svetikya Page 195
Page 195
Asagiri glanced around and found that, just as the other person had said, although other events were taking place at the same time in the sports field, most of the Shuchiin students had run to the side of the track to watch his 100-meter race because of his participation.
"Easy to say, easy to say."
Asagiri reached out and patted the boy on the shoulder, glanced at the male students on the other two tracks who also looked worried, and said with a smile.
"I'll be at most half a body length ahead, I won't leave you too far behind."
"Everyone is in his place..."
Upon hearing the voice of the physical education teacher acting as referee, the athletes, including Asagiri, assumed the starting position and dashed off from the starting line the instant the starting gun fired.
Just as Asagiri said, he only maintained a half-body lead until he crossed the finish line.
"call……"
After winning first place in the 100-meter race, Asagiri seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and looked at the three panting male athletes who had competed alongside her, and slowly spoke.
"What a thrilling and exhilarating contest!"
Seeing the gratitude on the faces of the three male students and listening to the discussions among the surrounding classmates, Kaguya Shinomiya, standing on the sidelines and also wearing a tracksuit, remained noncommittal.
"Utsunomiya-kun... he's really good at winning people over..."
Upon hearing this, Fujiwara Chika, standing next to Shinomiya Kaguya, looked at Utsunomiya Asagiri, who was standing behind the finish line, smiled slightly, and spoke softly.
"After all, even putting those things aside, Utsunomiya-san is a very charming and desirable person."
56
Chapter 56: Wild Players in Shuchiin.
"She's a very charming person..."
Seeing Kaguya Shinomiya staring intently at Asagiri, who was standing behind the finish line chatting with their homeroom teacher, Miwa Ashikaga, Fujiwara Chika gave a mischievous smile, about to tease her, when she heard a girl's voice from behind her.
"Hmph, even though something like that happened recently, you still look carefree, Auntie. You're practically heartless."
Hearing that familiar voice, Kaguya Shinomiya turned around and looked at the beautiful girl who was also wearing the sports uniform of the private Shuchiin Academy. The uniform had "Shijo" written on the chest, her light brown hair was neatly combed, and cute short ponytails were left on both sides of her ears. She also had a very delicate appearance. She revealed a meaningful and malicious smile and replied in a gentle tone.
"Oh, it's Shijou Maki-kun. Is this how you talk to an elder? That's not very polite."
"Tch, you're still as aloof as ever."
Shijou Maki snorted coldly and raised her chin.
"Anyway, although I don't have a good impression of you, you are still a distant relative, so I have to remind you that things haven't been very stable in your family lately, and there are also many guys outside who are eyeing the Shinomiya Group. I heard this from my family, so you'd better be careful and not spend all your time playing house with that Utsunomiya classmate..."
As she said this, Shijou Maki subconsciously glanced at the finish line of the track, only to find that Asagiri, who had been standing there, had disappeared without her noticing.
Just as she was lost in thought, Asagiri's smiling voice rang out from behind her.
"Oh, it's Shijou Maki-san. I think I just heard my name mentioned by you?"
Shijo Maki's pupils contracted slightly in surprise. Although her expression remained unchanged, Shinomiya Kaguya, who was standing in front of her, noticed her momentary panic, and a strange light flashed in her red eyes.
"Anyway..."
Shijo Maki turned around and glanced at Asagiri, but didn't say anything to him. Instead, she looked at Shinomiya Kaguya and frowned slightly.
"Anyway, I've told you. Whether you listen or not is up to you, hmph."
After Shijo Maki turned and left, Shinomiya Kaguya stared at her retreating figure and said the exact same words as Asagiri.
"Her reaction was strange."
Upon hearing this, Fujiwara Chika looked surprised and tilted her head curiously.
"What's weird?"
Kaguya Shinomiya narrowed her beautiful red eyes slightly and said softly.
"She was just startled by Utsunomiya-kun."
"Isn't that normal?"
Fujiwara Chika looked completely bewildered.
"If someone suddenly appears next to you without you noticing, you'll definitely be startled."
"Indeed, this is a normal human reaction, but..."
Asagiri gazed at the distant figure of Shijo Maki and spoke calmly.
"She subconsciously suppressed her instinctive reaction to being startled, neither making a sound nor making any instinctive defensive movements, and her expression did not change at all, which was very abnormal."
