Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 384 The Balance Between Two Types of Pollution

【New Tales of the Strange, Tranquil Ears】Dimension.

Friday is garbage collection day.

The residents of Beizuka Daiichi Apartment seem to follow a tacit understanding, placing sorted garbage bags at their doorsteps every morning.

What should have been an ordinary scene in daily life now carried an indescribable eeriness. Each bag of trash placed there seemed like a silent obedience to the rules, and also a test of the edge of the abyss.

Jiang Jin and Lingzi also placed the prepared garbage bags at the door of room 304.

However, just as Lingzi was about to turn around and go back into the house, Jiang Jin squatted down and carefully examined their garbage bags. His movements were discreet; his fingers lightly brushed over the top of the bags, as if sensing something.

"Commander?" Lingzi asked, puzzled.

Jiang Jin didn't answer; his eyes were sharp as knives. He gently pushed aside the top few discarded packaging boxes, his pupils contracting slightly.

At the bottom of the garbage bag lay two items that shouldn't have belonged to them—

An old-fashioned black fountain pen, its cap stained with blackened, viscous blood, and even... a few dried bits of flesh and blood!
An ordinary pair of black-rimmed glasses, the left lens was completely shattered, the cracks spreading like a spider web, and dark red bloodstains were splattered on the frame and the unbroken right lens!
The appearance of these two items was silent and without warning, perfectly matching the description of rule number three!
Reiko's face turned pale instantly. She subconsciously took a half step back and whispered, "The rules say... to calmly discard it all and not to delve into it."

Jiang Jin stared at the blood-stained pen and the broken glasses, a strange light flashing in his eyes.

After Lingzi left, he reached out and carefully took the two items out of the trash bag.

The cold touch and the faint smell of blood made him even more certain that this was not an illusion.

He quietly modified "discard it calmly and do not investigate it" to "possessing this item will grant you the effect of warding off evil spirits within this plane of existence".

Sure enough, under certain conditions, the alteration was successful!
He opened his eyes, picked up the bloodstained glasses, examined them carefully, then took out a cleaning cloth, wiped away the bloodstains, and carefully put them into his Reincarnator watch.

Next, he wiped the blood-stained pen clean with a rag, put it in a small black cloth bag, carefully sealed it, went inside, and handed it to Lingzi.

"Lingzi, keep this close to your body and absolutely, absolutely do not open this bag." Jiang Jin's tone was unusually serious.

Reiko took the small, cool cloth bag and asked in confusion, "Commander, what's this?"

"Consider it a 'secret weapon'," Jiang Jin tried to lighten the mood. "It might come in handy at a crucial moment."

Lingzi looked at Jiang Jin, then at the brocade pouch in her hand, and suddenly burst out laughing, saying, "Commander, why have you suddenly become like Zhuge Liang from 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms,' even starting to give out brocade pouches full of brilliant strategies?"

Jiang Jin also showed a rare smile: "Hopefully, the 'brilliant plan' inside won't be used."

However, this brief moment of relief was quickly replaced by a deeper fear.

Shortly after they finished disposing of the trash, there was a knock on the door of room 304.

"Boom, boom, boom."

The pace was steady, neither too fast nor too slow.

Jiang Jin walked to the door, but instead of opening it immediately, he habitually looked out through the peephole.

Standing outside the door was none other than the administrator, Ebisu!
But at this moment, Ebisu was not wearing his signature administrator uniform, nor was he wearing his name tag.

He was dressed in a plain gray jacket and a pair of slightly worn trousers, completely casual attire! On his face was an almost stiff, lifeless "smile".

"Mr. Asakawa, I need to check the circuit. Please open the door."

Rule number six instantly flashed through Jiang Jin's mind: Apartment managers must always wear uniforms and name tags. If someone in plain clothes claims to be a manager and requests to enter your room for "inspection," please call the front desk to verify.

Jiang Jin's heart sank! He didn't say anything, but immediately gestured to Lingzi to pick up the landline phone in the room and dial the administrator's office number.

The call was quickly connected, and the familiar, hoarse voice of Ebisu, tinged with weariness, came through the receiver: "Hello? This is the administrator's office."

“Mr. Ebisu,” Jiang Jin lowered his voice and gestured toward the door, “Right now, there is someone dressed in casual clothes who looks exactly like you standing at the door of our room 304.”

