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

but……

Even after the homeroom teacher, Ashikaga Miwa, entered the classroom, Asagiri didn't come to find her at all.

……

After the morning classes ended, Kaguya Shinomiya couldn't hold back any longer and stood up to walk over to Asagiri, who was sitting in the corner of the classroom.

She didn't hear a single word of the morning's lessons; her mind was completely occupied with one thing.

"you……"

Kaguya Shinomiya looked at Asagiri sitting there and slowly began to speak.

Why don't you come and mock me?

"Are you OK?"

Even Asagiri, who is always causing trouble, was stunned for a moment when she heard Kaguya Shinomiya's words, and then looked at her as if she were an idiot.

"Are you some kind of severe masochist? Why are you so eager to be attacked?"

"Because I lost."

"You lost...and then what?"

Upon hearing Asagiri's words, Kaguya Shinomiya frowned slightly.

"Don't you hate pure academic students? You beat me this time, and completely. Don't you have any thoughts of pressing your advantage?"

"When did I ever hate pure medical students?"

"So, what about your first day of school..."

Asagiri waved her hand, interrupting Kaguya Shinomiya's words, and said with a light laugh.

"What I despise is the so-called division between pure and mixed colleges. Because I despise this, I will never consider you an enemy from a different faction. You are just my classmate Kaguya Shinomiya, nothing more."

91

Chapter 91 The Cyber ​​Ghost I Admire.

After saying this, seeing Kaguya Shinomiya's slightly complicated expression, Asagiri stood up and walked out of the classroom with Kotoko Iwanaga, leaving behind only a soft voice.

"Besides, on the first day of school, didn't you warn the students who wanted to cause me trouble? Although I don't need your help, I appreciate your kindness. For now, you are just my opponent, not my enemy."

Watching Asagiri and Kotoko Iwanaga leave, Kaguya Shinomiya's beautiful red eyes flickered as she murmured to herself in a barely audible voice.

"For now, we're just rivals... which means there's a possibility that we might become enemies in the future..."

During the last judo lesson, Kaguya Shinomiya noticed a detail in Asagiri's words.

"Opponent" and "enemy".

Asagiri seemed to distinguish between the two clearly. To him, an opponent was an opponent, and even if he defeated his opponent, as the victor, there was no need to mock or humiliate him. Instead, he would affirm his opponent's determination and courage.

So……

What about the "enemy"?

What kind of people would Asagiri define as "enemies"? And what would he do when facing "enemies"?

Kaguya Shinomiya murmured to herself.

"I really can't figure this person out at all..."

……

More than ten days later, on Wednesday afternoon, at Kotoko Iwanaga's home.

"Today is the thirtieth day since the game was launched."

Asuna Yuuki looked at Megumi Kato, Kotoko Iwanaga, and the three others in front of her and slowly began to speak.

"If you sign up today, we will enter the dungeon on Saturday, which is the thirty-third day after the game's launch. According to Asagiri's prediction, this time we will enter the second stage dungeon with increased difficulty."

Kato Megumi rested her chin on her hand, seemingly lost in thought.

"I wonder what changes the second phase of the dungeon will bring compared to the first phase..."

"We'll find out once we enter the instance."

Asagiri smiled and said something, then took out her phone, opened the app with the eye icon, and began to confirm her registration to actively participate in the dungeon.

Advanced players have the privilege of receiving keyword suggestions for available dungeons when they choose to actively sign up for a dungeon, and this time is no exception.

A dark red mist gradually appeared on the phone screen, but just as the dark red mist was about to form words, a sudden change occurred.

"Zizzizi..."

Accompanied by a piercing electrical interference sound, Asagiri's phone screen suddenly began to flicker with static. Then, the entire screen was filled with three characters of varying sizes and distorted shapes.

Come find me! ...

"This is……"

The next second, a girl's voice, which was both amused and chillingly terrifying, suddenly came from Asagiri's phone. It sounded somewhat deranged.

"Come find me, come find me, come become my player..."

"Morning mist!"

Asuna Yuuki reacted the fastest, immediately drawing her exorcist sword and standing up next to Asagiri.

Just then, a tall black shadow suddenly appeared behind Asagiri.

Without being summoned, the human Asura appeared on his own initiative.

"Well……"

The slightly manic girl's voice abruptly stopped the moment the human demon appeared. The dense, dark red text "Come find me" on the screen disappeared, replaced by a few keywords, just like when she volunteered to participate in the dungeon last time.

[Romance, zombies, escape, darkness]

At this moment, however, the three women—Yuuki Asuna, Iwanaga Kotoko, and Kato Megumi—were not paying any attention to the keyword hints for the dungeon.

"What was that sound just now?"

Kotoko Iwanaga frowned and murmured.

"Is it some kind of anomaly from another world? How can it bypass the game's system and interfere with our world without even entering the instance? What kind of being is it...?"

Kotoko Iwanaga and the others never expected that such a thing would happen.

Even though we didn't enter the instance, that strange phenomenon occurred. Although it didn't cause any harm to us, but...

Does this mean that the strange occurrences in the second phase of the difficulty dungeon have already acquired the power to affect the real world?

