Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 161 Junji Ito
Yuko's brain was completely shut down.

She discovered that for the first time in her life, she couldn't understand Japanese.

What kind of nonsense is this disaster prevention and control office spouting?

What exactly is this so-called balloon?

At that moment, she noticed that her mother Yukiko's fingers were trembling.

The mechanical female voice on the radio continued, but the mother's gaze had already drifted towards the kitchen.

"Come on, Yuko, let's go check the kitchen sink," Yukiko suddenly said. "Let's go now."

Yuko didn't move.

She suddenly realized a question—on that red night in Showa 41, did her grandparents also hold her mother's hand and walk towards the kitchen sink, just like they are now?
"Mom, 1941..."

"Go now!" Yukiko grabbed her daughter's wrist suddenly, her nails almost digging into her skin.

"Listen to me, first check if our balloons have appeared."

Clearly, the mother knew what a balloon was!
The stainless steel sink in the kitchen made Yuko feel suffocated for the first time.

Yuko placed her left ring finger against the edge, and the icy touch sent a chill down her spine.

Her tired face was reflected in the water—she had heavy dark circles under her eyes, but nothing seemed wrong.

Yukiko walked over and looked at them; for the time being, her and her daughter's reflections were still normal.

“Remember every single thing they say on the radio.” Yukiko breathed a sigh of relief and warned her daughter, “You absolutely mustn’t take it lightly.”

She opened the cupboard, took out a box from the bottom, and opened it to find dozens of small glass bottles neatly arranged inside.

Yuko's eyes widened: "These are..."

"A container to collect the seepage from the mirror. Starting tonight, we'll be responsible for collecting the slime seeping from the mirror. Now go change your clothes, and we'll take our resident tickets to get our medicine and blankets."

Japan does not have individual ID cards; instead, there are resident registration certificates, which are similar to household registration books.

"Mom, you know something, don't you?"

"Don't ask anything," Yukiko said seriously. "It's just that you might have some hallucinations for a while, but it will all pass soon."

……

Inside the Black Crow Hotel, the four members of the Nirvana team had finished listening to the broadcast.

"Judging from the content of the broadcast, the basic settings of the horror dungeon haven't changed much." Liu Yan sat cross-legged on the tatami in room 109.

Yu Tianlun breathed a slight sigh of relief: "As expected of the world created by Junji Ito, this master of Japanese horror manga is best at twisting everyday objects into nightmare material. It is said that when Edo fell, this manga master was under close surveillance by the Ministry of Health and Welfare."

Unlike China, which has a dedicated meme pollution monitoring department, Japan's meme pollution has always been the sole responsibility of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. However, their governance measures have been riddled with loopholes, and ultimately the entire Tokyo metropolitan area has become today's Oedo Special Ward.

When the Edo Incident occurred, the Hakubai Hospital, the isolation zone housing Japanese horror instances, also underwent significant changes, with many instances experiencing more terrifying memetic contamination. However, what puzzles many is that Junji Ito's horror world has never appeared in any of these Japanese horror instances.

Junji Ito is the creator of Tomie, a classic horror character.

"Alright, I'll release Tomie first."

Liu Yan had already prepared a set of clothes beforehand. She went into the bathroom and had the gray worm vomit a lump of flesh.

The lump of flesh landed on the ground and immediately began to wriggle and expand, with a network of blood vessels appearing on its surface.

The meat grew at a visible rate. First came the outline of the skeleton, then the muscle tissue, and finally, it was covered with fair skin.

A few minutes later, a naked black-haired girl appeared, her long black hair covering the indescribable area of ​​her chest.

"Ah, finally I have a chance to come out."

The girl raised her head, revealing a face that could be described as perfect—only the beauty mark under her left eye gave it an eerie beauty.

She stretched, her chest heaving with the movement: "Miss Liu, you're so heartless. You only called me out of the team battle instance."

Liu Yan turned her face away, threw the clothes at her, and said, "You performed well this time, so we can accept you as the fifth official member of the Nirvana team."

Tomie finished dressing and smiled seductively: "I know, you need me to help you seduce those men."

"You seem to be in a good mood right now."

