bookbashuk Page 177
Page 177
The woman in the white suit suddenly opened her eyes, her pupils began to tremble slightly, and red marks of blood oozed from her eye sockets and ears.
"I can't protect those players' spirits anymore... They're wavering..."
"Phantom, Violet, how are you two?"
Upon hearing Asagiri's concerned inquiry, both Kato Megumi and Yuuki Asuna responded immediately.
"Well, it's okay."
Of all the players present, only the man in the white suit, the woman in the fox demon mask, the perception-type player in Zata's team, and the four members of the Morning Mist Squad remained conscious amidst the overwhelming eerie sounds. Even the man in the white suit's teammate couldn't help but show a pained expression and, like the other players, slowly knelt down on the ground.
"Spiritual pollution...?"
Kotoko Iwanaga frowned slightly, pondering how to resolve the current situation.
At this stage, although the true form of that strange entity has not yet been found, its "parasitic" ability and activation conditions are already as obvious as they could be.
Logically speaking, everyone present should be considered a high-level player, and their mental strength should be sufficient to resist the strange invasion. However, just as one feels weak and experiences a decline in physical skills when catching a cold or fever, a person's mental state is not always stable, but is affected by various external factors.
For example, right now, faced with a seemingly hopeless situation where even escape is impossible, players with slightly weaker mental fortitude have begun to waver. And that strange entity has discovered this and has begun to invade their minds.
If this continues...
The new "parasitism" is about to be completed.
"stand up."
Just then, Asagiri's words suddenly reached the ears of every player present, instantly restoring their increasingly blurred consciousness.
"Zi..."
Like lightning, dark red marks twisted and turned, forming strange patterns around Chaowu's body. His eyes also shone with golden light, and a wave of power that made all the players feel extremely uneasy gradually covered the entire banquet hall.
Because of the overwhelming fear, the players who were originally confused have completely regained their senses. The mental attack that the strange entity used to control and parasitize the players, which caused them to lose SAN, was completely overridden by Asagiri, who was about to use "Supreme Magic Bullet," through the passive effect of his special class "Unruly Tyrant."
"That is……"
Sensing the terrifying power emanating from Asagiri, all the players, including the man in the white suit, wore expressions of disbelief.
Amidst the shocked gazes of all the players, Asagiri slowly raised her head, her golden eyes fixed on the group of parasitic players before her, who were trembling with fear and whose previously noisy chatter had abruptly ceased.
"Supreme Magic Bullet".
A jet-black beam of light appeared instantly, but this time it first rose to the top of the banquet hall, and then transformed into a torrential downpour of pitch-black light, quickly covering the entire venue.
"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts so much!!!"
The moment the black rainstorm descended, all the parasites let out distorted screams, but the screams did not last long, only lasting for a moment, before being completely swallowed by the black rain and disappearing along with the screams.
After the black rainstorm ended, less than two seconds later, the banquet hall returned to normal. If you only looked at the surrounding scene, you would not even know that a battle had taken place here.
"call……"
Noticing that Asagiri's figure swayed slightly, Yuuki Asuna immediately moved closer to him without making a sound, and unconsciously tightened her grip on the hilt of the Shining Light sword.
The man in the white suit keenly sensed this change, but remained calm on the surface. He simply gave his three teammates a wink, and they immediately understood. They took a few steps back and then stood between the four members of the Morning Mist Squad and the other player squads, turning their backs to the four members of the Morning Mist Squad.
"Leader... how are you?"
Asagiri's black eyes gradually dimmed, and her voice became barely audible.
"It's burned out..."
Asuna Yuuki sighed helplessly, then grumbled, both amused and exasperated.
"You've burned out again? Are you some kind of firewood that can be burned repeatedly?"
Seeing Asagiri take out the "Ring of Transformation" and put it on his hand, and his eyes became brighter, Yuuki Asuna and the others knew that he should be alright.
"Did you eliminate that guy?"
"No, not yet."
Asagiri shook her head and slowly spoke.
"Even now, I still don't know what its true form is, so all I can destroy are the parasites and a part of it that I see in front of me. I've caused it a lot of damage, but I haven't completely destroyed it."
