Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 40 Summer Vacation in Dachang City
At the very moment Jiang Jin killed Wu Qin...

This is a city shrouded in the sweltering heat of summer.

The city's name is Dachang City.

It was a sweltering August afternoon, so hot and humid it was almost unbearable.

Li Hua pushed open the glass door of "Speedy Internet Cafe," and a blast of cold air mixed with the smells of instant noodles and cigarettes hit him.

Li Hua registered for a temporary card, paid the fee, glanced at the location of the machine the internet cafe manager had indicated, and immediately grinned.

In front of the computer in the corner, an acquaintance was frantically typing on the keyboard while sucking on a lollipop. On the screen, the game character he was chasing was sliding into cover.

Li Hua strode up to him and patted him on the back.

"Isn't this the impotent senior?"

"Damn it! Who told me I'm impotent!"

The man suddenly turned around and burst out laughing.

"Hey, isn't this our little English composition prince? What's up, where are your dad Li Lei and your mom Han Meimei today?"

Li Hua was speechless. Just because of his name, this joke was going to stick with him forever, right?

"Also, don't call me 'Impotent Senior.' I recently adopted an English name: Nivismo Namo Handsome! Remember to shout it out loud when you see me on the street!"

Li Hua immediately gave a forced smile: "Okay, impotent senior!"

"You brat, dare you come and play a game with your grandpa Zhang Wei if you dare!"

While speaking, the boy named Zhang Wei kept his hands busy, showing he was a seasoned player.

Li Hua tossed his backpack into the empty space beside him and replied irritably, "Stop talking nonsense, let's play games!"

He leaned closer to Zhang Wei's screen, which displayed gameplay footage from Dead by Daylight. Seeing Max Thompson, the rancher wielding a chainsaw, he couldn't help but complain, "You're playing a rancher? What skill is there in this character besides charging around with a chainsaw?"

"You know nothing!" Zhang Wei suddenly maneuvered his character to dodge the wooden plank thrown by the survivor, and then swiftly activated the chainsaw, slashing diagonally towards the survivor's groin.

"Watch closely, this is called tactics!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "Focus on the lower body, one strike and you're dead!"

The survivor in the game screamed and curled up on the ground, their health bar dropping rapidly.

Li Hua subconsciously squeezed his legs together: "Damn, your fighting style is too sleazy! It seems that you, senior, are impotent and psychologically twisted, so you want to make others childless too!"

"Stop talking nonsense! If you're a man, come up here and let's see who becomes impotent!"

The two quickly connected online and entered the eerie abandoned farm map. Zhang Wei, controlling the farmer, trudged through the dilapidated barn and overgrown fields, his mud-caked boots clattering. Li Hua, on the other hand, played the agile survivor, crouching in a corner with his teammate.

Suddenly, Zhang Wei manipulated the farmer to start the chainsaw and raced towards Li Hua. But then, three mutated rats suddenly darted out from the shadows of the dilapidated wooden house. He was startled, and the farmer was instantly slowed down. Zhang Wei slammed his fist on the table in frustration: "What the hell! These rats are faster than the stray cats downstairs!"

Li Hua laughed so hard he could hardly breathe: "Let your chainsaw have a good time!"

Zhang Wei, controlling his character, wielded a chainsaw to drive away rats, but due to excessive movement, he accidentally bumped into a tree stump and became briefly stunned.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Li Hua led his teammates to a new position, not forgetting to taunt them: "Come and chase me, you old cripple!"

Zhang Wei gritted his teeth and said, "Once I catch you, I'll give you a 'crotch waltz' with a chainsaw!"

After the game, Li Hua bought a bottle of ice-cold Coke and opened it: "By the way, I heard that some thugs broke into your classroom during evening self-study in June? And they even spilled hallucinogenic drugs? It was already past 8 PM then, and all the second-year students had gone home, so we didn't know the specifics. The school forum went crazy with rumors afterward. Some said it was spies catching spies, some said it was drug dealers taking revenge on society... The most outrageous version was that the principal was raising zombies in a lab. The school subsequently suspended classes and switched to online teaching. You third-year students must have had a really tough time, I heard several students died. Did it affect your college entrance exam?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Wei's expression changed immediately, and he began to crunch his lollipop loudly.

