Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 139 The Terrifying Mansion
Jiang Jin's breathing was heavy, and large beads of sweat kept sliding down his forehead.

He gripped the handle of the mortar tightly, keeping a vigilant eye on his surroundings.

Liu Yan followed behind him, her face equally pale, her lips trembling uncontrollably as her SAN value continued to drop.

Both of their SAN values ​​have dropped below 45%!

This is already a relatively deep layer of the Lost Layer. Most ordinary LV1 reincarnators at this level wouldn't even survive 10-15 minutes.

The fact that the couple has survived to this day is enough to make them famous in the entire community of reincarnators.

"Damn it! We're back to square one..."

Jiang Jin gritted his teeth and stared ahead—

They had already arrived here, and even though it appeared to be just a hundred meters away from where they were in the woods, no matter how they walked, they couldn't get any closer.

The outlines of the trees nearby began to twist and deform, as if mocking their futile efforts.

Liu Yan took out a dark red steak from her watch and handed it to Jiang Jin with trembling hands: "This is the last one... want to try it?"

Jiang Jin shook his head with a wry smile: "Forget it, even SAN-restoring items are almost ineffective in this godforsaken place."

"Let's give it a try. If it doesn't work out, we can treat it as a late-night snack."

Jiang Jin smiled wryly, took the piece of meat, stuffed it into his mouth, chewed it a few times, and swallowed it.

On the watch, the SAN value began to rise rapidly, but when it reached 60%, it was abruptly cut off by some invisible force—his SAN value only stabilized at 60% for a few seconds before it began to plummet again.

Jiang Jin fired at least several hundred Soul-Devouring Bullets throughout the day, including some [Insect Explosion Bullets]. However… it was all to no avail!
The same goes for Liu Yan; no matter how many of her Gu worms she sent, they all died, having no effect whatsoever.

Although Jiang Jin has so many resentment fragments, the use of these things requires careful consideration and cannot be quickly converted into combat power.

In the end, Jiang Jin had no choice but to use one of his strongest trump cards: the Door-Knocking Ghost!

After the old man in black robes with corpse spots came out of the golden chest, he released his ghost domain, which barely allowed Jiang Jin and Liu Yan to escape.

Looking back now, the only trump card we could use was the coffin nail!

Jiang Jin's pupils contracted sharply.

The coffin nails are his ultimate trump card, but they are also disposable.

Once used, it cannot be recycled.

Another way is to summon Yang Jian into this terrifying dungeon world!

Just then, a figure flashed by, and the battered and bruised Deathstroke staggered towards them!

Inside the plastic bag hanging around its neck, two pieces of cream cake were intact.

Jiang Jin immediately ran over, tenderly stroking Deathstroke, and then fed it a few pieces of resentment crystals.

Unfortunately, it takes a long time for a ghoul hound to fully digest a shard of resentment, otherwise he really wanted to feed Deathstroke a second one.

Then, he opened the plastic bag, his eyes lit up, and he took out a boning knife from it as if he had found a treasure!

"My knife!"

Then, he took out the cake from the food storage container and handed it to Liu Yan!
"Liu Yan, eat quickly!"

The death knell let out a weak wail, and even after consuming the crystal of resentment, it did not recover much.

"You've worked so hard, Deathstroke," Jiang Jin said, his heart aching with concern. "We'll definitely find a way to get into that house!"

……

Soon-hee filled the bathtub with hot water, and steam quickly filled the entire bathroom.

She hummed a song softly, put her long hair up, and stepped into the warm water.

As a model, she often attends events and spends far more time in hotels than at home, so she hasn't had a proper bath in many years.

Feeling the comfortable water temperature, Soon-hee couldn't help but hum a song.

At that moment, the light from the hallway shone through the frosted glass door of the bathroom.

After about five minutes of washing, Shunxi suddenly noticed that a still figure had appeared outside the glass door!

"Miko?" She stopped what she was doing and called out tentatively.

The figure did not respond or move; it simply stood there stiffly outside the door.

Shunxi's heart raced slightly. She reached out and turned off the faucet, and the bathroom fell into an eerie silence.

"Who's outside?" Her voice was exceptionally clear in the empty bathroom, anxiously awaiting a response from the person outside the door.

The silhouette of the figure was faintly visible in the mist, but remained silent.

Soon-hee abruptly stood up from the bathtub, splashing water everywhere. She grabbed a towel hastily to cover herself, her trembling hand gripping the doorknob. Taking a deep breath, she yanked the door open—

The corridor was empty; there wasn't a single person in it.

"Strange." Shunxi peeked out and looked around, but there wasn't a soul in sight.

She shivered, quickly retreated to the bathroom, and hurriedly dried herself and put on her pajamas.

As she left, she couldn't help but look back one last time.

At the same time, Shihao stood by the bedroom window and took a deep drag on his cigarette. The smoke formed eerie shapes in the moonlight.

"Can you go outside to smoke?" Eun-young frowned and fanned the air in front of her with her hand. "This smell is too strong."

The room is rather small, and the ventilation is indeed a bit poor.

Shihao sighed and stubbed out his cigarette: "Alright, I'll go to the yard."

He put on his coat, went out into the yard, and lit another cigarette.

Shihao glanced instinctively at the cake on the table, then suddenly froze on the spot—

Next to the cake, he was surprised to see two compasses stuck straight up on the table!