“I find the days of adventuring with you guys quite interesting now,” Tomie tilted her head and gave a flirtatious smile. “Miss Liu, this… is another terrifying instance created by the original author who made me, right?”

After getting dressed and stepping out of the restroom, Tomie greeted everyone: "Hello everyone, I'm Tomie Kawakami. Welcome to my country to carry out this dungeon mission."

Why does it seem like she's become the master?
Then, Tomie suddenly leaned closer to Jiang Jin and said, "Brother, you're even more handsome than when we last met."

She traced her fingertips across his Adam's apple, but the next moment Jiang Jin pulled out a boning knife.

“Behave yourself,” Jiang Jin said coldly, the tip of his knife pressed against Fu Jiang’s carotid artery. “I will show you no mercy. You will not die, but once the Hunting Curse Mark is imprinted on you, you will feel pain constantly.”

Tomie chuckled: "How scary..."

Xu Yinqiu looked Tomie up and down: "She really looks exactly like the manga character. I even bought a lemon tea that Tomie collaborated with a brand a couple of years ago, and I remember they gave me a coaster with her face printed on it. Sigh, but it should still be at the Dawn Base. I forgot to bring it out. Speaking of which, is she a plot character or a captured demon? Can she be brought out so easily?"

Liu Yan replied, "Rust Town is an area completely corrupted by memes, even to the Mysterious Layer. Therefore, the Reincarnation System has very little control over the horror dungeons that Rust Town leads to. No dungeon coordinates are under containment, so there are no restrictions on bringing story characters out."

Characters like Su Yuan, the current leader of the Dawn Guild, are story characters from a dungeon completely contained by the Reincarnation System; bringing them out requires exchanging for a Reincarnator's Watch. However, bringing out Tomie, Wang Shanshan, and Wang Haiyan, mother and daughter, is much less restricted.

"Back then, in order to find my best friend Jin Lanlan, I went to the place where her phone's last location disappeared, which is that tunnel. Then I was contaminated by memes and entered Red Rust Town. At that time, Red Rust Town was still completely in the Lost Layer. Then, I entered the Tomie instance."

Although Rusty Town is outside the containment zone, there are still cleaners operating on its outskirts. A cleaner put a Reincarnator's Watch on Liu Yan. At that time, Liu Yan had already fallen into the Lost Layer, her body severely metallicized, and she needed to immediately enter the Horror Dungeon Trial.

Back then, she didn't have a guide like Liang Qin to help her, and the cleaners couldn't communicate directly with the reincarnators. She could only get a general understanding of the reincarnation system through the reincarnator's watch.

Those who are preparing to become reincarnators upon entering Rusty Town can receive a hint in their watch and complete a quest. Once they find and consume the Three Corpse Brain God Pill, they can choose to become a witchcraft reincarnator.

That memory still sends chills down Liu Yan's spine...

The Three Corpse Brain God Pill seals the larvae of gray threadworms. Once ingested, the Gu worms will gradually erode the host over time. Although one can use the professional skills of witchcraft, the price is that death will be a constant companion.

She didn't tell Jiang Jin and the others that to suppress the gray threadworms, they needed to go to a place called Black Abyss City to collect more Gu worms and create a balance between them. This path was extremely dangerous; a single misstep could turn her into food for the Gu worms.

So, before leaving for Black Abyss City, she used a promotion as an excuse to break up with Jiang Jin. But she never expected that just a few days later, Jiang Jin would also become a reincarnator.

When Jiang Jin heard Liu Yan recount this experience, he recalled waking up in Qingtan Residential Area. He felt his limbs were a bit stiff, but he mistakenly attributed it to being unconscious for too long. At that time, his skin might have already developed rust spots, but it was too dark for anyone to notice.

As for Rusty Town... although it's not a containment area, the paths leading to it are all copies of horror manga by Junji Ito!
This world originates from one of his representative works, comparable to "Tomie"!

Yu Tianlun took an A4 sheet of paper and handed it to Tomie, saying, "Ms. Kawakami, here are some documents. Please take a look. We need your full assistance for this mission, and we will definitely reward you handsomely afterwards."

