Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 146 Who is human? Who is a ghost?
Currently, it is not yet time for Jiang Jin to tamper with the rules.

After entering this instance, Jiang Jin couldn't reach the house no matter what he tried, so he had to modify the first rule, changing "12 noon" to "12 midnight." This gave him plenty of time.

Of course, he simply couldn't fulfill rule number five—blowing out candles and singing "Happy Birthday" with the teacher. He barely managed to eat the cake, by having Deathstroke bring it back. He wondered what the consequences of breaking that rule would be.

"Jiang Jin, let's try to find the students here first. Once we find them, we can use that ring to test them one by one and see if they are human or ghost!"

"That's all."

Logically speaking, this isn't a scene from "Detective Conan," where you find the culprit and Inspector Megure helps you arrest them. None of them are curse-wielding reincarnators who know the true identity of the demon and might be able to cast a curse. Even if they knew who the demon was, it wouldn't seem to make much sense.

However, this instance is different. Only by identifying who the ghost is can we know who to protect and who not to protect.

To take an extreme view, there are only four reincarnators in total, including the bounty hunter. So, it's not impossible that three of the students are ghosts! If that's the case, then in the end they'd be protecting ghosts, which would be suicide.

Of course, the most crucial thing is...

They can't even determine whether someone is "dead" or "alive." In the basement, with all the bodies laid out, how can they possibly save someone?
……

Jung-won, Mi-ja, Soon-hee, and Eun-young struggled to make their way through the pitch-black corridor.

This room is only so big, but why can't I find the teacher even after walking for so long?

The events of today completely overturned Zheng Yuan's understanding. Therefore, Zheng Yuan was forced to seriously consider a question: Could it be that the teacher wasn't mentally unstable, and what she said was true—that Ying Min's spirit had truly returned?
“Eun-young,” Jung-won looked earnestly at his former vice class monitor and asked, “You really don’t remember what happened before you lost consciousness?”

“I can’t remember,” Eun-young said with a look of horror. “I was with Se-ho, but then I thought the smoke inside was too strong, so I told him to go outside to smoke…”

"After that?"

"After that, I can't remember anything at all..."

Jung-won and Mi-ko haven't told Eun-young and Soon-hee what they saw in the basement yet. If they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, probably no one would believe them no matter who told them.

In particular, Zheng Yuan discovered that ever since he saw those corpses, his own neck had also started to ache faintly.

He began to recall some of the things that happened at each of his birthday parties.

It seems that he experiences some neck pain at every birthday party. The pain gradually subsides afterwards.

He also recalled that Shihao had severe PTSD related to compasses, so it was not hard to understand why the mouths of the four Shihao corpses had been stretched open by compasses.

Moreover, there is something very important right now...

Where is the teacher?
Where did the teacher go?

The teacher is in a wheelchair; she can't possibly go outside or to the second floor! So where is she?

Zhengyuan didn't dare to call out to his teacher loudly, for fear of attracting some kind of terrifying thing.

“Eun-young, actually I seem to have forgotten something too…” Soon-hee’s face also turned increasingly pale. “I was clearly taking a shower at the time, but for some reason, I came out very quickly… and then, I don’t remember what happened after that.”

At this moment, Zheng Yuan began to suspect that there might be some kind of hallucinogenic drug in the food they ate at noon.
This is currently the most plausible explanation for this series of terrifying phenomena.

He was certain that he hadn't eaten any fungi yesterday or today. Furthermore, it seemed that everyone else was also experiencing hallucinations and memory loss.

The things everyone ate... that must have been cake, roast meat, and raspberry wine, etc.

But upon closer reflection, he felt something was amiss. If it was a hallucinogenic drug, then why were the hallucinations he and Miko experienced exactly the same? Even the details matched.
Then unless... even Miko is his illusion!
Who? Who poisoned the food?

Suddenly, he remembered the rules in the birthday invitation.

Everyone has to finish their assigned cake...

impossible!
Zheng Yuan immediately dismissed the thought; how could it be his teacher?
It's impossible!

Besides, the cake wasn't prepared by the teacher...

"Minghao bought the cake, right?" Zhengyuan suddenly asked. "Where did Minghao go this time?"

"Why did you suddenly ask that?" Miko asked, puzzled. "What does it have to do with Minghao?"

"I..." Without evidence, Zheng Yuan couldn't voice his suspicions. "I just want to know, where are Minghao, Shihao, and Dafeng now?"

“That makes sense,” Soon-hee said. “Right now, it’s just Jeong-won, the only man, and the three of us women. If we encounter any danger…”

She had already tried, but her cell phone simply couldn't make a call! And the landline here was the same; it was impossible to contact the outside world.

