Chapter 315 - 315: A Veteran Player's Warning and Takumi's Decision

"So you're saying... Hayasaka was taken into Hayadate Elementary School?"

After a brief conversation, Kaguya finally realized that the thing she had brought back was actually an unrestricted Instance ticket.

Her face turned pale, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't suppress the anxiety rising within her.

The former peak-tier Red Moon-level Instance, Uncanny Campus, might appear to have fallen to Dark Night-level status now, but its actual difficulty had not changed in the slightest.

It remained a genuine Red Moon-level nightmare—a terrifying world that even powerful Red Moon-level players struggled to conquer.

Although her maid, Hayasaka Ai, possessed remarkable physical abilities—calling her an urban super-soldier would hardly be an exaggeration—her strength still existed within the limits of humanity.

Compared to the aberrations inside the Instance world, she was simply incomparable.

If someone like her had truly been dragged into an Instance...

Kaguya couldn't even imagine what that would look like.

Given Hayasaka's personality...

She looked strong on the surface, but she was actually a girl who cried very easily.

There was no way she could endure a place like that.

Yet so many days had already passed, and no one had forgotten her existence.

Which meant she was still alive.

But... in what state was she alive?

Like Takumi in Fujihana Middle School?

Turned into some half-dead doll?

The more Kaguya thought about what Hayasaka might have gone through, the harder it became for her to remain calm.

"Don't panic. Panicking won't help now."

Takumi's voice suddenly broke through her thoughts.

Kaguya, whose expression had already become somewhat vacant, looked up instinctively.

What she saw was Takumi's utterly calm face, devoid of even the slightest ripple.

Without hesitation, after confirming that Hayasaka Ai had most likely gotten into trouble, Takumi immediately contacted Kumagai Mai again—the most reliable, most powerful, and most trustworthy veteran player he currently knew.

"What? Your friend might've been dragged into Hayadate Elementary School?!"

"No, seriously? I literally just warned you about that place, and now something actually happened?"

"...Tch. And of all places, it had to be Hayadate."

"You really know how to give me difficult problems."

Mai's voice had initially carried a hint of drunkenness.

The moment Takumi explained the situation, however, her alcohol-induced haze vanished instantly.

Her tone turned into one of pure exasperation.

"Can she still be saved?"

Takumi skipped straight to the most important question.

"...The time when your friend got dragged into Hayadate Elementary School hasn't exceeded a week yet, right?"

After a brief silence, Mai answered with a question of her own rather than a direct response.

"Her disappearance should coincide with the time I got dragged into Fujihana Middle School. It's been a little over two days, almost three."

Takumi replied immediately.

"Then she can still be saved."

"There'll probably be some serious psychological trauma, but yes—she can be saved."

"However, she's an ordinary person, right?"

"From your description, she's just someone who's received some training. No Blessings, no enhancements, no supernatural support. Just an ordinary human."

"And rescuing her from Hayadate Elementary School..."

Mai paused.

"...Don't blame me for being blunt, but honestly? I think the odds of both of you dying in there are higher."

"Anyway, I don't have much information I can give you, but listen carefully."

Though she claimed she wasn't optimistic, Mai immediately shifted the conversation to survival advice before Takumi could say anything else.

Clearly, the veteran player already knew he had made up his mind to enter the Instance again.

There was no point wasting time trying to dissuade him.

The important thing was to focus on what mattered.

"First, Hayadate Elementary School is one of the four major regions of the Red Moon-level Instance Uncanny Campus."

"It's a place that cares very, very much about rules."

"I can't explain the specifics. Once you're inside, you'll understand."

"Second, the player survival rate in that region is actually quite high."

"Roughly thirty percent."

"Of course, that number includes players who were forced into missions."

"And among the players who fail to leave the Instance, a large portion don't actually die."

"The fact that ordinary people haven't forgotten your friend probably means she encountered that particular situation."

"Mm. You said it's been almost three days already."

"That means you have a little over four days left to rescue her."

"If you exceed that time limit, then even if you find her, your friend won't be able to come back anymore."

"So remember this carefully."

"That is your effective rescue window."

"And..."

"Information suppression around Hayadate Elementary School is even more severe than it was for Fujihana Middle School."

"There are many things I can't explain. If I reveal even a little too much, something bad will happen."

"Mm... anyway..."

"Be extremely careful."

"With that curse you're carrying, honestly, I have no idea what'll happen after you enter that hellhole."

"But..."

"Try looking at things from a child's perspective."

"That might help."

"That's all I can say."

Mai spoke with unusual seriousness, delivering warning after warning.

Takumi committed every word to memory.

Only after she finished did he finally say: "Thank you."

"No need to thank me. You saved my life, after all."

"But seriously, kid, you're something else."

"You just crawled out of a hellhole like Fujihana, and now you're rushing straight into Hayadate without even taking a breath."

"This is a Red Moon-level Instance."

"This isn't a joke."

"You should value your own life a little more, young man."

Mai's attitude remained carefree as ever, and before long she was teasing him again.

"According to the Sacrifice Game's classification system, I'm only participating in a Dark Night-level Instance. I'm not at the level where I should be dealing with Red Moon-level Instances yet."

Though his mood was somewhat heavy, Takumi couldn't help laughing and joking along.

"Hah? If you're trusting that dumbass Sacrifice Game ranking system, you might as well believe I'm the First Emperor of Japan."

"Anyway, that's all I've got."

"Oh, right. I remember you have a bunch of Dusk-level Obsession Items."

"Go trade them at the player market."

"Low-tier Obsession Items don't mean much in an Instance like that."

"I know Kogawa Shu personally."