"Ah!" Shihao's legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground.

Fragments of his memory began to surface again—the sharp needle of a compass, and… a craft knife…

When he shakily got up and looked at the dining table again, the compass had disappeared.

The tabletop was spotless, without even a pinhole.

Only the cream cake sat there quietly, the cherries on top glowing an eerie red in the moonlight.

Shihao's breathing became increasingly rapid. He staggered back a few steps and turned to run back into the house. Just then, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his throat.

So he spat out the cigarette and started vomiting on the ground.

However, what followed was an excruciating pain in my throat!

He suddenly vomited a large amount of unidentified matter!

The moonlight shone down, and the excruciating pain in his throat made it impossible for him to speak!
He looked closely at the ground and then realized that what he had spat out was... pieces of disassembled utility knife blades!
Every blade was stained with blood!

How can it be?

He staggered as he ran into the house, trying to call an ambulance.

However, when he picked up the receiver, he found that he couldn't speak at all!

So he rushed up the stairs, intending to find Eun-young!
Upon reaching the second floor, he suddenly saw a figure standing at the end of the corridor.

Who?
Then, he noticed the figure walking quickly toward him!

At this moment, Soon-hee returned to her room with unease.

At this moment, her heart was still pounding.

Soon-hee sat on the edge of the bed, trying to calm herself down.

The eerie figure outside the bathroom, the empty corridor... all of this made her uneasy.

She took a deep breath and pulled a newly released entertainment magazine from her bag, trying to distract herself.

This horror story is set in 2006, where cell phones are just flip phones that can only make calls and send text messages. There's no television in the house, so she can only pass the time by reading magazines.

The magazine cover featured Lee Joon-gi, a rising star at the time, with the headline proclaiming, "The King and the Clown Saves the Korean Wave."

After flipping through a few pages, I also read about the rise of Super Junior, Rain's ambition to enter Hollywood, and the news that BoA topped the list of highest-paid Korean celebrities with an annual income of 400 billion won.

Soon-hee also saw an introduction about Lee Joon-gi, including the hit movie "The King and the Clown" and the Korean drama "My Girl". Although he played the second male lead, his popularity remained high.

Of course, her favorite actor is still Jang Dong-gun. Two years ago, his outstanding performance in the movie "Taegukgi" captivated countless viewers. Soon-hee felt that if she had the chance to work with her idol, she would be willing to do it for free—no, she would even pay him!

"Sigh, even if I get into the entertainment industry, I don't know how long I can last. Although my teacher told me to be optimistic and that she has high hopes for me..."

Soon-hee put down the magazine and leaned her head back.

"But the teacher himself isn't optimistic at all... If I hadn't acted quickly back then, the teacher might already be..."

Her thoughts involuntarily drifted back to that night years ago.

It was three years ago, right after Teacher Park's birthday party. Soon-hee still remembers it. Teacher Park suddenly took her hand and said softly, "Soon-hee, come with me for a walk."

"It's so late, where does the teacher want to go?" Shunxi asked hesitantly.

“There’s a cliff over there, I want to see the sea.” Teacher Park pointed to a spot, “The scenery over there is the best.”

Soon-hee pushed her teacher's wheelchair along the path toward the cliff.

There were no railings at the edge of the cliff, and under the moonlight, waves crashed against the rocks, splashing up white foam.

"Closer," Teacher Park suddenly said.

Soon-hee carefully pushed the wheelchair.

"Okay, let go now."

As soon as Soon-hee let go, she suddenly realized that her teacher's hand was pushing the wheels by itself, inching closer and closer to the edge of the cliff!
"Teacher!" Soon-hee exclaimed, grabbing the armrest of the wheelchair tightly. "That's too dangerous!"

Ms. Park ignored her and continued pushing the wheelchair forward, even speeding up the process.

Soon-hee clung tightly to the wheelchair, but the teacher's strength was astonishing; half of the wheelchair's wheels were already hanging over the edge of the cliff!

Clearly, she wanted to be with Youngmin, who had already passed away!

"Teacher! No!" Shunxi screamed, desperately pulling the wheelchair backward.

At this critical moment, the wheelchair suddenly got stuck on a protruding rock and came to a stop.

Shunxi trembled all over, her legs went weak, and her vision blurred.

Just before she fainted, she vaguely saw a figure slowly approaching from behind her wheelchair...

Then, she lost consciousness.

When Soon-hee woke up again, she was lying in the guest room of Teacher Park's house, surrounded by people.

Meizi held her hand, Zhengyuan looked worried, and Shihao and Minghao stood aside with solemn expressions.

"You're finally awake!" Miko breathed a sigh of relief. "You almost fell off the cliff!"

"What?" Soon-hee struggled to sit up. "Teacher... is Teacher alright?"

"The teacher called for a long time before we found you," Shihao explained.

Shunxi was stunned. Wasn't someone coming over at that time?

Wasn't that person a classmate? Even so, why didn't they offer help, instead of making Teacher Park shout from the cliff edge?
After reminiscing, Soon-hee, lying on the sofa, felt increasingly uneasy.

Just then, soft footsteps sounded outside the door, as if someone was tiptoeing past. Soon-hee jerked her head up, staring intently at the door—

The doorknob slowly began to turn.

(End of this chapter)