"Actually—" "Hmm, you say?"

He suddenly lowered his voice: "To put it simply, a person named Zhou Zheng came to give a safety lecture that day. He said he was the person in charge of Dachang City, and then he gave us a lesson on the existence of ghosts in this world, and that ghosts cannot be killed."

Li Hua was taken aback.

"Then Qian Wanhao's grandfather in our class turned into a ghost and knocked on the door. Then suddenly a guy named Wu Qin came to stop Qian Wanhao's grandfather. After that... hey hey hey, what's with your eyes?"

"Looks like this hallucinogen is pretty potent." Li Hua took a sip of cola and said, "And then, did Black Cat Detective show up and take Grandpa Ghost back?"

Seeing Li Hua roll his eyes, Zhang Wei scoffed, "Honestly, why is it that no one believes you when you tell the truth? What happened to trust between people?"

"Have I known you, the impotent senior, for just a day or two? If I were to believe you, I'd rather give money to that guy who posted yesterday claiming to be Qin Shi Huang." He then glanced at the computer screen. "Sigh, anyway, school starts in a few weeks, and then I won't be able to play games anymore."

Hearing this, Zhang Wei's voice became unusually serious: "School starts? Don't tell me it's... going back to No. 7 Middle School?"

"How novel! If we don't go back to No. 7 Middle School when school starts, are we going back to No. 8? By the way..."

He took out his phone and said, "The teaching affairs office sent out a group text message saying that the school will be replacing a large number of teachers this time, and will also be re-... Hey, what's wrong with you? Is this some kind of ghost?"

Li Hua noticed that Zhang Wei's face was deathly pale, devoid of any color.

"It's more than just seeing a ghost, it's even more thrilling than seeing a ghost!"

Zhang Wei lowered his voice and said, "Li Hua, listen to me, we're brothers, and your handsome older brother really doesn't want to burn paper money for you! Our school is really haunted!"

Then he raised his finger: "If I'm lying, every Japanese adult film I download from now on will be pornographic!"

Li Hua thought to himself: Damn... this oath is so vicious... I almost believed it just now.

“So, Senior Yang, let me recap this with you. That evening during self-study, it wasn’t some thug, but some official from Dachang City who came to give you a safety awareness lesson,” Li Hua continued, sipping his cola. “At that moment, Qian Wanhao’s grandfather from your class showed up, and he turned into a ghost and knocked on your classroom door…”

"Actually, you don't need to worry so much about the knocking ghost's seniority... By the way, if you don't believe me, you can search for a forum post, it was posted by a doctor from another city... Oh, remember, whatever you do, don't listen to the audio in that post!"

At this moment, Li Hua was looking at Zhang Wei with the same caring gaze that the coach of the Xihong City Da Xiang team would give Wang Duoyu, and patted him on the shoulder.

"Senior Yang, erectile dysfunction can be treated, and so can delusions. It seems the hallucinogen's side effects are still there. Don't worry, let me recommend a really good brain hospital in our city..."

"Damn! I'm telling the truth!" At this moment, Zhang Wei suddenly realized something and asked, "Wait, did you just say that the school changed a group of teachers?"

"I heard it's like this..."

Zhang Wei seemed to have a look of sudden realization.

"Alright, I'm off now. Yang, if you want to play games again, come find me. Bye!"

At this moment, Zhang Wei was still immersed in that terrifying night.

That evening during self-study, a man named Zhou Zheng wrote three lines of text on the blackboard.

Ghosts cannot be killed.

Only ghosts can deal with ghosts.

Insight into the patterns of ghosts.

"Seventh Middle School is actually going to start... Holy crap... Am I crazy or has the world gone mad???"

(End of this chapter)