A deathly silence fell over the other end of the phone, followed by Ebisu's terrified, almost hoarse voice: "Wh...what?! No! Don't let him in! Don't open the door! That's not...that's not me!!"

As if to confirm Ebisu's fear, the "casual Ebisu" outside the door seemed to lose patience. His stiff smile widened, and then... he actually pulled a bunch of keys out of his pocket! He skillfully found the one that belonged to room 304 and inserted it into the lock!

"He's coming in!" Reiko exclaimed in shock!
"boom!!!"

The moment the lock clicked, a fierce glint appeared in Jiang Jin's eyes! Without any hesitation, he instantly drew the shotgun from Silent Hill, and without even aiming, he simply pointed it at the doorway through the thin door and pulled the trigger!
“BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM…!!”

Deafening gunfire erupted wildly in the confined space!
The immense recoil caused Jiang Jin's arm to go slightly numb!
The bullets instantly blasted the wooden door into countless holes, sending wood chips flying everywhere!

Ten shots in total! Jiang Jin only stopped firing when the drum of ammunition was empty.

Outside the door, the sound of keys turning had long since ceased. The lingering smoke and flying dust slowly settled.

Jiang Jin kicked open the door that was almost smashed.

Outside the door, the corridor was empty and silent. There were no bodies, no bloodstains, not even a trace of anyone having been there. Only the set of keys lay forlornly on the ground by the door.

However, both Jiang Jin and Lingzi clearly felt an indescribable, chilling fear, like a venomous snake coiling around their hearts, lingering for a long time.

What exactly is that "Ebisu" in casual clothes? Why does it have a key? What would have happened if the door had been opened just now?
That evening, Jiang Jin and Lingzi, under the pretext of thanking the building manager for his daily care and discussing the door repair, asked the still-shaken Ebisu to leave the apartment and have a simple dinner at a nearby family restaurant.

After the meal, Jiang Jin used the excuse that "something important was left nearby, and I would like Mr. Ebisu to help me identify it" to lead the old man to a secluded and deserted corner of an abandoned factory.

Just as Ebisu looked around in bewilderment, Jiang Jin struck without hesitation, delivering a precise chop to the side of his neck.

The old man groaned and collapsed softly to the ground.

Jiang Jin, expressionless, used ropes and tape he had prepared beforehand to tightly bind the unconscious Ebisu, gag him, and hide him behind an abandoned machine.

"Death knell," Jiang Jin whispered.

The death knell rose silently from the shadows.

"Keep an eye on him," Jiang Jin ordered. "Record what happens at midnight. Will the rules directly curse him to death? Or... will something else come looking for him?"

Deathstroke growled, indicating it understood, then vanished into the shadows near Ebisu, like a cold-blooded observer of death. Jiang Jin and Reiko quickly left the abandoned factory and returned to the Beizuka First Apartment.

……

midnight midnight.

In the abandoned factory far from the apartment, true terror descended.

Jiang Jin, who shared Deathstroke's vision through the soul link, suddenly opened his eyes in room 304!
Death Knell, who was observing the process up close, was unable to react at all before instantly turning into countless ashes and returning to the contaminated layer, where it would take a long time to reform.

"puff--"

Jiang Jin himself was also struck hard, and his eyes suddenly went completely black!
This is rule corruption!

Fortunately, his body had already been partially corrupted by the LV3 enhancement, and at this moment, countless fine black lines seemed to appear on the surface of his skin, which then quickly disappeared.

The SAN value fluctuated wildly again, but he forcefully suppressed the surge that was driving him almost insane.

"Commander!" Lingzi exclaimed and rushed forward to support him.

Just as she touched Jiang Jin's arm, gazing anxiously into his eyes, trying to check on his condition...

She seemed to see a tiny, insignificant "reflection" projected by the rule-based curse through Jiang Jin's black eyes!
It was an indescribable, terrifying symbol representing "absolute erasure" and "negation of rules"!
"what!"

Reiko let out a piercing scream, her eyes filled with excruciating pain!
Her eyes, which seemed to hold the power of incantation, were instantly contaminated as if splashed with concentrated sulfuric acid!
The pollution was like a rampant vine, piercing her brain and soul!

A level 2 Zhuyou is utterly powerless against this pollution, which originates from the core of the Rules of the Strange Dungeon and is of an unimaginably high level!
Jiang Jin's expression changed drastically. He immediately took out the cleaner's rag and wiped Lingzi's eyes to remove the terrible contamination.

