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

Her reason for joining the team was actually very simple and ordinary.

Kato Megumi doesn't want to die, and she especially doesn't want to die in the dungeon.

If you die inside a dungeon, your body shouldn't return to the real world, right?

If that happened, her parents would be heartbroken, but because they didn't find their daughter's body, they would hold onto a sliver of hope that their daughter was just missing and must still be alive somewhere. They would be tormented by this for the rest of their lives.

Therefore, Kato Megumi has made up her mind that no matter how dangerous or terrifying the dungeon may be, she will never give up.

"Roar……"

As Kato Megumi stepped out of the apartment, she immediately saw a zombie less than ten meters away in the hallway. The zombie was dressed in rags, its face covered in blood, and half of its neck missing. It was wandering around and making unintelligible, beast-like growls.

For a moment, her heart skipped a beat, but the next second, Kato Megumi raised her right hand to her side, signaling Asagiri and the others in the room not to act, and then activated her unique talent, "Weak Presence".

Immediately afterwards, she began to take steps, actively approaching the zombie.

"Roar...roar..."

Five meters, three meters, one meter...

In the end, Kato Megumi was standing within arm's reach of the zombie, but its lifeless eyes didn't even pause when they swept over her, as if it didn't see her at all, and it didn't make any aggressive move.

"My talent... is it really that powerful? We're already this close, and I haven't been detected yet? Or is it that zombies' senses are inherently weak, and even at this close range, they can't detect me when my talent is activated?"

As Kato Megumi thought to herself, she silently backed away until she was back in the apartment and back beside Asagiri and the others. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief.

To avoid attracting the attention of the zombie in the corridor, she deliberately lowered her voice.

"It seems there's only one zombie outside. I just tried it, and even when I get very close, as long as I activate my talent, it can't detect my presence."

Upon hearing this, Asuna Yuuki couldn't help but sigh.

"Phantom's talent is truly amazing..."

Kato Megumi's unique talent, "Weak Presence," causes her to continuously consume stamina and mental energy when moving while the talent is active. Given Kato Megumi's current physical condition, she can only maintain this for a maximum of one minute.

However, if this talent is used while stationary, not only will there be no cost, but the effect of reducing presence will also be enhanced.

This means that even if Kato Megumi enters the instance alone this time, as long as she finds a safe place to hide and activates her talent skill, she will most likely be able to survive the ten-hour time limit and achieve the goal of being the first to survive until the time limit ends, just like in her last instance.

However, completing the game that way would result in a very low completion rating and minimal rewards. If one were to rely solely on their unique talent, they would be powerless to resist when encountering a highly perceptive evil spirit or monster, leading to an immediate Game Over.

"Is there a zombie outside the player teleportation point...?"

Asagiri smiled with satisfaction and said something that Kato Megumi couldn't quite understand at first.

"As expected, it's the first stage of the dungeon; the difficulty is too low."

Immediately afterwards, Asagiri walked to the living room sofa, picked up a cushion from it, and tossed it to Yuuki Asuna. The latter understood immediately and, without needing to exchange words, caught the cushion with her left hand before walking straight to the door.

"Roar……"

As expected, when Yuuki Asuna went out, the zombie that was lingering in the corridor, less than ten meters away, noticed her immediately. With a beast-like roar, it walked towards Yuuki Asuna at a speed similar to that of a normal person walking, its mouth wide open.

Before it could even slowly approach, Asuna Yuuki stepped forward and, with a flash of cold light, cleanly severed the zombie's limbs with the exorcist's sword in her right hand. Almost simultaneously, she used the sofa cushion in her left hand to cover the zombie's mouth.

"Uh huh huh..."

Because its mouth was completely covered, the roar that the zombie should have made turned into a muffled whimper, squeezed out of its throat, like a wronged little animal.

"It's done."

Hearing Asuna Yuuki's words and seeing Asagiri and Kotoko Iwanaga standing beside him, both looking calm and unsurprised, Megumi Kato was completely bewildered.

At this moment, she had only one thought.

why?

Why are you guys so skilled?

Have they reached such a level of understanding that they can reach a consensus simply by exchanging glances without needing to communicate verbally?

"OK, next..."

While Kato Megumi was still in shock, Asagiri had already walked up to Yuuki Asuna's side.

He squatted on one knee in front of the zombie that had been chopped into a human stick and had its mouth stuffed with a sofa cushion. He looked at the zombie, which was still struggling even though it had lost its limbs, and shook his head.

"Oh, how pitiful. Don't worry, you'll be free soon."

