Anime Crossover: Tokyo Reincarnation Game — Chapter 78

Chapter 78: Locator Fishing Operation

Hearing Asagiri’s teasing words and catching that faint, unmistakable smirk in his eyes, Asuna’s face flushed a brilliant shade of crimson. Her usual composure shattered, and she stammered, “S-Suddenly… what are you saying…”

Taking a shallow breath, Asuna forced herself to muster a sliver of courage. She still couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze directly. Instead, she extended her slender, trembling left hand. Her voice dropped to a barely audible whisper.

“There aren’t any infected left in the hospital… and the other Players are gone now. So… do you want to hold hands…?”

Before she could even finish the sentence, Asagiri reached out and took her hand. He didn’t just hold it; just like back in their very first novice dungeon, he slid his fingers through hers, interlocking them in a deeply intimate grip.

“Of course we should,” he replied, his tone laced with dry amusement.

The sudden warmth radiating from his palm sent a fresh wave of heat straight to her cheeks. Despite her embarrassment, her long fingers curled inward, gripping his hand tightly. The surrounding environment was a nightmare—mutilated infected corpses littered the bloodstained tiles, and the suffocating gloom of the dim sky cast eerie shadows across the hospital corridors. Yet, anchored by his grip and the fluttering of her own racing heart, the terror of the apocalypse faded into the background.

Meanwhile, back in the real world.

“Woohoo~ A new skill! And a piece of equipment!”

Kotoko cheered, practically vibrating with energy. Megumi, currently melted into the living room sofa with a thoroughly exhausted expression, let out a soft sigh.

“Kotoko-san, you have way too much energy,” she murmured, her voice flat and drained. “I’m so tired I barely have the strength to breathe, let alone talk…”

Kotoko plopped down onto the edge of the cushions. Her legs, clad in pristine white sheer stockings and delicate garters, dangled over the edge as her petite frame bounced against the soft upholstery.

“Well, my skills mostly drain mental power,” Kotoko pointed out with a smug little smile. “Your exclusive talent burns through both mental and physical stamina. Plus, you spent half the night actively slaughtering zombies. It’s completely normal for you to be dead on your feet~”

The final dungeon tally had awarded Kotoko an S-rank, while Megumi secured an A+. Even though they had operated as a four-person unit alongside Asagiri and Asuna, the system graded their individual contributions differently. Kotoko had earned her high marks by gathering critical intelligence from the ghost man and deducing the hidden truth behind the City of the Apocalypse’s outbreak. Megumi, on the other hand, had focused on clearing out the hordes of ordinary infected swarming the hospital. The system clearly valued Kotoko’s narrative-breaking deductions over raw zombie kill counts.

Alongside a hefty boost to her physical attributes, Kotoko’s S-rank payout included a tailor-made accessory and a brand-new ‘Abnormality’ type skill.

[Strange Brooch (Equipment, Blue Excellent Quality)]

[Effect: Slightly increases the Player’s mental power recovery speed. The brooch can smoothly change colors according to the Player’s thoughts.]

The raw stats of the equipment were fairly average for a Blue-tier accessory, offering no game-breaking advantages. However, the color-changing feature was the real prize in Kotoko’s eyes. It meant she would never have to worry about the brooch clashing with her carefully curated outfits.

The true jackpot of her haul, however, was the new active skill.

[Netherworld Grip: Consumes a large amount of mental power. After approximately two seconds of charging, summons a giant Pale Ghost Hand from the void to inflict devastating curse and physical damage upon a target. Charging time decreases as the Player’s mental power stat increases.]

A direct, high-damage attack skill was exactly what Kotoko lacked. The two-second cast time and massive mana drain were steep costs, leaving her vulnerable. But she wasn’t playing solo. With Asagiri and Asuna holding the frontline, she had the perfect meat shields to buy her the necessary casting time. It gave their squad a terrifying burst-damage option.

Megumi’s A+ rating yielded equally impressive results. Alongside her physical enhancements, she unlocked a specialized profession and an exclusive skill perfectly tailored to her innate talent.

[Special Profession: Shadow Dancer]

[Description: An assassin-type profession that lurks in the shadows, erases its presence, and delivers fatal strikes to unsuspecting enemies.]

[Passive Effect: Delivering a fatal blow to an enemy without being detected restores a portion of mental and physical stamina.]

[Player Exclusive Skill: Ethereal Touch]

[Effect: Activated by touching another Player. By consuming one’s own mental and physical stamina, the target temporarily gains the “Weak Presence” buff. Duration scales with the amount of stamina consumed upon activation.]

[Note: Similar to the Player’s innate talent, the slower the target moves, the longer the effect lasts. Rapid or highly conspicuous movements will rapidly deplete the duration. Maximum duration is thirty seconds.]