Kaguya Shinomiya nodded slightly, then spoke softly.
“I’ve been trained in this area since I was a child. In order to always maintain the proper demeanor of the eldest daughter of the Shinomiya family, I never show obvious panic no matter what happens. But Shijou Maki’s upbringing is completely different from mine. She shouldn’t have received this kind of training. Moreover, I occasionally ran into her in junior high school, and when I talked to her this time, I didn’t notice anything unusual about her. In other words…”
Kaguya Shinomiya frowned slightly, a complex expression in her red eyes.
"Shijou Maki is likely a player, and she may very well possess sensory abilities."
Kaguya Shinomiya glanced at Asagiri standing beside her and said calmly.
"Because she vaguely sensed your power, that's why she felt panicked by your sudden approach."
"is it?"
Seeing that Asagiri showed no surprise or unexpected reaction, Kaguya Shinomiya frowned slightly.
"Could it be... that you already guessed her identity?"
"It's not a guess, it's a reasonable deduction."
Asagiri took the bottled water that Asuna Yuuki handed her, opened it, took a sip, and then replied with a smile.
"This game should also have a selection mechanism. It's only natural that geniuses like Shijou Maki, who are excellent in all aspects, will be noticed by the game system and selected to become players, just like you and Fujiwara Chika. Of course, it can't be said that as long as you have outstanding personal abilities, you will definitely be selected. For example, Hayasaka Ai and Ashikaga-sensei were not selected at the beginning. They were registered as players later through the mobile phones of deceased players."
Kaguya Shinomiya frowned and murmured.
"Just how many players are still inside Shuchiin...?"
……
The following day, Thursday afternoon, in the student council office.
The two-day Shuchiin Sports Meet has come to a successful conclusion, and as expected, Class A of the first year won first place in the entire school.
Utsunomiya Asagiri won first place in the high jump, 100-meter dash, and 400-meter dash, breaking the school record of Shuchiin Academy. Although Shinomiya Kaguya also had the ability to break school records, she was not seen as a monster-level all-around athlete like Asagiri. Therefore, she deliberately did not perform too amazingly and simply won the championships in the three events she participated in.
As the homeroom teacher, Ashikaga Miwa undoubtedly made a name for herself in front of the entire school, and no one, including the board members of Shuchiin, had the right to question her abilities.
Of course, these are all minor matters; what's truly important is...
"Could Shijou Maki be a player too?"
Upon hearing this, Ashikaga Miwa frowned slightly and looked at Yuuki Asuna and Fujiwara Chika sitting opposite her, asking them a question.
"You two are also in Class B of the first year, and classmates with Shijou-san. Have you noticed anything unusual about her?"
Upon hearing Ashikaga Miwa's question, Yuuki Asuna thought for a moment before shaking her head.
"No, although I am in the same class as Shijou, we usually don't talk to each other. We just know each other's names, and we don't even know each other. We have no contact at all."
"Although I've known Maki since junior high, but..."
Fujiwara Chika gave a simple and sweet smile, picked up the black tea on the table, took a sip, and then chuckled slowly.
"I don't have any personal relationship with her, at most we're just acquaintances."
"That's it..."
Ashikaga Miwa picked up her cup, took a sip of the bitter black coffee, and then looked at Asagiri and spoke in a deep voice.
"Let's put aside the question of whether Shijou-kun is a player or not. After all, she hasn't shown any hostility so far. The most important thing now is the changes that the game has caused in the real world."
Upon hearing Ashikaga Miwa's words, Iwanaga Kotoko removed her white beret and gently placed it on her lap.
"If I'm not mistaken, there have been a large number of missing persons cases in the real world, right?"
"Yes."
Ashikaga Miwa sighed heavily, took off her gold-rimmed glasses, and raised her hand to rub her temples.
"A few days ago, I also participated in my first dungeon as a new player, which was the third phase. Although I survived in the end, out of the more than 30 players who entered the same dungeon as me, only 10 people, including myself, survived. The death rate of more than two-thirds is really..."
Before Ashikaga Miwa could finish her exclamation, Asagiri interrupted.
"The dungeon you participated in was relatively simple."
"Eh?"
