Great, we're doomed now!

"Shh~ Be good, don't make a sound, it'll be alright soon." The young mother was pale, saying things she herself didn't believe, but she still tried to remain calm, gently patting her son's back with her uncontrollably trembling hands.

Asuna leaned against the cold plastic wall, her heart pounding.

She instinctively reached for her waist, but found it empty—items from the game wouldn't appear in reality.

However, she didn't have such strong physical abilities, so even with weapons, she couldn't fly or teleport.

Although she exercises regularly and has used swords while playing ALO, she is generally a well-mannered young lady. She has never experienced anything so dangerous in real life, and her legs tremble at the thought of the terrifying appearance of the Crow People.

However, perhaps because there were children around, she took a deep breath and slowly calmed her panicked thoughts, then gave a reassuring smile to her left: "It's okay, I will definitely help you find your mother."

A girl, who might not even be in elementary school yet, stood close to her, her eyes red and swollen, clearly having cried once. Her little hands gripped Asuna's skirt tightly, refusing to let go, and her usually adorable face was now devoid of color.

"But you have to promise your sister you won't cry, okay? Now let's play a game where nobody makes a sound, okay?"

"Mmm..." The little girl nodded obediently.

In fact, Asuna's situation was no better than that of the little girl who had been separated from her mother—she was also at a loss and didn't know what to do.

But some people are like that; when pushed to the limit, they calm down. Driven by a sense of responsibility, she forced herself to mature, at the very least to protect the child.

"Telephone……"

Everyone who needed to be contacted has been contacted. To prevent the phone from ringing at an inopportune time, everyone has put their phones on silent and checks the messages every few seconds.

Asuna was in the same situation, but the police were of no use at the moment, and her family... could only worry along with her. They didn't know what had happened outside, and at the very least, no rescue force could enter the amusement park at this time.

Time ticked by, and the people trapped in the maze, too afraid to leave, waited for the police and the Self-Defense Forces. But what came first were heavy, mechanical, inhuman footsteps and the screeching sound of some metal object scraping against a plastic surface... Finally, that familiar hissing sound faintly reached them.

—The Crow People are searching in circles!

“They’re coming!” a middle-aged man hiding nearby whispered, his voice filled with despair.

"This way! Go down the ladder over here!" Someone discovered another possible escape route.

The survivors sprang into action, using both hands and feet to climb down the net ladder behind the hidden wall of the lounge. The maze was intriguingly designed; various traps and mechanisms, while not lethal, required deciphering... Hopefully, this would hold off the crow people for a little while.

Asuna shielded the little girl as they mingled in the crowd. In the chaos, someone slipped and let out a short scream. Although they immediately covered their mouths, it still sounded exceptionally clear in the deathly silent castle.

"Sigh!"

The sound, seemingly coming from somewhere in the pipes below, was accompanied by the crow-man's disgruntled shrieks, which made everyone's hearts race and disrupted the order of the group.

They stumbled and fell to the ground in a relatively open area of ​​the castle, where there were some cartoon-shaped trash cans and benches. Without even catching her breath, Asuna could only follow the crowd, running deeper into the castle grounds.

"Aaaaaaaah!!!"

Suddenly, an exceptionally shrill scream rang out, startling everyone who was completely unaware of what had happened.

During the ensuing escape, chilling screams could be heard intermittently in the distance, sometimes short and sometimes abrupt, and occasionally the buzzing of a laser gun could be heard, though it was unclear what it was attacking.

Each sound seemed to indicate that the group was getting closer, and the source of the sound became more and more dispersed. No one knew how many crow people were in this maze!

Fear gripped everyone's heart like thorns, leaving no time to ponder the meaning of the sound; driven only by the instinct for survival, they ran forward desperately.

However, their luck seemed to have run out.

As they turned the corner from the maze area toward the themed restaurant, a crow-man came running out of the passage on the other side in a panic. Their eyes met, and at that moment, everyone's blood froze—including Asuna's.

"Sigh!"

Unexpectedly, the crow-men did not fire their guns. Instead, they charged forward, swatting aside those blocking their way with a wave of their hands, and letting out a menacing roar, as if they intended to enter the passage directly.

The crowd scattered and fled. A man in a security guard uniform shouted and rushed forward with his eyes closed. He brought his baton high into the air, but the crow man raised his hand to block it and easily threw him to the ground.

Snapped!

Having stepped on it, the crow-man didn't have time to finish off the attacker. Looking ahead, he found that the entrance to the passage was blocked by humans—they frantically tried to retreat.

This drove the crow-man to its wits' end. It desperately wanted to leave this place. Its malevolent eyes flashed yellow, and its beam gun was already raised, the muzzle pointed directly at Asuna, who was lagging behind and blocking its path due to the burden of carrying a heavy object.

In an instant, the girl's whole body tensed up, her eyes fixed on the crowman's movements. A familiar scene from the game flashed through her mind, and her body reacted instinctively before the opponent even fired.

He suddenly exerted force with his feet, and in the process, he fell down with the girl in his arms, flipping on the ground to narrowly avoid the beam of light.

—After experiencing so many VR experiences with realistic rendering, rolling and jumping, she finally developed a conditioned reflex!

Her brother probably never imagined that the next-generation game console he secretly brought home from the company would indirectly save his younger sister!

Asuna is naturally quick-witted. She accumulated a lot of experience in dodging and positioning in ALO, and also improved her physical fitness by playing realistic simulation games and running and jumping around in real life. Perhaps she herself did not realize it, but her athletic ability far exceeded that of her peers.

It's a pity I wasn't wearing my power suit today, and I didn't have any weapons. Otherwise, if I had triggered my fighting instincts, I might have actually been able to hold my own against the crow people.

hum!