This is a collection of information about Junji Ito and this instance world, distributed internally within the team. It's specifically marked: "Read and destroy after use." "So this is the original author who created me?"

Tomie looked at the information on the A4 paper:

Junji Ito was born on July 31, 1963, in Gifu Prefecture, Japan. He was introduced to horror books by his older sister in kindergarten and became fascinated with the horror world. He began teaching himself to draw manga in first grade. In high school, he met a fellow manga artist, and his drawing skills improved dramatically.

In 1986, at the age of 23, Junji Ito submitted his debut work, "Tomie," to the magazine "Halloween Monthly," winning an honorable mention in the "Umezu Award." The first chapter of "Tomie" was published in the February 1987 issue of the magazine, officially marking his entry into the world of manga. In 1990, he resigned from his job as a dental prosthetist to become a full-time manga artist.

"Is this his debut work?" Tomie looked at the illustration of the first chapter of the "Tomie" manga attached to the paper and said, "This drawing is too mediocre. It doesn't even capture one percent of my beauty."

She continued reading:
From 1998 to 1999, Junji Ito published the manga "Uzumaki" in the weekly magazine "Dai Manga Mindset". In 1999, the film adaptation of "Tomie" was announced, marking the end of the "Uzumaki" serialization and its subsequent film adaptation. In 2002, he created "Gyo," a work criticizing the Japanese army's research into biological and chemical weapons during World War II, which also received a great response.

Originally, his work "Tomie" was also scheduled to be adapted into an anime, but after the fall of Edo, all anime adaptation plans were cancelled, and the work was completely banned both online and offline.

"Ah, you've been blacklisted?" Tomie looked visibly annoyed.

The above also collected many online reviews, which believe that Junji Ito's subject matter and painting style are unique. His paintings are based on daily life, are realistic, and have a strong penetrating power. They are captivating and frightening, leaving a lasting impression.

His works rarely feature ghosts or monsters directly, nor do they contain many gory scenes. The terror he evokes comes from the "mutations" of everyday objects. His characters initially appear normal, but due to unusual events, they begin to veer into madness and paranoia, ultimately leading to their destruction. Clearly, this is a classic example of meme contamination.

Most of his works end abruptly without resolution, giving them a quality similar to urban legends, with an abrupt ending.

For example, the story of Tomie tells of a terrifyingly beautiful girl named Tomie who initially dies in an accident and is dismembered by her entire class. In the end, she transforms into an immortal evil spirit.

But Tomie is different from ordinary female ghosts. She has a strong possessiveness and vanity, and is full of the ugly side of human nature.

Her beauty could easily drive any man to madness, yet it also made those who were infatuated with her want to dismember her. Each time she was dismembered, her body parts would transform into new Tomie figures, multiplying almost indefinitely.

The back of the A4 paper details the story behind this copy—"The Head Balloon".

There is no Red Night phenomenon or Black Crow Town in this story.

The story begins with the suicide of a teenage idol named Terumi Fujino. Her death was very strange; her body was hanging from a second-floor window, with the rope around her neck tangled with electrical wires, suggesting that she climbed out of the window and used the rope to commit suicide.

"Are all Japanese police officers pigs?" Tomie scoffed. "They didn't even find a suicide note, and they ruled it a suicide for such a bizarre death? Who would deliberately tie the rope to an electrical wire when they hang themselves!"

Then, strange things began to happen. People started to see Fujino Terumi's ghost floating in the sky... No one knew that this was the beginning of a huge and terrifying disaster.

After reading the general plot of the story, Tomie said nonchalantly, "It seems I'm the safest person in this instance."

Can you even be considered a human being?
Everyone was thinking about it.

However, Tomie is right.

Balloons pose an extremely terrifying threat to both ordinary people and reincarnators. However, for Tomie, they pose no threat whatsoever.

Currently, everyone has confirmed through the hotel's kitchen sink that their balloons have not yet appeared.

But... it's only a matter of time.

