Chapter 140: Super Large Dungeon Activated
"Where exactly is this…?"
Iwanaga Kotoko stared at the scene in front of her, then immediately took out her phone. Just like every Dungeon before, there was no signal at all.
That alone proved this was an other world Dungeon.
But…
Why did it look so normal?
Yuuki Asuna, Iwanaga Kotoko, and Kato Megumi had imagined countless scenarios for what they might face after entering a Dungeon. None of them had imagined being dropped into a bustling metropolis, full of towering buildings and nonstop foot traffic, a place that looked no different from Tokyo.
Normal to this degree was its own kind of abnormal.
While the three girls were still frozen in confusion, Asagiri had already taken off his gray mask. He walked up to a young office lady in a skirt suit, stopped her politely, and smiled.
"Hello. My phone died. Could I borrow yours to make a call?"
"Huh? I'm in a hurry to get to work, don't waste my time…"
She looked up with irritation. Then she saw Asagiri's face.
A faint blush spread across her cheeks. Her entire attitude flipped, turning shy almost instantly.
"Oh… okay. Here."
"Thank you."
Asagiri took the phone, dialed a random number, and lifted it to his ear. About ten seconds later, he handed it back with the same calm smile.
"It didn't connect. Still, thank you."
"You're welcome…"
The office lady nodded, then hesitated, cheeks still red.
"Um… you look like a college student. Can we exchange contact information?"
"Goodbye."
Asagiri did not even pause. He turned and walked back to the others.
"Let's find somewhere quiet first. We need to talk."
…
Five minutes later, in a narrow, empty alley.
Asagiri crushed a tarot card in his palm.
"Come out, Mita."
Crazy Mita appeared in front of them.
"I hacked that woman's phone earlier and got a rough idea of what's going on in this world."
The team's phones were useless here, but Crazy Mita could piggyback off local devices and pull basic information. Of course, it was limited to public news that could be searched normally.
She spoke plainly.
"This is Tokyo."
"Huh?"
Yuuki Asuna blinked in surprise, then quickly felt it click into place.
"No wonder walking around felt familiar… If I think about it, isn't this the Ginza district?"
"It is Tokyo," Crazy Mita said, "but not the Tokyo from your world. The overall structure is similar. Based on what I've found, this world differs from yours in one key point."
Her gaze swept across the four of them.
"There's a creature in this world called an Abyss Man."
"Abyss Man…?"
"Yes."
Crazy Mita nodded and continued.
"An Abyss Man's physical structure is identical to a human's. No detection method can reliably distinguish them. Some Abyss Men might not even know they are Abyss Men themselves."
She paused for a beat.
"The only way to tell them apart, and the only special trait they have, is this."
"Abyss Man revive after death."
The word revive landed heavily.
Even Kato Megumi, usually composed, widened her eyes.
"You mean… they can't die?"
"No. They still die."
Crazy Mita let them digest it, then clarified in her usual flat tone.
"They grow and age normally. They get injured. In every way that matters day to day, they are the same as humans. Their ability only activates at the moment of true death."
"When that happens, they revive, and their bodies return to a healthy, complete state."
She continued, voice cold, almost clinical.
"In this world's common sense, Abyss Men are not considered human. They have no human rights. A being that looks like a human but can revive repeatedly has enormous value for clinical medical research."
"Once an Abyss Man is officially confirmed, they are hunted and wanted. They have no room to survive. That's what I know for now."
As Crazy Mita finished, a grim thought rose in Yuuki Asuna's mind.
"Could the research institute in the Dungeon objective be a facility that holds Abyss Men? And the data we need is experimental data about them?"
Her throat tightened.
"If that's true… isn't this Dungeon's difficulty insane?"
Kato Megumi and Iwanaga Kotoko shared the same expression. The implication was obvious.
First, they had to find the institute's location.
Any facility researching Abyss Men would be top secret. And Players entering this world had no legal identity. Trying to dig up confidential information like that would be like climbing a cliff with bare hands.
Even if they somehow found the place, an official organization would not leave something like that unguarded.
