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

"Hmm... so how exactly should these things be allocated?"

Upon hearing Yuuki Asuna's question, Kato Megumi maintained a calm demeanor on the surface, but inwardly she couldn't help feeling a little nervous.

Compared to the dangers within the dungeons, the reward distribution process is actually the most likely to cause conflict, even in online games, let alone games where players personally participate and face the real risk of death.

Who wouldn't want to claim all the rewards for themselves and ensure the highest survival rate in the dungeon?

Even if that's not the case, from an emotional standpoint, as the last one to join the team, I probably wouldn't have had the chance to obtain those items...

Just as Kato Megumi was thinking this, she heard Asagiri reply in a calm tone.

"Give the battlefield first aid kit to Phantom. After all, she has the talent to minimize her presence and is unlikely to be the enemy's first target. It's safest to leave it to her for safekeeping. I'll take the adrenaline and the sniper rifle."

"okay."

Seeing that Asagiri and Yuuki Asuna had settled the distribution of rewards in just a few words, and that Yuuki Asuna and Iwanaga Kotoko, who hadn't received anything, showed no sign of dissatisfaction, Kato Megumi was somewhat bewildered.

"Um... how about you keep the battlefield first aid kit?"

Upon hearing Kato Megumi's words, Yuuki Asuna shook her head, handed the red package with a white cross on it to her, and smiled gently.

“We are a team, and a team can only have one decisive voice. I believe that the way the leader is assigned is the most reasonable and most beneficial to the whole team.”

"But……"

Seeing that Kato Megumi was still somewhat hesitant, Yuuki Asuna pretended to be a little angry.

"If you don't accept it, I'll think you're treating me like a petty, jealous little girl."

Halfway through the act, Asuna Yuuki couldn't help but burst out laughing herself, and offered words of comfort.

"Don't refuse! If you really feel bad, just bring your first-aid kit and treat my injury next time you get hurt."

"OK, thanks."

"There's nothing to thank me for."

Asuna Yuuki waved her hand and smiled gracefully.

"We're all comrades."

……

After leaving the No. 1 inpatient building, the four saw that the once empty hospital was now filled with a large number of zombies wandering around.

"Roar……"

The zombies that were closer noticed that someone had come out of the lobby of the No. 1 building of the inpatient department. They immediately turned around, opened their mouths and let out a roar that was hard to understand. They pounced on the four people at a speed that was not very fast, but equivalent to a normal person jogging.

Kotoko Iwanaga frowned slightly, as if deep in thought.

"Hmm? Just like the zombie horde that attacked us earlier, ordinary infected that can move quickly... Where did they come from...?"

Asagiri looked at Yuuki Asuna and smiled without any sign of nervousness.

"Violet, I'm leaving it to you."

Upon hearing Asagiri's words, Asuna Yuuki nodded.

"it is good."

Immediately afterwards, she swiftly swung her exorcist sword, giving the zombies no chance to get close, killing them one by one with clean, decisive movements.

“Phantom, here you go.”

Upon hearing Asagiri call out his code name, Kato Megumi turned around, caught the rapier thrown to him, and looked puzzled.

"This is……"

"You should also go and clean up these infected people."

"Oh, good."

Kato Megumi gripped her rapier tightly, pursed her lips, mustered her courage, activated her talent effect, and then approached an ordinary infected person.

Because of the effect of her talent, the ordinary infected creature didn't notice anything, it just stood there, shaking its head and making some meaningless movements.

"brush!"

Kato Megumi thrust her sword with all her might, striking the back of the ordinary infected person's head. The sharp tip of the sword was deeply embedded in the other person's skull.

As she drew her rapier, the ordinary infected person collapsed to the ground.

"Huh...huh..."

Kato Megumi took a deep breath, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart.

If you include the newbie dungeon, this is her third time entering a dungeon, but it's her first time fighting.

Kotoko Iwanaga and Asagiri remained unfazed by any bloody scene, acting like monsters who were not human at all. Asuna Yuuki, though initially nervous when she entered the game, possessed a fierce competitive spirit—a spirit that refused to lose and was determined to fight even at the cost of death—a quality not found in ordinary people.

In this respect, Kato Megumi cannot compare with these three people, so she needs to hone her skills.