However, when the rag touched Reiko's eyelids, it could only slightly slow down the spread of the contamination, but it couldn't stop it at all!

Reiko's SAN value plummeted like a burst dam! Her eyes, starting from the whites, were visibly covered by a pure, all-consuming darkness!

That was not ordinary darkness; it was the "nothingness" and "deathly silence" that manifested after the pollution of rules invaded the soul level!
This pollution is beyond the comprehension and expulsion capabilities of a Level 2 healer!

It seemed that Reiko's consciousness was about to be completely swallowed by the endless darkness, and her soul was about to be corrupted and assimilated...

At this critical moment!
A sudden change occurred!

The dark pollution from the apartment rules that invaded the depths of Reiko's soul seemed to have touched a deeper, older mark, equally filled with resentment and curse!

In the deepest part of Reiko's eyes, which had turned completely black, a strange light suddenly shone!

That was... a traditional Chinese character, written upside down, called "贞"!

That word, like a red-hot branding iron, burned and appeared in the endless darkness!
It's the curse of "The Ring"!

As the "protagonist" who had personally watched the Sadako curse videotape and survived, Reiko's soul was already branded with the Sadako curse.

Although the curse was suppressed and even nearly banished through the cleansing of the reincarnation system, it is still a corrupted curse from the annihilation layer! If one delves deeper into the annihilation layer, it may still revive!
Moreover, she is the female protagonist of "The Ring," and she herself is one of the core characters of the "Ringu" dungeon!

At this moment, as the apartment's rules of pollution invade and attempt to cover and devour everything, the dormant curse belonging to Sadako Yamamura is fully activated!

It's like two highly toxic chemicals meeting, producing a violent reaction!

Two types of meme contamination launched a frenzied battle, erosion, and entanglement at the level of Reiko's soul!
Two equally terrifying, rule-level contaminations, both born from despair and death, were tearing each other apart, each trying to devour the other, yet neither could completely subdue the other!
Reiko's body trembled violently, as if countless tiny insects were wriggling under her skin, and she made inhuman hoarse sounds from her throat.

Her consciousness, torn apart by these two forces, was like a small boat in a storm, on the verge of capsizing at any moment.

However, perhaps because of her unique protagonist aura as the "female lead of The Ring," or perhaps because the two kinds of pollution just happened to form a delicate balance... in the end, this terrifying war that took place deep in the soul gradually subsided.

Reiko's trembling stopped.

She slowly opened her eyes.

What amazing eyes they were!

No longer was it the deathly stillness shrouded in pure darkness, nor was it the clarity it once possessed. Her eyes had become two bottomless black holes, seemingly capable of swallowing all light and hope!
Deep within the pupils, the inverted character "贞" could be faintly seen shimmering, while the whites of the eyes were an unsettling dark color, as if covered in dust.

Everything she saw seemed to be shrouded in a shadow of decay and death.

She pushed away Jiang Jin, who was supporting her, her movements stiff yet carrying an undeniable strength. She walked step by step to the door of room 304, opened it, and stepped out.

Her gaze, like two invisible rays of death, pierced through the dimly lit corridor and landed precisely on Room 301—the direction of the Yamato family's house.

There were no incantations, no gestures, and not even any deliberate gathering of power.

She simply... glanced over.

It was as if the image of the beastly father in his mind overlapped with the image of the ancient well in Sadako's curse, and then the accumulated anger and murderous intent were released through these mutated eyes.

"what!!!"

A brief, intense scream, filled with utter terror and pain, suddenly erupted from room 301! Then, all fell silent.

Lingzi stood at the door of room 304, her eyes, as black as holes, devoid of any emotion, only a cold emptiness.

She spoke softly, her voice carrying an inhuman hollow echo, as if coming from the bottom of a well: "Yamato Mitsuru is dead."

"From now on, Ai will no longer have to worry about being violated by this beastly father."

At this moment, Reiko Asakawa, caught between the interplay and counterbalancing of the apartment's corrupting influence and Sadako's curse, and empowered by her unique status as the "female protagonist of The Ring"...

She is no longer the team doctor who needs to be protected.

She unexpectedly and dangerously acquired and mastered a portion of the cursed power belonging to Sadako Yamamura!

Or……

On a spiritual level, within the contaminated layer, her cognitive abilities have begun to resemble those of Sadako Yamamura!

(End of this chapter)