Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 103 Paper Man
Zi Shi (11:00 PM)... begins at 11:00 PM.

It's only been a little over four hours since then.

Without a doubt, they absolutely cannot leave this Yimin convenience store, otherwise the consequences are self-evident.

Everyone subconsciously glanced at their Reincarnator watch.

"Midnight..."

No one in the cycle of reincarnation is unaware of the meaning of midnight.

Jiang Jin suddenly walked towards A Zi and gestured: "You really can't remember? This dungeon? Why didn't you watch until the end?!"

Azi's face was pale at this moment. Still not used to sign language, she said in a low voice, "When I was halfway through reading that book, the Edo Incident happened in Japan."

Jiang Jin was taken aback, then immediately understood. When he was in school, he was somewhat of a fan of anime and manga, and had also read "Code Geass".

Wu Ge coldly gestured: "You really are a total shut-in."

The fall of Edo occurred five years ago, when Jiang Jin was still a trainee police officer.

He was stunned when he woke up and checked his phone.

Overnight, the country jokingly referred to as Area 11 in the world of anime, saw its court flee westward in a manner reminiscent of the Empress Dowager Cixi's westward exile during the Boxer Rebellion, establishing its capital in Heian-kyo. The extent of its devastation was remarkably similar to the anime from which the name "Area 11" originated.

The original capital region of the 11th district was renamed the Oedo Special District.

More than four hundred years after the Battle of Osaka Castle in the Azuchi-Momoyama period, in which Toyotomi Hideyori was defeated by Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Toyotomi regime collapsed, the 11th district once again established its capital in the Kansai region, and Edo has now become an Asian demon realm that many people avoid.

This event had a huge global impact, second only to the complete lockdown and quarantine of Manhattan back then. It's worth noting that the Edo Special District was once one of the world's financial centers!

While the Edo Special Ward still houses a large population, it has been completely sealed off from the Kanto region. This event, known as the Fall of Edo, is considered a major milestone in humanity's entry into the era of meme contamination.

According to the information Jiang Jin found and Yu Tianlun's detailed explanation, after the fall of Edo, countries around the world held secret meetings to learn from the lessons and ultimately passed a law that completely banned all public production, publication, and sale of horror and suspense works (including but not limited to games, novels, anime, movies, and even documentaries).

Many people subconsciously think that if legitimate channels are blocked, surely pirated content can be accessed? This is incredibly naive. The average person can see pirated movies and TV shows online, but the government simply hasn't put in the effort to block them. If the entire nation were to mobilize its resources, employ strict laws and regulations, and spare no expense in blocking them, no matter how many times you search, you'd only get a 404 error.

Currently, according to the "Meme Pollution Prevention Law," uploading horror films or texts without authorization, or producing and selling them as CDs or physical books, with profits exceeding 10,000 yuan, will result in a sentence of more than ten years imprisonment. Causing the spread of meme pollution can lead to the death penalty. In particular, the original authors and producers of these works must also have a duty of confidentiality; otherwise, the penalties will be equally severe, and the government will subject them to comprehensive and close surveillance.

This is mainly because the number of such works and the annual decrease in per capita SAN value have been directly proportional. As long as a considerable number of people continue to watch these works, meme pollution will become active, and the potential risk of the pollution layer eroding the material layer will increase.

Horror films and television shows from Japan have always been among the best in the world. While this wasn't the root cause of Edo's fall, it was certainly a major contributing factor.

Moreover, theoretically, many horror-themed instances are based on real-world horror works. The imperial court also believes that this will help prevent the emergence of new horror-themed instances.

Yu Tianlun told Jiang Jin that the imperial court had previously adopted a moderate stance on this matter. Firstly, preserving these works would provide a reference point for those entering the horror dungeons; secondly, they could deliberately create and promote horror games with survival backdoors, providing ready-made guides for future reincarnators entering such dungeons. However, after the fall of Edo, the moderate faction's proposal was ultimately rejected. From then on, horror and thriller enthusiasts couldn't find any works they wanted to watch; finding a source for a horror movie was even harder than obtaining a seed for a pornographic film. Liu Yan was able to acquire the novel that inspired the "Terror Resurgence" dungeon by purchasing it at a high price from the reincarnator black market.

