In the anime, people are in everyday Tokyo, but they are playing the reincarnation game

003 The responsibilities of a “caregiver”

Asuna Yuuki's pupils dilated in shock, and she subconsciously wanted to scream, but the next second she immediately raised her hand to cover her mouth, suppressing the fear in her heart. She didn't make a sound, but her shoulders and legs were trembling slightly.

Seeing this scene, Asagiri made an evaluation in his heart.

As expected of Asuna Yuuki, who has received elite education since childhood, even in such an environment and encountering sudden terrorist incidents, she can maintain the most basic rationality. She will not be like those brainless female characters in horror movies, making shrill screams or doing any stupid stress-induced actions.

"Is anyone here? Let me see what's going on."

Under Yuuki Asuna's incredulous gaze, Asagiri spoke in a relaxed tone with a smile, picked up the chainsaw that was originally placed on the ground, and walked towards the door of the ward step by step.

When he was only two or three steps away from the ward door, very close, the monster with blood on its face outside the door seemed to be stimulated by something. Its neck suddenly tilted back and then hit the transparent observation window heavily.

"boom!!!"

The sudden collision made Yuuki Asuna subconsciously take two steps back, and her legs almost went weak and she fell to the ground.

"Yo, are you trying to scare me?"

Compared to the frightened Yuuki Asuna, Asagiri's reaction was unusually calm. Without any hesitation, she quickly moved to the door of the ward, with only an observation window between them, almost face to face, staring directly at the bloody-faced monster standing outside the door.

The next second, he whispered in a soft tone.

"What are you looking at here? Are you looking for your mother's urn?"

When Yuuki Asuna heard this, she was stunned for a few seconds, and then she reacted. She had not made any sound when she was scared by the monster twice before, but at this moment she could not help but slightly open her lips and utter a syllable expressing doubt.

"what?"

Is this... an insult?

Although a young lady like Yuuki Asuna, who has received an elite education, would definitely not swear, she is not so naive that she could not even tell that Asagiri's words just now were insults.

The key point is that you can just curse if you want to, and the words you use are quite polite, referring to you and your mother.

"No...now is not the time to think about that."

Asuna Yuuki shook her head, forcing herself to forget the abstract swearing she had just heard, then looked at Asagiri who was standing at the door holding a chainsaw, and said with a frown.

"Mr. Fang Shi, you're not planning on opening the door... and fighting that guy outside, are you? This guy must be the 'caregiver' mentioned in the notice. The notice says that as long as our ward is closed, the other party will absolutely not be allowed in. In other words, as long as we don't start, we're safe, at least for the time being."

"Do you want to cooperate with me and discuss and analyze the information we have now?"

Asagiri did not directly respond to Yuuki Asuna's words, and did not even turn her head, but just stared at the hideous and bloody face stuck on the observation window.

"Now it seems that I'm a better 'player' than you. Since you're planning to work with me to clear the level, the least you should do is to tell me your name first, right?"

After hearing this, Yuuki Asuna hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

"Well, you're right. Let me introduce myself. My name is Yuuki Asuna."

Yuuki Asuna is very clear about the current situation.

This is definitely not a spoof reality show, because with her status, no TV station would dare to do such a thing. Moreover, the apartment building where she lives is located in one of the most prosperous areas in Tokyo, the Ginza business district, and the security measures are very strict. Otherwise, her parents would not be able to let her live alone.

In such a dangerous situation, cooperating with the "player" in front of you is the wisest choice. After all, from the previous few minutes of contact, although the other party's personality seems a little different, he is very brave. And looking at the clean and neat movements when he picked up the chainsaw, his physical fitness is obviously very good.

The most important thing is to cooperate and escape from this place.

"Well, hello, my name is Fang Shi Yangming."

Hearing the other party reiterate the name again, Yuuki Asuna couldn't help but frown, wondering if the other party thought that she, a young girl, was easy to fool, or if the other party knew that she had guessed that "Fang Shi Yangming" was a pseudonym, but just didn't care?

