As a traitor, I should raise the banner of rebellion

"What kind of weird talk do you want to investigate next?"

Morikami Nozomi actually has quite a lot of information in his hands, and if he organizes it aimlessly, it would be too inefficient.

She is Yuanhui's supporter, so naturally she has to put Yuanhui's needs first.

Yuanhui had actually thought about this problem a long time ago.

After restraining [Lika], the most important mobility has been solved, and the next step is -

"The stronger the ghost story with elements such as [Healing Injuries], the better." Yuanhui answered without hesitation.

"Healing ability?" Morikami Nozomi repeated Genki's request, "I understand."

At this moment, Yuanhui heard the sound of his doorbell ringing.

Yuanhui came to the entrance and looked outside through the peephole.

Standing outside the door was a thin man in a suit, holding a small gift box in his hand.

As if he saw someone approaching from the light and darkness of the cat's eye, he showed a polite and humble smile on his face.

"Hello, I just moved here and live in No. 401."

"From today on, we are neighbors."

19. [Death Omen] (Seeking votes)

In Sakurajima, it is an established custom to visit neighbors after moving and give them small gifts as a sign of respect.

We will all be neighbors from now on, so please take care of each other if anything happens.

This is roughly what is implied.

So after seeing the man in the suit through the cat's eye, Yuanhui didn't think too much about it.

After opening the door, the entire body of the man in the suit appeared in front of Yuanhui.

This is a middle-aged man in his forties. Although he is rather thin, he does not give people a feeling of being frail at all.

The suit he was wearing was without a single wrinkle and looked obviously worth a fortune.

Coupled with his neatly-knitted hair without any signs of disorder, and the quartz watch on his wrist, he exudes the aura of a successful man.

Yuan Hui was not surprised by this.

Minato Ward can be said to be the most famous wealthy area in Tokyo, with an average annual income of over 1000 million yen, ranking first after Sakurajima.

Those who can afford to live in the apartments here are certainly not poor.

After seeing Yuanhui open the door, the man's smile became even wider.

"Hello, my name is Suzuki Nobuyuki, and I just moved here today." As he spoke, the man who called himself Suzuki Nobuyuki pointed to a door not far away. There was a houseplate on the door with the words [401] engraved on it.

The Chuanglong Apartment where Yuanhui lives is a four-unit apartment, which means there are four households on one floor.

The room numbers of each resident are arranged in a clockwise order, so although Suzuki Nobuyuki's No. 401 and Yuan Hui's No. 404 are the farthest apart in numbers, their houses are actually next to each other.

After saying this, he bent down slightly, picked up the small gift box with both hands, and solemnly handed it to Yuanhui.

He is a successful man in society, while Yuan Hui, judging from his appearance, is just an ordinary high school student.

But there was no trace of contempt on Suzuki Nobu's face, showing that he was extremely well-educated.

"A small gift is not a sign of respect."

"Please accept it."

At first, Yuanhui had no intention of reaching out to take the gift.

Although Suzuki Nobuyuki behaved quite modestly and politely, the gift-giving culture in Sakurajima is unique and complicated. After accepting a gift, one must consider how to return the gift, otherwise it would be considered "impolite".

Yuanhui really didn't want to play this tedious and boring neighborhood game, but just as Yuanhui was about to shake his head, his pupils suddenly shrank.

A wave of palpitations was surging towards him, and the sin scar on his neck that represented the "Blood Field" suddenly became hot.

This is the [Omen of Death]!

[Blood Field] is the cemetery of strangers. As the concept closest to [death], it has a regulatory sensitivity to the arrival of death.

When Yuanhui is in danger of death, this sin mark will warn him in this way. Yuanhui calls it the [Omen of Death].

When he faced [Lika Doll] before, the reason why he made such a bold move of letting her come behind him was because of this ability.

But now, this ability was activated without any warning, which means -

If you refuse to accept the gift, you will die!

Yuanhui's eyes suddenly became sharp, and he began to look up and down at the man in front of him who called himself Suzuki Nobuyuki.

But no matter how we looked at it, no traces of hidden weapons were found.

The other party was a murderer with a strong sense of self-esteem and was extremely sensitive. If I didn't accept the gift, it would be seen as disrespecting him, and he might pull out a weapon from his body and kill me...

Almost zero.

Yuanhui was originally the nemesis of this kind of thugs. After having [Lika], even if his body is still weak, it is almost impossible for an ordinary murderer to take his life.

That is to say...

Is he drawn into the [weird] killing rules again?

Yuanhui looked deeply at Suzuki Shin in front of him, then solemnly took the small box with both hands, "Thank you, Suzuki-kun."

“I’m glad to have such a polite neighbor.”

"From today on, let's just get along well."

After seeing that Yuanhui accepted the gift, Suzuki Nobuyuki showed some joy. Just as he bowed to Yuanhui again and was about to leave, he was stopped by the latter.

"By the way, Suzuki-kun." The young man had a very bright smile on his face. It was an extremely contagious smile that made people feel good about him at first sight.

He took out his cell phone from his pocket and said to Suzuki Nobuyuki:

"Since we are neighbors, can I ask--"

"What's your cell phone number?"

