"A strange aura..."
Asagiri descended a few steps, gesturing for the Suit Man and the Woman with Heavy Makeup to step aside. He moved toward the fire door, placing his palm lightly on its cold surface. While examining it, he asked,
"Necro, when you came here earlier, you didn't sense anything unusual?"
"No," Kotoko replied, her tone calm.
"The door was simply locked. I didn't have the means to break through such a thick fire door, and since I wasn't sure what lay beyond, I didn't act rashly."
Asuna joined them, her gaze fixed on the sturdy metal frame.
"A strange aura suddenly appearing behind a previously inert door... Could it be that the source of the anomaly has some form of intelligence? Maybe it anticipated we'd come here and prepared an ambush?"
She paused, then shook her head.
"No, that doesn't fully make sense. The red-clothed Banshee we encountered earlier was a territorial spirit. It couldn't leave its floor. If the Banshees could roam freely, the rising temperature wouldn't even be necessary—they'd just chase us down. There must be restrictions on their movement. But even so... the source still found a way to attack us indirectly."
She leaned down, inspecting the bottom of the door.
"No gaps between the floor and the frame... I see."
Straightening up, she looked at Asagiri, her voice firm.
"Leader, I'm starting to think the corridor beyond this fire door is filled with water—likely contaminated by the source's anomaly. It's using that water to ambush us, just like it did with the bottled mineral water those two drank. If we open this door recklessly, the pressure will release all at once. Even if we survive the impact, we'll be soaked with that corrupted water—and it won't take long for the infection to spread."
The Suit Man frowned, clearly skeptical.
"Water covering an entire hotel floor? Wouldn't the pressure blow the walls apart or flood the stairwell?"
Kotoko tapped her cane lightly against the floor, smiling.
"It's a strange phenomenon. The rules are different. But if you can understand the internal logic of the anomaly—its own brand of common sense—you can dismantle it."
Suddenly, Kotoko's expression changed. Her deep violet eyes sharpened.
"Leader, Violet—watch out!"
As if on cue, the bodies of the Suit Man and the Woman with Heavy Makeup began to swell grotesquely, their skin ballooning unnaturally.
"As expected."
Without hesitation, Asagiri scooped Asuna into his arms and sprinted up the stairs. In the same fluid motion, he lifted Kotoko over his shoulder. His movements blurred, covering several flights of stairs in mere seconds.
*Bang!!!*
A deafening explosion echoed through the stairwell, followed by a sickening spray of blood and flesh. By the time the detonation faded, Asagiri had already reached the upper landing of the Sixth Floor, untouched by even a drop.
"Leader's reaction time is unreal."
Kotoko, ever unbothered, straightened her clothes and tilted her hat back into place.
"So the source can detonate infected humans. It probably held off earlier to conserve energy—or maybe it was waiting for us to drop our guard. Either way, it confirms the water spreads the anomaly internally and externally."
Asagiri, completely unbothered by having carried two people several flights in seconds, spoke with amusement.
"Going all out this early? Looks like the enemy's feeling cornered. It's trying everything—like a moth to the flame, a mantis stopping a chariot, a dead duck flapping its wings, Ding Zhen charging into battle, clearly asking to be wrecked by a Human Asura."
Asuna stifled a sigh.
"...Do you ever run out of metaphors?"
But her eyes narrowed with a seriousness that hadn't faded since they entered the Hotel.
"This dungeon's on a completely different level compared to the beginner one."
Back then, even crawling could get you through. Success was inevitable—your only concern was your final score.
But this? This was something else entirely.
Here, the true numerical disadvantage wasn't about the number of Banshees versus Players. It was the number of uninfected Players compared to those secretly contaminated—and capable of exploding at any moment. The Anomaly didn't just test strength; it tested trust, awareness, and desperation.
The cruelest part?
Some Players would realize too late. Some would try to hide the fact they drank the Hotel's water, out of fear—fear of being abandoned, blamed, or worse, preemptively killed.
In theory, the anomaly should have won.
But this time, it drew the short straw.
Because in this run—Asagiri knew the truth about the water from the start. Kotoko could sense the anomaly itself. And Asuna? She'd already deduced its behavior and logic.
The Players weren't being hunted anymore.
The Anomaly was the one being hunted.
And once Asagiri found it...
It was in for one hell of a time.
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