Seeing Ashikaga Miwa's somewhat surprised expression, Asagiri pointed to Shinomiya Kaguya sitting behind the student council president's desk and said calmly.
"In the instance they participated in, there were about fifty players, and only twelve of them successfully completed it. In the instance we participated in a few days ago, we encountered nearly one hundred and forty players, but less than thirty of them survived. The death rate was close to four-fifths, and the chance of successfully completing it was only twenty percent."
"This……"
Ashikaga Miwa frowned, her face showing a stern expression.
"Isn't this third phase of the dungeon a bit too harsh?"
No, quite the opposite.
Asagiri shook her head and replied with a smile.
"Don't forget, this is a death game. It gives players a full two months, at least six or seven runs into the dungeon, to accumulate strength. It only really starts to get brutal in the third phase. And new players like you, if you don't team up with us veteran players, will be placed in the lowest difficulty dungeons, giving you new players a chance to survive. It's not cruel or harsh at all. In fact, I think the game's system is already quite lenient."
"Gentle?"
Seeing Ashikaga Miwa's noncommittal expression, Asagiri didn't dwell on the topic and instead changed the subject.
"By the way, now that a considerable number of players in the third phase have completed the dungeon, with the overall strength of the players increasing, have any unusual events occurred in the real world? For example, using the power of the players to kill certain people or destroy certain places?"
"No, to my knowledge, there isn't any."
Ashikaga Miwa first shook her head, then stared at Asagiri, who was smiling, and said with a hint of helplessness.
"I think the reason why this situation hasn't occurred is directly related to your previous attack on Shinomiya Hikari. It can be said that it is because of your existence that no one dares to use the power of players to do anything outrageous in the real world."
57
Chapter 57 An intimate date with Asuna.
"So that's what they call deterrence..."
Noticing that Asuna Yuuki seemed a little confused, Kotoko Iwanaga took the initiative to explain.
"Because Asagiri successfully killed Shinomiya Kiko last time, and left no trace in the process, completely erasing him from this world along with the vehicle and Shinomiya Kiko himself. To this day, the Metropolitan Police Department and the Shinomiya family have not found any clues. Although no one except a few of us knows how he did it, anyone who thinks for a moment knows that the person who could do such a thing must be a player, and a player with absolutely overwhelming power. So the question is..."
Kotoko Iwanaga raised her fair index finger and said with a smile.
"In our view, Asagiri is certainly not the kind of person who likes to kill innocent people indiscriminately, or who likes to kill other players and take their equipment or items. But outsiders see it differently. What they see is someone who dares to kill people in the real world when the game has reached the second stage, and who killed a very important figure like Shinomiya Hikari. He is a powerful monster who has no scruples. Faced with this intimidation, no player dares to easily reveal their identity. If they are targeted by the 'monster,' it will be a big problem."
"Although it was unexpected, it's still pretty good."
Ashikaga Miwa reached out and pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses, letting out a long sigh of relief.
"Before games and players cause the world to completely spiral out of control, as long as we reach a tacit understanding and establish rules like those for combat competitions, it shouldn't have too serious an impact."
"Hmm, you have a point, but..."
Asagiri seemed to have suddenly thought of something, and with a serious expression, she slowly spoke amidst the puzzled gazes of everyone in the student council room.
"Wait a minute, how did I end up in the student council office again? We were told it was just a temporary position, but it feels like I'm working every day. It's completely ruining my enjoyable daily life!"
While everyone else was at a loss for words due to Asagiri's abstract remarks, Fujiwara Chika instantly donned a classic detective hat, picked up a pipe-shaped candy, and transformed into a love detective, delivering her astonishing analysis.
"Hey, Utsunomiya-san, you somehow ended up in the student council room? You must have been thinking about seeing someone, so your body just started moving on its own, right?"
Upon hearing this, Asagiri nodded and looked directly at Fujiwara Chika's face.
Yes, I want to see you.
"Huh? Huh..."
Fujiwara Chika was stunned for a moment. After a few seconds, her fair and lovely face suddenly flushed red, and her blue eyes became misty. She turned red and stammered.
"Um... well, I'm the referee, I... I... I won't leave the field..."
"Alas, they are truly vulnerable."
Asagiri first shook her head, then stood up, looked down at Fujiwara Chika, and slowly began to speak.