"Come."
Next, Asagiri did something that further surprised Yūki Asuna.
He took two steps forward, bent down, picked up the blood-stained cleaver from the ground, and then tossed it in front of the man. He spoke softly in a voice devoid of emotion.
"Pick it up."
The man, clutching his bleeding, pierced wrist, gritted his teeth and suppressed the pain. When he heard Asagiri's words, he first glanced at the cleaver on the ground, then raised his head to look at the towering black humanoid creature behind Asagiri. Fear flared in his eyes. He immediately dropped to his knees with a loud thump, pressing his forehead against the hard floor, begging for mercy repeatedly.
"No... no, it was a moment of impulse... Please, please spare me..."
"Begging for mercy? At this moment? Are you trying to make me laugh?"
After saying this, Asagiri suddenly changed the topic. He walked up to the man and extended his hand.
"However, if you hand over your phone, I can consider sparing your life."
The man, trembling on the floor, fumbled in his pants pocket and shakily produced his phone, holding it out to Asagiri with both hands.
"Th-this is my phone... no password..."
"Hmm, quick on the uptake."
Asagiri smiled, but then whispered:
"I've thought about it seriously, but you still have to die."
"A murderer must be prepared to be murdered himself. That is the simplest logic in the world, one even a child understands."
The moment Asagiri's voice faded, Jaki-ō extended an arm. Its enormous hand completely closed around the man's neck and lifted him into the air.
The man's face turned crimson and purple. Driven by the instinct for survival, his hands incessantly beat against Jaki-ō's arm. However, he couldn't even make Jaki-ō's arm tremble, let alone force it to loosen its grip.
A few seconds later, the man's eyes began to roll back. The force in his hands gradually diminished, finally hanging limply.
"Thud."
With a dull sound, Yūki Asuna saw Jaki-ō casually toss the unconscious man onto the floor. She couldn't help but ask tentatively:
"He's..."
"He's not dead yet. He just passed out."
Yūki Asuna was visibly relieved, sighing with relief.
"That's right. There's no need to kill him. If we just leave him here, he'll die after the clearance time limit anyway..."
"Eh? What are you talking about?"
Asagiri wore a look of confused disbelief. He walked over, bent down, and grabbed the unconscious man by the ankle with one hand. Only then did he look at Yūki Asuna and smile.
"Haven't you read web novels? Leaving an enemy alive, thinking they'll die anyway, only for them to narrowly escape and return later to cause trouble for the protagonist—that plot point is pure poison. Although I'm not the protagonist of a web novel, I won't leave behind such a liability. Besides..."
Asagiri stopped, still gripping the unconscious man's ankle with one hand, dragging his body toward the stairwell.
"He still has a use. It would be a waste to just let him die now, wouldn't it?"
"A waste...?"
Yūki Asuna didn't understand what Asagiri intended to do, but she quickly followed him.
"Dong, dong, dong, dong..."
Because the man was being dragged along the ground, every time Asagiri took a step down the stairs, the man's head would collide with the steps, making dull sounds that were painful just to hear.
When they reached the courtyard, Yūki Asuna couldn't hold back her confusion and asked:
"Utsunomiya-kun, what exactly are you planning to do?"
"What am I planning?"
Utsunomiya Asagiri's smile was both cordial and kind, and his tone was gentle.
"Of course, I'm going to carry him through the instance. I'm a good Samaritan."
"Huh? Are you serious? That's too..."
Yūki Asuna wanted to say that setting aside the fact that this guy murdered the other Player in his room, the fact that he tried to chop Asagiri with a cleaver should be absolutely unforgivable, right?
Yet, Asagiri was going to carry him through the instance? Repaying malice with kindness? Was he having a "holy mother" moment?
However, on second thought, Yūki Asuna realized that Asagiri couldn't be that kind of person. He himself had just said that this man must die.
At that moment, Asagiri had already dragged the man out through the courtyard gate.
"Hmm... this should count as a clearance."
Muttering this, Asagiri opened the man's phone. Sure enough, on the home screen was the same eerie eye-icon APP that was on his and Yūki Asuna's phones.
The instant he touched the APP icon, a line of dark-red text flashed on the screen.
["Player" Identity Verification Failed.]
"There's a security mechanism after all. Even if someone other than the owner gets the phone, they can't open the APP? What if the phone is lost, then? Or..."
Asagiri paused here, then summoned his Persona, Jaki-ō, again.
The moment Jaki-ō appeared, it immediately covered the man's head with its enormous hand. Then, its five fingers clenched. With a sound like a watermelon bursting, blood seeped out from between Jaki-ō's black fingers.
Seeing this scene, Yūki Asuna instinctively felt nauseous and immediately averted her gaze.
After killing the man, Asagiri touched the APP icon on his phone again. This time, it opened smoothly, revealing the man's status panel and the clearance notification he had received just before his death.
[Player Name: Noguchi Kazuomi]
[Physical Fitness Level: Ordinary]
[Talent: Not yet unlocked]
[Profession: Not yet unlocked]
[Congratulations, "Player" Noguchi Kazuomi, you have cleared the Novice Instance and obtained Formal Player status.]
[Clearance Rating: C]
[Reward: Item "Bottled Medical Disinfecting Alcohol."]
[Bottled Medical Disinfecting Alcohol: Three hundred milliliters of bottled medical disinfecting alcohol.]
Asagiri did not avoid Yūki Asuna while viewing the APP. Standing nearby, she saw the information displayed on the APP and the clearance reward obtained by the Player named Noguchi Kazuomi, and mused thoughtfully.
"A C-rank clearance reward: neither a class nor a talent unlocked, just a negligible item. It seems that after wasting a lot of time before clearing the instance, you only get this level of reward. The only use for it must be to use the instant retrieval and storage function to make the Player realize that this APP is truly connected to supernatural power, shattering any remaining illusion and innocence they might have."