"So this is the power of the Metaverse Navigator app? Truly extraordinary."
Appearing in this pitch-black, lightless environment via Ren Amamiya's MetaNav app, Hare remarked softly with emotion.
This was her first time experiencing spatial transfer using the MetaNav app's ability.
As for the sensation... it didn't feel much different from her own teleportation.
However, the MetaNav app's functionality—automatically locating a destination just by providing a name—was indeed many times more convenient than Hare having to manually search for the target herself.
"Where... is this place? Are we still in Mementos?"
Appearing alongside Hare and Mei in this dark, lightless space, Ren Amamiya frowned slightly. He scanned his surroundings, but couldn't make out the environment clearly.
Even squinting and focusing intently, Ren could only barely discern the outlines of the two beautiful women, Hare and Mei, beside him.
"Persona—Come forth, Huodou!"
Ren removed the white spirit bird mask from his face. As he threw the mask forward, azure flames instantly ignited in the air, twisting and transforming into the image of a massive, fiery beast with a majestic golden-red mane, radiating intense heat.
Persona Huodou's golden-red mane, emitting scorching heat, shimmered with a bright glow like flowing clouds of fire.
Even in this dim, lightless environment, under the fluorescent light emitted by Persona Huodou, everything should have been clearly visible.
However, even with Persona Huodou, under Ren's command, creating floating fireballs in the air for illumination...
This dark space Ren and Hare were in only brightened by an almost imperceptible amount.
Relying on the fireball illumination provided by Persona Huodou, Ren could now faintly make out Hare and Mei's exquisite, flawless faces, an improvement from only seeing their silhouettes.
This all-too-familiar darkness that refused to be illuminated, no matter what...
And the complex, labyrinthine tunnel-like terrain discovered after having Persona Huodou explore the area... it undoubtedly filled Ren with a subtle sense of déjà vu.
This is just like those annoying floors that occasionally appear in Mementos in the game—completely dark, unable to see the maze or enemies, forcing you to rely purely on luck to navigate forward!
Morgana's cat-bus form had headlights, but they were useless in illuminating the darkness of such levels.
Although exploring completely dark areas of Mementos offered richer rewards than usual...
Whenever Ren encountered a dark Mementos floor, he always turned tail without hesitation, immediately returning to the previous floor and then re-entering the next, non-darkened area to continue exploring.
The meager extra rewards from the dark areas, in Ren's opinion, were absolutely not worth the frustrating experience of bumping into walls in the dark, constantly unable to find the right path.
He never expected that not only in the game, but even after transmigrating, Ren would have to personally face this crap-like darkness mechanic again.
"The Metaverse Navigator app has successfully activated. This should be the interior of 'Seele Vollerei's' Palace. However... the atmosphere of this Palace feels very wrong. Joker, Miss Mei, please be extremely careful."
Hearing Ren's words, Hare's delicate brow furrowed slightly. She gently closed her eyes, carefully sensing the surrounding environment's aura, even utilizing her special ability to read information.
However, in this bizarre and special Palace, Hare's usually infallible information-reading ability seemed to encounter a mass of overlapping, invalid data. Even she couldn't definitively determine the exact state of this Palace.
The only thing Hare could be certain of was that this was indeed someone's Palace.
Palaces, also known as Stigma Spaces, should belong to the power of the Imaginary, in theory.
Yet, this strange Palace Ren arrived at using the MetaNav app, while possessing Imaginary power, was also permeated with a large amount of the aura and power belonging to the Sea of Quanta.
This peculiar Stigma Space, seemingly a superposition of Imaginary and Quantum powers, was utterly unheard of, completely baffling, and theoretically impossible to exist in the world.
"Understood, we'll be careful. But..."
After listening to Hare's warning, Mei nodded lightly, then her tone became hesitant.
"What is it, Mei? Did you notice something?"
Through the illumination provided by Persona Huodou's flames, Ren could barely make out the conflicted, hesitant expression on Mei's delicate face.