"Divide into groups according to plan." Yu Tianlun quickly assigned tasks. "Before the balloons appear, Yinqiu and I will go to the town government's disaster prevention office to see if we can get the blue pills and blankets with our passports. Jiang Jin and Liu Yan, you two try to gather intelligence and confirm the specific differences between the meme contamination phenomenon and the original copy."

He looked at Tomie and said, "You stay with Jiang Jin and the others. If your balloon appears, then..."

"Use my balloon for an experiment?"

"It should be called a strategic simulation."

Tomie pouted: "You always make people do this kind of work..."

“We also have a disadvantage in entering this instance first,” Xu Yinqiu sighed, “Our balloons will appear earlier than Shadowblade and the reincarnators of the Crimson Team.”

“Sister Yinqiu, you can’t have it both ways,” Liu Yan said, shaking out a few centipede-shaped Gu worms from her sleeve. “After all, we have already forcibly found a way out of what was originally a hopeless situation.”

Yu Tianlun took out four purple talismans and distributed them to everyone: "Burn them immediately if you encounter danger, and we will sense it."

Xu Yinqiu suddenly handed him a small bottle: "Take this with you, it's for replenishing your sanity."

"There's no need to take it out now."

"I'll keep it with me at all times," the female team doctor insisted. "I'm afraid I might get separated from you."

The two looked just like an old married couple.

Jiang Jin burst into laughter, and even Tomie covered her mouth and chuckled.

The tense atmosphere eased slightly, and the five men prepared for the impending bloody battle.

This was an extremely dangerous battle.

Jiang Jin originally intended to tamper with this rule: the following behaviors are strictly prohibited: destroying the balloon in any way (including but not limited to pricking, burning, shooting), talking to the balloon or responding to its calls.

He plans to change "strictly prohibited" to "enforced" or "permitted." Then, the altered rules will only apply to the four people on his team.

But what he got was that the rule was changed so that one word required 30% SAN and two words required 60% SAN!

This is ridiculous... There are only four people in the team, and it requires 240% SAN! And it can only be deducted from the player's own SAN value!
A SAN level dropping to 40% means you're deep in the Lost Layer! And tampering with the rules requires an instant SAN deduction; installment payments are not accepted. He has to pay 240% of the SAN at once… Isn't this outrageous?
Jiang Jin had no choice but to decide to use the camera to take action, prioritizing the protection of the person in the most dangerous situation. They would then decide on the next person to be protected based on the rules after 12 hours.
"Let's begin." Yu Tianlun pushed open the window, and the wind of the red night rushed in, making everyone feel suffocated. "As long as we can leave the instance alive, then no one will dare to underestimate our Nirvana Team!"

This is a life-or-death battle for the team, and also a battle to establish their authority!

Every reincarnator felt that the Nirvana team was equivalent to the dead.

After leaving the hotel, the five people split up and went their separate ways.

“Let’s go.” Yu Tianlun picked up the map of Black Crow Town and said, “Let’s go to the town government first.”

Xu Yinqiu nodded, and suddenly, her Eye of Inspiration was passively triggered!

Unlike Jiang Jin's Hunter's Eye, Zhu You's Eye is a class skill that can be triggered actively or passively.

The world she saw suddenly changed—the pedestrians on the street had countless translucent threads floating around their necks, each thread connecting to the red clouds in the sky.

Each person's SAN value has also begun to show a downward trend.

Similarly, she and Yu Tianlun also had them on their necks!
“The memes in this horror copy have captured the hearts of every resident in the town,” she whispered. “Now I know why the balloons in the original manga could always locate the real body. I’m afraid those balloons could see these threads.”

Yu Tianlun took out the Five Emperors Coins, the surface of the copper coins looking like congealed blood under the red light: "It seems that this time, we are really going to see what 'absolute terror' is."

Jiang Jin and Liu Yan strolled along the streets of Black Crow Town.

On the shopping street, almost every household stayed indoors.

Liu Yan is ready to use the Mind-Reading Leech at any time to read the residents' minds and obtain intelligence.

“The Shadow Blade team has a priest-class reincarnator named Chen Yao,” Liu Yan said. “She’s a girl with a ponytail, about 1.6 meters tall. She can pinpoint our location at any time! We must kill her first!”

(End of this chapter)