Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 20 Bloody Decomposition Technique
"Alright, what's the point of saying all this?" Fourth Brother patted the Makarov in his hand, which was fitted with a silencer. "Eight years ago, once that Siberian bear in the north fell, we could easily get our hands on these kinds of weapons even here in Hong Kong. Ah Hui, you guys who run guesthouses really have no common sense. You even brought me a revolver and asked me to help you install a silencer?"

Ahui immediately blushed: "I... I watched 007 movies at the village video rental store, and James Bond always put a silencer on his revolver..."

"Fourth Brother," the man in black asked, "how much longer do we have to wait? There's a lot of work to do at the ancestral hall before the night patrol performance starts. Once the performance begins, all the brothers will have to run out to maintain order."

"Let's just wait. There's still a long way to go before the night performance. The village committee isn't just made up of a few people. If you do more work, others can slack off. The village committee only pays a few Hong Kong dollars a month. Why are you working so hard?"

As the fourth brother spoke, he glanced unintentionally behind him.

About twenty meters away on a main road along the bluestone path behind, there is a shop selling sweet cakes and pastries.

“It’s cunning of them to open a shop here,” Fourth Brother pointed. “The nighttime parade will definitely pass through this area, and it’ll be packed with people. Everyone has to follow the parade for three hours, so there’ll be no shortage of food. Especially those kids left behind in the village, if they don’t have food, they simply won’t have the patience to watch the Cantonese opera with the parade all night. Here, Wei, I’ll give you some money. Go buy some food and drinks for the brothers. If that kid doesn’t come out, we’ll have to wait a long time.”

"Fourth Brother, are we really going to keep waiting? If it really comes down to it, we can just charge in."

"Are you crazy? Stop talking nonsense! You're a complete lunatic! No wonder you can only be a lackey! The village chief said that we don't have to pay protection money to Boss Chen. Haven't you seen the village chief sending people from the village committee to buy roast meat from him during holidays? Otherwise, why do you think I've been standing here in the wind for so long? Do you think I'm crazy too?!"

The man in the black shirt named Awei, realizing he had made a fool of himself, had no choice but to take the money and walk to the bakery in front.

He took out his money, ready to buy a pancake, when he suddenly noticed a crack in the bronze mirror in the shop. Black liquid had begun to seep from the crack.

“Hey, Zhi,” Awei said, pointing at the bronze mirror, “what’s going on?”

The bakery owner hurriedly said, "Isn't this Brother Wei? I've already paid this month's protection fee."

"What nonsense are you spouting, you idiot! I'm asking you about the mirror! I remember last time I came to collect protection money, you had just replaced the mirror with a new one, how come it's broken like this again now?"

"I don't know, everything was fine before."

"Never mind, give me the bread first." He took out some money and said, "The bread here..."

Suddenly, he noticed blue patterns on one of the boxes of cakes!
"I'll fucking swear!" Awei kicked the bakery owner hard. "You bastard, are you trying to kill us?! You dare to sell cookies with blue stripes!"

After being kicked to the ground, Ah Zhi said in horror, "No, that's impossible! I checked these pastries, how could blue patterns suddenly appear..."

Awei kicked it again, then pointed at the mirror and said, "It's because of you, you damn bastard, that this mirror is so popular..."

But the next moment, Ah Zhi's expression suddenly changed.

Because he discovered that his reflection in the mirror did not raise its finger, but instead stood coldly in place, motionless.

"Ah! Red cloth! Give me the red cloth!"

Ah Zhi rushed forward quickly, grabbed a piece of red cloth from next to the cake box, and ran to the shattered mirror!

Just as he was about to cover himself with the red cloth, he saw... a blue glint appear behind him in the mirror!
……

In the kitchen of Chen's Roast Meat Shop, Jiang Jin was still practicing his knife skills diligently, and more than two hours had passed.

"Huh?" Jiang Jin looked at the uneven pieces of meat he had cut and suddenly noticed that two of them had blue fat streaks on them!

"This? That's not right. I remember when I cut it out just now... there wasn't this pattern?"

Jiang Jin remembers it very clearly because he carefully compares the cut surfaces of each piece of meat to see if there is any blue fat.

"Never mind it." The boss picked it up and tossed it behind him. "I'll deal with it later."

As Jiang Jin continued cutting the chunks of meat in front of him, he felt his stomach churning again.

He knew that in the mysterious layer, the meat might at most have some blue fat streaks, but it would still be pork at least.

But the same piece of meat, once Jiang Jin enters the Lost Layer, what he sees... is definitely not pork!

It's exactly like Schrödinger's char siu!

The terrifying experience flashed through his mind again, and he subconsciously glanced at his watch to confirm that he was still standing on the safe "beach." Meanwhile, the giant sharks of the deep sea awaited his return as the hunter.

Jiang Jin looked at his watch; it read 62%. Although the rate of decline had slowed compared to before, it had still reduced his SAN value by 2% in two hours! As for the slower rate... could it be related to that premium char siu pork?
Now, Jiang Jin has a general idea.

When he first arrived at this instance, he was in the most stable materialistic layer, but after drinking the pool water, he was "contaminated" by the curse, so much so that the evil spirits and ghosts of the mysterious layer followed him like a shadow even before his SAN value dropped below 80%!
The blue-clad female ghost, lurking deep within the Lost Layer, kept trying to drag him in after he drank the pool water! And what's more, there was an even more terrifying red-clad evil spirit!

It's impossible for Jiang Jin to be completely unafraid right now. Take what happened before, for example. He could have immediately taken out the bloodstained bandage to heal himself after seeing those ghostly hands, or used the system to convert the resentment crystals into SAN points. However, firstly, bandaging and using the watch were too time-consuming, and secondly, the 60% SAN point threshold made him feel insecure. Therefore, he ultimately took a gamble and chose to eat the premium char siu.

The Death Knell, sensing its master's anxiety, approached and gently raised its paw to pat Jiang Jin's trouser leg as he focused intently on cutting meat, seemingly trying to comfort him.

Jiang Jin looked at Deathstroke and felt a bitter taste in his mouth.

Although Deathstroke can theoretically dive as deep as the gap between the Lost Layer and the Annihilation Layer... this is only a theoretical statement. In reality, Deathstroke would most likely not be able to return to the Lost Layer or even the Mysterious Layer.

It is not an undead existing in the Lost Layer or the Annihilation Layer, but merely a skeletal hound created through the black ash runes. Although undead and ghosts are immortal, for Deathstroke, what is immortal might only be the ash matter that merges into its body after the black runes burn. If Jiang Jin dies, Deathstroke will immediately revert to a dead dog.

Jiang Jin almost bit his lip through his teeth.

Time is of the essence; he must learn the "Hunting Cursed Blade" ability as soon as possible!
If his SAN value drops below 60% again, he will have no choice but to have the Reincarnation System buy back the Resentment Crystals to replenish his SAN!
Next, he had to get there before the night patrol performance started to watch the whole thing! Otherwise, the cleaners would take him away!

And at night, he will be able to tamper with the rules again! He must determine how to modify the rules to his greatest advantage!
Driven by a strong inner determination, Jiang Jin continued to imitate the boss's knife skills time and time again. After nearly thirty minutes, he finally began to control the force, allowing the blade to glide along the texture of the meat.

The meat chunks slowly separated, the fascia remaining intact!
Then, a new text message appeared on the retina of the left eye:
"Reincarnator Jiang Jin, you have successfully learned and unlocked the Hunter Class LV1 Bloodstained Tracker hidden ability:"
Bloody Decomposition Technique!

(End of this chapter)