Asuna dodged it, but the people behind her weren't so lucky. The mother with her child was also squeezed on the outside and was hit by the beam of light. She screamed and disappeared along with her child.

"Ahhhh!"

The overwhelming, desperate hand suffocated everyone!

When Asuna saw this scene, a chill ran down her spine, and a mixture of guilt and anger surged in her chest, leaving her feeling utterly powerless.

Seeing the crow-man aim again, Asuna gritted her teeth and shielded the girl behind her—

"Sigh!"

The crow-man seemed to enjoy the fear of its prey, its beak-like mouth opening and closing slightly, emitting a mocking "clucking" sound.

The finger slowly moved toward the trigger—

In that instant, the crow-man's movements abruptly stopped.

It seemed to sense something, and its bird-like head suddenly rose, its yellow eyes looking towards the restaurant roof.

Asuna froze, her gaze rising as if she had seen something terrifying. Her legs involuntarily retreated, and the shrinking gun in her hand trembled slightly.

Immediately afterwards, not only the Crow People, but even Asuna felt it... It was like a hidden boss in a dungeon suddenly spawning behind you, and a single sword strike could wipe out your entire health bar!

No turning back... No turning back...

But, driven by fear, I slowly turned around—

A dark shadow, like a sharp blade tearing through the shadows, moved with the agility and stillness of a bat, swooping down from above as if a dark curtain had fallen!

The figure was so fast that only the afterimage of its trajectory could be seen; after it had passed, the icy gust of wind finally arrived.

With a muffled thud and the sound of bones shattering, the crowman was slammed to the ground by a tremendous force before he could even fire his gun. The beam gun flew out of his hand, bounced a few times on the ground, and rolled into a corner.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye.

Asuna stared wide-eyed at the scene before her, shocked. The crow-man who had just threatened her life was now lying motionless on the ground like a broken doll.

In its original location, a burly, dark figure seemed to have been there from the beginning, standing silently and exuding a... inhuman, chilling aura, as if it came from a creature of the night.

When the other person turned to look at her, Asuna instinctively hugged the little girl tighter, but her wariness vanished as soon as the other person spoke.

“You reacted quickly just now… You stay here, the rescue team has arrived, and someone will come to pick you up soon.”

Hearing that it was a human speaking from inside the hideous armor, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, while the chestnut-haired girl was even more astonished: "Kuse-kun?"

"Hmm~"

"What's going on? This is... Yes, Chika and the others—"

"They're alright now."

Ye Shou turned to look at the girl and said gently, "Now we'll begin clearing out the 'terrorists' from the amusement park. Don't wander off."

After saying that, the man bent down to pick up the shrinking gun, and disappeared in the blink of an eye, no one knows where he put it.

Ye Shou's figure swayed, and the black rope behind him swayed in the void, subconsciously attracting everyone's attention. By the time everyone came to their senses, he had already disappeared from the passage.

Asuna relaxed and immediately slumped to the ground. Then, a sudden urge to urinate came, making her blush with embarrassment—courage and timidity can coexist.

"Big sister? What's wrong?"

"Oh...it's okay, we're safe now. The big brother from earlier will protect everyone."

"Mmm, that person just now," the girl's eyes lit up, "was just like a dark hero!"

"That is?"

"A character from Metal Heroes! My favorite!"

Asuna comforted the little girl, only then belatedly realizing what was happening and frowning.

Kuze-kun... It's not surprising that he was able to get his hands on power armor, but did he take care of all the pursuers by himself?

A top billionaire is a "dark hero"? That's a bit hard to believe!

and also……

Asuna glanced at the spot where the mother and child had disappeared. She didn't know what the effect of the beam was, but she felt that she had dodged it and that it had harmed the two of them... Even though it was for self-preservation, it made her feel very uncomfortable.

After experiencing a life-or-death crisis, her mindset seemed to have changed.

"If I could fight like I'm killing monsters in a video game..."

Asuna thought of the power armor on Ye Shou's body, bit her lip lightly, and her gaze gradually hardened.

-

Ye Shou was unaware of the girl's changes, nor did he have time to concern himself with such delicate matters; he was currently in a state of "calm anger."

【Berserker II】Full-coverage power armor, jointly completed by Ye Shou and Masaki, using some materials that Ye Shou brought back from the dungeon world.

The original design was enhanced with a whip-like tail blade, the basic frame was replaced with hard alloy, the external armor was coated with a nano anti-light coating, and the original greatsword weaponry was upgraded to a high-frequency oscillating blade.

It's practically a smaller version of Gundam, with only one fundamental difference:

The built-in power supply cannot meet the full power requirements, requiring the operator to use their own physical strength to drive it, and even be responsible for a portion of the power supply!

Ordinary people simply cannot do this, not even Masaki Keigo. Therefore, this power armor is a one-of-a-kind special product, and only when equipped on Ye Shou can it unleash terrifying mobility!

He ran through the perilous amusement park, the ripple energy flowing through his blood and unleashing the full potential of his hard-earned body. At this moment, he felt no fatigue whatsoever.

"Sigh!"

A crow-like figure poked its head out from the top of the carousel and fired a shot precisely at Ye Shou.

However, at the same moment it pulled the trigger, Ye Shou had already changed course as if he had foreseen the future, and dodged past without even slowing down.

The crow-man was startled, and at the same time, he lost sight of his target. He quickly scanned the area but couldn't see a trace of him. The next moment, he felt a chilling coldness creep up from behind—

puff!

A sharp tail blade pierced through the crow-man's chest, and the alien creature struggled for a few moments before going still.