Chapter 40: Justice Descends

Five minutes later, on the first floor of the Hotel, the front desk reception hall lay bathed in the cold gleam of a colossal crystal chandelier. The polished marble floor reflected the light with an almost unnerving clarity. The hall was utterly empty, the reception desk deserted. Only a landline telephone receiver dangled, swaying slightly, emitting a persistent, beeping busy signal. The silence was profound, almost chilling.

Then, a sudden, thunderous *Boom!* echoed from above the lobby.

A humanoid black shadow, towering over two meters tall with reddish glowing patterns streaking across its form, plummeted nearly ten meters. The moment it slammed into the hard marble tiles, cracks spiderwebbed across the floor, accompanied by a trembling roar.

*Bang!*

Amidst the scattered debris, a voice rang out with a triumphant smile. "How about that? Didn't I say this is the quickest shortcut, where we won't encounter any enemies?"

Kotoko gracefully dismounted from the Human Asura's shoulder, landing lightly on the ground. Unflustered, she first tidied her clothes, then adjusted her white beret. "The other party probably didn't expect us to neither use the stairs nor the elevator, but instead directly smash through the ground from the Fifth Floor," she replied with a smile.

"We certainly didn't encounter any obstacles, but…" Asuna watched Asagiri immediately dispel the Human Asura summon after landing, a slight worry creasing her brow. "Summoning a Persona consumes a lot of mental and physical strength, doesn't it? And you even smashed through four floors in a row, plus the buffer when landing… Are you okay right now?"

"Completely fine," Asagiri replied with a smile. He then typed a line of text on his phone, flipped it over, and showed it to Kotoko and Asuna. 'A little tired, used about thirty percent of my physical strength. Mental strength is fine. Don't talk about this. If the source of the anomaly can hear us, it might seize this opportunity to attack. Pretend everything is normal and try to buy me some more time to rest.'

Asuna and Kotoko nodded, understanding. Asagiri had no intention of acting tough or cool. This was a dungeon, an extremely dangerous, bizarre dungeon where two Players had already died, not some game of make-believe. Deliberately hiding his condition would only mislead his teammates' judgment of the situation.

"Let's go to the reception area first. Didn't the special hint say so? There, we can get valuable information."

While Asuna was somewhat worried about Asagiri's condition, there was no other viable option. Taking the stairs would risk encountering countless Banshees, and fighting in the narrow stairwell could easily lead to accidents, rapidly draining their physical and mental strength. In comparison, smashing directly through the floors was indeed the most reliable descent.

As she walked towards the reception area, which was the Hotel front desk, Asuna already had the Exorcist's Longsword gripped tightly. She expended a small amount of mental energy to apply 'Wind Blessing,' making her body lighter. She positioned herself at the front, ready to block any Banshee that might suddenly spring out.

Fortunately, no terrifyingly-faced Banshees leaped out. Asuna breathed a sigh of relief, though she still held the Exorcist's Longsword tight. Together with Asagiri and Kotoko, she began searching for the 'valuable information' mentioned in the special hint.

"Guest registration form… employee ID… sanitation certificate… these are useless," Kotoko muttered.

Just as Kotoko and Asuna found nothing of value, Asagiri walked to a nearby staff position and picked up a newspaper. "Valuable information, found it."

"You found it already? Let me see…" Asuna leaned over. Most of the newspaper was stained with inexplicable black marks, rendering the content indistinguishable. Only one section remained legible, containing a news report.

"Mount Massive Asylum Patient Riot Incident… Mount Massive? Isn't that where we did the beginner's dungeon?" Asuna first muttered, then looked up at Asagiri, puzzled. "This… an out-of-control riot incident involving patients occurred at Mount Massive Asylum. We pretty much guessed that already, didn't we? After all, the plot in that game was roughly like that. This doesn't count as valuable information, right?"

"No, the so-called valuable information isn't about the incident itself," Asagiri explained calmly, shaking his head. "The news about Mount Massive Asylum appearing in this Hotel's newspaper proves that the location of this dungeon and the location of our previous beginner's dungeon are from the same world. Moreover, both of these dungeons are of the bizarre type. Since the APP gave a special hint saying this is valuable information, it can't be a simple coincidence. For now, we can assume that all the bizarre-type dungeons arranged by the APP are located in a certain place in this world, and this world… let's call it the Bizarre World."

"Bizarre World…" Asuna's curiosity was piqued. "Then, knowing this information, what can we do?"

"Nothing," Asagiri's answer caught both Asuna and Kotoko off guard. "Although it's interesting, this information is temporarily useless. It seems it only provides us with the satisfaction of uncovering part of the truth as Players."

"Satisfaction… huh?" Asuna sighed, shaking her head in mild helplessness. "Compared to this kind of thing, I'd rather have something like the Exorcist's Longsword, something that can provide substantial help in clearing the dungeon…"

Just as Kotoko was about to respond with a smile, a sudden, bizarre presence made her expression turn serious. "Wait, something… is approaching."

As her voice fell, a strange "pitter-patter"—a chilling mixture of footsteps and dripping water—broke the profound silence of the Hotel lobby.

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