Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 140 Nightmare Night
Xu Yinqiu had a vague feeling that the house might have been invaded by evil spirits.

Moreover, her intuition told her that this terrifying instance was likely inhabited by an unimaginable number of Lost Layer evil spirits.

When the Manhattan meme appeared in Australia and Singapore, almost everyone decided to temporarily avoid the Thai horror version. After all, Thailand is too close to Singapore, and most people firmly believed that the Thai horror version would be affected first. So recently, the restricted area leading to the Thai horror version—the Elephant Mall—has been almost deserted.

In contrast, South Korea is too far from the Manhattan meme, and no one would associate it with the possibility of being affected. Even if the Edo region meme were affected by meme resonance, the Japanese horror-themed copy should be the first to be impacted.

It shouldn't be like this... it should be the turn of a Korean horror game, right?
But now it seems they were oversimplifying things. Meme contamination simply doesn't follow common sense...

Once the resonance effect of meme contamination is truly generated, it may not be so easy to get out of the lost layer of this terrifying copy!

At this moment, Xu Yinqiu remained vigilant, patrolling the corridor, holding a bell wrapped with red thread in her hand!
Suddenly, as they approached the courtyard, the bell rang on its own without any wind!

Xu Yinqiu frowned and immediately walked outside!

She went outside, looked at the courtyard in front of her, and then her eyes widened.

Moonlight shone on the cake on the table that was reserved for Young-min.

A blood-stained blade is stuck diagonally into the cake, the blade wreathed with the resentment of an invisible evil spirit!

That resentment was so strong that it could almost materialize into crystallized resentment!
"As expected... the evil spirits of the Lost Layer have already invaded this house."

She quickly retrieved a blood talisman from her Reincarnator watch and whispered the incantation:

"Incantation and Disaster Relief Techniques"

The palm rune emitted a crimson glow, forming a semi-transparent barrier around her. This was a basic ability of a Calamity Transfer Master, allowing them to temporarily transfer their own calamities to inanimate objects.

At the same time, she formed a hand seal with her left hand, took out an ancient soul-stabilizing copper coin from her waist, and pressed it to her brow:
"Zhuyou·Dinghun Town!"

The runes on the copper coin glowed with a bluish light, forming a second layer of protection.

This is her survival skill as a Level 2 Disaster Migrator, which can temporarily stabilize SAN values ​​and resist memetic contamination.

However, the blood under the cake continued to spread, and then it crawled toward her feet as if it were alive!

Xu Yinqiu took a half step back and suddenly heard a "crack" sound—

The cake plate cracked.

Thick blood plasma gushed out from the crack!

At the same moment, Jiang Jin's boning knife plunged fiercely into the tree trunk!
"I can't see it anymore..." His voice was hoarse. The house, which had been so close, had now completely disappeared from sight.

The SAN value on the watch has dropped to 41%.

Liu Yan suddenly grabbed his shoulder: "I'll try it with the newly acquired 'Gu worm'."

She took out a crystal-clear jade cicada from her Reincarnator watch and said, "This is a newly cultivated Netherworld Cicada that can feed on spatial rifts. I've been keeping it in the watch to raise this insect, and I've finally succeeded in cultivating an adult Netherworld Cicada."

The jade cicada flapped its wings and took flight, its mouthparts piercing the void.

Amidst the chilling chewing sounds, a spiderweb-like crack actually appeared in the space!
"effective!"

Just as Jiang Jin raised his hunting rifle, the crack suddenly twisted—the jade cicada let out a sharp cry, its body cracking inch by inch.

The exploded insect corpses lay on the ground, their shells covered in cream and blood clots.

"This!!?" Liu Yan's face turned ashen.
These are the Gu worms that she arranged for Wang Shanshan and her daughter to risk their lives to collect from the garbage cans in Heiyuan City!

The only adult insect that was successfully bred... is gone just like that?
Jiang Jin recalled Wu Ge's words.

Perhaps he should really listen to what Wu Ge said!

……

At this moment, Dafeng tossed and turned, unable to sleep, his stomach rumbling.

Despite being a professional baseball player, he couldn't control his appetite, so he tiptoed out of bed and made his way to the kitchen in the dark.

He opened the refrigerator and rummaged through the leftovers, but when he saw a jar of strawberry jam, he suddenly shuddered—the scarlet color made him inexplicably afraid to look directly at it.

“Strange… I haven’t been able to eat jam since I came here for a birthday party years ago.”

He muttered to himself, grabbed a can of beer and half a plate of spicy stir-fried rice cakes, and without turning on the light, sat in the shadows of the living room and began to eat heartily. The sound of his chewing was particularly clear in the silence.

With his mouth full of spicy stir-fried rice cakes, Dafeng couldn't help but think about the baseball league next month.

As a professional player, he should have strictly controlled his diet, but his damn appetite always overcame his reason.

"There are still twenty games left in the season..." He took a swig of beer, his greasy fingers gesturing unconsciously on the table. "The Samsung Lions are currently leading us by 3.5 games. If we can win two games next week..."

He recalled his coach's warning from the previous week—if he exceeded the weight limit again, he would be demoted to the second team.

Da Feng sighed in frustration as he touched the excess fat on his stomach. This was the last year of his contract, and he had to achieve even better results; he couldn't afford to make even the slightest mistake.

“Damn slider…” He thought of the ball that struck out in last week’s game.

The opposing pitcher was left-handed, and his slider had a spin rate of 2800 RPM, which seemed to magically curve into the strike zone.

Da Feng suddenly stopped chewing.

