Chapter 263: I Am the Strongest
[One hour remains until this Dungeon reaches the thirty six hour mark. New public hints are now being distributed.]
[New Stage Public Hint: Changes in the "environment" will have a critical impact on the outcome of the "battle."]
After waiting more than ten seconds, Iwanaga Kotoko finally lowered her phone and looked up at Asagiri, Yuuki Asuna, and Kato Megumi.
"It seems that even high level Players like us won't receive any new special hints in the second stage of this Dungeon."
"Is that so?"
Asagiri did not respond right away. Instead, he stood and walked to the door, opening Room 7012.
As expected, Mr. Ichikawa across the hall was opening the door to Room 7011 as well. The nearby Healer team and the White Suit Man's team had also come out.
"What hints did you receive?"
The White Suit Man answered first.
"The hint our team got was [New Stage Public Hint: Changes in the "environment" will have a critical impact on the outcome of the "battle."]"
"Huh? Really?"
Mr. Ichikawa looked surprised. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "The special hint our team received was different. Ours was [In this stage, all surviving "Players" will stand on the same front.]"
"Um... the hint my team got was different from yours too..."
The female Healer spoke softly and cautiously.
"Our hint was [Escaping and cowardice will not have any effect.]"
"I see..."
Asagiri nodded without much reaction and exchanged a glance with the White Suit Man. The two of them arrived at the same guess almost at once.
And once all the surviving Players gathered in the buffet restaurant on the Third Floor and compared the hints they had received, that guess was confirmed.
Two teams had received the hint [New Stage Public Hint: Changes in the "environment" will have a critical impact on the outcome of the "battle."] Those teams were Asagiri's raid team and the White Suit Man's team.
Mr. Ichikawa's group and the other two teams that had not participated in the boss fight had received [In this stage, all surviving "Players" will stand on the same front.]
The remaining teams, including those whose spirits had been shattered by the terrifying power of the Thousand Faced Stone Statue during the raid on the Twenty Fourth Floor, had received [Escaping and cowardice will not have any effect.]
The hints each team received clearly reflected the system's assessment of them.
Asagiri's team and the White Suit Man's team were the strongest, and none of their members had broken mentally, so the system had assigned them the most important role. They were essentially the "commanders," meant to lead the others.
Mr. Ichikawa's team and the other two teams were not as strong, but they still had some combat ability and their mental states were stable for the moment. The system had therefore assigned them the role of deputy assistants to the commanders. The hint [In this stage, all surviving "Players" will stand on the same front.] was meant to make them willing to obey the orders of the two commander teams.
As for the remaining teams...
To put it bluntly, the stronger ones among them had already been frightened out of their wits by the Thousand Faced Stone Statue, while the rest simply lacked the strength. In the system's eyes, they were nothing more than cannon fodder for the "battle" to come. The meaning behind their hint was just as simple.
Want to run? Want to hide?
It's meaningless. It changes nothing.
Cowardice only leads to death. Only by summoning the courage to fight alongside the commanders do you have even the slightest hope of surviving.
It was not a difficult message to understand. Anyone with a little sense could grasp the system's intent.
For a time, the atmosphere in the restaurant grew oppressively heavy. Even the Players' breathing carried a desperate weight.
Then Asagiri's calm voice broke the silence.
"We will win."
In an instant, every eye in the room turned toward him.
Asagiri walked to the front, gazing at the despairing Players before him, and spoke slowly.
"You're all sitting here today because you've survived at least three Dungeons. You've already clawed your way through multiple life and death situations. You've fought desperately to stay alive until now. So tell me, do you really want to die in this one?"
After a short silence, one Player with a pale, hopeless face muttered, "But... can we really win?"
"We will absolutely win."
Asagiri answered without hesitation.
"Because I am here. We will win. I am the strongest."
Faced with that utterly certain declaration, with that tone that made it sound as though it were simply a matter of fact, the Players who had nearly given up began, little by little, to recover the faintest trace of hope in their eyes.
