Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 120 Korean Horror Films
A few days later.

Busan, South Korea.

Busan is surrounded by the sea on three sides, located at the southeastern tip of the peninsula. It is bordered by the Korea Strait (towards Tsushima Island) to the east, the Nakdong River to the west, and the vast Pacific Ocean to the south.

Lee Tae-joon lives in a high-rise apartment in Haeundae-gu, with floor-to-ceiling windows offering views of the azure Busan seascape.

This is one of the most bustling areas in Busan, adjacent to Haeundae Beach and Ocean City, lined with luxury stores and upscale restaurants.

However, recently, "abnormal tides" have been frequently observed on Haeundae Beach, with some fishermen even claiming to have caught "fish with long human faces." Of course, these were later dismissed as hallucinations caused by meme contamination, and most of the fishermen subsequently became "reincarnated" themselves. This quickly caused panic, and no amount of expert clarification that the incident was related to the Manhattan Project remained effective.

Meanwhile, at the Gamcheon Culture Village, a popular tourist attraction, rumors circulated that "things one shouldn't look at" had appeared beneath some of the murals. At the Jagalchi Seafood Market, some stalls have recently quietly closed, with rumors suggesting that vendors were "offering" something late at night.

At this moment, Lee Tae-joon hung up the phone, cursed "Damn it," turned off his phone, and casually tossed it onto the sofa.

The person he just spoke to was Kim Suk-mi from the Bloodstained Team, located in Muxu City, China.

He knew what Kim Suk-mi wanted to ask—the naval base in the South Valley District, a place that was now a powder keg.

After the "Manhattan illusion" appeared over the Pacific Ocean, their country's coastline immediately tensed up, just like it had five years earlier when Edo fell to the Japanese. After all, the country is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean on three sides, and to the north...

Now, his phone, which he calls as an information broker, is ringing off the hook, so he has no choice but to turn it off.

"How did things get so messy..." he muttered, pulling a bottle of whiskey from the liquor cabinet.

Lee Tae-joon's apartment is luxuriously decorated, but in one corner are traditional shamanistic implements—a bronze mirror, talismans, a shamanic drum, and several ancient statues.

Shamans are a unique profession of reincarnation in Korea. Their abilities are deeply intertwined with the peninsula's indigenous beliefs and continue to have a profound influence in Korea today, especially in coastal villages where fishermen consult shamans to perform rituals before setting sail. This profession allows them to communicate with spirits, exorcise evil spirits, and even briefly control "spirit power."

At this moment, Lee Tae-joon walked onto the balcony, overlooking the entire city and looking down at the bustling streets. Because of the rampant rumors circulating online, panic buying had begun in supermarkets. The same situation had occurred five years ago when Edo fell.

The meme contamination of "the blood and tears of the Statue of Liberty" is spreading wildly online and will soon spread, making their country no longer safe.

Lee Tae-joon sneered, "Damn it, these people have no idea what they're really facing... Hmm? It's about time, let's go."

He changed into casual clothes, put on a bone chain engraved with runes, and hurriedly went out.

The sea breeze from Busan carries a salty, fishy smell, mixed with the aroma of spicy stir-fried rice cakes from the night market downstairs.

Pedestrians hurried along the street, and no one gave him a second glance.

Guanganli Beach was deserted at the moment, with the police tape fluttering in the wind and the tide crashing heavily against the rocks on the shore.

"Hey! That beach is off-limits!"

A policeman stood behind the police line, waving his flashlight.

Lee Tae-joon ignored him, simply took out a talisman from his pocket, flicked his finger, and the talisman silently burned, turning into ashes and dissipating in the rain.

The policeman's eyes suddenly went blank, and he turned and walked away.

—A shaman's little trick.

He walked slowly along the coastline, his boots leaving shallow footprints on the wet sand, which were quickly wiped away by the tide.

Half an hour later, Lee Tae-joon stood in front of a narrow alley in Nampo-dong.

This is the shadow side of Busan—the place where neon lights don't reach.

The dilapidated signs read "fortune telling" and "exorcism," and the air was filled with the smells of cheap liquor, fish, and kimchi.

