69novels Page 107
Page 107
……
Once the smoke and dust in the room had dissipated, Chaowu entered the operating room and saw an irregular hole in the solid, thick concrete wall.
"Did they run away again?"
Looking at the dozen or so human remains scattered on the ground, Asagiri already knew how Sato had broken through the thick concrete wall.
The resurrection mechanism of demi-humans is quite unique. When the body is damaged, if the broken body parts are close together, the black particles will prioritize piecing the damaged body back together. However, if it is a broken leg or arm and the broken body parts are far apart, the black particles will reform the corresponding body parts when the demi-human is resurrected.
When this happens, any object blocking the resurrection of the demi-human will be melted and dissolved by the black particles. By first severing an arm or leg, sticking the severed end to the wall, and then killing the demi-human to trigger its resurrection, the obstacle can be eliminated.
"We can't delay any longer."
Including the Crazy Meta that was just summoned, Asagiri's Persona has been destroyed twice since the attack on the research base began. Furthermore, although Human Shura was not destroyed during the battle with Sato, the battle consumed a lot of his mental and physical strength.
Asagiri roughly assessed her current physical condition and drew a conclusion.
If a person is still able to act and cannot simply stand still but must also participate in combat and expend energy, their Persona can be summoned and destroyed twice. If it is not destroyed by external force but is actively deactivated and switched to another Persona, it can be summoned three times.
"Three times... might not be enough."
If it were just Sato alone, Asagiri was confident she could restrict his movements. However, the demi-human beside him, Tanaka Koji, also possessed the ability to summon IBMs. There was also Nagai Kei. Although his IBMs were special and wouldn't obey his commands, and Nagai Kei himself didn't have much combat ability, the amount of black particles on his body was much greater than that of ordinary demi-humans. This meant that his ability to summon IBMs was stronger than that of Sato and Tanaka Koji.
Demi-humans cannot summon multiple IBMs at the same time, but Asagiri is also unable to summon multiple Personas at the same time. Even for Shura, the strongest human in direct combat, it would be almost impossible for him to suppress three IBMs on his own.
Moreover, with Koji Tanaka and Kei Nagai present, even if he managed to incapacitate Sato, it would all be for nothing if those two shot and killed him.
"Forget it, let's retreat."
Asagiri did the calculations in her mind and felt that the chances of succeeding on her own were too low. Even assuming that she could get extra rewards from the system after successfully eliminating Sato, the risks and rewards were completely disproportionate.
Just as he was about to turn and leave, he heard a series of hurried footsteps. Then, Asuna Yuuki, holding an exorcist's sword and wearing a deep red cloak, led Kotoko Iwanaga and Megumi Kato into the operating room.
"Leader? Are you alright? Are you hurt?"
Faced with Asuna Yuuki's slightly anxious and worried inquiry, Asagiri waved her hand and replied with a smile.
"It's alright, Sato is nothing, he doesn't have the ability to hurt me."
Upon hearing Asagiri's reply, Asuna Yuuki breathed a sigh of relief, then smiled with a hint of helplessness.
"He still has the nerve to show off; it seems my worries were unfounded."
"Have you received the experimental data?"
"I got it. Just like the zombie dungeon, it's in my inventory. I can submit it to complete the dungeon at any time."
Looking at the messy operating room and the hole in the wall, Kotoko Iwanaga already guessed what had happened without Asagiri having to explain.
"Sato ran away? Should we chase after him?"
Instead of answering directly, Asagiri first explained the general abilities of the demi-humans and their current situation, and then asked a question in return.
What do you think? Let's vote and decide.
Yuuki Asuna didn't hesitate much and immediately expressed her opinion.
“Sato suffered a loss at your hands today, and he will definitely see us as targets that must be eliminated. He is already this difficult to deal with. If we let him become a player and gradually grow stronger, the consequences will be unimaginable. Let’s eliminate him.”
“I share the same opinion as Phantom, except…”
Kotoko Iwanaga raised her hand to adjust her beret, then said thoughtfully.
"An ability that only damages the mind but won't kill Sato... seems to be only my Touch of the Dead. Those three demi-humans underwent torture called scientific experiments, so their mental strength must far exceed that of ordinary people. Your Alice's exclusive skill is useless, while my Grip of the Underworld has physical attribute damage, which will kill them directly..."
"The key target is only Sato. Although Nagai Kei and Tanaka Koji are also demi-humans, they should not be players. We don't need to deal with the three of them, we only need to deal with Sato."
"Hmm... If we want to succeed, we have to separate the three of them."
Asuna Yuuki pondered the steps of the operation, then looked at Megumi Kato.
"You'll be in charge of dealing with Nagai Kei, and I'll deal with Tanaka Koji. It's best to separate the two of them from Sato, or at least prevent them from having the chance to help Sato out of this predicament."