Thinking Mei might have some insight into the current situation, Ren encouraged her.
"If you have any thoughts, feel free to speak up. Maybe it can help us get out of this darkness."
"...No, I haven't noticed anything yet."
In the dim light cast by the fire, Mei shook her head somewhat shyly, her voice slightly airy as she spoke to Ren and Hare.
"I was just thinking... Ren and Miss Misteln both have codenames. Maybe I should come up with one for myself too..."
It was only when Hare just called Ren by his codename that Mei belatedly realized she, the newcomer, was the only one in the group without a codename, making her feel somewhat out of place among her two teammates.
Although the current situation might not be suitable for bringing this up, under Ren's prompting, Mei still explained her thoughts, feeling rather embarrassed.
"No problem, assigning codenames to team members in a Palace is a classic event. Do you have any codenames decided already, Mei?"
Thinking back, Ren seemed to always decide on codenames for the Phantom Thieves' members while inside a Palace.
Though the game usually offered three options, there was typically only one fixed codename you could actually assign, which Ren always found rather disappointing.
"Um... not yet. I'm still thinking..."
Mei awkwardly averted her gaze. In her chuunibyou phase, she had given herself countless codenames, but looking back now, they were all so embarrassing they could make her toes curl up and die on the spot from social death.
If Ren found out about those cringy codenames, Mei felt she might even relive the terrible experience of having her defenses completely shattered by Shadow Mei.
"Hmm, Mei's codename... Thunder? Or Samurai? Hannya?"
Ren rubbed his smooth chin, offering suggestions to Mei with interest.
"None of those feel quite right... Ren, why did you choose Joker as your codename back then?"
Mei forced a smile, feeling resistant to the codenames Ren suggested. They felt either too simple or too strange, not quite fitting her image or personality.
"If you're asking why, it's because I'm destined to shoulder the responsibility of saving this world, becoming the final trump card (Joker)."
Ren walked along the safe path cleared by Persona Huodou, leading the team slowly and cautiously forward. He crossed his arms, replying to Mei in a matter-of-fact tone.
'If Ren's codename is Joker, then maybe mine should be... Queen? But I already decided to leave behind my past self as the Raiden (Thunder) Queen. Which codename should I choose...'
Mei lowered her head, deep in troubled thought, closely following behind Ren while anxiously pondering what codename she should adopt.
"Joker, be careful! Enemy readings detected!"
Just as Mei was racking her brain for her own codename, Hare, who had been bringing up the rear, suddenly stopped, her tone serious as she warned Ren.
Compared to the illumination provided by Persona Huodou's firelight, Hare's own sensory perception was clearly more reliable.
Although she also couldn't see clearly, her ability to detect enemy reactions was unaffected by the darkness in this Palace.
Alerted by Hare's warning, Ren and Mei immediately stopped, assuming a guarded stance.
After five seconds passed, streaks of hidden, eerie purple shadows shot out at high speed from the unexplored fork in the path ahead of Ren.
"Roar, Kurikara!!"
Seeing the purple shadows speeding towards them like cannonballs, Mei's violet eyes instantly turned cold.
She deftly removed the black demonic mask worn askew on her face and, with extreme speed, threw the mask forward as it erupted with dazzling lightning.
Accompanied by the crackling roar of brilliant purple lightning, the massive demonic dragon, crimson in color, materialized dramatically.
Persona Kurikara let out a deafening roar. With a beat of its deep red dragon wings, it whipped up a fierce storm and unleashed magnificent bolts of lightning.
"These monsters are... Quantum Shadows?! Could it be? Is this a special region where the Imaginary Space and the Sea of Quanta converge?!"
As the enemies closed the distance with their surprise attack, Hare finally got a clear look at the form of these entirely ethereal purple monsters.
Recognizing these creatures, shimmering with a hazy violet light, as Quantum Shadows—life forms found only in the Sea of Quanta—Hare's eyes widened in astonishment.