Chapter 277: The Daily Life of the Student Council
"Phew… I'm exhausted…"
After leaving the Dungeon and returning to the real world, Iwanaga Kotoko immediately collapsed onto the soft sofa and hugged a pillow to her chest. She no longer bothered to maintain her elegance in front of Asagiri and yawned sleepily.
"We can talk about drawing rewards after I wake up… I'm sleeping first…"
It had been a continuous Dungeon that lasted seventy two hours. Although there had been breaks in between, they had still been inside the Dungeon. Even while sleeping, the four members of the team had subconsciously remained on guard, making proper rest impossible.
Even Yuuki Asuna, who had slight mysophobia, was so tired that she could barely keep her eyes open. She first glanced at Kato Megumi, who had already fallen asleep on the opposite sofa, then looked at Asagiri beside her. Her consciousness was hazy as she mumbled in a cute, drowsy voice.
"I haven't showered yet, so I won't sleep in the room… Aren't you going to sleep?"
"I'll wait a little longer."
"Alright then…"
Yuuki Asuna lay down on the sofa and rested her head on Asagiri's lap. She rubbed against him like a kitten, her voice thick with sleepiness as she said sweetly,
"Then I'll sleep first."
After Yuuki Asuna, Kato Megumi, and Iwanaga Kotoko had all fallen asleep, Asagiri lowered his phone screen brightness to the minimum and opened his email.
There were three unread messages.
The first was from Ashikaga Miwa.
"I've requested leave from school for you."
The second email was from Fujiwara Chika, and it even came with her signature cute kaomoji.
"Hello, hello, Utsunomiya~ It's been several days. I've missed you so much~ Kaguya and I are taking care of the Student Council, so you don't need to worry at all~"
Seeing the contents of the email, Asagiri immediately drafted a reply.
"What Student Council?"
Unexpectedly, less than three seconds after Asagiri sent the email, Fujiwara Chika immediately replied, attaching a cute angry cat yawning emoji.
"Seriously, you're the Vice President! How could you just forget our bond!? That's too much!"
Just by reading the message, Asagiri could roughly imagine Fujiwara Chika puffing out her cheeks in protest. Without hesitation, he drafted another message and sent it.
"Who are you?"
Meanwhile, at home, Fujiwara Chika saw this message and the large question mark representing confusion. Her cute face first showed a look of blank bewilderment, then she reacted, her face instantly flushing red.
Her slender, fair fingers slid across the screen at an astonishing speed. In less than a second, she had already drafted a message, ready to condemn Utsunomiya's heartless attitude.
However…
"He blocked me again!?"
Seeing the red notification [You have been blocked by this user] displayed on the screen, Fujiwara Chika looked like she wanted to cry but could not. Holding her phone, she kept rolling back and forth on the bed.
"PUA… This is definitely PUA… Oh wait, that word seems to only be used between couples. But… I can't think of a more suitable word either."
Today's email showdown ended in Fujiwara Chika's crushing defeat.
…
After securing a complete victory in the email duel, Asagiri opened the last unread email.
As expected, it was from Kaguya Shinomiya, and its contents were very simple.
"Remember to come to school after it's over. I have something I want to discuss with you all."
"What do you mean, 'remember to come to school'… I'm an excellent student who never skips class."
Asagiri shook his head with a smile, then closed his phone.
He understood Kaguya Shinomiya's personality well. If she were merely worried about him, she would not use such a serious tone. Moreover, Kaguya Shinomiya said she wanted to talk to "you all," not just "you," meaning him alone.
Clearly, there must be something related to the third stage Dungeon that needed to be discussed.
This could be considered an advantage born from the mutual trust between two different Player teams.
No matter how strong Asagiri, Yuuki Asuna, and the others were, the information they could obtain from a single Dungeon run was limited. If they could exchange information with Kaguya Shinomiya's team, perhaps they could learn more about the Dungeon world.
From the Dungeons they had experienced so far, most seemed to take place in that Cursed world, and Black Watch appeared to be an entity from that world.
However, the Ajin Dungeon was completely different. It was a world similar to reality, and its society still functioned normally.
The zombie Dungeon was still unclear. It could be a certain region of the Cursed world, but it could also be an independent world.
If it was the former, that was fine.
But if it was the latter…
How had Black Watch, which existed in the Cursed world, crossed into another world without the game system and conducted experiments on an entire city?
Asagiri, Yuuki Asuna, Iwanaga Kotoko, and Kato Megumi had originally thought the reason behind this death game was to grant power to the chosen ones in the real world, then have the Players fight against Black Watch from another world.
But now, it seemed that was not the case.
