Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 115 The Wedding Procession and the Bride

Lin Ye pondered Jiang Jin's words.

What exactly is a "ghost"?
Different horror parodies are often inspired by different horror movies.

Therefore, there will be differences in the concept of "ghost".

Not to mention the different definitions of ghosts in the East and West, the concept of ghosts also varies greatly in many Chinese folk legends.

But at least, ghosts are considered to be beyond the material world, a concept that cannot be explained by the laws of physics, and not like brainwaves or mental entities as Jiang Jin said.

However, the horror film he experienced back then, based on the movie Silk and titled "The Pale Boy," was quite different. That film attempted to explain the concept of ghosts from a science fiction perspective; in the film, after the boy Yoshi died, his strong will combined with radiation energy to become a ghost.

However, ghosts are affected by a substance called Mengjie Sponge, invented by the Japanese character Hashimoto, played by Yosuke Eguchi in the movie. This substance can absorb energy-rich substances, and if there is enough energy, it can achieve an anti-gravity effect, thereby capturing ghosts.

To prove the existence of ghosts, the research team leaders Hashimoto and Su Yuan hired an American photographer to take pictures of the haunted house using film coated with Meng Jie sponge.

Su Yuan made specific requests: when taking photos, the exposure time should be 15 seconds, no flash should be used, only the area around the furniture should be photographed, and a new photo should be taken every hour. Initially, everything was normal, but when the foreign photographer took the sixth photo, a curled-up little boy appeared in the picture, even though there was nothing in the room to the naked eye.

A foreigner, after discovering a photograph depicting a ghost, unconsciously looked in the direction of the ghost and was subsequently killed by the ghost of a little boy who squeezed his heart. Meanwhile, a research team used a materialized layer of matter to imprison ghosts that only appear in the contaminated layer within a room completely filled with Mengjie sponges.

Back then, Lin Ye found it extremely unbelievable. As a doctor, he was delighted to believe that if ghosts could be imprisoned through matter in the material world, then humanity might have hope of resisting memetic contamination in the material world.

It was for this reason that, after paying a price to defeat the Blood Skull team, he persuaded Commander Yu to accept Su Yuan into the team. Hashimoto, who knew about Meng Jie's sponge technology, had already been killed by the Butcher, and Su Yuan's knowledge was crucial to them.

But as it turned out, Lin Ye was overthinking it. While all the different horror instances consisted of a material layer and a contaminated layer, the ghosts themselves were subject to different instance rules. It was ultimately determined that Meng Jie's Sponge, in the [Pale Youth] instance, was a substance that could lower human SAN values, but in the material layer of the real world, it was simply a special synthetic protein. The ghosts, in this instance, existed between the material layer and the contaminated layer, and only the ghosts in this instance could be affected by Meng Jie's Sponge.

What exactly are ghosts? They exist under the influence of meme contamination and gradually infiltrate the material world, while being contained in an isolated zone by the Cleaners. However, they are essentially born based on different copy rules, yet they can all fuse with resentment crystals to give birth to rule-based weapons like resentment shards.

The cause of the meme contamination outbreak remains a mystery.

Moreover, was the real world a completely ghost-free material world before meme contamination?
No one can give him a conclusion.

If I had known it would turn out like this, I shouldn't have brought Su Yuan into the team in the first place just to obtain Meng Jie's sponge technology.

Su Yuan was not the academically devoted researcher she imagined; rather, she was an ambitious and cunning individual. In the original film, she and Hashimoto hired an unsuspecting photographer to document a haunted house, leading to the man's death. She showed no remorse afterward, utterly disregarding human life. Later, as Hashimoto's lover, she attempted to monopolize the research findings for fame and fortune. Knowing the man was a murderous ghost, she even tried to use Meng Jie's sponge to smuggle the ghost boy out. Had she not been discovered in time, her reckless act could have resulted in the deaths of many innocent people.

In the movie, she suffers the consequences of her actions, dying at the hands of the ghost boy in a gruesome manner. However, in the horror instance, due to the intervention of Dawn and the Blood Skull team, the plot is completely altered, including the death of the male protagonist played by Chang Chen and other members of the research team, while only Su Yuan survives.

After joining the guild, Su Yuan continued to act the same way she did in the dungeons. She chose the priestess class, and in order to advance in her class and gain a higher status within the guild, she first seduced Guild Leader Yu and married him. Later, because Guild Leader Yu refused to be a front for the government, she betrayed him, expelled him from the Dawn guild, and then sent people to hunt him down.

He remembered that the team doctor, Xu Yinqiu, had always opposed Su Yuan joining the troupe because she had watched the original movie in its entirety. In the end, Yinqiu was the only one who left with the troupe leader. Now he heard that the troupe leader had started his own group, and he wondered how he was doing now.

"Reverse understanding of polluted ghosts..." Lin Ye looked at Wu Ge in front of him and said, "Have you ever heard of such a thing?"

“Really not.” Wu Ge shook his head. “In all sorts of terrifying dungeons, there are plenty of cases where humans’ SAN values ​​plummet due to cognitive corruption, and some even become non-human. But, the reverse—cognitive corruption of ghosts—is something I’ve never encountered before. Jiang Jin… he really dares to think of such things.”

"But if that's the case, then who are those customers who don't seem to be wearing masks? What's the principle behind them hunting other ghost customers like hunters?"

