Ita Era

Chapter 101 The Big Dipper and Satan

After rummaging through drawers and cabinets, Ding Shi found a book titled "Secrets of the Satanic Cult." He scanned it and discovered his library had gained a thousand new books. Ding Shi casually flipped through a couple of pages, found it uninteresting, and tossed the book into the firelight. He then contacted the police station using the morgue's landline.

Before the police arrived, Ding Shi had groped the mortician and the black-robed male and female believers, finding over three thousand yuan in duplicate currency. Learning from his previous experience, he dared not take the money. But he had his eye on the mortician's scalpel.

A cursed scalpel, a scalpel imbued with a curse...

In layman's terms: Anyone injured by a scalpel will be cursed for ten minutes, and will be immune to the curse of the evil scalpel for those ten minutes. This curse is called a conditional curse; it only takes effect when a condition is met. For example, a sneeze might dislodge an eyeball, but as long as you don't sneeze, you're fine.

Although the evil spirit scalpel was stolen goods, Ding Shi put it away without hesitation, and the system deducted 50 work points from Ding Shi without hesitation.

Just then, the fire that had been burning the monster gradually died down, revealing a corner of a golden piece of paper. Ding Shi reached out to grab it, and damn it, he got burned. That damned Grim Reaper! He promised once a day, but he's untrustworthy.

He pulled out the gold paper with his fingernail, shook off the black ash, and examined it under the candlelight. It turned out to be a map of Ham Town. The only difference was that this map of Ham Town had seven inverted crosses.

Ding Shi gasped in shock upon seeing it clearly: The Big Dipper Satan Cult? Satan and the Big Dipper? The Seven Stars Reversal Technique? The Big Dipper and Satan are colluding? Is the Big Dipper a traitor to China? Or is Satan a foreign traitor? Or are they both fighting for humanity?
No, Seven Stars is a type of cigarette. Is this an implication that Satan smokes?

Never mind that for now, Ding Shi looked at the seven inverted cross locations: two factories, a school, a hospital, Liu Decai's villa, an amusement park, and a police station.

Among them, the inverted crosses of the school, pharmaceutical factory, and amusement park are glowing, surrounded by blood-red pentagrams. The inverted crosses of Liu Decai's villa and hospital are gray. Finally, the inverted crosses of the slaughterhouse and police station are flashing.

The puzzle is easy to solve: the three glowing areas represent the completion of a ritual, and the evil spirit has been resurrected. Simply put, evil spirits have appeared in these three areas.

Liu Decai's villa was the villa invited by Death. Because a player successfully completed the level, the inverted cross on Liu Decai's villa went out. After burning the monster, the inverted cross on the hospital went out.

There are still slaughterhouses and police station sites.

No other information? Ding Shi didn't believe it. He flipped the page and, sure enough, saw the hidden information. That damned system loves playing dirty tricks; not only does it make it impossible for you to find, it also tramples on your dignity.

The back of the document contains text stating that the leader of the Satanic cult organized his followers to perform sacrifices in these seven locations. Once five sacrifices were completed, the pentagram array could be activated, dragging Ham Town into hell.

Slaughterhouses are one thing, but why are there religious ceremonies in police stations? There are already so few police officers, and yet some of them are believers. That doesn't seem right.

Ding Shi slapped his thigh, remembering the newspaper article about the police station recruiting a large number of volunteer police officers. Earlier that day, when he was reporting to the chief about the chainsaw killer, the chief had mentioned entrusting the two-story old town hall next to the police station to the volunteer police officers.

We must take the initiative, or Ham Town will be swallowed by hell, and none of the players will be able to escape.

Ding Shi waited in the morgue for 10 minutes before plainclothes officers arrived with police and local vigilantes. They trusted Ding Shi completely and believed everything he said, so there was no need for time-consuming interrogations. Ding Shi asked the plainclothes officers for the newspaper editor's address.

After leaving the scene to the plainclothes officers, Ding returned to his ward on the second floor. Peeking out, he saw the beautiful ghost floating outside the men's restroom. He wondered if his friend, Mineral Stone, was still alive.

I'm such a fool. I should have suggested that the ore be taken back to the ward. The beautiful ghost has already searched it once, so she probably won't search it a second time.

However, he decided not to show himself and draw attention to himself. Ding Shi went down to the first floor and saw the old woman sitting at the first-floor entrance, holding a long pipe and looking outside, seemingly waiting for someone.

There was no back door. Ding Shi took a deep breath and walked towards the main door. His appearance immediately attracted the attention of the old ghost. She looked at Ding Shi with her pure white eyes, as if searching for whether he had his own obsession.

The two drew closer and closer, until they were only half a meter apart, and Ding Shi was about to pass by, when the old woman stood up. Ding Shi instinctively grabbed the pipe and successfully snatched it from her.

