Chapter 153: Driving Away the Tiger to Devour the Wolf
"Mr. Totsaki…"
A senior official of the Anti-Ajin Special Forces could feel the atmosphere in the meeting room growing heavier by the second. He swallowed, then spoke cautiously.
"How about… we request assistance?"
"Assistance? Are you joking?"
Totsaki Yu strode over and seized the man by the collar. His emotions surged violently, shattering the elegant calm he usually wore like a mask. For the first time, he looked almost frantic.
"The Minister put me in charge precisely for situations like this. And now you're telling me to request assistance? Then what is the point of the Anti-Ajin Special Forces existing at all?"
His grip tightened.
"And what 'assistance' do you want, exactly? You want military bases to fire missiles at our own country?"
Sweat beaded on the official's forehead, but he still forced the words out.
"If we can eliminate them, even if the public panics… we can claim it was a military exercise."
"Eliminate them? Don't be ridiculous."
Totsaki's voice turned harsh, teeth grinding.
"Those humans with special powers would die, sure. But Hat and Nagai Kei are genuine Ajin. Even if you blast them into dust, they can revive and walk away like nothing happened."
His eyes burned.
"And that Hat bastard is too provocative, too dangerous. He is our primary target. He must be captured."
Totsaki released the collar only to jab a finger toward the screen, as if accusing the world itself.
"This isn't a game of cops and criminals. It's a cruel war. Humanity versus another species."
His tone sharpened into an order.
"No matter the cost, Hat must be captured. Those humans with special powers are not important. Do you understand?"
The official's face twisted with conflict.
"But… with the current situation, the mobile unit deployed inside… I'm afraid they can't stop them at all. Dealing with Sato alone is already difficult. If this continues…"
Even in his agitation, Totsaki knew the fear wasn't baseless.
His plan had been simple.
Pretend the central system had been cracked. Let Sato and the unknown group push deeper into the research base. Then, once they were fully inside, restart the control system and drop the heavy metal doors, turning the base into a sealed cage.
But he had made one fatal mistake.
He had underestimated Sato, and he had underestimated those outsiders even more.
Yes, the mobile unit had managed to kill a few of the humans with special powers. But that wasn't a victory. After those kills, the unit was still wiped out by the survivors.
And Totsaki could tell, clearly.
The ones the mobile unit killed weren't even in the same league as the four he had just seen on the big screen.
Their composure. Their coordination. The way they moved like they had done this a hundred times already.
Those four were terrifying.
Maybe they were the ones who broke through the Chiba Prefecture station defense and erased dozens of mobile unit members in an instant.
And now another doubt began to creep into him, cold and poisonous.
Could mere metal doors really stop monsters like that?
He had believed in his trap completely.
Now he was starting to question it.
That tall black shadow they summoned had endured a full volley of rifle fire. If they had some way to force open sealed doors… it wasn't impossible.
And if Sato succeeded in taking Nagai Kei through the breach created by this group…
Then all those mobile unit deaths would have been meaningless.
Just then, Shimomura Izumi spoke.
She stood in front of the screen as Totsaki's personal bodyguard, her true identity hidden beneath her calm expression.
"Mr. Totsaki. Hat has encountered a team of humans with special powers."
"Hm?"
Totsaki snapped his attention back to the screen. The technician enlarged the feed immediately.
The camera was linked to the tactical helmet of a dead mobile unit member, so the angle was poor. Even so, they could make out several figures standing not far away, tense and wary.
"Are you Sato?"
One male Player stared at the man in the pure black combat suit. Through the transparent visor of the riot helmet, they could see Sato's squinting eyes and the faint smile that never left his face. The Player's voice was cold.
"Move. We have no reason to be enemies."
"Move aside, huh…"
Sato's smile widened, warm and friendly, like he'd just been offered tea.
"No. I'm going to kill you."
"Kill him!"
A Player jerked up an automatic rifle and tried to aim. The gun had clearly been taken from a fallen mobile unit member. At this stage, most Players' skills simply couldn't match the raw killing power of rifle fire.