"okay."
"lets go."
Asagiri looked at the hole in the wall and slowly spoke.
"Eliminate Sato."
……
Minutes later, a long corridor was filled with the corpses of the mobile unit members, the ground was stained red with blood, and the walls on both sides were riddled with bullet holes.
"If we say we're escaping, where can we possibly escape to?"
Asagiri walked at the front, stepping directly over the corpse of a member of the mobile unit, scanning the long corridor that resembled a living hell, and muttered to herself.
"With the demi-human countermeasures bureau controlling the raising and lowering of the metal doors, this area should have been sealed off by now. Where exactly are Sato and the others hiding...?"
Just as Asagiri was speaking, a sudden change occurred.
The three "corpses" leaning against the wall, dressed in mobile unit combat uniforms, suddenly raised their arms, and three automatic rifles were simultaneously pointed at his body.
"Nagai, Tanaka, fire!"
Sato, disguised as a corpse, was the first to pull the trigger, followed closely by Kei Nagai and Koji Tanaka. Sato and Koji Tanaka also summoned their IBMs, and two bandaged humanoid creatures formed from black particles suddenly appeared, rushing side by side toward Asagiri who was standing there.
Faced with this sudden attack, Asagiri seemed to have anticipated it. With elegant yet swift movements, she grabbed the hem of her long black trench coat. The seemingly soft trench coat blocked all the rifle bullets, as if it were magic.
The "Hunter's Trench Coat" shares the same resistances as the Human Asura and Asagiri, including resistance to gun bullets.
"dispersion!"
Seeing that Asagiri's black trench coat had blocked all the bullets, Sato immediately realized something was wrong. As he shouted those words, he rolled to the side. The next second, he saw the IBMs he and Tanaka Koji had created being violently thrown against the wall by Asagiri, one in each hand.
"boom!"
Tanaka Koji narrowly dodged the attack, but Nagai Kei's reaction was not as quick. He was hit by the IBM that Asagiri threw with one hand and slammed into the wall, dying instantly.
"Persona, Human Asura".
44
Chapter 44: Sato's story comes to an end.
The moment the human demon appeared, he stretched out his hands and firmly pressed down on Sato and Tanaka Koji's IBM.
The biggest difference between IBM and Persona is that Asagiri can cancel and resummon Persona at any time in any state, while once the Ajin create IBM, they cannot make it actively collapse and dissipate. In other words, once IBM is controlled, they can no longer create IBM.
"Have I been seen through...?"
Seeing that the human demon had controlled his and Tanaka Koji's IBM, Sato frowned slightly. Taking advantage of the distance between himself and Asagiri, he quickly raised his automatic rifle. This time, however, he intended to aim not only at Asagiri's head, but also at his arms, legs, and abdomen.
While the long black trench coat the other person was wearing could protect against bullets, it couldn't possibly protect every part of their body.
But just as Sato was about to pull the trigger, a dangerous premonition surged into his heart.
He instinctively dodged to the side, and a heavy Indian tomahawk just grazed the outside of his shoulder.
Seeing that her sneak attack had failed, Kato Megumi was not discouraged. After all, thanks to the special prompts given by the system, she already knew that someone in this instance could detect her when her exclusive talent was activated.
Her attempt to sever Sato's shoulder was merely an experiment; success would be best, but even if she failed...
"Castling."
Just as Sato was about to retaliate, Kato Megumi vanished from his sight, and in her place appeared...
"caught you."
To Sato's horrified and shocked gaze, Asagiri, who had used Castling to switch places with Kato Megumi, had already reached out and grabbed his wrist. At this moment, Asagiri's Persona was Human Shura, and the terrifying grip strength that was beyond the comprehension of normal humans was about to crush the bones in Sato's two wrists.
An ordinary person would have instinctively released the automatic rifle due to the intense pain in their wrist, but Sato was already used to the pain. In fact, the perilous situation he was in now gave him a long-lost thrill and excitement.
"boom!"
Sato pulled the trigger with all his might. Although his wrist was held, preventing him from aiming at Asagiri's vitals, the bullet fired from the slightly lowered muzzle still grazed Asagiri's calf as it swayed.
Although Asagiri's physical abilities have already surpassed human limits and he possesses bullet resistance, the M4A1 carbine used by Sato still fired bullets with considerable power. The bullets embedded themselves in Asagiri's calf muscles, and the impact of the bullets caused the bones in both of his calves to crack.
"Now they should obediently let go..."
Just as Sato was about to make a sarcastic remark with a smile, he discovered that even though the bones in his two calves were broken, Asagiri still did not let go of his hands, and her eyes did not even waver. Instead, she tightened her grip on his wrists.
"Click."