"You were a little wrong just now."

"I've mispoken?"

"Well, that's wrong."

Asagiri kept his gaze fixed on the bloody face outside the door. He stood in a relaxed posture, with a smile on his face and a relaxed tone without any tension. If someone didn't know him, they would have thought he was watching monkeys in the zoo.

"It's not 'our ward,' it's 'the ward we're in.'

Yuuki Asuna hesitated after hearing this.

"Does this...make any difference?"

"Of course there is a difference, and it's a crucial difference."

Asagiri continued to stare at the bloody face outside the window as he spoke.

"Since we are 'players', every time we enter a dungeon, it's like starting a 'game'. So, what's the first thing a 'player' does after entering the 'game'?"

When Asagiri asked the question, Yuuki Asuna didn't pretend to know the answer, but shook her head honestly.

"I've never played the game, so I don't know."

Asagiri did not pretend to be profound and keep the answer in suspense, but gave the answer directly.

"It's about gaining an 'identity'. Simulation games, side-scrolling games, action-adventure games, role-playing games—any game will provide the 'player' with a perspective, or an 'identity'."

Although Yuuki Asuna had never played video games before, she immediately understood what Asagiri said.

"So, the subtle difference in wording you just mentioned is actually a hint at the 'player' identity? We don't have our own wards because the roles we play in this dungeon aren't even patients in this sanatorium?"

Asagiri nodded and said softly.

"That's probably the case. Of course, the premise is that the game we're working on isn't trash, but rather a valuable work worthy of careful scrutiny, with every word analyzed to get clues for completing the game. If we make this assumption based on that..."

Before he could finish, Yuuki Asuna seemed to have thought of something and suddenly realized it.

"The primary responsibility of a 'nurse'... is to look after the patients in the hospital. We are not patients of this nursing home, so... the 'nurse' won't actually prevent us from leaving?"

004 Open Door

After saying this, Yuuki Asuna herself was a little surprised. She looked at the hideous and bloody face that was stuck to the observation window and hesitated.

"So...it doesn't actually want to come in, but wants us to open the door of the ward and leave here quickly?"

"Of course not, look at that..."

Asagiri raised his hand, pointed at the hideous, bloody face, and said with a smile.

"Look how anxious this guy is! He's actually here to rescue us from Mars, and..."

Having said that, Asagiri paused for a moment before continuing.

"Judging from its appearance... it's definitely not a living person. Also, based on the word 'caregiver' in the hint, I speculate it's the ghost, evil spirit, or resentful spirit of a 'caregiver' in this nursing home who met with death. Its anxious attempts to persuade us to leave confirm your previous suspicions. An hour... no, only a little over fifty minutes left. In just over fifty minutes, something strange will happen in this nursing home, and no one will be able to leave."

"Ghost, ghost...ghost?"

Asuna Yuuki's face turned pale, and even her voice began to tremble.

"Do ghosts really exist..."

"Wow, how fresh."

Asagiri said nonchalantly, "Even things like suddenly appearing in another place can happen. The existence of creatures like ghosts and evil spirits shouldn't be surprising, right? Besides, this isn't necessarily the world we originally lived in."

Immediately afterwards, without waiting for Yuuki Asuna to speak, Asagiri suddenly changed the subject.

"However, no matter how much analysis and speculation we make, there is only one way to verify whether our conjecture is correct. That is to open the door of the ward and walk out. If our speculation is wrong, I am afraid that the guy outside will attack us the moment we open the door. So the question is, who will open the door, you or me?"

Hearing this question, Yuuki Asuna looked at the hideous and bloody face outside the observation window again, and fear enveloped her heart.

That's right.

No matter how many inferences are made and how much information is provided to support them, who can guarantee that the results of their inferences are correct?

There is only one way to verify it, and if the inferred result is wrong, the consequences are self-evident.

