Arthur was noncommittal about her judgment, his tone calm and unreadable as he asked, "Can you explain exactly what you're thinking?"
He was genuinely curious. Observing how other Reincarnators analyzed dungeons: their logic, caution and blind spots was valuable information. Blade, in particular, was a rare case - someone who had risen to the top tier without relying on any major organization, making her mindset far more representative of high-level independent Reincarnators.
Arthur, after all, possessed knowledge of countless dungeon plots and often viewed instances from something close to a god's perspective. As for Saeko Busujima and the others, they were originally dungeon natives; their time as Reincarnators was short and their experience limited, offering little reference value. Among everyone he currently knew, only White Blade was truly suitable for observation.
White Blade, meanwhile, faintly felt as though Blank was testing her. After taking a brief moment to organize her thoughts, she began to respond. The fact that she had already sought help from someone more than twenty floors below her spoke volumes, it meant she fully trusted Blank's strength, whether that strength came from some hidden intelligence network or from an uncanny ability to perceive the hidden mechanics within any dungeon and achieve extraordinary clear ratings.
Selena had no intention of speculating about the secrets powerful figures liked to debate. She had simply entrusted everything regarding her sister to this man she was, in truth, formally meeting for the first time. Aside from absolute trust, what other choice did she have?
Perhaps he truly hadn't relied on any tricks at all, but only on information that seemed useless—things anyone could gather if they tried. Then, after entering the dungeon, he depended entirely on himself to painstakingly analyze the true nature of its tasks, step by step, until he achieved an SSS-rank clear. Unlike herself, he was the real genius.
Since that was the case, then for her sister's sake, she would lay out every piece of intelligence she possessed, along with all her personal conjectures.
"First is Shiki," she began. "This is the dungeon I least want Sophia to enter. According to intelligence analysis, there are special monsters inside. The few people who managed to clear it did so by focusing on survival while hunting those creatures. But Sophia isn't good at combat, and I don't believe she could clear this kind of dungeon."
She paused briefly before continuing, "Similarly, Asura falls under the same category. That era itself seems extremely cruel… I even heard that, back then, some people resorted to eating… No—never mind. In short, based on my understanding of Sophia, she isn't suited for either of these two dungeons."
Although her reasoning differed somewhat from Arthur's own thoughts, he still didn't recommend Sophia enter either instance.
Arthur recalled the plot of Shiki. It told the story of Sotoba, a secluded rural village where, after a corpse was discovered on the mountain, villagers began to die and disappear one after another. Eventually, the protagonists uncovered the truth: the tragedies were caused by the newly arrived Shiki. After a brutal struggle, the villagers stormed the Shiki's nest and drove them out.
But that surface-level plot failed to capture the deeper darkness beneath it.
A fragile girl like Sophia would likely struggle to find any meaningful tasks she could complete there. Even if he personally helped her eliminate the monsters, she might still fail to achieve an S-rank rating, just like Ellen back then. And more importantly, Arthur didn't believe that slaughtering every monster was necessarily the true path to clearing that dungeon.
As for Asura, this was the only dungeon among the four that Arthur wasn't confident he could perfectly clear. It was simply too… philosophical. To eat people, or not to eat people—or to be eaten by people? Arthur honestly had no interest in pondering such profound, twisted questions. In short, the Asura dungeon was far too troublesome, and there was nothing about it that attracted him. Pass.
However, from another perspective, the remaining two dungeons were even more difficult.
At least the two above had relatively simple and direct strategy methods, it was just a matter of fighting your way through. But a dungeon like Steins Gate was on an entirely different level of complexity.
For Selena and the others, the Steins Gate dungeon felt far too "ordinary." What appeared before Reincarnators was merely a completely normal modern city. They didn't even know the dungeon's title, nor who the main characters were. Some people stayed there for an entire month, yet never witnessed any major events unfold.
The name sounded so grand, so exaggerated... so why was there no movement at all?
Almost everyone ended up receiving their challenge failure notification in utter confusion.
And the strangest part was that the timing of failure varied.
Some challengers failed after only two or three days inside…
Others stayed for at least three months before being declared failures. In short, the Reincarnators seemed to be excluded by that world. They knew nothing, understood nothing, and could only watch as the dungeon ended with blank, bewildered expressions.
But for Arthur, who knew everything about this dungeon, Steins Gate could almost be considered the most complex and most difficult among the four.
World lines. Timelines. D-Mail. Changing the past. Mysterious organizations and hidden agents. And above all, that constantly recurring fate of death… The waters here were simply too deep. It was definitely not a relaxed environment where he could afford to bring others along.
If the next floor didn't refresh with new dungeon options, Arthur would likely choose this one in the future, but absolutely not now.
With that in mind, the only remaining choice was The Promised Neverland.
For most Reincarnators, this relatively new dungeon, having appeared only about a month ago, left the best overall impression among the four. Although challengers would be forcibly regressed into children of around ten years old upon entry, and given the identity of orphans, the days spent inside that warm orphanage were peaceful and carefree, following such an ordinary routine that one could almost forget all the pressures of reality.
Playing, studying, and living together with innocent children, they were cared for by a gentle "Mama" who watched over them with warmth and affection. Everything felt far too perfect, so perfect that some people unknowingly walked straight toward the outcome of challenge failure while immersed in that peaceful atmosphere.
They had only one mission: survive until their 12th birthday.
Compared to the warmth of the orphanage, the meaning behind this objective felt vague and out of place, so at first, no one took it seriously. Although a few people were wary for a time, life inside the orphanage held no danger whatsoever. Even if someone accidentally fell and scraped their skin, the gentle "Mama" would immediately come over to bandage the wound with loving care. How could a place like this possibly be dangerous?
However, as their 12th birthday drew near, many Reincarnators received a message, they were going to be adopted.
For orphans, this should have been wonderful news.
But when they thought about the mission, a doubt surfaced. Could the danger lie on the way to being adopted? That had to be it. The threat must exist outside. How could there be danger inside this orphanage, under Mama's watch?
With that assumption, the already vigilant Reincarnators allowed themselves to be led by Mama toward the orphanage's central building…
And then, without warning, their memories went blank.
By the time they regained awareness, they were already standing in the lobby of the Reincarnation Space, followed immediately by a notification declaring that they had failed the dungeon challenge.
No one knew what had truly happened.
No one had escaped that final "ending."
And yet, this information circulated only among a small number of people. To this day, many still flock to this dungeon one after another, after all, its beautiful exterior was far more appealing compared to the other dungeons…
Unaware that from the second they lowered their guard, they were already walking toward a predetermined death.