He turned into a narrow alley, where the street was lined with signs: sauna, fortune-telling stalls, and night market food stalls selling live octopus.

A drunken middle-aged man bumped into him, muttering unintelligible profanities.

Lee Tae-joon ignored him and walked straight to a small shop deep in the alley—faded talismans were painted on the door curtain, and the sign read—

Three Gods Pavilion.

The term "Samshin" refers to Samshin-nae (Three Goddesses). In Korean culture, these are deities who govern fertility, marriage, and safe childbirth, somewhat similar to Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy) and Yue Lao (Old Man Under the Moon) in Chinese mythology.

This is the local underground black market, one of the few places where you can buy genuine items.

In this country, there aren't many well-organized reincarnation camps. Those in power don't care about the lives of lower-ranking reincarnations; after all, they're all willing to be bodyguards for the chaebols of Seoul's Gangnam district. As long as they're safe, the world is at peace. Everyone else? They're no different from the parasites in Bong Joon-ho's movies.

As he pushed open the door, he heard an old voice: "Oh, Tae-joon, what do you want this time? An exorcism talisman? Or incense that allows you to see 'those things'?"

Inside the room, an elderly woman with a wrinkled face sat behind a low table, in front of her a flower chart (a traditional Korean divination card). Her eyes were very cloudy, as if covered by a layer of mist.

At this moment, the old woman grinned, revealing several gold teeth.

The old woman, known as "Grandma Jin," was fiddling with a string of Buddhist prayer beads with her withered fingers. She was not a reincarnator, but she had some influence behind her, which was why she dared to do business with reincarnators.

Lee Tae-joon grinned, casually pulled over a stool and sat down, lowering his voice: "Grandma, you must have a bad memory. Has what I asked for arrived?"

Granny Jin paused for a moment, her cloudy eyes slowly lifted, she stared at him for a few seconds, and said with a smile, "There's nothing I can do, many of you reincarnators have the ability to disguise yourself, I have to be careful. The Three Gods Pavilion has always prioritized reputation, I can't ruin my reputation."

Then, she slowly pulled a brown paper bag from under the counter and pushed it over.

"All fifteen are on there. They are all high-definition, uncut discs."

Lee Tae-joon took the paper bag, his fingertips touching the edge of the hard disc inside, his heart racing slightly. He pulled it out and looked at it—a pure white old-fashioned DVD, truly an antique these days.

"Twenty million." Granny Jin's voice was dry, like sandpaper scraping. "Cash only. This is absolutely the lowest price on the black market nationwide; it's practically a giveaway. As for the film, if you don't trust it, you can watch it here first."

“How could I not trust Granny Kim?” Lee Tae-joon didn’t haggle. He simply raised his left hand and touched his Reincarnator watch. The next second, a large bundle of neatly bundled Korean won appeared out of thin air on the counter, as if it had just been withdrawn from a bank.

Grandma Kim smiled as she looked at the stacks of 50,000 won banknotes with Shin Saimdang's portrait on them, then called for someone to come and move the money inside, without even checking it.

Then, she said meaningfully, "Tae-joon, remember this, these videos are deadly stuff, don't you dare upload them online. I'm not doing this business to make money, I just want to be friends with you, so you can consign any good stuff you have here in the future."

Lee Tae-joon stuffed the DVD into his coat pocket and said with a smile, "No problem, no problem."

Back in his apartment in Haeundae, Lee Tae-joon immediately locked the doors and windows, drew the blackout curtains, and made sure there were no surveillance devices before taking out an old-fashioned DVD player from his Reincarnator watch.

In today's world rife with meme pollution, horror films have long been classified as "high-risk media" by governments worldwide, and any act of storing or disseminating horror images is subject to severe penalties. However, these banned sources have become "treasures" in the eyes of those who reincarnate, since most horror instances are based on horror films and games.

Busan has only three quarantine zones, each leading to a horror film set in China, Japan, or South Korea. Relatively speaking, domestic horror films are subject to the strictest regulations; today's Gen Z kids hardly know what horror films are. With these DVDs, the 10 million can be earned back tenfold in no time.