The biggest problem now is that we can't even get out of this small house!
Even the teachers had no idea where they had gone!
Just then, a door suddenly opened in front of them.

They quickly went over.

Through the faint light from the flip phone screen, they discovered that this was the teacher's room, with an overturned wheelchair lying on the floor!

Everyone turned pale upon seeing this!
"teacher!"

Without hesitation, Miko rushed into the room first! Just as Masamoto was about to enter, something terrible happened…

The door in front of me was actually closed!
Zheng Yuan's face turned deathly pale!
For the past few years, he had been thinking about having the opportunity to confess his feelings to Miko, but he had never been able to find the chance!
"Miko! Meiko!"

Zheng Yuan twisted the doorknob, but he couldn't open the door in front of him no matter what he did!

"Miko!" Masamoto cried out in anguish, then forcefully rammed the door with his body!
"Ahhhh!"

Suddenly, he heard Soon-hee and Eun-kyung scream behind him.

Zheng Yuan hurriedly turned around and asked, "Wh-what's wrong?"

“Someone…” Soon-hee pointed ahead, her voice trembling. “I just saw someone over there in the corridor… someone wearing a rabbit mask and holding a knife!”

Upon hearing this, Zheng Yuan trembled even more.

If it wasn't drug-induced hallucinations, could it be... that ghosts truly exist in this world? Has Yingmin's spirit really returned?
Although it sounds absurd, after experiencing this series of terrifying events, he had to begin to accept the possibility that such absurd events could happen.

The problem is, even if Yingmin's ghost comes back, shouldn't he come to visit his teacher and show his filial piety? Why is he hurting them? And... just thinking about the countless blood-soaked corpses in the basement makes Zhengyuan feel nauseous.

In particular, seeing three corpses with faces exactly like his own, Zheng Yuan felt it was a miracle he hadn't gone insane.

“Young-min, it’s Young-min!” Eun-young said in a trembling voice, “That’s Young-min’s mask!”

Over the years, without exception, at every birthday party, the teacher would say that Yingmin would come over in the evening, and that a piece of cake had to be saved for him, assuring him that he would come to eat it.

Except for one time when someone took a bite of the cake, the cake was always perfectly preserved until the next day, and no one ever ate it.

Then, Ms. Park would say disappointedly, "Why didn't Young-min come to eat the cake?"
Now that I think about it...

That time, a bite was taken from the cake, but no one admitted to eating it.

Could it be that the person who ate the cake really is...?

Yingmin? ? ?

"Miko!"

As Zheng Yuan continued to ram the door in front of him, it was finally broken open!

However, at this moment, only the overturned wheelchair could be seen in the room; there was no trace of Miko.
Seeing this, Zheng Yuan felt a chill run down his spine.

“Young-min is really back…” He turned around and looked at Soon-hee and Eun-young, “He’s really back!”

……

Darkness enveloped Teacher Park's room.

Jiang Jin and Liu Yan stood in the corridor, the beam of their flashlights only illuminating a range of two or three meters in front of them.

Suddenly, footsteps sounded ahead.

"Who's there?" Jiang Jin asked in a low voice, his hand already on the boning knife at his waist.

"It's me," a familiar voice replied.

Xu Yinqiu emerged from the darkness, her face pale, holding a red string bell in her hand.

"Sister Yinqiu! I'm so glad you're alright!" Jiang Jin was overjoyed and stepped forward, saying, "Thank you so much for bringing us the cake earlier."

“You need to be careful, this place is much more terrifying than we expected,” she said, her voice slightly hoarse.

"Sister Yinqiu, do you have any intelligence?" Liu Yan asked, her Gu worms wriggling slightly on her sleeve as she warily sensed her surroundings.

Xu Yinqiu took a deep breath and said, "This instance contains a rule-based evil spirit."

She paused for a moment, as if gathering her thoughts.

“At first, what puzzled me was Kim Myung-ho,” she continued. “He went out at night, saying he was just going out for a smoke, and when he came back, his SAN value had actually recovered from 33% to 40%! When I confirmed it with the Eye of Healing, I simply couldn’t believe it.”

Jiang Jin and Liu Yan exchanged a glance, also quite surprised.

“This…” Jiang Jin said in a deep voice, “In the horror dungeon, the SAN value of the story characters will generally only decrease and cannot recover naturally.”

Xu Yinqiu nodded: "I also find it strange, but that's the truth. The only reasonable explanation is that his SAN value was replenished by some kind of force."

A slight noise suddenly came from the depths of the corridor, and the three of them immediately went on alert and entered combat mode!
Their gazes simultaneously turned in the direction from which the sound came.

In the darkness, something seemed to be watching them!

(End of this chapter)