"White Suit."
Hearing the nickname, the White Suit Man stood up. At the same time, he quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
Good. The nickname the other man gave him was based on his clothes, not some absurd nonsense like Parasitic Meatball.
"You and that team."
Asagiri pointed at Mr. Ichikawa and the two teams beside him, smiling lightly.
"Count the abilities of everyone here. Make them take out their phones, open the eye icon APP, and show you their Player panels directly."
The moment he said that, some Players clearly wanted to object, but Asagiri cut them off before they could speak.
"So what matters more, protecting the privacy of your abilities, or surviving and clearing this Dungeon? Think carefully."
After hearing that, the Players who had been about to protest fell silent.
In the end, the whole point of concealing one's abilities was self preservation. At this point, with the system itself calling the coming stage a "battle," if they still refused to cooperate, death was the only outcome left.
Of course, neither Asagiri's team nor the White Suit Man's team needed to reveal their Player panels. Those two teams were the commanders. They were not required to obey anyone else's orders.
...
After the Player abilities had been gathered and organized, the White Suit Man noticed that Asagiri and his team seemed ready to leave. He quickly stepped forward.
"Hey, where are you going? We still need to assign tasks to each team. And there's the command structure for what comes next..."
"You're in charge of that."
"Ah?"
Seeing the bewilderment on the White Suit Man's face, Asagiri patted him on the shoulder and smiled.
"I'm not suited to commanding multiple Player teams in battle. As the strongest team in this Dungeon, and as the strongest Player in this Dungeon, my role is to focus on fighting. I don't need distractions like tactical command."
"But..."
"No buts."
Asagiri turned and walked out of the restaurant with Yuuki Asuna and the others, waving as he left.
"I'll play the hero who raises morale. You can handle the strategy and battlefield command. Let's both do what we're best at."
...
A short while later, in the Hotel lobby on the First Floor—
[The Dungeon has officially entered its next stage. The objective of this stage is: "Survive."]
[Remaining Dungeon time: 35:59:59]
Watching the dark red numbers on the eye icon APP continue to tick downward, Yuuki Asuna, Iwanaga Kotoko, and Kato Megumi all felt a strange sense of pressure, as though something terrible was about to begin now that the countdown had appeared.
"Violet."
Asagiri called out to Yuuki Asuna by codename. His eyes flicked to her sword hand, then to her face.
"If we end up in another fight, don't use Stardust Splash for the time being."
Yuuki Asuna nodded obediently.
"I understand."
Her combat style leaned toward bursts of speed, but her endurance was always the issue. Repeated high intensity combat and continued use of Stardust Splash placed too much strain on her body.
Even though they now had a Healer who could restore injuries, there was still one question:
In the next thirty six hours, would the Players really have enough breathing room to recover properly?
Then, all at once, something changed.
Several clusters of firelike light drifted in from outside the Hotel.
Against the dark, gloomy night, the lights were extremely bright. But unlike normal light, which comforted people, these flames wavered and twisted constantly, radiating a deeply wrong and unnatural feeling.
"They're here...?"
Asagiri glanced toward several concealed positions around the Hotel lobby and raised his hand, signaling the Player teams hiding there not to act rashly yet.
He, Mr. Ichikawa, and the other three teams assigned the role of cannon fodder were responsible for guarding the Hotel entrance on the First Floor, while the White Suit Man was leading the remaining Players to guard the fire escape on the Twenty Fourth Floor.
This was a death game, not an actual online game. Enemies would not simply spawn out of thin air.
So, by normal logic, danger could only come from one of two directions: the floors above the Twenty Fourth, or the outside world.
And as the drifting flames drew nearer, Iwanaga Kotoko finally saw what those "flames" really were. She froze for a moment, then a wary look appeared in her gold violet eyes.
"Those things... are they people?"
.....
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