Hearing this, Kato Megumi thought that although Utsunomiya-kun had a somewhat eccentric personality, she was still very empathetic and kind...

Wait a moment.

What is that Utsunomiya-san holding? It looks like a weapon called a rope dart, a combination of a sharp blade and a metal chain.

Wait a minute, why did you put the pointed end so close to the zombie's wide-open eyes?

At this moment, Chaowu had slowly pierced the tip of the rope dart into the zombie's left eyeball. Looking at the overflowing filthy blood, he showed no disgust or discomfort, but instead muttered to himself.

"Faced with the approach of a sharp weapon, its pupils did not change at all, and it did not blink. It seems that this thing does not have the subconscious reaction of a normal living being to danger, and does not know what fear is. It is the most common type of zombie, and just as the diary said, it cannot even run."

"This difficulty level... isn't it a bit too low?"

Asuna Yuuki frowned slightly as she looked at the struggling zombie.

"When the apartment door was open, this guy didn't notice us, which means his sense of smell isn't as keen as that of a real wild animal. And at such close range, it seems he couldn't hear us if we spoke in hushed tones."

"Judging from the feeling of the slash I just made, its physical strength is at the same level as a normal human, or even weaker. Moreover, it cannot run, and even if it is bitten or scratched, it will not be infected with the zombie virus."

"Any normal person who can move freely can easily deal with these things with a long weapon like a baseball bat. Just be careful not to get surrounded by them. Even the first phase of the dungeon can't be this simple. Compared to the hotel dungeon we entered, it's far too easy, even abnormally so."

Upon hearing Asuna Yuuki's words, Asagiri pulled the rope dart out of the zombie's eye socket before speaking.

"From a certain perspective, the dungeons in this game are actually similar to exams. They test whether the 'students,' or 'players,' can meet the passing grade in a certain aspect. For example, the first dungeon for newbies tests courage and the ability to think calmly under pressure, while the second dungeon tests caution and meticulous observation."

"The so-called passing grade is to complete the level. If you can get an excellent score, you can get a reward. In that case, why don't we think about it from the opposite perspective, similar to 'predicting the exam questions'? That is, we should first analyze the existing information and speculate on what kind of ability this dungeon wants to test the player. Based on this, we can predict the dangers that may appear in the dungeon."

Kotoko Iwanaga walked over, looked at the zombie with only one eye left, and said softly.

"Could the danger in this instance be related to so-called special infected individuals?"

"There are indeed special infected individuals, but it's unlikely that they are the main challenge set up for players in the dungeon."

Asagiri shook her head, speaking calmly.

"Based on the information we have, the dungeons... at least the first stage dungeons, will basically not have any difficult obstacles that require players to use force to overcome. Force breakthroughs are a special route prepared for top players like us. Correspondingly, there must be normal routes that even ordinary people can complete with high-level ratings. After all, this game is not simply torturing players, but more like filtering and developing players through dungeons."

"Hmm... We don't have enough information right now, so it's hard to draw any convincing conclusions."

As Kotoko Iwanaga spoke, she stared directly into the zombie's eyes and activated her "Cursed Gaze".

The moment she activated her skill, the zombie's last remaining eyeball suddenly dilated, its body convulsed violently twice, and then became motionless.

"The skill worked. It seems that these zombies do not have the characteristic of defending against mental skills. Their resistance to mental attacks may even be negative."

Kotoko Iwanaga smiled slightly and said softly.

"Therefore, my skills, as well as the Phantom's talents, are still functioning as usual."

67

Chapter 67 The Deadly City.

"That's good news."

Upon hearing Asagiri's affirmation, Kotoko Iwanaga couldn't help but smile, like a child showing off their achievement, raising her chin slightly with a smug look on her face.

"Not only that, I can sense that these zombies have lower intelligence, and their mental resistance is even worse than that of ordinary people compared to evil spirits. So, my Curse Gaze, which would normally only have a negative effect, can instantly kill them if used on them. How about that, impressive, right?"

Asagiri smiled and nodded: "Impressive."

Kotoko Iwanaga revealed her true intentions with a smile.

"Then Leader, how about you reward me by carrying me on your back? After all, my physical strength isn't very good, and with my disability, moving around is very difficult. You wouldn't bear to see me so pitiful, would you?"

"Are you trying to morally blackmail me?"

Asagiri returned the smile and said, "Luckily I have no morals, otherwise you would have really kidnapped me and I would have left on my own."

Seeing that her plan had failed, Kotoko Iwanaga muttered to herself.