Black Watch was an enemy, but they were not the only enemy. Even members of Black Watch could register as Players as long as they obtained a mobile phone.
In this game, what exactly were the Players who had gained power supposed to fight?
…
That day, Tuesday noon, Private Shuchiin Academy, Student Council room.
"Utsunomiya."
Seeing Asagiri, Yuuki Asuna, and Iwanaga Kotoko enter the Student Council office, Fujiwara Chika immediately walked to the corner, picked up a stack of letters, and placed them heavily on the table.
Then she looked at Asagiri, who had nonchalantly sat down on the sofa, and pouted.
"Here. These are all for you."
"What are these?"
Asagiri picked up the letter on top.
When he saw the elegant handwriting and the pink heart sticker on the envelope, not only him, but Yuuki Asuna and Iwanaga Kotoko beside him immediately realized what those letters were.
"This… This couldn't be…"
Yuuki Asuna glanced at the pile of letters, which looked like a small mountain. There were at least forty or fifty of them. An expression of disbelief appeared on her delicate face.
"How can there be so many love letters… Isn't this too exaggerated?"
"Ah, Asuna, you still don't understand Utsunomiya's charm."
Seeing Fujiwara Chika's profound and meaningful expression, Yuuki Asuna was momentarily speechless.
"Please, I'm his girlfriend. Why does your tone make it sound like you're his girlfriend?"
Fujiwara Chika replied confidently,
"Precisely because I can openly and unreservedly praise Utsunomiya, it proves that I have absolutely no romantic feelings for him~"
Hearing this, Yuuki Asuna shook her head helplessly. Remembering the theory Fujiwara Chika had once told her, she could not help but chuckle.
"Your logic as a love detective is surprisingly solid."
Sitting behind the Student Council President's desk, with a gold thread sewn onto the wrist area of her uniform as the symbol of Shuchiin Academy's Student Council President, Kaguya Shinomiya looked up at Asagiri on the sofa.
A hint of complexity appeared in her red eyes.
After lightly clearing her throat, she spoke.
"I wanted to ask, was the Dungeon you experienced last time very long? You only replied to Chika's message this morning. At that time, you should have just cleared it, so…"
Before Kaguya Shinomiya could finish, Asagiri nodded.
"Yes. A super long Dungeon that lasted seventy two hours."
"I see…"
Kaguya Shinomiya first replied noncommittally, then asked the most important question.
"If you had to summarize the situation in the last Dungeon with one keyword, which one would you choose?"
"Hmm…"
Asagiri pondered for a moment before replying with a smile.
"From the Players' perspective, cooperation. But from our team's perspective alone, I suppose it would be guidance and leadership."
"So that's how it is…"
While Kaguya Shinomiya fell into thought, Fujiwara Chika took the initiative to explain.
"The Dungeon we experienced last time only lasted twenty four hours, and the situation should have been quite different from yours, but the core theme was very similar. On an endless train that never stopped, we had to keep moving forward. Every hour, there would be five minutes when the train interior was plunged into absolute darkness, where you couldn't even see your own hand. Cursed existences would take advantage of that time to attack the Players, and after successfully killing a Player, they would transform into the deceased Player's appearance. I don't need to explain it in detail. You should understand how much panic that caused among the Players. If Kaguya hadn't…"
"Alright, alright. Just introduce the situation. There's no need to specifically boast about Shinomiya's great achievements."
Iwanaga Kotoko directly interrupted Fujiwara Chika. She glanced at Kaguya Shinomiya, who sat behind the desk with a calm expression, then looked at Asagiri beside her.
"If it were only our Dungeon last time, it might have been a coincidence. But combined with the Dungeon situation they encountered, perhaps we can infer that compared to the first stage's test of psychological quality and the second stage's test of action capability, the theme of the third stage Dungeon should be the ability to gather other Players and control the direction of the Dungeon situation."
"So, in terms of so-called leadership…"
Kaguya Shinomiya furrowed her brow slightly and looked at Asagiri sitting there. After a few seconds of silence, she sighed softly.
"In this regard, I am inferior to you."
"Look at you saying that."
Asagiri waved his hand.
Just as Fujiwara Chika thought he was about to act modest for a sentence or two, Asagiri spoke frankly.
"Something so obvious doesn't need to be specially brought up, alright?"
Kaguya Shinomiya: "…You're really letting your arrogance run wild."
After being unable to resist retorting, Kaguya Shinomiya returned to her Ice Kaguya state, her tone flat.
"Besides the Dungeon, there is one more important matter."
"What?"
"The position of Chairman of Shuchiin Academy is vacant."
.....
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