He found a league schedule under the glass of the table, with a red mark indicating that the Giants were playing against the Doosan Bears. The Giants were his team, and the match was scheduled for six days after Mr. Park's birthday.

Last year against the Doosan Bears, he hit a game-winning three-pointer, and in the post-game interview, he specifically mentioned that it was "dedicated to his elementary school homeroom teacher, Ms. Park."

"If I could hit another home run this time..." He imagined dedicating the home run to Mr. Park in his wheelchair, how gratified the old man would be.

Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

Something was breathing behind him.

Da Feng turned around abruptly; the dark living room was empty.

It was just his imagination. Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, a warm drop of liquid landed on his forehead with a "plop".

The sticky sensation his fingers touched made him stiffen—by the moonlight, he immediately saw that what was on his fingertips was clearly blood!

"Shh!"

A whooshing sound came from above. Da Feng scrambled to avoid it, only to see a knife deeply embedded in the chair he had just been sitting on!
In the darkness, a twisted figure hangs upside down from the ceiling, its hand slowly turning the hilt of a knife.
"Ahhhhh!!"

Da Feng unleashed the fastest sprint of his career, bursting through the gate and rushing into the yard.

He heard a cracking sound of joints twisting behind him, but he didn't dare turn around and plunged straight into the depths of the woods.

After running for an unknown amount of time, Da Feng was panting heavily, his heart feeling like it was about to burst out of his chest.

He stumbled and ran, then suddenly tripped over a tree root and fell heavily to the ground.

Just as he was struggling to get up, a cold gun barrel was pressed against the back of his head.

"Don't move." A hoarse male voice came from behind.

Da Feng froze, his vest instantly soaked with cold sweat.

By the moonlight, he saw a slender figure standing in front of him—an extremely beautiful young woman whose fingertips were crawling with strange insects, which were aimed at his throat.

Da Feng stammered, raising his hands: "Please, don't kill me!"

The gun barrel paused slightly.

"Xu Dafeng?" A handsome man walked around to him, his dirty face revealing a pair of sharp eyes. "The baseball team's 'home run king'? Mr. Park's student?"

Da Feng looked at the man and woman in front of him and was immediately stunned. He asked, "You, who are you?"

"My name is Jiang Jin, and her name is Liu Yan! We were your elementary school classmates!"

Jiang Jin had already recognized Da Feng. After all, he had seen the original movie, and even someone with face blindness could recognize Da Feng immediately given his physique.

"What? Didn't you go back?" Dafeng was stunned.

"We went back? Who told you that?"

“Meizi said so…” Dafeng grabbed Jiang Jin’s arm. “What are you doing here? Everyone’s waiting for you at the birthday party today!”

Jiang Jin suddenly turned his gun towards the depths of the woods: "Let's get out of here first." He pulled Da Feng up, "We'll talk as we walk."

The three stumbled and staggered through the dense forest. Da Feng could feel Jiang Jin's hand trembling slightly, while Liu Yan would look back every few steps.

"What exactly happened?" Da Feng asked in a low voice. "What happened to you?"

Liu Yan's voice suddenly tightened: "I'm asking you, how many people are still in the house now?"

"Jungwon, Mija, Seho, Eunyoung, Myungho, Soonhee, and Inju... Oh right! I was in the kitchen just now..."

His voice stopped abruptly.

A figure was standing in the gaps between the trees ahead!

"Run!" Jiang Jin shoved the two away, and the mournful cry instantly spewed out tongues of fire.

The bullet pierced through the figure, blasting a honeycomb-like hole in the tree trunk.

The three of them ran to a depression in the ground. Dafeng collapsed to the ground, trembling as he described the terrifying experience: "Just now in the kitchen, a knife grazed my scalp and slashed down! And there was... a person hanging upside down from the ceiling!"

Liu Yan suddenly grabbed his collar: "When you came out, was the cake you left for Yingmin still on the table?"

"Eggs, cake?" Da Feng was taken aback by the question. "How could I have time to look when I was running for my life?"

While Dafeng and his two companions were on the run, Teacher Park woke up from a nightmare.

"Ah! Yingmin!"

When she woke up, Ms. Park was clutching the bedsheets tightly with both hands.

The feeling of Youngmin embracing her in her dream still lingered on her skin. She saw Youngmin, who was still a child, walk over, take off the rabbit mask from his face, and reveal a very normal face.

But then, Yingmin slowly retreated and disappeared into the darkness.

“My Yingmin…” Her face was covered in tears.

The doctor's words from that time at Seoul National University Hospital still echo in my ears:

"Madam, the dioxin (TCDD) your husband was exposed to at the chemical plant is the most toxic synthetic compound known. It can permanently damage the HOX gene in the developing fetus, leading to craniofacial deformities, neural tube defects..."

She will always remember the look on her husband's face when he saw the newborn. The once gentle chemical plant technician was gradually warped by the daily domestic violence.

The worst thing happened that winter when her drunken husband chained six-year-old Yingmin to the basement.

"Monster!" The husband slammed his boots against the iron gate. "You deserve to go to hell with your mother!"

In the basement, Xiao Yingmin's cries sounded like those of a wounded young animal.

One day, she saw her husband hanging from the roof beam, with an overturned stool at his feet and a swollen tongue hanging down to his chest.

She felt no sadness at the sight of this scene.

In the darkness, she saw Miko lying on her side, asleep on the makeshift bed next to her. The child had been busy all day and was indeed exhausted.

She lay back down, and suddenly...

"Teacher? I heard you call out just now, are you alright?"

Outside the door, Miko's voice could be heard!
(End of this chapter)