Chapter 209: The Sender of the Mysterious Email

"You’ve been to the Fifth Floor underground?"

Hearing Sakurakawa Rikka’s words, Iwanaga Kotoko immediately became interested and asked curiously,

"First, tell me about the Fourth Floor underground. What’s it like there?"

Even setting aside rewards like bonus clearance points, Iwanaga Kotoko was genuinely interested in the secrets hidden within Kyozan Mental Hospital. After all, she was the God of Wisdom of the Yokai. A place like this, overflowing with cursed spirits and inaccessible to the living, simply did not exist in the real world, at least not anywhere she knew of. Naturally, she was curious.

"There are no mental patients on the Fourth Floor underground, nor are there any other strange entities, but..."

As Sakurakawa Rikka spoke, lingering fear surfaced in her eyes. She took a slow breath before continuing,

"The moment you step onto the Fourth Floor, you fall into a strange and indescribable force. Pain and despair rush in like a tidal wave. It felt as if my body were being torn apart without end. My eyeballs, my internal organs, my brain, every part of me burned with agony. If hell truly exists, then setting foot on the Fourth Floor underground is the cruelest punishment within it."

"Was it an illusion?"

"No."

Rikka shook her head at Iwanaga Kotoko’s question and answered softly,

"Rather than an illusion, it felt more like the power on the Fourth Floor was taking everything that had happened there in the past, all the pain and despair the innocent had suffered, and forcing it directly onto anyone who entered."

"This is the first time I’ve heard of a phenomenon like that."

Iwanaga Kotoko fell into thought for a few seconds before asking again,

"What about the Fifth Floor?"

"I don’t know."

"Huh? But didn’t you just say..."

"I did pass through the Fourth Floor and reach the Fifth," Sakurakawa Rikka said calmly. "But the moment I stepped onto that floor, I died. I didn’t even get the chance to see anything clearly."

"Huh?"

Seeing Iwanaga Kotoko’s puzzled expression, Sakurakawa Rikka slowly explained,

"The clone I controlled was not a real clone. It was just a body condensed from black mist. When it acts, my main body loses consciousness. To put it simply, it is more like a doll carrying my consciousness. I do not know what is on the Fifth Floor, but I can say with certainty that there is an extremely powerful cursed there."

"Then it seems we made the right choice by not going down."

Asagiri smiled faintly, then stepped in front of Sakurakawa Rikka and looked at her with unusual seriousness.

"Still, you’d better be more careful in the future. Since you’re attaching your consciousness to a doll made from black mist, if you send it into an area with overwhelming cursed power, then once the doll is destroyed, your consciousness may not be able to escape either. Don’t use it recklessly."

"You..." 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Rikka froze for a moment. Then a trace of complexity appeared in her eyes.

"Are you worried about me?"

"Huh? What kind of love struck logic is that? That conclusion is way too abstract, even for me."

Asagiri shook his head and turned to walk out through the gate with Yuuki Asuna and the others, raising a hand in farewell.

"See you."

Watching the four of them vanish the moment they crossed the gate of Kyozan Mental Hospital, Sakurakawa Rikka murmured to herself,

"Utsunomiya Asagiri... what a strange person..."

...

[Congratulations, Player Utsunomiya Asagiri. You have cleared this Dungeon.]

[Special bonus actions completed in this Dungeon: uncovering the truth behind the Kyozan Mental Hospital riot, eliminating one hidden Boss of Kyozan Mental Hospital, the Black Clothed Commander fused with cursed power, eliminating the Third Floor Boss Chris Walker, eliminating twenty seven Black Watch members, and learning of the phenomenon existing on the Fourth Floor of Kyozan Mental Hospital.]

[Dungeon clearance rating: S]

Back in his home in the real world, Asagiri read the settlement notification in the eye icon app on his phone, then looked up at Yuuki Asuna, Kato Megumi, and Iwanaga Kotoko.

"I only got an S rank this time. What about you?"

"S minus."

"Same here. S minus."

After confirming that Yuuki Asuna, Kato Megumi, and Iwanaga Kotoko had all only received S minus, Asagiri said thoughtfully,

"Eliminating Black Watch members really was a bonus action. Even so, we still couldn’t reach S plus. That means the system probably considers the Fifth Floor the most valuable secret in Kyozan Mental Hospital. If we didn’t go there, then we were never going to get the highest rating."

