A crossover anime/manga story, set in everyday Tokyo, but within a loop of a game.

Page 5

“persona…”

"Human Asura".

The gun did not fire bullets as Yuuki Asuna had expected. Instead, after Asagiri pulled the trigger, a humanoid creature, about two meters tall, pitch black, without facial features, and with strange red glowing patterns on its body, suddenly appeared behind him.

"Is this... what they call the Persona...?"

When Asuna Yuuki saw the persona of the demon appear, she thought that Asagiri's actions just now were not an attempt to commit suicide. The gun that could not fire bullets and the action of shooting himself should be the prelude to summoning the persona.

only......

Asuna Yuuki noticed that the blood-faced caregiver, who hadn't moved an inch while standing at the other end of the corridor, actually retreated several meters the moment the human demon appeared, and his tall body was even trembling.

To ordinary people, this caregiver is like a monster... Did he feel fear because of the appearance of the human demon?

010 I will help you complete the game.

"Come."

Next, Asagiri did something that Yuuki Asuna didn't expect.

He took two steps forward, bent down and picked up the bloodstained kitchen knife from the ground, then threw it in front of the man, speaking softly in a completely emotionless tone.

"pick it up."

The man clutched his bleeding wrist, gritting his teeth to endure the pain. Upon hearing Chaowu's words, he first glanced at the kitchen knife on the ground, then looked up at the tall, black humanoid creature behind the other man. Fear filled his eyes, and he immediately knelt down on the ground with a thud, his forehead pressed against the hard floor, begging for mercy.

"No...no, it was just a moment of impulse...please, please forgive me..."

"Beg for mercy? At this moment? Are you kidding me?"

After saying that, Asagiri suddenly changed the subject, walked up to the man, and extended her hand.

"However, if you hand over your phone, I might consider sparing your life."

The man, kneeling on the ground and trembling, heard this and shakily took out his phone from his pants pocket, offering it to Asagiri with both hands.

"This...this is my phone...it doesn't have a password..."

"Hmm, that's quite sensible."

Asagiri smiled, then said softly.

"I've thought it over carefully, but you still have to die."

"A murderer should also be prepared to be killed himself. This is the simplest truth in the world that even a child understands."

As Asagiri finished speaking, the human demon had already stretched out an arm, his huge hand completely gripping the man's neck and lifting him up.

The man's face turned bright red and then purple. Driven by his survival instinct, he kept slapping at Shura's arm, but he couldn't get Shura to let go or even make Shura's arm tremble.

A few seconds later, the man's eyes began to roll back, his hands gradually lost their strength, and finally fell limply to his sides.

"boom."

With a muffled thud, Asuna Yuuki saw Shura casually toss the unconscious man to the ground and hesitated.

"he..."

"He's not dead yet, he's just passed out."

Asuna Yuuki visibly breathed a sigh of relief, as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

"That's right, there's no need to kill him. Just leave him here, and he'll be dead anyway after the time limit expires..."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

Asagiri looked puzzled, walked over, bent down, and grabbed the unconscious man's ankle with one hand before looking at Yuuki Asuna and smiling.

"Haven't you read any web novels? Those plots where you leave the enemy a chance to survive, thinking they're surely dead, only for them to escape and then come back to cause trouble for the protagonist are incredibly toxic. While I'm not a protagonist in any web novel, I wouldn't leave such a problem unaddressed. Besides..."

At this point, Asagiri grabbed the unconscious man's ankle with one hand and dragged his body towards the stairwell.

"There are still ways to use him. Wouldn't it be a waste to let him die like this?"

"waste...?"

Yuuki Asuna didn't quite understand what Asagiri wanted to do, but she still hurriedly followed.

"Thump, thump, thump, thump..."

Because it was being dragged along the ground, every time Chao Wu went down a step, the head of the man he was dragging would make a dull thud from the impact with the step, a sound that was painful to hear.

When they reached the courtyard, Asuna Yuuki couldn't help but ask a question in confusion.

