Chapter 109: The Request to Save Mita World
"Oh? Is that so."
The moment Yuuki Asuna said it, Kato Megumi and Iwanaga Kotoko, who had been sitting on the sofa, rose to their feet. Asagiri, who had been sitting on Crazy Mita, stood up as well.
And the exhaustion from earlier was gone.
The dimness in his eyes, the sluggish posture, the heavy breathing, none of it remained. There wasn't even the faintest trace of fatigue on his face.
"You guys…" Kind Mita froze, then finally understood. "You were pretending to be tired and unable to fight, just to test whether Crazy Mita would contact Prototype Mita to rescue herself?"
"Pretty much." Asagiri's tone carried a hint of amusement. "We were just fishing."
Kind Mita's expression turned complicated.
Asagiri grabbed Crazy Mita by the hair with one hand and lifted her as if she weighed nothing. Crazy Mita's limbless body twisted and struggled, pathetic and furious, but utterly powerless.
Watching that scene, confusion rose in Kind Mita's chest.
When she was trapped in the Dungeon, she believed the most terrifying existence in this world was Crazy Mita, the monster who had fallen into madness and slaughtered Mitas for fun.
Because she was so afraid of Crazy Mita's strength, Kind Mita never even considered defeating her through physical means. To save this world, to save every Mita living in it, she believed there was only one method.
Erase Crazy Mita from the control system in the core area.
But now…
The true monster wasn't Crazy Mita.
It was this Player.
While he was still alive, Crazy Mita didn't even dare to reveal herself. She didn't have the courage to fight him head on. Just as Kind Mita feared Crazy Mita, in Crazy Mita's eyes, this Player was a monster she could never defeat.
And it wasn't just power.
Even in intelligence, Crazy Mita had been completely crushed. The battle had ended, yet the Player and his three teammates still pretended to be weak, calmly casting the net again to see if anything would bite.
"If it's him…" Kind Mita looked at Asagiri's back, her thoughts steadying. "Player, you can definitely save this world."
"Eh! Eh! Eh!"
Just as everyone prepared to leave for the core area, Pocket Mita, inside the miniature house, began jumping anxiously, waving her hands like her life depended on it.
"I want to go too! Take me with you!"
Hat Mita leaned down, poked Pocket Mita with a finger, and laughed. "You want to come along? Aren't you supposed to be guarding the gate here?"
"What gate is there to guard?" Pocket Mita rolled her eyes and spread her tiny hands. It was clearly a complaint, yet somehow she made it adorable. "That isn't the core area at all. That guy used a bug to glitch it into another place. Why would I stay here guarding nothing?"
She puffed her cheeks, then pointed at Asagiri like it was obvious.
"Besides, Player is my Player too. Of course I want to be with him."
Asagiri nodded once. "Alright. Hat, take her with you. I'm leaving her to you."
"OK."
Hat Mita extended her palm. Pocket Mita obediently jumped into it, then wriggled into the pocket on Hat Mita's chest. From inside the pocket, she stuck out a tiny hand and pointed forward like a commander.
"All set. Let's go."
…
Meanwhile, inside the strange Hotel that Asagiri, Yuuki Asuna, and Iwanaga Kotoko had once entered.
A young girl in a black judo uniform stood in the corridor. Her long black hair fell down her back, and her beautiful red eyes held no fear. She pointed the short sword in her hand at a disheveled monster further down the hall and spoke in a flat, faint voice.
"Shoot it dead, Shinju."
The instant her words fell, the short sword extended as if alive. Its sharp tip pierced straight through the monster's head.
Behind Kaguya Shinomiya, Fujiwara Chika wore a tracksuit. Another monster lumbered toward her, but she still wore that sweet, cheerful smile, as if she were strolling through a park.
She lifted her open right hand. A translucent dice phantom formed above her palm and slowly dropped into it.
"Good luck. Five points."
The moment the dice displayed five, Fujiwara Chika raised her left hand and pointed at the monster.
A fireball, scorching and the size of a basketball, blasted out from her palm and punched through the monster's abdomen.
"Alright. Done."
Kaguya Shinomiya flicked her sword lightly, shaking black and red monster blood onto the floor.
She stared down the corridor. Flesh and gore smeared the walls. Not far away, a corpse had been torn in half, intestines and organs spilled across the tiles. It was a scene that belonged in a nightmare.
