Utsunomiya Asagiri had transmigrated into a fused reality—a Tokyo where multiple familiar worlds collided.
He possessed the standard protagonist template: orphaned, striking features, and absolute independence.
He had expected a peaceful, mundane life.
Instead, he was dragged into a Reincarnation Game.
The penalty for failure was death.
The rewards, however, were entirely too tempting.
Asagiri thrived in the chaos.
A natural-born player, the undisputed tyrant of Shuchiin Academy, and an uninhibited Persona user operating under the code name ‘Leader’.
And his first companion in this nightmare?
A fellow freshman from Shuchiin.
Yuuki Asuna.
Kyushu, Sakura Province.
The Ginza Commercial District of Tokyo.
Inside the master bedroom of a high-end apartment, a girl stared at the glowing screen of her smartphone.
Yuuki Asuna possessed a delicate, pristine beauty, her light chestnut hair cascading loosely over her shoulders.
Dressed in neat pajamas, her usual refined grace was currently marred by a deep, troubled frown.
[Congratulations, Yuuki Asuna.
You have been selected to become a “Player”.]
[You will enter the novice instance in five minutes.
Please prepare yourself.]
“An instance?
Is this…
some kind of viral ad for a cheap mobile game?”
An unfamiliar app had manifested on her home screen.
Its icon was a hyper-realistic, unblinking eye that seemed to stare right back at her.
A cold prickle of unease washed over her skin.
The digital clock read 4:55 AM.
Five minutes ago, she had been jolted from a deep sleep.
The moment she unlocked her phone, the eye icon was waiting for her, displaying those cryptic, threatening lines of text.
She had tried to delete it immediately.
The icon vanished for a fraction of a second before snapping right back into place.
No matter how many times she dragged it to the trash, it refused to be uninstalled.
“Is it a virus?” she murmured, her thumb hovering over the screen.
The crimson text reading ‘Please prepare yourself’ looked entirely too much like fresh blood.
A heavy sense of foreboding settled in her chest.
Logically, the supernatural did not exist.
It had to be a Trojan horse, a malicious program installed remotely by a hacker.
But what if it wasn’t?
Driven by a sudden, chilling paranoia, Asuna scrambled out of bed.
She stripped off her pajamas, throwing on a set of practical clothes with frantic speed.
Rushing out to the living room, she grabbed the sharpest fruit knife from the coffee table, her fingers wrapping tightly around the hilt.
By the time she returned to her phone, the countdown had reached its final sixty seconds.
Her breathing grew shallow.
The silence of her apartment felt suffocating.
Her knuckles turned white around the handle of the knife, the blade trembling ever so slightly in her grip.
Zero.
[Player Yuuki Asuna, initiating instance transfer.]
A thick, dark red mist violently erupted from the screen, swallowing her vision.
Asuna bit her lip hard, forcing down the scream clawing at her throat.
The crimson fog writhed and twisted in the air, coagulating into floating lines of text.
[Location:???
Sanatorium]
[Time Limit: One Hour]
[Objective: Escape the???
Sanatorium within the time limit.]
[Hint: When the Player’s room is closed, it is designated as a safe zone.
No “caregiver” is permitted to enter.]
Before she could process the final warning, the bloody mist evaporated.
The luxurious walls of her Ginza apartment were gone.
In their place stood peeling, sickly yellow wallpaper.
Dark, questionable stains splattered the corners, and thick patches of damp moss clung to the rotting baseboards.
The air smelled of mildew and dried copper.
“This is…”
“It really does operate like the Main God Space.
Fascinating.”
A male voice cut through the heavy silence.
It was calm, laced with a dry, unmistakable amusement.
Asuna flinched, instinctively raising the fruit knife.
Thank god she had brought a weapon.
Better safe than sorry.
If she had to defend herself—
She turned toward the voice, and her train of thought violently derailed.
Her lips parted in sheer disbelief.
She wasn’t alone in the decaying hospital room.
A man stood a few paces away.
But it wasn’t his presence that left her paralyzed—it was his outfit.
He wore a heavy, pitch-black winter trench coat, completely absurd for the current weather.
Beneath it was a black long-sleeved athletic shirt, dark tactical pants, and reinforced sneakers.
A black surgical mask and dark sunglasses obscured every inch of his face.
Worse, his coat was unnaturally bulky, bulging in strange places as if he had stuffed a small armory beneath the fabric.
And then, she looked at his hands.
“A power drill…
and…
a chainsaw?”
Asuna stared blankly at the heavy-duty industrial drill gripped casually in his right hand.
Resting on the filthy floor right next to his boots was a massive, terrifyingly lethal chainsaw.
“Are you…
are you a Player too…?” she managed to ask, her voice trembling.
The man in black tilted his head.
Even behind the mask, she could hear the smirk in his voice.
“I am.
A pleasure to meet you.
My name is Yoshiaki Hojo.
And you are?”
Asuna opened her mouth, but the words died on her tongue.
She took a slow, deliberate step backward until her shoulders hit the damp, yellowing wall.
She kept the tiny fruit knife raised, her eyes locked onto the chainsaw.
“Do I have to answer that?”
“Cautious.
I respect that.”
The man nodded approvingly.
He made no sudden movements, his posture entirely relaxed, but Asuna didn’t dare lower her guard.
The sheer absurdity of his outfit and the horrific hardware at his disposal screamed danger.
Is he really just a Player like me?
She glanced down at the pathetic little fruit knife in her trembling hand, then back up at the heavy-duty power tools.
A deep, almost comical sense of inadequacy washed over her.
From the moment the app appeared to the final countdown, they had been given exactly ten minutes to prepare.
Where in the world did he find the time to grab a chainsaw?!
While Asuna spiraled in confusion, the man in black casually reached into his oversized coat and pulled out his smartphone.
He tapped open the app with the unblinking eye.
[Player Name: Utsunomiya Asagiri]
[Physical Fitness Level: Outstanding (Professional Athlete Level)]
[Talent: Not yet unlocked]
[Profession: Not yet unlocked]
[Player Level: Rookie]