They hadn't even entered the instance yet, or even officially registered, but Kotoko Iwanaga and the others had already realized that the difficulty of the second phase of this game was definitely not comparable to the childish instance of the first phase.

“Utsunomiya-kun, we…”

Kato Megumi looked at Asagiri and tentatively asked.

Which instance should we enter this time?

Logically speaking, Kato Megumi, Yuuki Asuna, and Iwanaga Kotoko should all express their opinions and discuss with Asagiri, the team leader, when deciding which keyword to enter for the dungeon.

but……

After what just happened, even Kotoko Iwanaga, who has the strongest mental fortitude and knows nothing of fear, was unable to calm down for a moment.

"Which instance should we enter..."

Asagiri glanced at the keyword prompts that appeared on her phone screen, then looked up at the three women in front of her and said with a smile.

"I'm starting to feel like dating, and they've invited me so enthusiastically, how could I possibly refuse?"

"Eh?"

Upon hearing this, Asuna Yuuki paused for a moment, then hesitated.

"You mean...we want to enter the instance with the keyword 'romance'? You think that sound just now, and those words on the screen, were caused by the strange things in this instance? But..."

The usually decisive and efficient Asuna Yuuki was now extremely hesitant.

"We have no idea how difficult the second phase of the dungeon is. But considering that something in that dungeon can transmit information to us in different worlds via a mobile phone, it's very likely that the dungeon she's in is one of the most difficult, even by the standards of the second phase. I think... the risk is too high."

“My opinion is exactly the opposite of Asuna’s.”

After Asuna Yuuki finished speaking, Kotoko Iwanaga finally spoke.

"The reason is simple. Based on the criteria we used to choose a dungeon last time, we should choose the dungeon that best suits our team's configuration. We've already experienced zombies before. The keywords 'escape' and 'darkness' don't allow us to determine what type of enemies are in the corresponding dungeon."

"But if the thing that spoke to us just now is really in the instance corresponding to the keyword 'love,' then considering that she can influence our world through her phone, she is most likely a strange type of enemy."

"And the bizarre type of dungeon is exactly the type of dungeon we are best at at this stage, so I agree with the Leader's opinion."

After speaking, Kotoko Iwanaga looked at Megumi Kato, who was sitting there without saying a word.

"Hui, what's your opinion?"

"Um……"

Seeing that her three teammates, Asagiri, Yuuki Asuna, and Iwanaga Kotoko, were all waiting for her to give her opinion, Kato Megumi thought about it seriously for a while before replying.

“I think… this is the first time we’ve encountered something so strange before even entering a dungeon. Maybe it’s not due to the increased difficulty of the second phase, but rather that we’ve unlocked a so-called hidden level? If that’s the case, if we miss it this time, we might not encounter it again next time. Asuna is right, this choice does carry some risk, but…”

Kato Megumi looked at Asagiri and said in a soft voice.

"Given Utsunomiya's personality, since the other party dared to transmit information through his phone, he wouldn't possibly let go of the opportunity to enter the other party's instance and eliminate them completely, right?"

The words of the sage Megumi revealed the secret, and Asuna Yuuki and Kotoko Iwanaga suddenly understood.

It really is.

If we don't enter the instance where the girl with the voice is located this time, but instead choose to enter another instance, what if the other party uses Asagiri's phone to do something unpredictable?

As the saying goes...

"If you don't cut the weeds at the root, they'll grow back in the spring. You want me to go find her? Fine!"

Asagiri slammed her hand on the table, stood up abruptly, and said with great force.

"A female ghost? I'll make sure she never leaves alive!"

Asuna Yuuki couldn't help but chuckle and made a sarcastic remark.

"It's not that she came looking for us, but that we went looking for her, right? What do you mean by 'never to come back'?"

"Oh, right, then let me put it another way."

Asagiri changed the subject and spoke again.

"How can I tolerate someone else snoring beside my bed?! The hunt for the female ghost begins!"

Seeing Asagiri's determined look, Kato Megumi couldn't help but smile, her voice tinged with amusement.

"Just looking at Utsunomiya-kun's appearance, I would think we are the BOSS in the dungeon and that female ghost is the player."

Kotoko Iwanaga stood up, straightened her skirt, and smiled sweetly.

"That guy has no choice but to scare Asagiri. Now look what he's done to himself."

……

Three days later, at nine o'clock on Saturday morning, it was still at Kotoko Iwanaga's house.

As the clock struck nine, Asagiri, Asuna Yuuki, Kotoko Iwanaga, and Megumi Kato all felt that familiar shiver. Blood-red text began to appear on their phone screens.

[Player Utsunomiya Asagiri, now entering the instance.]

[The location of this instance is: the game]

The time limit for this instance is eight small...

Just as the system text was halfway up, all four phones simultaneously emitted a piercing electrical noise, and the text on the screen began to distort rapidly, transforming into three large characters that filled the entire screen.

Come find me! ...

The next second, the view in front of Asagiri and the others was covered by a thick red mist.

92

Chapter 92 Entering the Romance Game.