In any case, as long as the talent aura is activated, these ordinary infected people will not be able to detect Kato Megumi's existence, making her a perfect practice target for her to adapt to combat.

For ordinary players, this is a difficult point. The ordinary infected, who should be advancing cautiously and avoiding fighting, pose no threat at all to Kato Megumi and Yuuki Asuna.

Upon arriving at the lobby of the second inpatient building, Yuuki Asuna finally breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Kato Megumi, whose wrists were still trembling slightly and whose face looked somewhat tired, and asked her with concern.

"Are you ok?"

Kato Megumi nodded slightly and replied softly.

"Well, I'm fine."

During the battles along the way, Kato Megumi did not maintain the activation of her talent aura continuously. After all, when moving on foot, she could only maintain the talent for a maximum of one minute at this stage.

If you fight while activating your talent, the consumption of physical and mental energy will be even greater.

After becoming more proficient, Kato Megumi mastered the correct way to use her talent: she would not activate the talent aura before entering the enemy's line of sight, but would activate it when she got close, and immediately deactivate it after killing the enemy.

In this way, the consumption will be much less.

More importantly, through her recent zombie-clearing operation, Kato Megumi discovered a weakness in her unique talent.

Her talent aura only works when the enemy hasn't noticed her yet. After all, it's not true invisibility. If the enemy has already noticed her, reducing her presence won't help at all.

"This instance is really quite strange."

Kotoko Iwanaga tapped the ground gently with her cane, seemingly lost in thought.

"The key word is zombies, but at first it didn't seem like a typical zombie apocalypse. Ordinary infected people who could only move slowly suddenly became able to move quickly. Was it because they were not the same kind to begin with, or...?"

Kotoko Iwanaga looked outside at the sky, which had already turned somewhat dark and gloomy, and murmured to herself.

"As night approaches in this world, the abilities of the infected will become stronger and stronger?"

75

Chapter 75: Time spent alone with Asuna.

"It's been more than two hours since we entered the instance."

Kotoko Iwanaga seemed to have grasped some crucial clue, and a flash of inspiration struck her.

"I understand now. That very diary at the beginning was both an important clue providing information to the players and a misleading trap!"

"Misleading?"

"That's right, misleading."

Kotoko Iwanaga was very excited to get closer to the truth and couldn't wait to speak.

"Do you remember? The last message left by the owner of the diary was on the sixteenth day after the apocalypse. But according to what that ghost just said, the infected people appeared about a month and a half ago... No, considering that he didn't even know he was dead, and that the ghosts' perception of the flow of time becomes blurred, the time from when this disaster first occurred to now must be more than a month and a half."

Upon hearing this, Asuna Yuuki couldn't help but ask a question in confusion.

"But...we examined the body in the apartment. Although none of the four of us are professionals, we can't possibly not tell the difference between a body that's been dead for a few days and one that's been dead for more than a month, can we?"

"This is where the misleading part is most serious."

Kotoko Iwanaga raised her fair index finger and slowly began to speak.

"The owner of the diary did not lie, but everything he recorded was based on his own analysis. He said he did not 'become those things,' but did he really not get infected with the virus? Zombie viruses in various genres all have one characteristic: even if the infected person's bodily functions stop, they will not decompose excessively. Even the special infected people in this instance have no signs of decomposition at all."

"The information written by the diarist describes the city's appearance half a month before the apocalypse. At that time, he would still encounter those things when he went to the supermarket downstairs. However, after we left the apartment, we only encountered one special infected person, which is completely inconsistent with the scene he described."

"So if we start to piece together the timeline now, it should be: the apocalypse breaks out - the diary's owner records - the diary owner dies - that mysterious army enters the city and begins to clear out ordinary infected people - the doctor in this hospital, Robin Diaz, dies - the virus mutates, causing the infected to evolve, and special infected people may have been born during this stage. Finally, that army, or possibly another organization, implanted locators in the bodies of special infected people, turning the entire city into an experimental field."

Upon hearing Kotoko Iwanaga's analysis, Asuna Yuuki, who was already quite intelligent, immediately realized what was going on and exclaimed in understanding.

"The misleading aspect of the diary is that it makes players believe that the time period when they enter the instance is just a few days after the diary's owner died, in the first stage of the apocalypse. But in reality, the time point in this instance is already the second stage, when the virus has undergone a second evolution, ordinary infected people can move quickly, and special infected people have emerged."

