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

The lobby was completely empty, with no one at the front desk. The only sound was the telephone receiver connected to the landline, which swayed slightly in the air and emitted a busy tone. Apart from that, there was no other sound; the silence was so profound that it sent chills down one's spine.

Just then, a loud bang suddenly came from above the hall.

"boom!!!"

A humanoid shadow, over two meters tall and with patterns emitting a faint red glow on its surface, fell from a height of nearly ten meters. The moment it hit the ground, cracks appeared on the surrounding hard marble tiles, and a trembling roar resounded.

"boom!!!"

Amidst the chaos of flying rubble, a laughing voice rang out.

"See? I told you this is the fastest shortcut without encountering any enemies, right?"

Kotoko Iwanaga jumped off Shura's shoulder and landed lightly on the ground. She didn't seem flustered at all. She even straightened her clothes and adjusted her white beret before replying with a smile.

"The other side probably didn't expect that we would neither take the stairwell nor the elevator, but instead break through the ground from the fifth floor and fall down."

"Indeed, we didn't encounter any obstacles, but..."

Seeing that Asagiri immediately released the summoning of the Human Asura after landing, Yuuki Asuna pursed her lips, looking slightly worried.

"Summoning a Persona consumes a lot of mental and physical energy, right? And you even fought your way through four floors, plus the cushioning effect when you landed... How are you feeling now?"

"completely fine."

Asagiri replied with a smile, then typed a line on her phone, flipped it over, and showed it to Kotoko Iwanaga and Asuna Yuuki.

"I'm a little tired, I've used up about 30% of my physical strength, but my mental strength is fine. Don't talk about this. If that strange source can hear what we're saying, it might take this opportunity to launch an attack. Pretend nothing's wrong and try to buy me as much rest time as possible."

Upon seeing this, both Asuna Yuuki and Kotoko Iwanaga nodded, indicating that they understood.

Asagiri had no intention of showing off or being cool. After all, this was a dungeon, an extremely dangerous and eerie dungeon where two players had already died, not a child's game. Intentionally concealing his status would only mislead his teammates' judgment of the situation.

"Let's go to the reception area first. Didn't the special notice say that you can get very valuable information there?"

Although Asuna Yuuki was somewhat worried about Asagiri's condition, she had no other choice. If they followed the normal route and went down the stairs through the stairwell, not to mention how many evil spirits they would encounter, fighting in the narrow stairwell could easily lead to accidents, and it would also consume the physical and mental energy of the three of them.

In comparison, drilling through the ceiling connecting the floors and rappelling directly is indeed the safest option.

As she walked toward the reception area, which was the hotel front desk, Yuuki Asuna had already grasped the exorcist's longsword in her hand. She expended a small amount of mental energy to cast "Wind's Blessing," which would make her body lighter. At the same time, she walked in front to ensure that if any evil spirit suddenly rushed out from there, she could block it immediately.

Fortunately, no terrifying evil spirits suddenly appeared.

Asuna Yuuki breathed a sigh of relief, but just to be on the safe side, she still gripped the exorcist's sword tightly in her hand and, together with Asagiri and Kotoko Iwanaga, began searching for what exactly this so-called "valuable information" in the special hint was.

"Guest registration form...work permit...hygiene certificate...none of these are of any use."

Just as Kotoko Iwanaga and Asuna Yuuki couldn't find anything of value, Asagiri walked over to the staff seat next to them and picked up a newspaper that was lying there.

"Valuable intelligence has been found."

"Has it been found? Let me see..."

Asuna Yuuki leaned over for a look and found that most of the newspaper was stained with some kind of black stain, making it impossible to read the contents. Only one section remained, with a news article written on it.

"A riot has broken out at Giant Mountain Mental Hospital... Giant Mountain? Isn't that where we do our newbie dungeon?"

Asuna Yuuki muttered this to herself, then looked up at Asagiri and asked in confusion.

"This... there was an out-of-control riot among the patients at the Giant Mountain Mental Hospital. We probably already guessed that, right? After all, that's pretty much the plot of that game. It's not exactly valuable information, is it?"

"No, the valuable intelligence I'm referring to doesn't refer to the matter itself."

Asagiri shook her head, speaking calmly.

"The news about the Giant Mountain Mental Hospital appearing in this hotel's newspaper proves that this instance location and the location of our last newbie instance are from the same world. Moreover, both instances are of the bizarre type. Since the APP has given a special hint that this is valuable information, it cannot be a mere coincidence. For now, we can assume that all the bizarre type instances arranged by the APP are located in a certain place in this world, and this world... let's call it the Bizarre World."

"A bizarre world..."

Yuuki Asuna's curiosity was piqued, and she couldn't help but ask.

