Asuna Yuuki seemed to have thought of something and suddenly realized it. She said, "The primary responsibility of a caregiver... is to look after the patients in the asylum. We are not patients of this asylum, so... the caregiver won't actually prevent us from leaving?"
Asuna Yuuki herself was a little surprised. She looked at the hideous, bloody face that was stuck to the observation window and hesitated for a moment, then asked, "So... it doesn't actually want to come in, but wants us to open the door of the ward and leave here quickly?"
"Of course not, look at that..." Asagiri Utsunomiya raised his hand, pointed at the hideous, bloody face, and said, "Look how anxious this guy is! He's actually here to rescue us, and..."
Asagiri Utsunomiya paused for a moment, then continued speaking: "Judging from its appearance... it's definitely not a living person. Also, based on the word 'caregiver' in the hint, I speculate that it's the ghost or spirit of a caregiver in this asylum who met with death. Its anxious attempts to persuade us to leave confirm your previous suspicions. An hour... no, only a little over fifty minutes left. In just over fifty minutes, something will happen in this asylum, and no one will be able to leave."
Asuna Yuuki's face turned pale, and even her voice began to tremble as she asked, "Gho-ghost?! Do... do ghosts really exist?"
Asagiri Utsunomiya replied nonchalantly, "Even things like suddenly appearing in another place can happen. The existence of beings like ghosts and spirits shouldn't be surprising, right? Besides, this isn't necessarily our original world."
Soon after, without waiting for Asuna Yuuki to speak, Asagiri Utsunomiya suddenly changed the subject, saying, "However, no matter how much analysis and speculation we make, there is only one way to verify whether our conjecture is correct, which is to open the door of the ward and walk out. If our speculation is wrong, I am afraid that the guy outside will attack us the moment we open the door. So the question is, who will open the door? You or me?"
Hearing his question, Asuna Yuuki looked at the hideous, bloody face pressed on the other side of the observation window again, and fear enveloped her heart.
That's right. No matter how many inferences were made and how much information was provided to support them, who could guarantee that their inferences were correct?
There was only one way to verify it, and if the inferred result was wrong, the consequences were self-evident.
If the Players saw the caregiver outside behaving aggressively, and quickly close the door again, the person remaining in the room might still have a chance of survival.
To be honest, Asuna Yuuki was very scared. She didn't want to face a monster with a hideous, bloody face, and she didn't want to die. She really wanted the man who called himself 'Akira Fususeki' to open the door to verify whether their guess was correct.
But—
Why would he do that? Why would he risk his life for her, a complete stranger? Just because she was a pretty girl? No way, right?
During the analysis process, the man who called himself 'Akira Fususeki' was the leader. She just followed the other party's thoughts and gave speculations that any normal person could think of. Now she asked the other party to risk his life to open the door and face a scary monster outside?
Even though she was terrified, Asuna Yuuki didn't think that she had the right to ask another Player to bear all the risks on her behalf. She wasn't that kind of person.
"I... I... *Huff*..." Asuna Yuuki took a deep breath, her hands clenched involuntarily, and said, "I'll open the door. If I'm attacked, I'll do my best to push the guy outside away. You can use this opportunity to close the door again."
Having listened to her words, Asagiri Utsunomiya immediately walked towards the door while making an inviting gesture. He said, "Oh, that's great. Asuna Yuuki-san is very generous and righteous. How admirable. Since I'm a gentlemen, come on, ladies first."
Seeing his actions and listening to his words, Asuna Yuuki didn't know what to say for a moment. It was her decision to open the door, but the problem was—
Wasn't this man being too annoying and rude!?
"You're such a weirdo..." Asuna Yuuki first complained helplessly, then walked towards the door of the ward. When she arrived at the door, she looked at the hideous, bloody face of the monster through the transparent observation window. Due to excessive tension and fear, she felt her limbs begin to go numb and her brain was almost blank.
In the dead silence, Asuna Yuuki slowly grasped the rusty door handle with her trembling left hand. At the same time, her right hand, which was holding the handle of the fruit knife, trembled even more severely.
Just when Asuna Yuuki was finally mentally prepared and started to turn the doorknob, her wrist was suddenly grabbed.
"Okay, let's stop here."
"Ah?"
Before Asuna Yuuki could react, Asagiri Utsunomiya had already walked to the door, holding a chainsaw in one hand and directly grasping the door handle with the other hand. He had put his electric drill in the large pocket of his coat to free one of his hands to open the door.
Without any hesitation, he opened the door directly and even said in a cheerful tone, "Chainsaw Man is coming~"
The door was pulled open by Asagiri Utsunomiya, and the scene that came into view made Asuna Yuuki feel as if all the blood in her body turned into ice.
It was not until this time that Asuna Yuuki finally saw the true appearance of the monster with a hideous, bloody face.
It was wearing a tattered light blue work suit stained with blood and dirt, and was also wearing something that looked like a work badge.
The most important thing was... the monster's posture was extremely strange at this time. Its body was not upright, but like an elderly hunchback—it bent over hard and put its face close to the position where the observation window was originally.
Seeing Asagiri Utsunomiya open the door, the monster with a bloody face slowly straightened up. This time, its head was almost hitting the ceiling of the corridor.
Asuna Yuuki roughly estimated that the monster was at least three meters tall.
Faced with this exaggerated sense of oppression from such a tall figure, Asuna Yuuki's breathing stopped for a moment.
But in the next moment, this oppressive atmosphere was instantly broken.
"Excuse me, please make way~"
Asagiri Utsunomiya's tone was still so relaxed, as if he didn't feel any fear at all even when facing a monster that was nearly three meters tall.
What Asuna Yuuki didn't expect was that after Asagiri Utsunomiya said this, the monster with an exaggeratedly tall stature actually made way.
Asagiri Utsunomiya walked out of the ward directly, then turned around and looked at Asuna Yuuki, who was still standing in the ward, and urged her, "What are you still daydreaming about? Time is precious. It might affect the evaluation and rewards given after completing the mission objective, so hurry up and go."