"What an unkind guy..."

"In short, the answer to this dungeon's puzzle..."

Asagiri took out her phone, looked at the detailed map of the city, and focused her gaze on the sign that read "Ren'ai Hospital" in the very center of the city. She said calmly.

"Maybe we'll find it here."

……

After the four of them left the apartment building and came to the street, they found that there was not a single zombie in sight. It was not the kind of post-apocalyptic scene they had imagined, with zombies roaming the streets and a stench of decay everywhere, like a living hell. Instead, it was a silent, lifeless dead city.

This strange sense of incongruity made Asuna Yuuki, Kotoko Iwanaga, and Megumi Kato, who had already cleared the dungeon twice, feel that something was amiss.

"Not a single zombie? This..."

Asuna Yuuki frowned and gripped the exorcist's sword tightly.

To be honest, if the four of them had encountered a horde of dozens or even hundreds of zombies as soon as they came out, she wouldn't have been so nervous. But the situation where she knew there was danger but didn't know where it came from was the most suffocating and heavy.

"Please be aware of your surroundings at all times... Wait, what is this?"

Just as Yuuki Asuna was thinking this, she noticed a little sticky yellowish-green liquid on the exhaust pipe of a motorcycle on the side of the street. Although she had a slight obsession with cleanliness, she was in a dungeon at the moment and couldn't care less. She immediately went over to take a look.

"This liquid...it's disgusting, and it has an extremely strong stench..."

While Asuna Yuuki was observing, Asagiri also came over.

He crouched down, observing the viscous yellow liquid clinging to the motorcycle's exhaust pipe, and said thoughtfully.

"The color of this stuff... looks a bit like bile."

"bile?"

Asuna Yuuki raised her hand and tucked her long hair behind her ear, seemingly lost in thought.

"Could it be that someone died here, or that their body was torn apart in a gruesome way, which is why bile was left behind?"

"Not too possible."

Asagiri shook her head, glanced at the ground around her, and spoke softly.

There was no bloodstains on the ground around, nor any body parts or internal organs.

At this point, Asagiri paused slightly, then stood up, looked at Asuna Yuuki, Kotoko Iwanaga, and Megumi Kato in front of her, and put forward a hypothesis that none of the three had thought of before, but which was reasonable.

"Although the keyword for this instance is zombies, and the name of the instance location also contains the word 'apocalypse,' and there are indeed zombies, they are slow-moving and do not spread the virus, so they cannot pose any fatal threat to players. If there were a lot of them, it would be fine, but there is not a single zombie to be seen on the streets. Therefore, I think the main challenge of this instance is not the zombies."

"Indeed, the difficulty of this dungeon is unbelievably low."

Kotoko Iwanaga, leaning on her cane, pondered and analyzed the situation.

"The so-called zombies are not only weak, but there just happened to be a book at the location where we entered the instance, which told us that the zombies are slow-moving, do not spread the virus, and that the city's water source is not polluted. So much valuable information, the system's arrangement must not be a coincidence. The only reasonable explanation is that... the system wants players to go out and explore, so it gave us so much information at the beginning, letting players know that even if they encounter ordinary zombies, as long as they deal with them carefully, it will not be too dangerous."

"That……"

Kato Megumi asked cautiously.

"If some players know this information but don't want to face any danger, and just want to hide where they entered the dungeon and wait for the time limit to expire to complete it..."

"Then they're doomed."

Asagiri shook her head, speaking calmly.

"This isn't a newbie dungeon; it won't be so easy to clear. It gives you two different objectives, which seems like the system is letting players choose freely. But in reality, it's precisely because there's a choice that people will try to get away with it. The first test of this dungeon is the player's action. To put it bluntly, it's about eliminating those who just want to get through the dungeon without caring about the rewards. Those kinds of players have no value to this game."

"So, is the second part of this test this strange trace of bile?"

As if she had thought of something, Yuuki Asuna spoke.

"Could it be... that this bile is a trace left behind by the so-called 'special infected'? The public hint is to pay attention to the surrounding environment, which means that players should avoid those special infected during the operation, and then collect information such as maps to find the route to 'Ren'ai Hospital'?"

"Well, for ordinary players, this is the most reasonable plan to achieve a high completion rating, but I want to verify one thing: Violet can also gain a power boost through kills, so..."

As she said this, a look of eager excitement appeared in Asagiri's eyes.

"Let's go find those special infected individuals."

……

Nearly an hour later, in an underground parking lot.

"It's bile again...and the amount has increased significantly..."