But before the muzzle could steady, Sato's hand moved.
A pistol appeared from his waist with terrifying speed.
Four shots rang out in rapid succession.
Three bullets drilled straight into three Players' foreheads.
The first shot slammed into the shoulder of the rifleman.
"Ah!"
The injured Player's right arm went limp. The heavy rifle clattered to the floor.
He tried to lift his arm again, but no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't force strength into it.
Then he looked up.
Despite the weight of the combat suit, Sato moved like a ghost. He was already in front of him.
A cold, gleaming military stinger pressed against his throat.
"Tell me…"
Sato's narrow eyes opened a fraction, revealing a thin line of chilling light.
"Which one of you is the strongest?"
The Player's left hand flashed, and a curved knife appeared.
Sato reacted instantly.
He shifted behind him, twisted, and dislocated the joint in the Player's left arm. Then he kicked the back of his knee and slammed him down. One hand grabbed his hair. The other held the stinger steady.
He forced the man to kneel.
Then, with slow cruelty, he cut his throat.
The operational meeting room fell into dead silence.
No one spoke.
No one even breathed too loudly.
"Boring. Too boring."
After killing the four Players, Sato shook his head, disappointment almost genuine.
Without any visible action, the black combat suit on his body vanished, leaving him in ordinary trousers, shoes, and a shirt.
"I even bothered to put on equipment."
He sounded almost offended.
"And this is the strength of the Player teams that fought through everything to come here and clear the Dungeon? Pathetic."
He squatted, casually searching the bodies.
Through the headset feed, the dead mobile unit's microphone still picked up his voice, clear and calm, along with words that made no sense to the people listening.
As Totsaki watched, his brow furrowed deeper and deeper. Then something clicked.
"Players…?"
He spoke slowly, as if testing the thought out loud.
"Could it be… Hat and these people he calls Players aren't allies… but enemies?"
Totsaki turned sharply toward the technician.
"Restart the central control system. Locate those Players."
His voice cut like a blade.
"Close specific metal doors and guide Sato toward them."
Shimomura Izumi's eyes widened slightly, understanding hitting her all at once.
"Mr. Totsaki… you're going to make Sato and those Players kill each other."
"That's right."
Totsaki stared at the screen as the system came back online. Camera feeds from multiple corridors and sealed sections of the research base flickered into view. He spoke through clenched teeth.
"It will make Hat realize this is a trap, but we don't have a choice."
His gaze hardened.
"We gamble on one thing."
"Even if he knows it's a trap, with his brutal personality, he'll still push forward, rescue Nagai Kei, and slaughter that group of humans with mysterious powers."
…
Meanwhile, deeper inside the research institute, Asagiri and the others noticed the corridor lights turning back on.
"The system regained control…" Yuuki Asuna frowned, voice low.
"Just like Phantom suspected. From the beginning, this was a trap by the Anti-Ajin Special Forces. They can restore the central system whenever they want."
Her eyes sharpened.
"Once they drop the metal doors at entrances and exits, they can trap us and Sato inside."
Asagiri chuckled lightly.
"It's a trap for Sato. It has nothing to do with us."
Players who complete the Dungeon objective are teleported directly back to the real world.
Blocked exits meant nothing to them. Fail the objective, and they die anyway. Clear it, and they leave. The doors might as well not exist.
Just then, two people in white lab coats and masks rushed out from around the corner.
The moment they saw Asagiri's group, they froze.
They seemed ready to turn and run. Then they stopped, shoulders shaking, eyes filling with despair and fear.
"Researchers?" Asagiri walked toward them at an unhurried pace. His voice carried a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"We're lucky, aren't we?"
He tilted his head slightly, almost polite.
"How about this? We'll skip the messy interrogation part, like stabbing bamboo skewers into your eyes or cutting off certain body parts."
His tone stayed gentle.
"You just tell me where the experimental data is stored, and how to get there. Okay?"
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