……

……

After tearing open the exquisite packaging, what appeared in front of Yuanhui was a small envelope with a beautiful cherry blossom pattern printed on it. After opening it and tipping it over on the table, two brand new "Fukuzawa Yukichi" notes with the scent of ink slid out smoothly.

Fukuzawa Yukichi is the character printed on the Sakurajima 10,000 yen banknote.

In other words, there was 20,000 yen in the envelope.

Yuanhui looked at the envelope again and found that there was nothing inside.

Is the gift money? That's really straightforward.

Crossing his arms and hugging them in front of his chest, Yuanhui remained silent.

Why is it 20,000 yen? Does this number have any special meaning?

No, it cannot be inferred.

For now, there is too little information.

At this moment, Morikami Nozomi's somewhat uneasy voice came from the phone that he had placed aside and pressed the speaker button.

"Gen-kun, what happened just now?"

She was actually quite sensitive to the atmosphere. Although it was only for a short while, after the call was connected again, the feeling from Yuanhui suddenly became heavy.

"It seems like an interesting guy has moved into the apartment building." Yuanhui did not hide his intention from Morikami, "Morikami, do you know any strange stories related to [money]?"

"【Money】?" After hearing Yuan Hui's question, Mori Shangxi was obviously stunned. After a moment of silence, the girl's voice sounded a little lost, "Sorry, Yuan Jun, I haven't collected any information on this."

Yuan Hui was not surprised by this.

Unlike the "Ghost Phone Call of Lika Doll", cases of death due to "money" are so common that even if they are reported, they will not be regarded as strange rumors, and Morikami Nozomi naturally will not have any impression of it.

"However, Gen-kun, regarding the strange story you just mentioned about having the ability to heal, I have found a story that is quite consistent."

"Would you like to hear it?"

So fast?

A trace of surprise flashed across Yuan Hui's brows, and then he said without hesitation -

"need."

20. [Shedding Skin Man]

"Rather than a weird story, this is actually more like a very novel piece of news."

Looking at the notebook in front of him, Nozomi Morikami recreated the entire course of events as best as possible.

Although Yuanhui did not elaborate, Morikami Xi could guess what the "interesting guy" he mentioned before was.

If only I were more useful...

Trying hard not to let such negative emotions seep into his words, Morikami Nozomi continued his story.

"About eight years ago, there was a period of 'digging' fever on Sakurajima. The reason was that someone dug up what seemed to be ruins from the Heian period in the fields."

"This news caused a great response at the time. Even children like us were keen to do some serious digging and show off to each other what we had dug out of the ground."

"Not only that, but there were also many people who claimed that they had dug something incredible out of the ground, or that they had made a major discovery that could rewrite the history of Sakurajima."

“And the person I am talking about is one of them.”

"His name is Yuichi Okada, and he lives in Chiba Prefecture."

"He owns a ranch inherited from his ancestors. Although his major in college was not archaeology, he prefers to call himself an archaeology enthusiast."

I see, you’re a folk scientist, right?

Yuanhui just listened to Morikami Nozomi's story silently.

Maybe even Nozomi Morikami herself hasn't realized it, but she is actually a very good storyteller.

Yuan Hui felt very comfortable listening to this leisurely tone of voice.

"Since he was already very interested in archaeology, he naturally joined in the archaeological craze."

"He already owns the land on his ranch, so even if he digs it upside down, no one will say anything."

"And just about a month later, Okada Yuichi announced in a high-profile manner that he had made a major discovery on his ranch that was enough to shock Sakurajima and even the world's archaeological community—"

"He discovered a funeral ritual that had never been found on Sakurajima."

"He was not poor to begin with, so he invited reporters and cameramen to show them his discovery in a high-profile manner—"

"In the pasture that he had destroyed beyond all recognition, there was a large pit that stood out."

"If you look at the topography around the crater, you'll find very obvious, extremely distorted layered traces."

"What's even more creepy is that if you look closely at these layered marks, you will find that their outline looks like a cross-section of a lying person cut open from the top of the head."

"These outlines are stacked one on top of the other, like Russian dolls, from large to small."

"After letting reporters and photographers take pictures of it, Yuichi Okada took them to the secret room in his home and showed them a strange and terrifying thing—"

"Those are the remains of a young child."

"According to Yuichi Okada, this is what he found in the innermost layer of the Russian doll-like soil."

"As a self-proclaimed archaeologist, Okada Yuichi told everyone in an extremely confident tone that what they found under his ranch should be a cemetery, and the person buried should be his young son who died young."

"The burial at that time did not adopt the usual burial method, but chose to cover the young body with layers of clay to simulate the whole process of its growth into an adult."

"Each layer of covering represents that the child has grown one year older."

"It is precisely because of this that the soil there has such a strange appearance."

"Although it's not professional, what Okada Yuichi said does seem to make sense."

"The reporters and photographers who were invited were all very excited, except for one person who seemed a little distracted."

"After returning to the inn, his companions noticed his abnormality and asked him the reason. He then stammered--"

“[I saw it seemed to move].”