"They really hid it well..."
Kotoko Iwanaga said this first, then looked at the group of players at the back.
"No...no more...let's go..."
"I shouldn't have participated in this dungeon... There are still over sixty hours left... How am I supposed to survive...?"
"Log out! I want to log out!"
"Go back, hide in the guest room... you might still survive..."
"We shouldn't have come here..."
Most players were already limp at this point, either kneeling or lying on the ground, or lying down helplessly. Some even started to sob silently, their bodies trembling like leaves, and their eyes had completely lost their sparkle.
Besides the mental breakdown, in the battle just now, although the parasitic players controlled by that strange entity were fighting against Asagiri and others, and the players were only fighting against ordinary parasites, quite a few players were still injured in the battle.
At this point, these players were in such a sorry state that they had no ability to continue fighting.
"It's already broken."
Looking at the group of players, Kotoko Iwanaga shook her head and gave Asagiri a questioning look. After seeing him nod, she spoke up loudly.
"That strange entity has been severely injured, and its control over this floor has greatly decreased. The previously sealed exit should now be open, and anyone who wants to leave can go now."
Upon hearing Kotoko Iwanaga's words, the players who hadn't completely broken down and still maintained basic rationality didn't even dare to raise their heads. They only glanced at their teammates who had already lost their minds. Between assisting in killing the BOSS to gain points for the completion rating and their own and their teammates' lives, they ultimately chose the latter.
After the players helped each other out of the banquet hall in a disheveled state, Chao Wu shook his head, neither confirming nor denying.
"The power of the BOSS in the third phase of the dungeon has become so great that the number of players has become meaningless. No matter how many players come, they can only become parasitic puppets controlled by it if they cannot withstand that kind of mental attack."
"After all, it's a hidden main storyline."
Upon hearing Asagiri's words, the man in the white suit slowly spoke.
"I just didn't expect the hidden main quest in the third stage to be so difficult. Even one of my teammates couldn't completely resist that mental attack. Fortunately, although he is a physical class, he did not give up on improving his mental strength when clearing the dungeon in the previous times, otherwise he would have been finished this time."
Asagiri glanced at the man in the white suit standing there, as well as his three teammates, and chuckled.
"Aren't you leaving?"
"Um... compared to this..."
The man in the white suit glanced at Asagiri's feet, pointed to the blood still dripping on the ground, and hesitated.
"You are hurt?"
"Oh, it's just a minor injury, it's nothing."
Asagiri waved her hand and lifted her long black trench coat. Only then did the man in the white suit and the others notice that Asagiri had a very deep cut on her waist, which looked like it was about to touch her internal organs.
"Do you have the ability to recover?"
Upon hearing Asagiri's question, the female player put on a fox demon mask formed from a three-tailed fox and shook her head.
"While I can provide mental protection, I do not have the ability to heal physically."
"Oh, I see. Well, there's nothing I can do about it then."
Asagiri gave a noncommittal reply, then took out the bottle of "miracle hand sanitizer" from her inventory and poured it on the wound on her waist without hesitation.
"hiss……"
The man in the white suit and his three teammates wore complicated expressions as they smelled the pungent odor of the disinfectant and watched the liquid flow from the bottle onto the deep wound that exposed their internal organs. They couldn't help but gasp.
Dude, you're really ruthless to yourself.
Just looking at it makes me feel incredibly painful.
After Asagiri's wounds were completely healed by the "miracle hand sanitizer," Asuna Yuuki walked up to him. Although she tried her best to suppress her emotions, her voice still trembled slightly, and tears even welled up in her eyes.
"It...it hurts a lot, doesn't it..."
"What's wrong? Why does your voice sound like you're about to cry?"
Asagiri reached out and stroked Yuuki Asuna's long hair. Then, noticing that Kato Megumi and Iwanaga Kotoko had similar expressions, she went over and gently patted their heads, laughing nonchalantly.
"The atmosphere you guys are creating is making me feel a little embarrassed if I don't die once."
After calming down Asuna and the others, Asagiri turned to the man in the white suit and smiled.
"Since you're not leaving, let's discuss the next battle plan together."