“This book is actually quite famous,” Azi continued in a low voice. “Back then, I wasn’t a reincarnator yet. If it weren’t for the restrictions of the Meme Pollution Prevention Law, I would have definitely read that book right away! And I guess most reincarnators would have read it!”

Jiang Jin thought for a moment, then asked in sign language, "If it's a famous work, why can't you get related dungeon guides on the black market?"

Dr. Lin shook his head and used sign language to indicate: "Popularity doesn't necessarily mean high frequency of dungeon appearances. Dungeons that appear frequently are likely to be modified to varying degrees each time they open."

Jiang Jin thought about it and agreed. The reincarnation system wasn't for making money, nor would it deliberately choose popular IPs to contain horror instances.

In other words... it's currently very difficult to obtain clues about this terrifying dungeon through Azi.

Then, Jiang Jin arrived at the automatic door of the convenience store. He saw that the few pedestrians on the street were all wearing masks of various styles—most of them were Guichi Nuo opera masks.

A child wearing a mask skipped and hopped past the convenience store entrance, followed closely by his parents, who were also wearing masks.

"Have all the people on this street gone mad?" Azi's voice trembled. "What kind of custom is it to wear a mask in public during the Ghost Festival?"

Wu Ge tapped the shelf lightly with his fingertips: "Perhaps it's not a custom, but a rule."

He pointed to the Happiness Community across the street, where several clusters of flickering flames could be vaguely seen through the iron gate.

Dr. Lin suddenly pointed to Jiang Jin's phone, his voice extremely low: "Use the digital zoom function to look at the southeast corner of the neighborhood."

Jiang Jin immediately opened his phone, clicked the zoom button, and by the light of the burning paper money, he could clearly see several figures surrounding the fire. They were not only burning stacks of paper money, but what was even more chilling was that two life-sized paper effigies stood beside the fire. The effigies' faces were painted with exaggerated blush, and their mouths were outlined with cinnabar in eerie smiles.

While no customers were shopping, a few people came over to check their phones.

"Wait... what is that paper doll wearing..." It was Murong Yan who spoke, but she suddenly choked up halfway through her sentence.

Only then did everyone notice that one of the paper figures was dressed in a bright red wedding gown, the beads on its phoenix crown slowly burning away in the firelight. The male paper figure, on the other hand, wore a long black robe with a pale white paper flower hanging on its chest.

“It’s a ghost marriage.” Murong Yan’s nails dug into her palms. “I’ve seen this kind of ritual in a horror game set up in western Hunan. The living hold a wedding for the dead, so that the wandering ghosts can be paired up in the underworld.”

Old Chen suddenly gasped: "So those people wearing masks were watching the ceremony?"

The flames grew stronger and stronger, yet the two paper figures remained standing amidst the raging fire.

Jiang Jin then saw... the paper doll's wedding dress begin to burn, revealing talismans written in gold powder on the inner layer. The masked onlookers suddenly knelt down in unison and began to perform the grand ceremony of three bows and nine kowtows.

"Look!" Dr. Lin's voice was unusually tense as he pointed behind the fire—someone had carried out a paper sedan chair, its curtains densely covered with yellow talismans. The restricted area at the end of Line 14 truly lived up to its reputation as a Chinese mainland horror film; it was a very typical example of Chinese folk horror.

“That paper figure…” Jiang Jin became wary: “Could it turn into a wandering ghost at midnight and enter the shop?”

Everyone felt a chill run down their spines.

What if the paper figures actually come in, carrying a bunch of ghost money to shop?

Subsequently, everyone noticed that the SAN value on the watch was decreasing at a significantly faster rate.

At this moment, Qiu Feng glanced at the dining area behind him.

He straightened his collar and suddenly realized that he was wearing a convenience store uniform, which didn't have a suit collar.

