Anime Crossover: Tokyo Reincarnation Game — Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Mount Massive Asylum

Yuuki Asuna let out a long breath. The oppressive weight of the ward finally lifted from her shoulders. A faint, triumphant smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she pieced the puzzle together. Her chin tilted up just a fraction. She had figured it out.

She turned to gauge Asagiri’s reaction, fully expecting at least a nod of approval. Instead, she found him staring back with a look of absolute, deadpan indifference. Not a single ripple of surprise crossed his features.

“You… figured this out a long time ago, didn’t you?” she asked, her fleeting pride deflating.

“Pretty much.” Asagiri offered a slight, almost mocking smile. “The moment I stepped into the instance and noticed the chainsaw and electric drill hadn’t vanished into thin air, the answer was obvious. But it wasn’t until you cleared the room and I checked the so-called ‘equipment’ in the app’s reward log that I locked it in. The system deliberately allowed us to carry weapons. That was the hidden lifeline for this beginner trial.”

His tone dropped, taking on a colder, more clinical edge. “Think about it. This is a tutorial. The clear condition itself has zero actual difficulty. The deduction doesn’t require a genius IQ. The real filter is psychological—how long it takes a player to stop screaming and start thinking. Even if someone never realized the truth about the nurses’ aggro triggers, they could survive just by finding the nerve to sprint out the door. But…” He paused, his dark eyes locking onto hers. “There is an even simpler way to clear the room. Zero risk.”

Asuna tilted her head, genuine curiosity cutting through the lingering tension. “What way?”

Asagiri let the silence stretch for a beat. “Why do you think the system shoved two players into the exact same ward?”

The color drained from Asuna’s face. The implication hit her like a physical blow. She was a sheltered heiress, but she wasn’t stupid. In a high-pressure slaughterhouse where panic eroded sanity by the second, a one-hour timer was a death sentence to reason. Desperation would breed monsters. The easiest escape route was right there in the room with you.

Shove the other person into the hallway. Let the nurses tear them apart. Walk out while the monsters are distracted. A pure, primal struggle for survival.

“Alright, let’s move.” Asagiri’s voice shattered the grim silence.

Asuna blinked, pulling herself back from the horrifying hypothetical. “Move… where?”

“Judging by our current status, the system won’t kick us back to reality until the timer hits zero.” He pulled out his smartphone, the screen casting a pale glow over his calm features. Assuming the device wasn’t compromised by whatever supernatural garbage ran this game, it served as a reliable anchor to reality. “We have forty-eight minutes left. The clear rewards are already in our pockets. We might as well treat this leftover time as a bonus phase. Let’s strip this asylum for information. There is no guarantee we won’t be dragged back to this exact hellhole in the future.”

She swallowed hard, nodding. “That makes sense. Lead the way.”

They crossed the decaying courtyard, heading toward the looming silhouette of a European-style administrative building. To kill the silence, they traded details about their post-clearance loot.

“Wait, you already unlocked a talent? And a special class?” Asuna stared at him, her eyes wide with disbelief.

The gap between an A+ and an S+ rating was supposed to be a single tier, but the disparity in their rewards was astronomical. Her newly acquired ‘Swordsman’class was as basic as it sounded. Her gear was standard issue. The only saving grace was her’Blessing of the Wind’ skill, a passive agility boost she hadn’t even tested yet.

Meanwhile, Asagiri had secured the special class ‘Diplomat’. Remembering how he had casually manipulated the grotesque nurse at the door, Asuna figured the class was practically custom-built for his specific brand of unhinged charisma. Ignoring the cursed teddy bear he had obtained, the real shocker was his exclusive talent: Persona. She didn’t know the exact mechanics of it, but the sheer length of the system description dwarfed her entire reward summary. It had to be broken.

Then again, considering he had speed-run the tutorial and practically dragged her across the finish line, the S+ rating made terrifying sense. Her A+ was likely her actual ceiling; his S+ was just the maximum grade the system could display.

They pushed through the heavy double doors of the administrative building, stepping into a dust-choked first-floor lobby. They scoured the abandoned reception area and the adjacent offices. The only item of interest was a crumpled, blood-spattered admission form half-buried under scattered files.

Asuna held the stiff, rusted-brown paper up to the moonlight filtering through the broken windows, squinting at the faded ink. “Let me see… Mount Massive Asylum Patient Containment and Sanatorium… Project 136… Chris Walker, male…” She paused, a cold knot tightening in her stomach. “Warning. This patient is extremely dangerous and requires the highest level of security watch.”

She lowered the paper, her brow furrowing in disgust. “Why does a medical form refer to mental patients as ‘projects’ and assign them serial numbers? This isn’t a hospital. It’s a containment facility.”

A quick check of Asagiri’s phone showed twenty minutes remaining on the clock. Factoring in the time needed to secure a safe extraction point, they decided to sweep the second floor before the timer expired.

They crept up the concrete stairwell. The moment they crested the landing and peered down the second-floor corridor, they froze. A towering orderly, his face a ruined mass of dried blood, stood perfectly still in the middle of the hall. He was hunched over at a grotesque angle, his face pressed flush against the observation window of a locked ward.

Without warning, the heavy door to that exact ward violently swung open. A shrieking mass of blood and torn hospital gowns launched itself directly onto the hulking orderly, tackling the monster to the linoleum floor.

“That’s—”

Before Asuna could finish, a medium-built man bolted out of the open ward. His clothes were soaked in fresh crimson, and his knuckles were white around the grip of a heavy kitchen knife. He sprinted in the opposite direction of the thrashing orderly, making a mad dash straight toward the stairwell. Straight toward Asagiri and Asuna.

The man skidded to a halt the second he registered the two figures blocking his escape route. He raised the blood-slicked knife, his chest heaving as his panicked eyes darted between them.

“Who… who the hell are you?”