"Hmm, that's too awkward a name. Let's do it this way: those customers who look like they're wearing masks will be called 'strange-faced customers,' and those who don't look like they're not wearing masks will be called 'white-faced customers.'"

"also."

At this point, the forestry department even had an idea.

"Could it be... that we can use some means to recognize and pollute the white-faced customers, thus helping us deal with the strange-faced customers?"

Wu Ge thought for a moment and said, "The white-faced customer showed absolutely no interest in the lime juice or the doll; he just patrolled mechanically. But when the white-faced customer first appeared, the strange-faced customer pounced on him..."

"The old lady behind her is the same..."

The masked creature intended to hunt the white-faced creature, but in the end, the white-faced creature hunted the masked creature instead.

What triggers the hunting?
Is it related to incense?
At this moment, Jiang Jin looked at the incense once again.

Fortunately, the rules mentioned lighting new incense when it was almost burnt out, but "almost burnt out" is a difficult concept to quantify. For Jiang Jin, it was perfectly acceptable to consider it almost burnt out when more than half of it had burned. Jiang Jin looked at the doll, the lime juice, and the incense, and fell into deep thought.

The convenience store manager is right; the night shift employee handbook is indeed for their safety. Burning incense is used to corrupt the ghost's perception, while also trying to prevent the ghost from buying lime juice.

But the problem is... the rules protect the night shift employees on the one hand, but on the other hand, they forcefully guarantee the existence of the dolls and lime juice.

Considering this, the night shift employee code of conduct may be a game between human operators and the terrifying forces behind convenience stores, providing maximum protection for humans within the scope of the rules.

Jiang Jin roughly understood why lime juice could repair the cognitive pollution caused by incense.

In fact, lime juice can also have a certain effect on refreshing the mind for humans. The limonene contained in limes can be transmitted to the brain through the olfactory nerve, stimulating the central nervous system; while citric acid stimulates the mouth and taste buds. After this stimulation signal is transmitted to the brain, it may promote the body to secrete neurotransmitters such as dopamine and norepinephrine, thereby increasing alertness; in addition, it is rich in vitamin C, which, as an antioxidant, can also help the body maintain normal metabolic functions and relieve fatigue.

Therefore, the lime juice sold in these terrifying convenience stores could likely have a similar stimulating effect on ghosts, thus eliminating the cognitive distortions they suffer from. A ghost that drinks the lime juice would quickly realize that the human is simply wearing a mask. Conversely, a ghost alerted by a doll would react more slowly, but if the incense's effect is slightly weaker, it might be able to discern that the cashier is wearing a ghost mask.

So……

What about those maskless customers?

Are they also affected by cognitive pollution? Is that why they wander around the convenience store like zombies? Or does the incense hypnotize them, making them see other ghosts as enemies?

As Jiang Jin frowned in thought, a faint suona horn sound suddenly drifted from afar, its melody both festive and eerie.

Jiang Jin suddenly looked up and saw through the glass door that a row of red lanterns were lit up outside! Each red lantern had a large "囍" character written on it.

"This, this is?"

A wedding procession?

As the music grew closer, a wedding procession slowly came into view:

Four sedan chair bearers carried a large red sedan chair, with two young boys and girls leading the way, mechanically scattering paper money; the last group of musicians followed, their stiff fingers sliding across their instruments.

The bridal sedan chair stopped in front of the shop, and a pale hand lifted the curtain. The bride slowly stepped out—adorned with a phoenix coronet and embroidered robe, her sharp chin faintly visible beneath the red veil.

Jiang Jin immediately thought of the paper figures and bridal sedan chairs that had been burned in the Happiness Community!
The automatic door opened, and the bride stepped in!
Jiang Jin held his breath and noticed that when she walked in her embroidered shoes, she took steps with a highly mechanical gait, her knees not bending at all! The red veil was completely still, clearly indicating that there was no breathing underneath.

The bride completely ignored Jiang Jin and walked among the shelves, her movements so stiff it was chilling.

Jiang Jin understood!
It turns out that all those customers who didn't appear to be wearing masks were actually paper dolls!

These paper figures, imbued with talismans and burned by the living, can overwhelmingly crush those ghost customers in this lost world!

Jiang Jin also began to understand—the paper figures weren't entering to shop, but to search for those cannibalistic ghosts!

The people on this street frequently burn paper effigies so that they can patrol and deal with ghost customers after midnight.

But Jiang Jin felt something was off. If that was the case, then why didn't they try to catch the ghost customer after the first paper effigy appeared, but instead continued circling around?
Jiang Jin suddenly looked at the incense!

Could it be that the incense also causes cognitive pollution to the paper figures? So, the paper figures also cannot distinguish between human and ghost customers?
Moreover, the paper figures won't come in all the time; otherwise, with them around, the ghosts could be easily subdued after the incense is extinguished!
At this moment, as the bride passed the cashier, Jiang Jin finally saw clearly: there were obvious paper creases at her wrist joints, and the edge of her veil was covered with paper dust and paste residue.

Speaking of the paper effigy from before, the skin on the neck was loose and saggy, which was due to the wrinkles in the paper!

This is an exquisitely crafted paper bride!

As the bride passed in front of the doll, suddenly, the doll's mouth began to open, revealing the dense stitches inside.

After walking around once more, the paper bride turned and moved toward the door.

The moment she stepped across the threshold, a corner of her veil was suddenly lifted by the wind—revealing a pale paper effigy face underneath!

(End of this chapter)