He then took a deep breath and strode toward the table in the food section where customers were playing cards. His leather shoes made a soft sound on the floor, but it sounded particularly jarring in the deathly quiet convenience store.

Azi gripped the edge of the shelf tightly, her nails almost digging into the plastic divider, and whispered, pointing at Qiu Feng, "What is he going to do?"

Qiu Feng stopped a meter away from the card table. He raised his hand, his fingers moving slightly stiff with tension: "I'd like to ask, why do people wear masks on the night of the Ghost Festival?"

The four people playing cards stopped simultaneously, their Nuo opera masks all turning towards him. The customer closest to him slowly tilted his head, and after a few suffocating seconds of silence, he gave a simple gesture: "Out-of-towner?"

Qiu Feng nodded.

The four looked at each other, then continued playing their cards, completely ignoring his presence.

When Qiu Feng tried to use sign language again, the four of them ignored him, leaving him extremely embarrassed. He had no choice but to walk back.

Wu Ge patted Qiu Feng on the back and used sign language to say, "Watch me."

Then, Wu Ge quietly crouched behind the adjacent shelf, his eyes fixed on the direction of the card table.

He adjusted his breathing rate; his advantage was his short stature, which made it easy for him to hide behind the shelves.

Soon, through the gaps in the shelves, he could clearly see the four people rapidly exchanging sign language:

One of the people wearing a Meng Jiangnu mask gestured rapidly with their fingers: "Why don't we leave? It's getting late."

Another person wearing a Zhong Kui mask said: "No, this is fine."

"Isn't it safe here too?" Kui Xing's movements revealed his anxiety.

"It's a little safer here than outside," the Zhong Kui mask said in sign language, emphasizing the word "safe" with his fingers.

Another customer wearing a Thunder God mask hesitated for a moment, then asked Zhong Kui in sign language: "Aren't you going home?"

Even through the mask, Zhong Kui's cold smile seemed to say: "You think there's no danger at home?"

His fingers suddenly began to tremble violently. "Tonight, we won't be able to get out of here either."

Kui Xing continued gesturing: "Let's go. It's too close to Yimin Private Academy."

Then, he put down his playing cards, stood up abruptly, and the chair scraped against the floor with a screeching sound.

He quickly made a "I'm leaving" gesture and rushed towards the door without looking back.

The customer wearing the Thunder God mask hesitated for a moment before following, leaving only Zhong Kui and Meng Jiangnu behind.

Wu Ge watched as Zhong Kui pulled a yellowed copy of "Introduction to Sign Language Conversation" from his bag, gently stroking it with his fingers before signing: "This book was bought for me by my mom. You have no idea how hard it is to learn sign language."

Meng Jiangnu suddenly grabbed his wrist and gestured rapidly: "I'm going home later, you should hurry up and go too!"

Zhong Kui sighed and said, "Alright, let's go together. These temporary workers from out of town are getting suspicious, so let's leave quickly before they notice."

Then they stood up to leave.

Wu Ge watched their retreating figures, took a step forward but then pulled back.

Dr. Lin walked over and squatted down, asking in a low voice, "Aren't we going to go after them?"

Wu Ge said, "We can't force them to tell the truth. They are all locals. If they shout for help, the people burning paper money on the other side might come in to rescue them. Besides, I know whether they are human or ghost. We don't have room for error now. One wrong step and we'll die."

Then, he turned around, walked up to Jiang Jin and the others, and began to use sign language.

They said this convenience store was safer than outside.

　I'll talk about two things.

　　Firstly, my research on Nuo opera masks was not rigorous enough; most of the masks were not Guichi Nuo opera masks, or even belonged to the category of Nuo opera masks. Therefore, I changed the types of masks worn by the reincarnators earlier. However, the types of masks do not affect the plot, and readers who do not care do not need to read it again.

　　Secondly, some people raised the issue of the original timeline. Let me clarify: many plot points in the horror dungeons will be similar to the original work, but the degree of modification will be significant. So please don't try to match it exactly to the source material. For example, the Yimin Convenience Store in the original work is actually set in the Perfect Life game world.

　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)