"exactly."

Kato Megumi, standing to the side, frowned, her eyes revealing a complex expression.

"Why would someone deliberately spread such misleading information..."

"Because that's how this game is."

Asagiri spoke in a calm tone.

"Although the information in the diary may mislead players, the incorrect information will lead to the correct conclusion: as long as you carefully avoid the special infected, you will hardly encounter any danger on the way from the spawn point to this Ren'ai Hospital. However, as time goes by and night approaches, things will get more complicated. The seemingly simple first objective of clearing the dungeon, surviving until the time limit ends, is actually the most difficult. The seemingly difficult second objective is actually the simplest one."

"Those who are too cautious and slow in their actions will be eliminated. Those who cannot maintain calm thinking in unfamiliar environments, have low information gathering efficiency, or cannot find the route to the hospital will be eliminated. Those who are afraid to face any danger and only want to hide in the spawn point to get through the dungeon will be eliminated. Those who, after arriving at this hospital, place too much faith in the misleading information they initially gathered in the spawn point and therefore assume that infected people are slow-moving and not threatening, and rush into battle directly, will also be eliminated."

Asagiri's next words weighed heavily on both Kato Megumi and Yuuki Asuna's hearts.

"The game's system is neither cruel nor merciful to players. It simply enforces its own set of standards, selecting the best players through repeated dungeon trials, and that's all."

……

Ten minutes later, in a ward on the top floor of Building 2 of the inpatient department.

"Is this what they call antibody reagents...?"

Kotoko Iwanaga looked at the two rows of glass tubes filled with pale green liquid, and tentatively reached out to touch them. Sure enough, the eye icon app on her phone immediately made a notification sound, and a line of text appeared on the screen.

[You have obtained one vial of ? ? virus antibody reagent. Confirm submission? Submission signifies completion of the mission and you will begin returning to the real world for mission settlement.]

"Finally, I've cleared the game."

Upon seeing the notification on her phone screen, Kotoko Iwanaga rubbed her eyes, yawned, and stretched, looking rather tired.

The time from entering the instance to completing the objective was similar to the previous hotel instance, but during the hotel instance, I spent most of the time sitting and resting, and I didn't move as far as I did this time.

"1, 2, 3, 4, is there a total of ten reagent tubes? That means, besides us, there are six other players entering the instance this time?"

Upon hearing Kotoko Iwanaga's question, Asagiri replied calmly.

"Not necessarily. There's a possibility that the antibody reagents are stored elsewhere in the hospital. Otherwise, wouldn't the player who finds the antibody reagents first have the lifeline of the other players in their hands?"

"Too."

Kotoko Iwanaga nodded, then smiled and said.

"Then let's start now..."

"You and Phantom go out first, Violet and I will explore a little longer."

"Eh?"

Upon hearing Asagiri say that she and Yuuki Asuna would continue their exploration alone, Iwanaga Kotoko puffed out her cheeks and huffed.

"This is discrimination against me. I want to stay too."

"You think this is a date?"

Asagiri reached out and gently patted Kotoko Iwanaga's head, smiling as she spoke.

“Violet can gain enhanced speed, agility, and reflexes by killing special infected individuals, so even if it delays the completion time and causes the completion rating to drop, it shouldn't be a loss, and might even be profitable. As for me, I want to continue exploring this hospital to see if I can find anything else of value, so there's no need for you two to delay along with me. The completion rating will drop, but more importantly, both you and Phantom's condition will be depleted.”

Kotoko Iwanaga, who was originally sulking and wanted to stay, blushed slightly after Asagiri patted her head gently in a way that was like coaxing a child. She muttered softly.

"Hmph, are you trying to fool a child? But you have a point. Phantom and I will head back now. Be careful, you hear me?"

"OK."

After Kotoko Iwanaga and Megumi Kato each took a vial of antibody reagent, clicked to confirm and submit, and their figures disappeared instantly, Asagiri lay down on the hospital bed next to her and said lazily.

"Alright, let's rest for a while, and then continue exploring."

Yuuki Asuna nodded first, sat down on another hospital bed, then rested her chin on her hand, looked at Asagiri lying there, and couldn't help but smile.

"You just said you wanted to continue collecting valuable items, but that's not your main reason for wanting to stay in the dungeon, is it?"