The old woman was stunned for a moment, then broke out in a cold sweat and trembled as she said, "Smoking is not allowed in the hospital."

The old ghost stared at Ding Shi for three seconds, seemingly convinced, then turned and left, abandoning even her pipe.

Brass pipe: A ghostly object that can use fresh blood instead of tobacco.

Received.

Seeing that the old woman still ignored the pipe when it was put into the prop slot, Ding Shi felt a little relieved and left the hospital to go to the newspaper editor's house.

On the fourth day, a notice the size of a tofu appeared on the front page of the newspaper.

Ai Ding walked alone through dark alleys, slaughterhouses, altars—critical points, or a nuclear bomb. Yu Yuan, phone number XXXXXX.

This kind of task of organizing players was left to Yu Yuan, who was incredibly enthusiastic about public events and enjoyed doing so immensely. Of course, Ding Shi first called Yu Yuan from a public phone to explain, and Yu Yuan agreed to let Ding Shi disclose his information. However, Yu Yuan was afraid of dying; he could organize players to search for the altar in the slaughterhouse, but he wouldn't lead the players to the slaughterhouse itself.

……

On the morning of the fourth day, Ding Shi ordered a cup of coffee, two fried eggs, three slices of ham, and a stack of small bread rolls at a roadside restaurant.

Five more obituaries for players have been added to the newspaper, leaving approximately 30 players remaining.

News: Due to equipment maintenance, most slaughterhouse workshops will be temporarily closed at 8:00 AM tomorrow, with only a small number of essential staff remaining on site.

News: Mayor Liu Decai, who was in a coma due to a traffic accident, suddenly appeared in the hospital park at 4:00 AM today, still unconscious. The hospital director, in an interview, believes that Mayor Liu Decai was concerned for the townspeople and was sleepwalking during his coma. He wandered to the park, and due to physical limitations, fell into a second coma.

A nurse, in an interview, claimed the hospital director was talking nonsense. She also stated that after Mayor Liu regained consciousness, he was chased and, with his last strength, jumped from the third floor. The assassin fought with hospital security. The nurse said she personally witnessed the assassin being tightly bound by vines.

Liu Decai has been transferred to the intensive care unit. His attending physician believes that Mr. Liu Decai is in very good health and it is only a matter of time before he wakes up.

There are players in the hospital who are protecting Liu Decai, and Liu Decai possesses crucial clues.

What an idiot I am! Why didn't I think of going to see Liu Decai yesterday?
Reading the newspaper, thinking, eating, and drinking coffee...

Having just swallowed a small piece of bread the size of his thumb, Ding Shi immediately stood up and gagged himself, vomiting up his stomach contents onto the floor. He searched through the vomit, breaking open the small piece of bread he'd swallowed mixed with coffee; inside was a piece of metal. It was likely part of a broken knife.

The chef uses a knife, which is fragile and breaks, and a piece of the blade flies into a small bread roll or dough ball. After baking and shaping, the bread roll with the blade still attached is served to the chef's table.

The knife was terribly cleaved. Originally, the knife had a single, sharp edge, but the cleaved blade was rectangular, small in size, and sharp on all four sides. If Ding Shi were to swallow the blade, given the medical conditions in Ham Town, he would most likely die.

Ding Shi felt a slight discomfort while swallowing, which prompted his immediate reaction. He was clearly terrified of being watched by Death; in another instance, he definitely wouldn't have been so cautious.

The waiter immediately notified the manager, who apologized profusely and asked Ding Shi to move to another seat. The waiter then cleaned up the mess. Ding Shi knew it was Death's doing, so he didn't blame the restaurant and asked them to bring him a new breakfast. Death, who had been coldly observing from the sidelines, possessed a beautiful woman. The woman pulled up a chair, sat down, and stared at Ding Shi without saying a word.

Ding Shi was puzzled and sang: "Loving you, I walk alone through the dark alley?"

The beautiful woman spoke, asking, "I'll give you a substitute doll; you commit suicide once."

Ding Shi asked, "The Grim Reaper?"

The beautiful woman nodded: "How is it?"

Ding Shi asked, "Why?"

The beautiful woman said, "To boost sales, there's a truck coming from the opposite direction. They're going pretty fast. Go and crash into it. If you survive a head-on collision, the substitute doll is basically useless."

Ding Shi said, "Little Death, don't try to play tricks on me with your little brain. Your tactics are really too clumsy. I guess you'll try to bargain with me and eventually use money or props to persuade me to commit suicide. But, a substitute doll can only die once, while a truck has two rows of wheels. Do you think I'm stupid?" He slapped Death on the head.

Death was dumbfounded. He had predicted his own prediction; all he did was fart, and the Grim Reaper knew exactly what he was thinking. How could he possibly kill such a monster? He might as well just hand the scythe back and go straight for it.