"I watched that kid enter the Sacrifice Game myself."

"He's ruthless, greedy, and plays dirty as hell."

"But overall, he genuinely works for the benefit of most players."

"For someone like you—a player with talent, ability, and, most importantly, someone who isn't a psychopath or a social deviant—he'll definitely support you."

"And if I throw in my personal recommendation as well..."

"Then getting your hands on three Dark Night-level Obsession Items isn't entirely impossible."

"As the old saying goes, sharpening your spear right before battle may not make it sharper, but it'll at least make it shine. Even rushed preparation is better than no preparation at all."

"But when you're trading for Obsession Items, make sure you're clear about what you need. Personally, I'd recommend focusing on storage-type, support-type, and survival-type Obsession Items. Offensive ones shouldn't be your top priority."

After the conversation ended and the call was disconnected, Takumi turned around.

What he saw was Kaguya already fully dressed and ready to rush off to the player market.

The blow dealt to her by Hayasaka's disappearance was clearly far greater than he had imagined.

She had completely lost the calm and rational demeanor she normally displayed.

She hadn't even considered the fact that the player market had already closed for the day.

"Calm down. Sit."

"Sit properly."

With physical abilities enhanced by multiple Blessings and already surpassing Kaguya's, Takumi casually reached out and pressed the reluctant girl back into her chair.

Then he pulled up Kogawa Shu's phone number and placed a call.

The ringtone echoed.

The other side didn't answer immediately.

So Takumi simply stood there before Kaguya, watching her restless, anxious movements as he silently sighed to himself.

Using outward strength to disguise inner fragility.

Appearing cold.

Appearing distant.

Appearing like someone who cared only about calculating profits and losses with ruthless logic.

But all of that was merely a facade.

The moment a genuine weakness was struck, she became completely lost.

Like a child.

Like this.

Thrown entirely into disarray.

Honestly, when family upbringing goes wrong, children can end up with some truly serious problems.

Kaguya's situation was probably bad enough that even a professional psychologist would have nothing but headaches.

"Calm down."

"We'll bring her back."

Takumi lowered his head and leaned closer, looking directly into Kaguya's crimson eyes as he spoke seriously.

"She still has four days left."

"Our job is to find her within those four days and bring her out of that place."

"Spending time worrying about what condition she's in right now, or whether we'll succeed in rescuing her, is completely meaningless."

"Use that brain of yours."

"What comes next isn't a game."

"Even if I take you in with me, it's still an Instance region filled with danger."

"We'll have to give it everything we've got just to make it through."

At the same time as he spoke, Takumi subtly activated a small portion of Hedda's Blessing, releasing the mental suppression effect attached to the Rampage Blessing to help Kaguya calm herself.

The black-haired girl took a deep breath.

Closed her eyes.

Then opened them again.

Little by little, her emotions settled.

For the first time since Hayasaka's disappearance, she regained her composure.

The uncertainty and confusion in her expression hadn't vanished entirely, but at least she had escaped the panicked state she'd been trapped in moments before.

"Takumi-kun, you only just came back from Fujihana Middle School, and now you're going to..."

She had also realized what decision Takumi had already made.

A trace of concern appeared in her eyes as she looked at him.

Although part of her was relieved—perhaps even happy—that Takumi had decided to involve himself, she still possessed enough basic decency to feel guilty about it.

Getting out of Fujihana Middle School alive had already been incredibly difficult.

And now, after barely a single day of rest, he was preparing to enter another Instance of the same caliber.

Even if it was for her sake.

Even if it was for Hayasaka.

Kaguya could easily imagine the burden and pressure this would place on him.

"Yeah."

"So, have you figured out how you're going to compensate me yet?"

A grin appeared on Takumi's face.

"The reason I'm willing to do this is because it's you."

"If it were some random person I barely knew, I definitely wouldn't be risking my life like this."

Takumi chuckled and teased her, then noticed that the call on his phone had just connected.

Switching the phone to speaker mode, he hadn't even had the chance to say anything when Kogawa Shu—who seemed to have already anticipated why Takumi was calling—spoke first in his hoarse voice.

"Mr. Takumi, you need to exchange the Obsession Items you currently have for stronger Dark Night-level Obsession Items, correct? As the market manager, I can directly access various Dark Night-level Obsession Items from the market's storage vault. Have you decided which ones you'd like?"

It looked like the reason Kogawa Shu hadn't answered immediately earlier was probably because Kumagai Mai had contacted him right after finishing her conversation with Takumi.

That worked out well. It saved quite a bit of trouble.

Takumi began considering what kinds of Obsession Items he needed.

Very little information about Hayadate Elementary School had ever leaked to the outside world. That meant the Instance almost certainly contained either highly contaminating information or extremely dangerous Aberrations capable of information perception. On the other hand, according to Mai, the mortality rate of this Instance wasn't particularly high. Yet players who cleared it often ended up developing mental illnesses.

In other words, this Instance was probably more focused on psychological torment and mental destruction than outright killing.

In that case, the types of Obsession Items he needed were:

[1. Combat-type Obsession Items capable of helping him fight Aberrations.

[2. Investigation-type Obsession Items capable of assisting effective exploration.

[3. Protection-type Obsession Items capable of preventing contamination during investigations.

[4. Support-type Obsession Items capable of helping with analysis and judgment.

[5. Survival-type Obsession Items capable of protecting him from fatal threats.

[6. Healing-type Obsession Items capable of repairing physical injuries and mental damage.

[7. Storage-type Obsession Items capable of providing additional carrying space.

[8. Unconventional Obsession Items that might prove unexpectedly useful.

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