Asagiri nodded noncommittally, his gaze fixed on the black implanted locator. "It should be something similar."
"Inside a special infected... how could there be an implanted locator?" Kotoko murmured, puzzled. "Could it be...?"
"Hmm," Asagiri responded softly. "This city isn't one that experienced a zombie apocalypse in the usual sense. Instead, it's been cleared by some unknown force. Almost all ordinary zombies have been eliminated, leaving only these 'special infected.' They've also had implanted locators installed, essentially turning this city into a scientific testing ground."
"A scientific testing ground... No wonder, that explains it!" Asuna's thoughts clicked into place.
"No wonder there are no ordinary zombies on the streets; they've been thoroughly cleared. And the doubt about the gnawing virus not having secondary infectivity can be explained if it was deliberately set up by the experimenters to keep the experiment controllable."
Asuna looked at Asagiri, surprised. "But how did you figure that out?"
"Read more novels and TV shows, play more games, combine that with the information we've obtained, and you can figure this out," Asagiri said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Despite his nonchalant delivery, Megumi, Kotoko, and Asuna didn't find his deduction "no big deal." This was, after all, arguably the core hidden plot of this dungeon. And how long had they been in the dungeon? In just half an hour, Asagiri had deduced this, even finding an implanted locator inside a special infected to provide decisive evidence for his speculation.
As expected, as a Player, Asagiri was simply more outstanding than any of them. This was why he consistently received generous clear rewards and had even obtained advanced Player privileges. Perhaps even the game's system didn't want such an excellent Player to be eliminated.
Megumi then spoke softly, raising a crucial question. "Since there's an implanted locator inside the special infected, is it possible for us to encounter personnel from the force experimenting with this city in this dungeon? They... must be hostile to us, right?"
"Most likely not, but we can't completely rule out that possibility." Whether it was an illusion or Asagiri's genuine sentiment, Kotoko and the others always felt a strange, inexplicable anticipation when he said this. "Being able to clear out ordinary zombies from an entire city, selectively keeping these types of special infected, and even implanting locators in them, is much more difficult than simply eliminating all zombies. The enemy is definitely not just a small-scale organization. At the very least, it would take a regular army that has received professional training and is battle-hardened to do something like this."
"Most Players at this stage, let alone facing a regular combat team, would find it difficult to escape unscathed even when facing amateur thugs with firearms. Therefore, such troublesome enemies should not appear in the first stage of the dungeon."
Just as Asagiri finished speaking, Kotoko's dark purple eyes suddenly lit up. "Wait a moment, I feel it. There seems to be a strange aura nearby..."
"Strange?" Both Asuna and Megumi immediately became vigilant, wondering if the dungeon type had unexpectedly changed. Were there strange things now? Could this dungeon actually be a bizarre type as well?
"Don't panic, the other party doesn't seem to have any hostility." Kotoko spoke as she walked forward, finally stopping beside an ordinary black sedan not far away. She then took off her white beret, held it gently in front of her chest, made a standard polite greeting gesture, and said with a smile, "Hello."
What Megumi, Asuna, and even Asagiri didn't expect was that after Kotoko's greeting, a faint, phantom-like man, covered in bloodstains and with a pale face, actually emerged from under the black sedan.
"H-hello..."
After receiving a response, Kotoko turned her head, looked at the three standing behind her, and said with a smile, "It's okay, he's not a Yokai, just a wandering soul here."
"A wandering soul?" Asuna asked doubtfully. "How can there be a wandering soul here?"
"Of course there would be," Kotoko replied calmly. "Where people die, there will definitely be wandering souls. It's just that I wasn't sure if the rules of this world were the same as ours, and I wasn't sure if people who turned into zombies counted as truly dead. It seems there are still wandering souls after all~"
Kotoko then looked at the spectral man and asked with a smile, "Sir, may I ask if you know anything about what happened in this city?"