"So, what can we do now that we know this information?"

"There is nothing we can do."

Asagiri's answer surprised Yuuki Asuna and Iwanaga Kotoko.

"Although it's very interesting, this information isn't very useful for the time being. It seems to only provide us with the thrill of cracking a part of the truth as players."

"Was it good...?"

Asuna Yuuki sighed and shook her head with a hint of helplessness.

"Compared to this, I'd much rather have something like an exorcism longsword, something that can provide real help in clearing dungeons..."

When Kotoko Iwanaga heard this, she was about to say something with a smile when she suddenly sensed a strange aura. The smile on her face vanished instantly, and her expression turned serious.

"Wait, something... is approaching."

As she finished speaking, a strange sound, like a mixture of footsteps and dripping water, broke the silence in the hotel lobby.

041 Floating Corpse Evil Spirit

Asuna Yuuki's expression changed. She gripped the exorcist's sword tightly and turned her gaze toward the direction from which the sound came.

That direction... is where you take the hotel elevator.

Asuna Yuuki instantly conjured up a floor plan of the hotel's first floor in her mind. With her intelligence, memorizing the entire structure of the hotel's first floor was not a difficult task.

If she remembers correctly, the elevator is always the way from the room where the water tank is located to the front desk.

So... the source of this hotel's strangeness, which had been hiding inside the water tank, has come out on its own?

Asuna Yuuki took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, but her hands trembled slightly. After all, she had witnessed firsthand the gruesome scene of players who had drunk the water, their bodies exploding and leaving behind a bloody mess that was too painful to look at.

It can be done using only water...

How terrifying will the true face of that eerie source be?

"Violet, Necro, begin putting on your armor."

Upon hearing Asagiri's voice, Asuna Yuuki finally snapped out of her daze. She immediately took out goggles and a disposable mask from her pocket, put them on her face, and also took out two small wads of cotton and stuffed them into her ears.

The goggles were obtained in the staff lounge, the disposable masks were found in the hotel rooms, and the cotton was torn from cotton swabs.

However, these items were not recognized as equipment or props by the app. Although it is unknown whether they can be brought back to the real world, they certainly cannot be brought into the next dungeon.

After taking all these precautions, Asuna Yuuki took a deep breath and stared intently in the direction from which the sound came.

From the hotel reception where the three were standing, they couldn't directly see the elevator entrance; they could only hear the eerie "clattering" sound, which was gradually approaching step by step.

When the owner of the voice finally revealed his true appearance, even though Asuna Yuuki had prepared herself mentally, her expression still changed.

A disgusting creature, nearly three meters tall, dressed in white pajamas, with long, wet black hair, dragging its way across the polished marble floor, its body swollen and pale, looking like a corpse that had been soaking in water for ten or fifteen days, slowly walked into the hotel lobby.

With each step it took, a disgusting, unidentified liquid was squeezed out from its body. The stench emanating from its body made Asuna Yuuki and Kotoko Iwanaga frown, even though they were nearly twenty meters apart and wearing masks.

"Oh? You're the so-called source of the anomalies?"

Just then, Asagiri suddenly jumped onto the hotel front desk in an extremely cool manner, looked down at the evil spirit, and slowly spoke.

"Instead of running away from me, you actually walked towards me? I admire your courage, but that's all that's worth praising."

At this point, the black gun reappeared in Asagiri's hand.

He slowly raised the gun, aimed it at his temple, and in an instant, his eyes turned a bright gold. Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger with his index finger.

“Persona......”

"Human Asura".

Accompanied by a faint red glow, a humanoid black shadow, over two meters tall with faint red shimmering patterns on its surface, appeared behind Asagiri.

"Go."

The moment Asagiri uttered those two soft words, the human Asura charged toward the floating corpse spirit with astonishing speed disproportionate to its massive size.

In close combat, the Human Asura is a Persona without any weaknesses.

"I also..."

"Wait a moment."

Just as Asuna Yuuki was about to step forward to help, Asagiri jumped down from the counter, gently grasped her wrist, and shook her head.

"Don't rush yet."

"okay."

Although Yuuki Asuna didn't know why, she still obediently nodded in response. At this moment, the Human Asura had already arrived in front of the Floating Corpse Evil Spirit.

It made no sound, but clenched its five fingers into a fist and struck the floating corpse's face with the simplest, most unadorned straight punch.

"boom!!!"

The moment the human demon struck the face of the floating corpse evil spirit with his fist, the spirit's cheek instantly caved in, splattering out a large amount of unidentified liquid, and the stench on its body became even stronger.

"...This taste..."

