Seeing the notification on the phone app confirming their newly established friend status, Asuna looked up.
Her tone was carefully measured.
“It really isn’t easy to earn your trust, is it, Mr.
Hojo…
No, Utsunomiya-san?”
“Isn’t this the baseline vigilance a Player ought to possess?” Asagiri replied, a faint, dry smile touching his lips.
He set the heavy chainsaw and power drill onto the floor with a loud clunk.
Shrugging off his black coat, he began peeling away the layers of thick books and glossy magazines he had carefully duct-taped to his torso as makeshift armor.
Finally, he reached up, pulling off his sunglasses and the black medical mask that had obscured his features since they met.
The moment the disguise fell away, Asuna’s eyes widened by a fraction.
His black hair was slightly overgrown, falling in a messy but structured way around his face.
His dark eyes carried a lingering, relaxed amusement that naturally drew people in.
Just based on his eyes and the frame of his face, he easily crossed the threshold into conventionally attractive.
But the rest of his features held up to the scrutiny.
He possessed a sharp, clean jawline, completely lacking the delicate, overly soft aesthetic popular among modern idols.
Paired with his lean, slender build that stood just over a meter eighty, he was, objectively speaking, incredibly handsome.
“So that’s what you look like…”
Asuna wasn’t the type of girl to lose her head over a pretty face.
The slip of the tongue came entirely from the sheer dissonance between his striking appearance and his utterly unhinged, pragmatic behavior in the asylum.
“How is it?
Handsome?” Asagiri asked, not missing a beat.
“Yes, you are indeed very handsome.”
“Oh, you’re far too kind, Asuna.
You’re quite the looker yourself.”
Neither of them displayed the typical awkwardness or blushing shyness expected of high schoolers exchanging compliments.
For Asuna, the adrenaline of a death game left zero room for teenage romance.
He was handsome; she was simply stating an empirical fact.
Pivoting back to the matter at hand, Asuna began testing the system.
Her clearance reward, a slender and elegant rapier, appeared ordinary at first glance.
Yet, with a mere thought, the blade would instantly materialize in her grip or vanish into thin air.
Just as she willed the rapier to vanish once more, Asagiri closed the distance between them.
Before she could react, he reached out and grabbed both of her hands.
He didn’t just hold them; he deliberately slid his fingers between hers, locking their hands together in an intimately tight grip.
“You…
what are you doing?”
No matter how composed her upbringing made her, Asuna was still a high school girl.
The sudden, inescapable physical contact sent a jolt of heat to her cheeks, her heart rate spiking in her chest.
“Why are you blushing?
Be normal.
Don’t get caught up in a romance plot,” Asagiri deadpanned, his expression utterly devoid of any romantic tension.
“Try to equip your rapier right now.”
The embarrassment vanished, instantly replaced by realization.
He was using this to test if a Player could summon their inventory while physically restrained.
“Hmph.
I-I just didn’t react in time.
I’m not getting caught up in anything,” Asuna retorted, her voice regaining its usual firmness.
She focused her mind, attempting to call forth the blade.
Nothing happened.
“I can’t summon it.”
Asagiri nodded, releasing her hands and stepping back.
“Makes sense.
It seems equipment cannot be materialized when your physical body is restricted.”
Asuna rubbed her wrists, her expression turning complicated.
It wasn’t the lingering warmth of his hands that bothered her.
It was the stark realization that, from the moment they entered the instance, Asagiri had completely dominated the pacing.
Escaping the ward, analyzing the nurses’ true motives, extracting information from the system, he had executed every step with ruthless efficiency.
An ordinary girl might have rejoiced at being carried through a life-threatening ordeal without lifting a finger.
Asuna was different.
Raised under a strict elite education, her pride fundamentally rejected the idea of being a freeloader.
She refused to be reduced to a delicate, useless accessory tagging along behind him.
She knew acting out of misplaced pride would only make her a liability, so she swallowed her frustration.
Her new goal was absolute: adapt to the rhythm of this death game and prove her worth as an equal teammate in the next instance.
“Wait a minute, something isn’t right…” Asuna murmured, her brow furrowing as a new thought struck her. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
“The reward from this app is a rapier.
Sure, it’s not something you can easily buy at a convenience store, but it’s not impossible to acquire in reality either.
Since you were able to bring a chainsaw and a power drill from the outside world, couldn’t I just buy a real weapon and bring it into the next instance?
Even with the convenient summoning function…
isn’t a simple sword a bit too ordinary for an A-rank clearance reward?”
“Congratulations, detective, you’ve found the blind spot,” Asagiri said, his eyes gleaming with approval.
Instead of spoon-feeding her the answer, he guided her logic.
“Since I could bring heavy hardware into the instance, let’s take it a step further.
If I had a loaded gun on me, could I have brought that in too?
If Players can freely import their own modern weapons, what is the actual value of the system’s equipment rewards?”
Asuna fell silent, her mind racing through the variables.
“Exactly, what’s the point?
Could it be that bringing outside weapons…
is a one-time privilege for newcomers?
And in future instances, we’ll be stripped of our real-world items?
No, wait, it’s more than that.”
Her exquisite face lit up as the pieces clicked into place.
“I understand now!
This was a beginner instance.
The fact that we could bring our own weapons was a massive misdirection, a hint hidden in plain sight!”
“Oh?” Asagiri leaned against the wall, clearly entertained.
“Walk me through it.”
“The nurses were never programmed to attack the Players,” Asuna explained rapidly, her eyes shining with the thrill of deduction.
“As long as you escape within the time limit, combat is completely unnecessary.
The real danger only triggers if you fail the timer, causing an anomaly that traps you forever.
Therefore, the only true test was whether a Player could deduce the nurses’ motives and muster the courage to open the door.
Whether you entered armed with a chainsaw, a fruit knife, or completely empty-handed…
it had absolutely zero impact on clearing the stage!”
[Inorin’s Note:
Hey guys, hope you’re enjoying the novel!
Hate waiting for updates and cliffhangers?