"Utsunomiya-kun, what exactly are you trying to do?"

"doing what?"

Asagiri Utsunomiya's smile was kind and gentle, and even her tone was soft.

"Of course I'll help him get through the game. I'm a great philanthropist."

"Huh? Are you serious? That's too much..."

Asuna Yuuki originally wanted to say that, putting aside the fact that this guy killed another player in the same ward, the fact that he wanted to use a kitchen knife to chop Asagiri is absolutely unforgivable, right?

So Asagiri is going to help him clear the game? Is she repaying kindness with enmity? Is she acting like a saint?

But then she thought again, Asuna Yuuki felt that Asagiri couldn't possibly be that kind of person. The other party had just said that this man was definitely going to die.

At this moment, Asagiri had already dragged the man out of the courtyard gate.

"Hmm... I guess that counts as clearing the game."

As she said this, Asagiri opened the man's phone, and sure enough, on the main screen, there was a strange app with the same eye icon as the ones on his and Yuuki Asuna's phones.

The moment he touched the app icon, a line of dark red text suddenly appeared on the phone screen.

[Player identity verification failed]

"So there really is a security mechanism. Even if someone other than myself gets the phone, they can't open this app? What if the phone is lost, or rather..."

At this point, Asagiri summoned his Persona again, Human Shura.

The moment the human-like Asura appeared, it covered the man's head with its enormous palm, then clenched its five fingers, and with a sound like a watermelon cracking, blood oozed from between the human-like Asura's black fingers.

Upon seeing this, Asuna Yuuki instinctively felt nauseous and immediately looked away.

After killing the man, Asagiri touched the app icon on the other man's phone again, and this time it opened successfully. The other man's stats panel, as well as the walkthrough tips he had received while he was still alive, were displayed in front of him without reservation.

Player Name: Noguchi Kazukawa

Physical fitness level: Average

[Talent: Not yet unlocked]

[Occupation: Not yet unlocked]

[Congratulations to "player" Noguchi Kazukawa for clearing the newbie dungeon and obtaining official player status]

[Customs Clearance Rating: C]

[Reward: Item "Bottled Medical Disinfecting Alcohol"]

[Bottled Medical Disinfecting Alcohol: 300ml bottles of medical disinfecting alcohol]

While checking the app, Asagiri didn't avoid Yuuki Asuna. Standing to the side, she looked at the information displayed in the app and the completion rewards obtained by the player named Noguchi Kazukawa, and said thoughtfully.

"The C-level completion reward neither unlocks a profession nor a talent, but only a barely useful item. It seems that after wasting a lot of time to complete the game, this is the only reward one can get. Its only purpose should be to make players realize that this app is truly involved in supernatural phenomena through the function of accessing and storing the item at any time, thus shattering their remaining illusions and naivety."

011 Hidden Patterns in Dungeons

As soon as Asuna Yuuki finished speaking, a line of dark red text suddenly popped up on her phone screen.

[Since the original player has died, non-players can register as players within 24 hours by clicking the app icon three times consecutively. After successful registration, they will receive all the original player's items and equipment. Players who have already become players can also use the same method to randomly draw one piece of equipment or item owned by the deceased player.]

This simple sentence revealed a startling piece of information that caused Asuna Yuuki to frown slightly.

Besides being suddenly chosen like myself and Asagiri, is there another way to allow ordinary people to register as players? Even if you don't want others to become players, you can still draw the equipment or items of the player who died?

This is not good news.

Asuna Yuuki's own reward for clearing the game was nothing special, but she had personally witnessed the power of Asagiri Utsunomiya, known as the Persona, a power that was completely inexplicable by science and beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

It's easy to imagine that if people knew that entering a dungeon through an app with an eye icon and completing it could grant them supernatural powers, many would want to become players.

The method involves killing registered players and stealing their phones.

What would happen if the player lost their phone without dying?