If you see the "nurse" outside behaving aggressively, and quickly close the ward door again, the person remaining in the room may still have a chance of survival.

To be honest, Yuuki Asuna was very scared. She didn't want to face the hideous monster with a bloody face, and she didn't want to die. She really wanted the other party to open the door to verify whether their guess was correct.

But.......

Why?

During the analysis process, the mysterious man who called himself "Fang Shi Yangming" was the leader. She just followed the other party's thoughts and gave speculations that any normal person could think of. Now she asked the other party to risk his life to open the door and face the horrible monster?

Even though she was afraid, even though she was scared, Asuna Yuuki did not think that as a "player", she had the right to ask another "player" to bear all the risks on her behalf.

"me..."

Yuuki Asuna took a deep breath and her hands clenched involuntarily.

"I'll open the door. If I'm attacked, I'll do my best to push the guy outside away. You can use this opportunity to close the door again."

Hearing this, Asagiri made no bones about it and immediately made way for the ward door, even making a gesture of invitation.

"Oh, that's great. Ms. Yuuki Asuna is so righteous. I admire her deeply. I am a gentleman. Come on, ladies first."

Seeing his actions and listening to his words, Yuuki Asuna didn't know what to say for a moment.

It was my decision to open the ward door, but the problem was...

Aren’t you being too rude?

"You're such a weirdo..."

Asuna Yuuki said helplessly as she walked towards the door of the ward.

When she arrived at the door of the ward, she looked at the hideous, bloody face outside the observation window. Due to excessive tension and fear, she felt her limbs begin to go numb and her brain was almost blank.

In the dead silence, Yuuki Asuna slowly grasped the rusty door handle with her trembling right hand.

Just when she was finally mentally prepared and started to turn the doorknob, her wrist was suddenly grabbed by Asagiri.

"Okay, let's stop here."

"what?"

Before Yuuki Asuna could react, Asagiri had already walked to the door, holding a chainsaw in one hand and directly grasping the door handle with the other hand. Without any hesitation, she opened the door directly and even smiled in a relaxed tone.

"Chainsaw Man is coming~"

"Clap."

The door was pulled open by Asagiri, and the scene that came into view made Yuuki Asuna feel as if all the blood in her body had frozen.

It was not until this time that she finally saw the true appearance of the hideous, bloody-faced monster.

The other person was wearing a tattered light blue work suit stained with blood and dirt, and was also wearing something that looked like a work badge. The most important thing was... the blood-faced monster's posture was extremely strange at this time. His body was not upright, but like an elderly hunchback, he bent over hard and put his face close to the position where the ward observation window was originally.

Seeing Asagiri open the door, the bloody-faced monster slowly straightened up. This time, its head was almost hitting the ceiling of the corridor. Yuuki Asuna roughly estimated that the other party was at least three meters tall.

Faced with this exaggerated sense of oppression from such a tall figure, Yuuki Asuna's breathing stopped for a moment.

In just the next second, this oppressive atmosphere was instantly broken.

"Excuse me, please make way~"

Asagiri's tone was still so relaxed, as if he didn't feel any fear at all even when facing a bloody-faced monster that was nearly three meters tall.

What Yuuki Asuna didn't expect was that after the other party said this, the blood-faced monster with an exaggeratedly tall stature actually retreated a distance and made way for the door.

"What are you still daydreaming about?"

Asagiri walked out of the ward directly, then turned around and looked at Asuna Yuuki who was still standing in the ward, and urged.

"Time is precious. It might affect the evaluation and rewards given after completing the game, so hurry up and go."

005 Sudden increase in favorability

After hearing this, Yuuki Asuna cautiously prepared to leave the ward.

She turned her whole body sideways, her back pressed against the door frame, her eyes fixed on the bloody-faced monster standing there, fearing that the other party would suddenly make some aggressive moves if she wasn't paying attention.

But the "nurse" just stood there quietly from beginning to end, which made Yuuki Asuna feel relieved.