Even Yuuki Asuna, who always maintains the dignified demeanor of a well-bred lady, instinctively covered her nose in response to the sudden stench. Fortunately, she was wearing goggles, otherwise she was afraid that the pungent smell would make it impossible for her to open her eyes.

"When you get hit, will the fluid inside your body splatter out...? You're practically a walking water balloon."

Compared to Asuna Yuuki, Kotoko Iwanaga remained calm despite the disgusting scene, and even had the leisure to analyze it.

"Judging from its appearance, it should be a corpse that was submerged in the hotel's water tank. The reason it can spread its strangeness through water is because there are parts of its body in those waters. Simply put, that is its corpse water."

"Just listening to you say that makes me feel a little disgusted..."

"Disgusting? I'm immune to all that stuff."

Kotoko Iwanaga raised her cane, pointed at Shura who was fighting against the floating corpse evil spirit, and frowned slightly.

"The stench emanating from that creature is too strong to approach. And did you notice? The bodily fluids gushing from its body seem to have a corrosive effect."

Upon hearing this, Asuna Yuuki looked in the direction Kotoko Iwanaga's cane was pointing and indeed saw that the human Shura's body had been partially corroded after being stained with the unknown liquid emitted by the floating corpse evil spirit, and a small part of its head was missing.

"vomit!!!"

Just then, the floating corpse demon suddenly stretched out two swollen hands, grabbed the human asura's shoulders, and opened its mouth to an exaggerated degree. A stream of dark green liquid gushed out of its mouth and poured directly onto the human asura's body.

Before being completely corrupted, the human Asura used its last strength to extend its right hand and directly cut a hole in the belly of the floating corpse evil spirit. However, since the other party was an evil spirit, no blood flowed out, which could not be considered a fatal wound for the evil spirit at all.

"Cough cough..."

Asagiri coughed twice and swayed slightly. Yuuki Asuna immediately remembered that Asagiri's unique talent description stated that if the Persona was destroyed, the user would lose a lot of physical and mental strength.

Just as she was about to help the other person up, she saw Asagiri raise the gun-shaped summoner again and point the muzzle at her temple once more.

“Persona…”

"Human Asura".

042 The main body in the water tank

Seeing Asagiri summon his Persona again and send Shura charging towards the floating corpse spirit standing in the hall, Asuna Yuuki's expression became extremely solemn. The knuckles of her right hand, gripping the sword hilt, turned slightly white from excessive force.

She wanted to go up and help, but the body of the floating corpse evil spirit would occasionally burst out with a dark green liquid that was extremely corrosive and could instantly melt even a human asura. It also emitted a stench that was unbearable even when wearing a mask.

If that weren't the case, Asagiri wouldn't have let Shura fight while he watched from a distance.

Is this the true meaning of dungeon difficulty?

No, that's not right.

If the normal process is followed, the player would not need to come to the lobby on the first floor, or even go down to the fifth floor of the hotel. Instead, they would encounter the earthbound spirit of the floor around the tenth floor and then begin a chase.

It's even possible that the red-clad female ghost that Asagiri and the player captured at the very beginning of the instance is the most powerful evil spirit that the player would encounter if they followed the normal process, and they wouldn't have to face this nearly three-meter-tall floating corpse evil spirit directly.

At this moment, Asuna Yuuki only regretted that she had been given a melee-type swordsman class instead of a ranged class like a sorcerer, mage, or archer. Otherwise, she could have provided ranged assistance to Shura, who was fighting against the floating corpse spirits, from a safe distance away from the dark green liquid.

"Wait a minute... this guy..."

When Kotoko Iwanaga saw the Human Asura reach out and crush the head of the Floating Corpse Demon with his bare hands, but the Floating Corpse Demon did not disappear, a stream of dark green corpse fluid gushed out from its neck, and it instantly returned to normal. On the contrary, the corpse fluid that splashed out when it was injured corroded part of the Human Asura's body. Suddenly, she had a look of realization and immediately spoke to Asuna Yuuki beside her.

“Violet, I know why that guy took the initiative to attack! It’s because the one fighting the Asura right now isn’t its true form. Its true form is extremely fragile and doesn’t even dare to let us get close. As long as its true form is still there, its strange power won’t dissipate. So… we need to find its true form!”

"The main body... the water tank?"

Asuna Yuuki immediately realized what was happening, gripped her exorcist sword tightly, and shouted at Asagiri.

"Leader, don't get entangled with that guy here, we need to go..."

Just as Asuna Yuuki was halfway through her sentence, the floating corpse demon seemed to have guessed her intention. It tore open its mouth and let out a sharp roar, trying to break free from the human demon's restraints and rush over. However, the human demon was faster than it. It locked the floating corpse demon's neck in a very standard posture and then ripped its head off.