"Uh... uh..." The spectral man seemed afraid, hesitant to speak. Kotoko noticed his gaze occasionally drifting towards Asagiri, Asuna, and Megumi. After a moment's thought, she understood and gently reassured him.
"Please don't be afraid, those three are my companions. We have no ill intentions towards you; we just want to ask a few questions."
"Really, no ill intentions...?" The spectral man looked timid and hesitant, cautiously, like a thief, secretly glancing at Asagiri. The moment his gaze met Asagiri's, his body couldn't help but tremble.
"He... that thing he just summoned... and on his body, there's a kind of... aura that makes me very scared..."
"Oh, it's okay, it's okay." Kotoko waved a hand, looking kind and gentle. "As long as you answer my questions honestly, he won't attack you, but..." At this point, Kotoko's tone suddenly shifted, becoming cold. "If you're evasive, it's hard to say what might happen."
Seeing Kotoko looking as if she had suddenly become a different person, both Asuna and Megumi were inwardly startled. All along, Kotoko had appeared before them as someone who would occasionally say surprising things, always with a sweet smile, like a funny, quirky girl.
This had almost made them forget that she was not just a love-struck high school girl, but someone who bore great responsibility, had already encountered supernatural phenomena before entering the "game," and was the Goddess of Wisdom, responsible for maintaining balance and order between yokai and humans.
How could Kotoko, with this identity, be the type of person who only giggled and had no deterrent power? It was simply that when she was with Asagiri and the others, she showed the side of a normal high school girl.
"I... I'll talk... Please, please don't let that guy come over!" The spectral man seemed terrified of Asagiri, his body trembling. Without waiting for Kotoko to ask, he quickly volunteered. "Most of my memories from before I died are blurry. I only remember dropping my car keys on the ground, then I wanted to go back and pick them up, and then... There was pain, and finally, darkness."
"Memories are blurry?" Asagiri took two steps forward, his tone calm. "Actually, I also know a bit about memory recovery techniques."
Although Kotoko didn't know what the "memory recovery technique" meme was, just by looking at Asagiri, she knew what he intended and advised against it. "No, he should be telling the truth. Many wandering souls are like this. After death, as time passes, their memories of their life become increasingly blurry, leaving only those memories with deep obsession."
Immediately after, Kotoko looked at the spectral man. "You just said you dropped your car keys? Do you remember where they fell?"
"Just... just over there... in front of the right front tire of that car..."
Kotoko walked a few meters in the direction the spectral man pointed. Sure enough, in front of a car tire, in a spot hard to notice because it was blocked by the tire, she found a dusty electronic car key lying quietly there.
"Heave-ho~" She bent down, picked up the car key, blew on it a few times to remove the dust, then tossed it to Asagiri. "Aren't we going to Mochizuki Hospital in the city center? Twenty kilometers is too far to walk, let's go by car~"
"Going by car is fine..." Asuna said with slight hesitation. "But... does any of you know how to drive?"
Megumi shook her head. "I don't."
Kotoko also shook her head. "I don't either."
Under the expectant gaze of the three girls, Asagiri nodded and smiled. "I do."
"As expected." For some reason, Asuna wasn't surprised at all that Asagiri, a high school student, knew how to drive. After all, after interacting with him in these dungeons, her threshold for shock had already been significantly raised.
"But if we drive, is it possible that it might attract the attention of special infected?" Asuna pursed her lips, hesitating. "The special infected just now moved even slower than ordinary zombies, but the special prompt I received said there are special infected in the dungeon with high speed and agility. This means there are at least two, or even more, types of special infected. For the sake of caution..."
"Let's not be cautious anymore. Our strength definitely crushes the so-called special infected. Besides, can't you also get stronger by killing them?" Without waiting for Asuna to finish, Kotoko sighed, her face full of sincere emotion, and said plaintively, "Also, can you please consider my feelings? We've been walking for so long, I can't take it anymore. If we walk twenty kilometers, my prosthetic legs will explode. Please, I'm begging you, let's take a car, okay?"