Yet Kaguya's red eyes remained cold and empty.
"In less than an hour, all five Players who entered this Dungeon with us have died," she said. "Anyone who signs up actively should be confident in their strength, yet they still died… Is this the difficulty of a Stage Two Dungeon?"
"They asked for it." Fujiwara Chika shrugged. That cute smile remained, absurdly out of place among corpses and gore. "The system prompt clearly said to stay quiet, but they still searched like they owned the place. They even lured monsters to this floor and almost got both of us killed."
Halfway through, Fujiwara Chika noticed Kaguya walk to one of the bodies and pick up a blood stained phone.
"Extracting his items and equipment?" Fujiwara Chika tilted her head. "Well, don't waste it."
It was clear from her tone that she and Kaguya Shinomiya had also learned the hidden rule of the game through some method.
"Extract… no." Kaguya shook her head, looking down at the phone. A rare trace of complexity surfaced in her crimson gaze. "I'm thinking of something else."
Her voice lowered, almost a whisper.
"If I gave it to him… would he be willing to become a Player, to become my teammate…? Or should I give it to Hayasaka Ai…?"
…
Half an hour later, inside the Mita game world.
A room packed with wires and computer screens hummed like a high tech core hub. Cables coiled across the floor like veins. The air itself felt mechanical.
Asagiri stood at the center, looking down at the humanoid creature sitting on the ground.
It had a mechanical shell, but unlike the failed prototypes, its color was a clean, cold gray. Small yellow dots glowed at its joints, flickering in patterns. Even its hair was made of cables.
Its silhouette resembled a Mita.
Asagiri spoke slowly, voice calm and dominant.
"Are you the one looking for me? What do you wish to report?"
Kato Megumi murmured beside him, expression unchanged. "Leader is amazing. He never gets stage fright. Just looking at him, you'd think we're the masters of this world."
Iwanaga Kotoko smiled faintly and replied under her breath, "That's also a form of Diplomacy. You take the initiative and overwhelm the other side with presence."
Core Mita did not respond to Asagiri. Instead, it turned its head toward Kind Mita. The small yellow dots across its body flickered faster.
Asagiri's eyes narrowed slightly. "What, did you leave your vocal cords at home?"
"Player, no…" Kind Mita hurried forward, seeing his displeasure. "It's not like us Mitas. It can't speak. It can only transmit sound to us, and then I relay it to you."
"Oh." Asagiri nodded, neither approving nor disapproving. He looked back at Core Mita. "Then speak. What do you need from me?"
Yuuki Asuna, Iwanaga Kotoko, and Kato Megumi watched him with open admiration.
This was what a Diplomat looked like.
Even though they needed Core Mita's help to reach a higher clear rating, and for Asagiri to obtain a new Persona by eliminating the source of anomaly in this world, Asagiri spoke as if he were doing Core Mita a favor by standing here.
And the result was immediate.
Asagiri's phone vibrated.
[Notification: Core Mita's favorability toward you has significantly increased.]
Favorability. Increased.
As for why there was no favorability notification for Hat Mita or Kind Mita, the answer was obvious. Their favorability toward Asagiri had been maxed out from the beginning.
That alone proved Core Mita was different from ordinary Mitas. It didn't follow the typical Mita settings. It felt closer to a manifestation of the game's core authority.
Kind Mita, acting as translator, tucked a strand of long hair behind her ear. Her expression steadied as she began.
"Then I will relay her message."
"She wants to apologize first. When you entered this world, she sensed it immediately. As the core of this game, she already knew your name. The voice we heard in our minds back then was her using her authority to transmit directly to us."
"She said she was forced to do it. Although she represents the core program of this game and has materialized in this world, there is not much she can actually do. She cannot directly interfere with this world's operation."
"The only ones who can receive her messages are true Mitas, like me and Hat, Mitas who passed the review and are officially online. She cannot monitor Crazy Mita and that Prototype anomaly, and she cannot transmit information to the two of them."
"Crazy Mita and that anomaly Prototype Mita are not existences that should appear in this game world. As part of the game, she is helpless."
Kind Mita lifted her eyes to Asagiri, voice quiet but firm.
"Only you, Player, who holds authority comparable to the game developer, can truly resolve the anomalies in this world."
.....
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