this to Takumi, who was about to rush forward to help, Mai immediately charged toward the blood figure.
Boom—!
In that instant, the explosive sound came from Mai breaking the sound barrier with her forward movement and punch, stirring up a violent gust within the room.
The wall shattered in an instant.
The blood-covered figure was sent flying by Mai's punch, crashing through the wall and rolling out into the corridor beyond.
Completely unharmed.
A bloodstained chainsaw had already appeared in its hands, the blade—meant for cutting through shrubs and brush—now spinning at high speed.
"Holy shit, how the hell does it have the Blood Saw? What's even the point of using something that's pure self-harm like that?!"
Having recognized the Obsession Item, Mai cursed, then stomped down hard. With a thunderous boom, the floor shattered beneath her foot, causing the blood figure to plunge straight down into the level below.
"Blood Saw?"
Takumi, seeing Mai retreat to his side, asked cautiously while staying on guard.
"It's one of the Obsession Items produced by the Red Moon-level Instance Tommy's Slaughterhouse. It's one of the few things capable of cutting and weakening Red Moon-level Aberrations. That thing spawns once every time the Instance opens each month, so it's a rare but high-powered mass-produced item. But using it constantly damages the user, causes extreme pain, and triggers intense bloodlust. The distortion it causes to the user's personality is basically impossible to stop."
"Normally, players who get this thing just hand it off to low-level players as expendable cannon fodder. Almost nobody is crazy enough to use it themselves. Shit—it's coming back up, be careful! It's not just that one Obsession inside him that's out of control—"
BOOM!!!
Under the violent tremors, large sections of the building crumbled apart.
Completely unprepared for the fact that he had just released a tyrannosaur, Takumi rolled through the rubble, then looked up to see the blood-flesh figure wielding the chainsaw already surrounded by numerous orderlies.
The lights inside the hospital were beginning to dim.
The previously shattered structure was rapidly restoring itself to a complete state.
Takumi understood—this place's Aberration itself was reacting under stress due to Toyama Akira's forceful intrusion. It was beginning to produce a corresponding response.
A Red Moon-level Aberration clash… feels like the kind of situation where you could get killed by stray attacks just by watching.
Even though he felt a bit curious, Takumi had no intention of sticking around to spectate. He immediately tore his gaze away from the direction that had already sunk into complete darkness—where only the roars of the orderlies and the tearing buzz of the chainsaw could be heard—and looked to his side instead.
Beside him was a section of broken wall that had not yet fully repaired—an opening he could step through in a single stride. There were no orderlies or patients nearby to block the way.
Beyond it was the ward that held the core Obsession—Hirano Sōsuke.
That burst from Toyama Akira earlier had shattered even this side of the wall.
So then…
Should he take this chance to directly make contact with the core Obsession of this Instance area?
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