Ding Shi took a sip of his coffee and said, "Grim Reaper, can you answer a question for me?"

Death replied, "No."

Ding Shi said, "I'll die right here."

Death, intrigued, asked, "What's the problem?"

Ding Shi asked, "Am I being targeted?"

Death pondered for a long time before asking, "Do you keep your word?"

Ding nodded.

Death said, "Yes, but it's not a bad thing."

Ding Shi laughed and said, "I was targeted, I died, and I can only become a resident. Isn't that a bad thing?"

Death said, "People like you have a chance to be resurrected after death." There are quite a few people with light, but most of them have one, while you have three, which makes you particularly annoying. How can people not target you? He didn't say the second half of his sentence.

Ding Shi understood that if he died, he could enter a resurrection instance and fight for the right to be resurrected.

Death said, "Alright, the deal is done. Now, please die."

Ding Shi picked up a pencil and sticky note from the table, wrote the character for "death," and pushed the note towards Death.

Death was puzzled.

Ding Shi said, "I promised you: I would die for you. Not that I would die for you, but that I would show you the word 'death'."

Death roared, "That's not what I meant!"

Ding Shi, without a hint of guilt, said, "But that's what I meant."

Death was furious: "I will kill you."

Ding Shi said, "You can't." He threw a handful of water and soil at him, saying, "You can't touch me, but I can touch you. Aren't you angry?"

Death was furious, enraged, and then, with a furious frown, it immediately detached itself from the beautiful woman's body and ran away.

The beautiful woman snapped out of her daze and looked at Ding Shi in confusion. Before she could even figure out what had happened, she hurriedly went to ask the restaurant for the restroom.

Ding Shi was dissatisfied. Why could the Grim Reaper escape unscathed? Ding Shi then realized that he had experienced some discomfort with the Grim Reaper's steward at noon yesterday. If he recognized the soul instead of the body, he would no longer be able to use the Grim Reaper.

……

After breakfast, Ding reported to the police station. After a simple procedure, Ding was promoted to plainclothes officer. Plainclothes officers don't have specific working hours; their job is to investigate cases. Ding's contact list now includes phone numbers for forensic doctors and other relevant departments or personnel.

The plainclothes officers were only equipped with two items: handcuffs and a pistol. The pistol was a Webley revolver with a six-round capacity and no dedicated revolver loader. Ding received an extra box of 25 bullets.

After leaving the police station, Ding Shi's first action was to go shopping, starting with a small backpack to store his bullets. He also bought a razor and other daily necessities. To Ding Shi's dissatisfaction, Ham Town didn't have any shops selling talismans, cinnabar, or ink.

After having lunch out, Ding Shi returned to the police station. He handed over the altar at the slaughterhouse to Yu Yuan, but he had to handle the altar at the police station himself. This was not only related to his work points, but also an effective way to improve his pass rating.

In the world of Ita, you won't die if you don't do stupid things, but you can't improve your level completion rating if you don't do stupid things, so the key is how to do stupid things.

The police station is a small two-story building, and the adjacent former township office is also two stories, but its area is six times that of the police station. It had been vacant for years until yesterday when it began operating as a recruitment drive for volunteer police officers. Currently, only 30% of the first floor is in use, mainly housing recruitment offices, meeting rooms, a gym, and a tea room.

Ding Shi took out the gold paper and examined it closely, but he still couldn't determine whether the inverted cross was located in the police station or the former town hall. He had been working for a few days, but hadn't spent much time at the police station, so he couldn't determine if it had a basement or any sealed-off, unused rooms. He was unfamiliar with the characteristics of the police station's altar and therefore couldn't ascertain the conditions for summoning evil spirits.

The conditions for summoning might be complex, such as at a hospital altar, where they would need to kidnap many living people to collect parts and assemble an evil spirit. The conditions for summoning might be simple, perhaps just offering incense and praying. Different evil spirits require different methods of summoning. And different methods of summoning require different summoning spaces and different numbers of people.

What follows is Ding Shi's exciting and dramatic case-solving adventure...

At five o'clock in the afternoon, Ding Shi exchanged a drop of blood for a wad of tobacco and smoked sadly in the temporary detention cell of the police station. Throughout the day, he had spoken with almost all the police officers and conducted a thorough search of the police station and the former town hall, but found no suspicious people or things related to religion.

"Hey buddy, give me a bite." A middle-aged man in the male detention cell held up a thousand-yuan bill and winked at Ding Shi. Ding Shi leaned closer and said, "What? For the sake of the thousand-yuan bill, I can give you a bite."

The middle-aged man smiled obsequiously and said, "I'd like to ask you for some advice, brother." He then slipped some money into Ding Shi's pocket.

(End of this chapter)