Asuna Yuuki couldn't figure out the answer to the question. She just looked at Asagiri, who had clicked the eye icon three times in a row and drawn the only reward that originally belonged to Noguchi Kazukawa for clearing the game—a bottle of medical disinfectant alcohol—with a complicated expression on her face.

"So you helped him through the game just to get this information?"

"Well, intelligence is important."

As she watched the eye icon app on Noguchi and Kazukawa's phone gradually disappear after she took their equipment, Asagiri tossed her phone aside, looked at Yuuki Asuna, and chuckled as she replied.

"Now we know how to make others players, and what benefits we can gain from killing another player."

"Most importantly, based on Noguchi and Kawa's evaluation of the dungeon completion, we can confirm that most ordinary players will not receive any special powers as rewards for completing the newbie dungeon, and they may not even be able to unlock talents and classes. Assuming that the two of us are players from the start of the server and there are no veteran players, our combat power is absolutely overwhelming compared to ordinary players."

"Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility that some people who are already very skilled, such as fighters who are proficient in combat techniques, elites of the Metropolitan Police Department, members of special forces, or members of violent gangs, may become players."

Upon hearing Asagiri's words, Asuna Yuuki pursed her lips and asked a question she had wanted to ask for a long time.

"Why...why can you adapt so quickly...and you don't seem afraid at all when facing this unknown situation..."

Utsunomiya Asagiri smiled and then gave a response that Yuuki Asuna had never expected.

"Because I'm very timid."

"Huh? You? You're a coward?"

Asuna Yuuki frowned slightly, thinking that this answer was too far-fetched. How could your behavior, demeanor, and speech have anything to do with the word "cowardice"?

"Yes, I'm too timid."

Asagiri nodded and said with a smile.

"It's precisely because I'm too timid that I don't want to see any player stronger than me, and I don't want to become a weakling who can be slaughtered at will. Therefore, I will not hesitate, nor will I stand still."

After hearing this, Asuna Yuuki remained silent for a few seconds before letting out a soft sigh and speaking with a complicated expression.

"You really are a bit abnormal. By the way, where did you get that pistol just now? And what was the meaning behind that gesture of shooting yourself in the temple?"

"You mean this?"

Asagiri once again produced the black pistol and handed it to Yuuki Asuna.

"This thing isn't actually a real firearm; it can't fire bullets. It's more like a special item formed from the power within me to summon the Persona. The action of pulling the trigger on myself symbolizes facing the fear of death."

Asuna Yuuki nodded as if she understood, then frowned slightly.

"If this thing is stolen or lost, will you be unable to summon the Persona?"

"How can it be."

Asagiri shook his head and threw the black pistol in his hand to a distance. The next second, the black pistol disappeared, and an identical gun appeared in his hand.

"I've already told you, this is a product of my inner power, which can be summoned at any time. As for being stolen... here, touch it and try it."

Seeing Asagiri's smiling face, Asuna Yuuki felt that the other party seemed to be expecting something. However, practice makes perfect, and as a teammate to conquer dungeons together in the future, it was still very necessary to understand the other party's abilities in all aspects.

Thinking of this, she tentatively stretched out her fair and slender right hand and carefully placed her fingertips on the gun in Asagiri's hand.

The moment she touched the gun, Asuna Yuuki's pupils dilated suddenly, and her body trembled involuntarily. After only a brief contact, she quickly withdrew her hand, her breathing becoming rapid as she gasped for breath, still shaken.

"What...what is this...?"

In that instant, Asuna Yuuki felt an indescribable fear, as if the concept of "death" had suddenly taken on a concrete form and appeared before her.

Despair, fear, trembling.

"This is what it feels like to face death head-on, you understand?"

"Hmm...I understand..."

Asuna Yuuki gently patted her chest to calm herself down, only then noticing that Asagiri was staring at her with great interest.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"It's nothing. I just wanted to see a beautiful girl who was pretending to be strong, with tears welling up in her eyes and her body trembling when faced with intense fear."