Staring at the system prompts, Megumi’s analytical mind immediately began mapping out tactical applications. She could cast [Ethereal Touch] on Kotoko before a chaotic firefight, effectively turning the fragile caster invisible and guaranteeing her the two seconds needed to unleash [Netherworld Grip]. Alternatively, she could cloak the entire team—Asagiri, Asuna, and Kotoko—allowing them to bypass lethal hazard zones or ambush high-value targets with absolute initiative.

“Ah, it’s so boring,” Kotoko muttered, resting her chin in her hands as she sprawled dramatically across the sofa. “I wonder what Asagiri and Asuna are doing in the dungeon right now… I knew I should have stayed behind. Sigh, I just couldn’t say no when he asked me to leave.”

Megumi shifted slightly against the cushions, her dark eyes watching the energetic girl. “Kotoko-san, can I ask you a question?”

Kotoko blinked, then smiled brightly. “No need to be so formal, Megumi. Ask away~”

“Do you… really like Utsunomiya-san?”

“Obviously. Why else would I stick around?”

“But… why?”

Kotoko tilted her head, genuinely puzzled. “What do you mean, why?”

Megumi paused, taking a moment to organize her thoughts into her usual flat cadence. “I just mean… why did you fall for him?”

“Hmm…” Kotoko sat up properly. She leaned forward to pick up a delicate teacup from the coffee table, taking a small, refined sip of black tea before setting it back down. A fond smile touched her lips. “Well, I don’t think falling for someone strictly requires a logical reason. But if we’re going by normal standards? Asagiri is incredibly handsome, he has a great physique, and he excels at both academics and combat.”

She let out a soft, airy laugh. “And as for his personality… sure, he’s a bit eccentric. Completely abstract, even. But you could never, ever be bored when you’re with him. Considering all that, it makes perfect sense for me to like him, doesn’t it?”

“I suppose so…” Megumi nodded noncommittally. Having never been in love or harbored a crush on any boy, the logic remained somewhat alien to her.

“Anyway, instead of psychoanalyzing my love life, why don’t you go to your room and get some sleep?” Kotoko stood up, stretching her arms above her head like a lazy cat before rubbing her tired eyes and yawning. “Judging by the timeline, those two won’t be leaving the instance for a while. We cleared our objectives incredibly fast. You have plenty of time to crash, wake up, and still make it to school.”

Megumi nodded slowly, the exhaustion finally winning out. “Yeah. I think that’s for the best.”

Even though she had already requested time off in advance, showing up to class fully rested was always the more pragmatic option.

Several hours later. Eight in the morning in the real world.

Inside the instance, deep within the blood-spattered administrative building of Mercy Hospital.

“There’s less than two hours left until the time limit expires…”

Asuna’s right hand, gripping the hilt of her Exorcist Longsword, trembled slightly from the lingering adrenaline. She stared down at the grotesque corpse at her feet. It was a Special Infected covered in vile, pulsating pustules, its skull completely pierced by her blade. A thick, dark red tongue, several meters long, spilled out from its ruined jaw like a dead snake.

She pulled her blade free with a wet squelch and looked over at Asagiri. “This is the one they call a Smoker, right? Out of all the Special Infected variants, the only one we haven’t run into yet is the Tank.”

Asagiri nudged the Smoker’s mutated jaw with the toe of his shoe, his expression thoughtful. “Perhaps. It’s entirely possible that Tank-class infected simply aren’t programmed to spawn at this particular difficulty tier.”

A complicated shadow crossed Asuna’s face, and she let out a heavy sigh. “Even without a Tank, the casualty rate is insane. Besides us, only two other Players managed to clear their objectives. Everyone else… they were all filtered out, weren’t they?”

Asagiri turned his gaze toward the shattered corridor window. Outside, the sky had bled into a pitch-black abyss, swallowing the ruined city in absolute darkness.

“With less than two hours on the clock, the endgame is approaching,” Asagiri said, his voice calm and measured. “If the system genuinely designed a mechanism to purge the deadweight Players who tried to hide the whole time, that mechanism should be triggering right about now. And…”

He paused, crouching down next to the Smoker’s corpse. Drawing a combat knife, he made a precise incision near the creature’s upper spine. After a moment of digging, he extracted a small, black, implantable locator from the mutated flesh.

He casually dropped the blood-slicked device into a transparent plastic bag held in his left hand. The bag clinked heavily. Inside were nearly twenty identical locators, all ripped from the flesh of slaughtered Special Infected.

A dark, utterly unhinged smile curved Asagiri’s lips as he weighed the bag of trackers in his hand.

“Whoever planted these locators is monitoring the signal grid,” he murmured, his tone laced with dangerous anticipation. “If they suddenly see twenty coordinates representing highly dangerous Special Infected clustered together in one tiny room… they’ll definitely come to investigate, won’t they? I really hope we get to meet them.”

He pocketed the bag, his eyes gleaming in the dim hospital light.

“Then things will finally get interesting.”