"What a shame..."

Yuuki Asuna sighed softly, then looked at Asagiri and said,

"If Miss Sakurakawa Rikka hadn’t told us about the anomalous phenomenon on the Fourth Floor, our rating might have dropped another level. By the way, why didn’t you invite her to join our team? If you had asked, she probably would have agreed, right?"

"You think she would? Impossible."

Asagiri shook his head with a smile.

"Sakurakawa Rikka’s abilities and qualifications do meet our standards for recruiting a new member. The problem is that her goal in entering Dungeons is different from ours. As a high level Player, she should also have the authority to choose Dungeons based on keywords. But her main goal isn’t high level clear rewards. She wants to find a way to get rid of the thing inside her and become human again."

"That means she’ll only choose cursed type Dungeons. We obviously can’t enter cursed Dungeons every single time. Besides..."

At that point, Asagiri paused and glanced meaningfully at Iwanaga Kotoko.

"Whether she’s friend or foe still hasn’t been decided."

"Huh? Why are you looking at me?"

Iwanaga Kotoko was startled, then immediately understood what he meant. If she considered Sakurakawa Rikka an enemy who had to be eliminated, then Rikka would become an enemy. If she didn’t, then there was no need to treat her that way.

The moment she realized Asagiri was asking for her opinion, the corners of her lips immediately curled upward. A sweet and delighted smile bloomed on her face as she stood up, ran over to him, and threw herself into his arms.

"My boyfriend, who always acts first and asks questions later, is actually considering my opinion now~ Ah, this proves how deeply you love me. Since we just got out of the Dungeon, let’s hurry into the bedroom and express that deep love by exploring each other’s bodies..."

Yuuki Asuna rolled her eyes and said irritably,

"You’re starting again? As expected of you."

Just as Iwanaga Kotoko and Yuuki Asuna fell into their usual bickering, Asagiri noticed several unread emails in his inbox.

He didn’t recognize the sender’s address, but the contents were extremely brief.

The first email read: "If you’re out, reply."

The second, sent about two hours later, read: "Are you out?"

And the third, sent less than ten minutes ago, contained only a single question mark.

The moment he saw those emails, Asagiri had already guessed who the sender was. He casually typed a reply that contained only one word.

"Mm."

Less than five seconds later, a reply arrived.

It was from Kaguya Shinomiya, and it too contained just one word.

"Okay."

The time in the real world was currently 5:30 in the morning.

Judging from Kaguya Shinomiya’s behavior...

Ugh.

She had probably stayed up all night.

"Since none of us are tired yet, let’s talk about our custom reward choices."

Hearing Asagiri say that, Kato Megumi was the first to respond.

"I’ve already decided. This time, I don’t want physical stats. I want a set of armor, a ranged weapon, and a skill."

Iwanaga Kotoko immediately reminded her,

"Megumi, our rating this time was only S minus. If you split your rewards too much, each one will drop in quality. If you choose all three, the armor and weapon will probably both be blue, and the skill may not be very useful."

"That’s true."

Kato Megumi nodded obediently, thought for a moment, then said,

"Then I’ll go with a bow type weapon and a skill. I’ll skip the armor for now."

"Right, our rating this time was only S minus... We really do have to think carefully..."

Yuuki Asuna thought seriously, murmuring to herself.

"I already have the Armor of Flashing Light as a full set, and I have enough sword skills for now... Hmm... then I’ll strengthen my physical ability. My class doesn’t require especially high mental strength, as long as my mental resistance can keep up."

After saying that, Yuuki Asuna turned to Asagiri with curiosity.

"What about you? What are you choosing this time?"

"Two skills."

Asagiri had clearly decided long ago and answered without hesitation.

"One body strengthening skill and one offensive skill. My own combat ability is starting to fall behind the intensity of the Dungeons now. Against that Black Watch Commander, because his physical ability was equal to mine, or maybe even slightly above it, I was forced to rely on Human Asura almost the entire time. The moment I switched to another Persona, my own body couldn’t keep up with the intensity of the fight."

"When my own combat ability can’t keep pace with the enemy, I can’t fully make use of the flexibility that comes with multiple Personas. To avoid that, I need to improve my own combat power now. I can’t just rely on raw stats anymore. Numbers matter, but mechanics matter too."

.....

[If you don’t want to wait for the next update, read 10–50 Chapters ahead on P@treon.]

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