Asagiri crushed the bones in Sato's two wrists with her bare hands. Sato lost feeling in his hands, his fingers became uncontrollable, and the automatic rifle fell to the ground.
"Mr. Sato!"
Upon seeing this, Tanaka Koji immediately tried to fire in the direction where Sato and Asagiri were standing, but at that moment, a deep red cloak first came into his view, followed by a flashing sword light.
Asuna Yuuki wielded an exorcist's longsword enhanced by the "Blessing of the Wind," and the sharp blade severed Kouji Tanaka's arms.
Meanwhile, Kato Megumi saw that Nagai Kei had been resurrected and was standing up unsteadily. She threw the battle axe in her hand and struck Nagai Kei in the chest, sending him flying several meters backward.
"Touch of the Dead".
Only then did Kotoko Iwanaga finally make her move. Dozens of pale, ghostly hands emerged from the ceiling, the walls on both sides, and the ground, directly wrapping around Asagiri and Sato's bodies.
The Touch of the Dead is an area-of-effect attack skill that doesn't distinguish between friend and foe. Asagiri naturally knew this, but he still didn't dodge. Instead, after breaking Sato's wrist, he grabbed Sato's neck with one hand and quickly reached out with the other to dislocate and crush Sato's jaw, ensuring that even if the other person had poison in their mouth, they wouldn't be able to swallow it.
The whole process took less than five seconds.
Seeing those pale arms touch his body, and feeling an intense dizziness and drowsiness so strong that he could suppress the pain and just wanted to close his eyes, Sato immediately realized that these ghostly pale arms would drain his spiritual energy without harming his body.
His consciousness gradually faded, and his vision began to become increasingly blurry.
"Is this... what defeat feels like...?"
Faced with this seemingly hopeless predicament, Sato suddenly opened his narrow eyes, revealing an excited light, and stared directly into the black eyes beneath Asagiri's mask, trying his best to utter a muffled sound.
"Tanaka!"
Upon hearing Sato's shout, Tanaka Kouji, whose arms had been severed by Yuuki Asuna, suddenly opened his mouth, pushed out something that looked like a remote control button with his tongue, and then closed his upper and lower teeth, pressing the red button with his teeth.
“Leader!”
Amidst Kotoko Iwanaga's horrified exclamation, a burst of flame suddenly erupted from Sato's abdomen, rendering even the fastest, Asuna Yuuki, unable to react at that moment.
"boom!!!"
The TNT that Sato had swallowed beforehand exploded at this moment, and flames instantly engulfed the entire corridor. Even the thick, hard alloy walls collapsed in an instant, and Asagiri's body began to fall apart in the explosion.
Sato's last consciousness was fixed on Asagiri's eyes. He was very pleased with himself and wanted to enjoy watching his prey fall into the trap and show panic, unease, and fear in the last moment before death.
However, in Asagiri's eyes, there was not the emotion Sato had imagined, but rather a kind of... regret that he could not understand.
What is the other party regretting?
Before Sato could think any further, his vision went dark. When he regained consciousness, he found himself unable to move, and Asagiri was still standing there perfectly fine.
"Tick-tock...tick-tock...tick-tock..."
A strange, soft sound, like the ticking of a clock, rang out around him. Even more strangely, Sato noticed that everything around him was rapidly moving backward.
Time has rewound to one minute ago.
"Boom."
Kei Nagai and Koji Tanaka, who were disguised as dead members of the mobile unit, both changed their expressions when they saw Sato's body suddenly collapse. Koji Tanaka quickly stepped forward and asked.
"Mr. Sato, what's wrong!?"
Sato wanted to pull out his gun and kill himself, but he could be restored to full strength after being resurrected once.
But he couldn't control his body at all. He wanted to ask Tanaka Koji to kill him, but he couldn't. The intense drowsiness and exhaustion had exceeded the limits of his willpower. His vision became increasingly blurry until he finally closed his eyes and fell into darkness.
"Is this... failure...?"
"Mr. Sato!"
Kei Nagai seemed to realize something and tried to raise his gun to aim at Sato, but before he could make any move, he suddenly felt a terrifying force and his body flew out.
Before Tanaka Koji could react, a flash of cold light appeared, and Yuuki Asuna severed his head, piercing through his mobile unit helmet. With nimble and skillful movements, she pried open his mouth with the tip of her sword, pulled out the remote control for the bomb he was holding, and caught it steadily with the blade of her sword.
"Touch of the Dead".
Kotoko Iwanaga, whose prosthetic leg broke again due to running too fast, disregarded the fact that she only had one leg left and used her skill on Sato, who was lying on the ground unconscious.
This time, Sato and his team had no chance to turn the tide.
“It was a close call.”
Asagiri looked at Sato lying on the ground and said this in a calm tone.