See the Law of Deception

Chapter 196 Heredity (2)

No one seemed inclined to introduce themselves; it appeared they only intended to form alliances and communicate within their own platforms.

Lu Jinzhao had no objection to this. After a brief observation, she had already memorized the appearances of the remaining 14 people.

At this moment, the "persona" assigned to her on this train also came to mind.

Before entering, Lu Jinzhao had considered many possibilities, after all, this platform was called "Hereditary". But at this moment, she was somewhat surprised to find that the train had not arranged for them to be part of the village.

However, their background is also a very classic type found in horror movies and novels: a group of tourists and researchers.

Who knows what's so great about this mountain village for tourism, or what's the point of scientific research? But that's how it was arranged anyway.

Lu Jinzhao's character is that of a "college student," as is Tian Lei next to her. It seems that the train arranged for a research instructor to lead the group, probably because some of the passengers were over 30 years old.

The good news is that this persona doesn't significantly restrict their activities in the village. The bad news is that they aren't members of the village, making the "genetic" aspect even more bizarre.

Does genetics itself have nothing to do with passengers?
Lu Jinzhao doesn't have much of a clue about this yet.

"Shall we go in?" she suggested, looking at Tian Lei.

She had already surveyed the surroundings and found nothing worth stopping at. Tian Lei gazed intently at the village not far away, and upon hearing this, she simply nodded.

She didn't think staying put was a good idea either.

It's just a complete waste of time.

It was clear that quite a few people realized this. Lu Jinzhao and Tian Lei were not the first to walk into the village. The 16 people came from four different stations, and the first to enter was the station with the most people.

Six of them entered through the station.

Lu Jinzhao and Tian Lei were at the station with the fewest passengers. Not only were they the fewest, but they were also only first-class passengers.

By any measure, they seem to be in a "weak" position.

No one from other stations was willing to take the initiative to "ally" with them. Perhaps after entering the village for a while, the "factions" currently divided according to the stations would change slightly, but the combination of Lu Jinzhao and Tian Lei would definitely have the lowest appeal to others.

However, having fewer people also has its advantages.

The muddy country road was not easy to walk on, but fortunately Lu Jinzhao was wearing combat boots, so even if the soles of his shoes were covered in mud, it was easy to clean them off.

As they walked through the rain, they gradually approached the village nestled in the mountains.

The village buildings are not densely packed, scattered sparsely across the open spaces. The houses are mostly built with earthen walls made of a mixture of clay and straw, and the roofs are covered with black tiles. Most houses consist of a small courtyard with a few rooms, and the courtyard is paved with blue bricks. Apart from that, the open space in the courtyard is still made of mud.

Every room is like this; the village's color scheme is composed of the yellow of the earth and the black of the bricks.

Monotonous, empty, and inexplicably gloomy on rainy days.

The commotion of 16 people entering the village went unnoticed by the villagers, perhaps because of the rain and the fact that there weren't many people out and about.

Lu entered the village today but didn't see a single local.

They were all sheltering from the rain at home.

They had the layout of the assigned courtyards in their minds. The 16 people were arranged in adjacent positions, with Lu Jinzhao and Tian Lei sharing a room. As they ventured deeper into the village, the yellow mud beneath their feet gradually transformed into a deeper, almost bruised color.

On one side of the road were fields planted with crops, and on the other side were mud houses. Lu Jinchao could see the marks left by the rain hitting the bricks and mud walls. The walls were not clean, with patches of black attached to them, as if they had been burned or as if they were old bloodstains.

A small amount of firewood was piled up in the corner, much of it now soaked by the rain. The weather was gloomy, and the house, which was completely dark, should have been pitch black, but almost no one passing by had their lights on.

Only a very few households seemed to be cooking, and the smell of burning firewood carried by the chimneys and the wind and rain gave this desolate village a touch of life.

When they arrived at their lodgings, Lu Jinzhao's clothes were completely soaked, as were Tian Lei's.

Neither of them cared about such a trivial matter; they simply checked the room first.

This is a very ordinary, even clean, room. Apart from poor lighting, excessive simplicity, and the peculiar smell of a rural earthen house, it has no other drawbacks.

This place wasn't just for Lu Jinzhao and Tian Lei. The small courtyard had five rooms: a kitchen, a main room, a bedroom, a storage room, and a pigsty. Lu Jinzhao and Tian Lei occupied the bedroom, while the storage room next door was converted into another bedroom because it was bigger, housing four people from another city.

At that moment, Lu Jinzhao heard someone outside say, "There's only one toilet here, and it's a dry toilet, inside the pigsty."

The voice clearly indicated displeasure, and Lu Jinzhao felt a subtle sense of relief upon hearing it, realizing that he now had very few physiological needs as a human being.

Lu Jinzhao thoroughly checked the room, and even though she had a spare set of clothes in her backpack, she didn't plan to change out of them.

It was dusk, almost nightfall, but she didn't think the Death Platform's next arrangement for them was a harmless nap.

She has a very good constitution and won't catch a cold even if she's wearing soaking wet clothes after getting caught in the rain, so there's no need to waste it.

Sure enough, as time passed, the already gloomy sky darkened further, and shortly after nightfall, the passengers received their first "mission" after entering the Death Platform.

The task appears in the exact same way you would receive a notification in real life.

Lu Jinzhao suddenly felt a sharp pain in her forearm, as if someone was branding it with a hot iron. Then, it was as if someone had cut her arm with an invisible carving knife, and a line of small characters slowly appeared.

[I left home at 12:20 AM tonight, went to the ancestral hall, and took a blank memorial tablet with me.]

Tian Lei, standing beside her, was also looking at her arm. The words on her arm read:

[I left home at 01:10 AM tonight, went to the ancestral hall, and took a blank memorial tablet with me.]

"Time. Different."

This means that the task requires them to go to the shrine alone.

"In addition, the blank memorial tablet is also noteworthy. And, is it to be carried on your person all the time? The task does not specify a time limit."

Lu Jinzhao glanced at his watch; it was 11:39.

"This mission is strange."

"Blank memorial tablets? Why are there blank memorial tablets in the ancestral hall of this village?"

Tian Lei's tone was somewhat uneasy: "Perhaps we'll have to use the life-saving money to modify the mission details soon."

(End of this chapter)