30
Chapter 30: Rumors of a powerful player team.
"Do you want to continue?"
The man in the white suit glanced at Asagiri's abdomen and hesitated.
"Although you healed your injuries with the item, you still lost so much blood and just used such a terrifying ability. Your current condition..."
"Don't worry, I'm fine."
Asagiri reached out and patted the man in the white suit on the shoulder, smiling casually.
"I'm not dead yet, so I'm at full strength."
"Forehead……"
The man in the white suit and his three teammates were at a loss for words. In their understanding, after such a grueling battle and injuries that would be fatal to an ordinary player, they should be exhausted even if they could still move.
But why does it seem like this guy has become even more active after getting injured?
Could he be the kind of mentally ill person who finds excitement in danger and enjoys flirting with death?
However, Asuna Yuuki, Megumi Kato, and Kotoko Iwanaga knew very well that this was far from the limit of Asagiri.
Not to mention the Human Asura's ability to reverse time, he hasn't even used Hoddle Franklin's healing ability yet.
For Asagiri, the so-called danger should be a process like this: first, he suffers a serious injury that could be fatal; then, he uses Hoddle Franklin's "sacrifice" to transfer all the injuries and recover to a completely unharmed state; then, the enemy has to kill him again, or put him in a hopeless predicament, forcing him to use the Human Asura's time reversal; after all this is done, the enemy has to kill him again, and only then can it be considered a success.
Throughout this entire process, the enemy must also be careful not to reveal their true form easily, otherwise they will be hit by the "Supreme Magic Bullet".
To be honest, this dungeon did make Asuna Yuuki and the others feel the difficulty of the third stage, but for them, the difficulty mainly referred to how to eliminate that strange entity, rather than how to survive the "parasite" from the other party, like ordinary players. After all, the latter was a piece of cake for the four-person team.
"The problem now is that we have searched this floor, but we still haven't found the body of that strange entity."
Upon hearing Asagiri's words, the female player wearing the fox demon mask turned her gaze toward him, and after a few seconds, she couldn't help but speak.
"Can I confirm one thing first? If we find the true form of that strange entity, are you absolutely certain you can destroy it? Like that ability we just witnessed?"
"Yes."
After going through a battle, the two teams finally established a basic level of trust for cooperation, and Asagiri had no intention of keeping it a secret from the other side any longer.
"But I can't use it for a short time; I need to rest for at least three hours."
Upon hearing Asagiri's words, Asuna Yuuki, Kotoko Iwanaga, and Megumi Kato all had a strange look in their eyes, but they said nothing.
"I see. Then let's rest first..."
The female player with the fox demon mask nodded first, then pointed to the man in the white suit next to her and said in a calm tone.
"This guy is a physical-type class, and his fighting style is to manipulate bones. He is versatile in close, mid and long range, but he is a pure physical class and does not have the ability to harm spirits."
"He is a perception-based scout, skilled at observing and analyzing the surrounding environment. If there are openings in the battle, he can also set up some traps to assist him."
"Then he is a physical fighter. Although he doesn't have mid-to-long-range attack methods, he is very fast. Although the damage he can cause is limited, his defense is not bad. He can be used as a meat shield."
"As for me, I am a support class that uses spiritual energy. My main ability is to provide buffs to my teammates, and I also have some spiritual energy-based attack methods."
After introducing the approximate abilities of her four companions, the woman in the fox demon mask looked at Kotoko Iwanaga beside Asagiri and said in a calm tone.
"If possible, please also let us know your ability types. We don't need to go into too much detail, but at least we should know each other's roles, otherwise we will interfere with each other during the battle."
"Hmm? Why are you asking me that?"
A smile appeared on Kotoko Iwanaga's lips as she pointed to Asagiri standing beside her and said with a grin.
"He's our captain, shouldn't you consult him?"
“When I was talking to him just now, you seemed quite dissatisfied with me. The four of you... you must have that kind of relationship, right? I don’t want to cause any misunderstandings.”
"You're quite sensible~"
Kotoko Iwanaga nodded with satisfaction, took Asagiri's arm, and began to introduce herself.