Breaking in would mean facing armed security, maybe even elite mobile units.
The enemies they had faced before were terrifying in their own way. Anomalies, Special Infected, monsters, even Crazy Mita's world.
But firearms were different.
Who could tank bullets head on?
Even Asagiri, if he took a shot to a vital point, could die. For most Players, one mistake would be the end.
So how were they supposed to clear this Dungeon?
"Calm down."
Just as helplessness crept in, a warm sensation wrapped around Yuuki Asuna and Iwanaga Kotoko's palms.
Asagiri had taken both of their hands. His smile was relaxed, like this was still a normal day.
"Did you forget? The system won't give an impossible objective."
He squeezed lightly.
"It only feels exaggerated because we don't have enough information yet. We can't give up before we even understand the full picture."
Asuna and Kotoko steadied themselves, the panic easing. Then they realized what he was doing, one hand holding each of them, and both of them went slightly stiff with embarrassment.
"Uh…"
Kato Megumi, who had been almost invisible since they arrived, suddenly spoke in a soft voice.
"Looking at this atmosphere, is there any space left for me?"
She tilted her head with calm seriousness.
"Should I hug the Leader's leg?"
"Please don't."
Asagiri immediately shook his head, expression suddenly earnest.
"What is this, hugging my leg? It's a good thing we're only a four person team right now. If we were six people, four of you would grab my limbs and one would pull my neck. I'd be torn apart. Please don't."
The absurd line broke the tension. The air became lighter, even if only by a little.
Then Asagiri's tone returned to that focused calm of a Player.
"Alright. Let's check the special hints we each received."
"Okay."
All four of them took out their phones and opened the Dungeon hints.
Yuuki Asuna's hint was:
[When facing certain targets, severing their limbs may be wiser than killing them directly]
Iwanaga Kotoko's hint was:
[In this Dungeon, there are targets whose mental strength far exceeds yours. Deal with them cautiously]
Kato Megumi's hint was:
[Even if you activate your exclusive skill, you may still be noticed by certain people]
Those hints all felt personal, like warnings tailored to their roles.
Asagiri's hint, however, had nothing to do with combat. It seemed tied to his special profession, Diplomat.
[Including you and the other Players, there are three factions in this world]
Yuuki Asuna read everything again, then spoke slowly.
"My hint, Kotoko's hint, and Megumi's hint all sound like warnings about certain people."
She frowned slightly, thinking it through.
"And since Mita said there doesn't seem to be supernatural power in this world besides Abyss Men, we can assume the targets the system is warning us about are Abyss Men."
Her gaze shifted to Asagiri's screen.
"And the Leader's hint…"
She rested her fingers against her chin.
"Three factions. Players are one. The officials are one. So the third… is it Abyss Men?"
She continued, piecing it together.
"If the system considers Abyss Men a faction, that means they aren't completely helpless even if the officials hunt them. At minimum, they have enough power to be categorized that way."
"But if all they have is revival after death, I don't think that alone would make the system rate them as a full faction."
Her eyes sharpened.
"Which means there has to be more. Beyond public knowledge, Abyss Men likely possess some other power."
"Hm. That's possible," Asagiri said calmly. "But with this little information, we can't lock anything in yet."
Iwanaga Kotoko lifted a finger, expression thoughtful.
"But there's another key detail."
She looked at all of them.
"When we registered, the system warned us this Dungeon would take at least more than twenty four hours to clear. Why impose that kind of expectation? There are two possibilities."
She held up two fingers.
"First, the research institute is not just hidden, it's remote. Far from any city. Otherwise, if we found it quickly and took a train, we might be able to clear within twenty four hours."
She lowered one finger.
"Second, the institute's defenses are impossible for Players at our stage to break through by force."
Her voice dropped slightly.
"But starting twenty four hours after we entered, something will happen that causes the defense system, which was originally unbreakable, to collapse."
She met their eyes, steady and serious.
"Whether it becomes a frontal breach or an infiltration route, the window might only open after that point."
.....
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