He carefully inserted the DVD into the player, but instead of playing it directly, he connected it to a specially modified computer and started an encrypted transmission program. The progress bar on the screen slowly climbed, as the data was forwarded layer by layer through dark web nodes, eventually converging on a server far away in China.

After doing all this, Lee Tae-joon dialed an encrypted number.

“Yu Tianlun, I’ve got the stuff.” He said in fluent Chinese, “Fifteen books, all classic Korean horror films, including ‘Whispering Corridors,’ ‘Hometown of Legends,’ ‘A Tale of Two Sisters,’ and the uncut Chinese version of ‘The Wailing.’”

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone before Yu Tianlun's voice came through: "How's the upload progress?"

"It's being sent. You should receive it in about half an hour." Lee Tae-joon lit a cigarette and exhaled a puff of grayish-white smoke. "But let me make it clear first, I only accept Bitcoin."

Yu Tianlun chuckled lightly: "Don't worry, you won't be shortchanged."

Lee Tae-joon hummed in agreement and was about to hang up when Yu Tian-lun suddenly said, "By the way, has anything unusual happened on your end lately?"

"Abnormal?" Lee Tae-joon narrowed his eyes, feigning ignorance, "What do you mean?"

“Naval base, or… coastline.”

Lee Tae-joon took a deep drag on his cigarette; there were quite a few people who cared about things on the peninsula.

"Why do you ask?"

"Why pretend you're stupid? Meme pollution resonates globally. After the Manhattan incident, it's impossible that Edo (Japan) wasn't affected. Busan is in southeastern China, very close to Japan."

"Commander Yu is very generous, but intelligence comes at a price. My principle as an intelligence dealer is that whoever pays the most is my big brother. How much are you prepared to offer?"

Yu Tianlun did not answer directly, but simply said, "We'll discuss this in detail after you send the video source."

China, Muxu City, Yihai Camp.

Yu Tianlun put down the phone and turned to look at Jiang Jin and Xu Yinqiu standing to the side.

“We got the stuff,” he said. “We got fifteen Korean horror movies from Lee Tae-joon.”

Jiang Jin pressed further, "Are they all uncut?"

“I will confirm. Although I haven’t known this person for long, the agent told me that he is very trustworthy in business.”

"I don't have high expectations for the credibility of the Koreans."

"Don't make sweeping generalizations," Yu Tianlun said with a smile. "The world today is truly a community with a shared future for mankind."

Yu Tianlun displayed a holographic projection map, bringing up a 3D image of the northwest district of Muxu City, and marked a red dot at the location of Wenbei District.

“This is Blue Rainbow Academy, one of the seven major restricted zones,” he explained. “This restricted zone connects to a horror-themed alternate world based on Korean horror.”

Jiang Jin nodded: "Yes, with these fifteen horror movies, let's go to Blue Rainbow Academy next. If we can predict the exam questions..."

“That’s right.” Yu Tianlun nodded. “Korean horror is different from horror in other regions. It focuses more on ‘the obsession of vengeful spirits,’ ‘social persecution,’ and ‘family curses.’ Watching more of their horror films will help us better understand the style of Korean horror.”

He looked at Jiang Jin: "When Liu Yan comes back, you, Liu Yan, and Xu Yinqiu will enter Blue Rainbow Academy as a group of three. As a Level 3, I cannot go in with you."

Meanwhile, in Busan.

Lee Tae-joon stood on the cliff of Haeundae, the night wind ruffling his hair. The distant sea was as black as ink, with only a few scattered fishing boat lights swaying in the waves.

But in his eyes, something else was hidden in that darkness—

A faint green halo is seeping out from the depths of the sea, like the breath of some enormous creature.

"This is..." he muttered to himself, taking out a special camera and capturing the scene.

Then, he dialed Kim Suk-mi's number.

“Shumei,” he said, “I’ve found out about what you asked before.”

On the other end of the phone, Kim Suk-mi's breathing visibly faltered: "The American naval base?"

“Hmm.” Lee Tae-joon gazed at the sea. “They…”

He paused, lowering his voice even further.

"They are salvaging something."

　Yesterday, Chapter 21 wasn't approved until almost midnight, so this chapter is finally finished. I'll count it as yesterday's update. I'll try to update four times this weekend to make up for the missed chapters.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)