Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 178 A Man's Vow
This eerie and terrifying instance now sends chills down everyone's spine.

Their heads started turning into nylon balloons? So when the balloons burst, their heads burst too?

No, if the brain tissue is replaced by nylon, why can it still think?
Just thinking about it makes his SAN value plummet! He doesn't even dare to look at his Reincarnator watch anymore.

Most importantly, this is a meme copy that has not been contained by the reincarnation system!

"Those vicious guys from the Nirvana team!" Duan She carefully touched his head, worried that if he accidentally bumped or hit something, his head might break.

It shouldn't be... right?

Damn it! From today onwards, I'm changing my name to Duan Wushe! Those beasts from Nirvana, not a single one of them can be spared, they all must die!
“Lu Cun,” Zhou Chen suddenly spoke, “use the ‘Underworld Money Asking the Way’ method to predict Qin Mei’s life or death.”

Hearing this, Duan She really wanted to say, "Can we even call them alive in their current state...?"

The sorcerer then began his ritual. Before long, he opened his mouth and spat out a blood-stained talisman coin. The coin spun on the tatami mat for a long time before finally standing still.

“Still alive,” Lu Cun said gravely, “but still sealed by the magic-suppressing shackles.”

"Yeah……"

At this moment, Zhou Chen began to think about how to wrest Qin Mei's hope back from the Nirvana team.

The Magic-Suppressing Shackles are a product of the Reincarnation System. Once worn, all class skills become unusable, and the Reincarnator's Watch is also locked. There's no way to break this stalemate unless you cut off both hands.

"We have already applied multiple curses to Yu Tianlun. Let's see if we can use this as a condition to exchange for Qin Mei."

Shirakawa Rin snatched the phone from his hand and dialed back, but Yu Tianlun didn't answer.

"boom!"

The door of the abandoned izakaya was suddenly kicked open, and a figure stumbled and rolled in.

The Scarlet Team instantly entered battle mode—Duan She's ghost-raising jar spewed out black mist, and Lu Cun's lucky coins floated in formation!
"Please, help me!"

The silver thermal blanket the man was wearing slipped off, revealing a shivering girl underneath.

Yuko Oda's clothes were covered in mud, and her left knee was still bleeding from a scrape.

Her terrified eyes swept over the strangers in the izakaya, finally settling on Zhou Chen, whose eyes looked unusual.

Zhou Chen raised his hand to signal everyone to step back, his gaze falling on the girl's right wrist—that metal bracelet was all too familiar to him.

Qin Mei's Gu Insect Bracelet!
Zhou Chen lunged forward, grabbed Yu Zi's arm, and roared, "How did this thing get in your hands?"

Yuko clutched her bracelet as if she'd been electrocuted.

The nightmare from before resurfaced—my mother was shot and killed by that woman's henchmen.

“A woman wore it on my hand. She…she killed my mother…I want to call the police…”

Zhou Chen grabbed Yu Zi's chin, forcing her to look up: "You called the police? You called the police?"

The girl's pupils contracted sharply, and she said, "No, I..."

Suddenly, she saw the floating coin and realized something.

"Are you in the same group?"

"Give me an answer! Did you call the police?"

If the police and the Nirvana team join forces, it will cause them a lot of trouble.

Zhou Chen drew his peach wood sword, threatening her to speak.

"Yes, a paper figure popped out of my sleeve and broke the telephone line!"

"I know, it's Shirakawa Rin!" Ruan Hong shouted angrily, "She betrayed us!"

"Treat her wounds first." Zhou Chen suddenly let go of Yu Zi's hand. "Han Wei, keep watch around. Duan She, go inside and find something to eat."

Duan She licked his lips but didn't move. His gaze was fixed on Yu Zi, looking at her slender waist, and he said, "Commander, since it's relatively safe now, why don't you let me have some fun!"

"Hehe, commander, I think it's a good idea."

Ruan Hong became dissatisfied and said, "You bunch of stinking men, all you think about is that stuff in your crotch?"

Yuko understood what they were saying, and her face turned deathly pale. She cried out, "No! No! Please!"

"If you want it, pay for it yourself," Zhou Chen said coldly. "Now one Resentment Crystal can buy you a monthly subscription! I don't care about others, but my team is not allowed to do rape or kidnapping!"

Duan She immediately became dissatisfied. If it were Blood Lord, he would be very generous to them in this regard; aside from his own women, no one else could touch them, and everyone else was free to do as they pleased. This is a dungeon world; who are you, Zhou Chen, trying to fool by obeying the rules?

But there was no other way; might makes right. Here, no one could beat Zhou Chen, so they had to obey him.

Zhou Chen pressed the tip of his peach wood sword against Yu Zi's Adam's apple, and the cinnabar runes on the sword began to flicker.

“Listen carefully,” Zhou Chen’s voice was as cold as ice, “I need to know more about the woman who put the bracelet on you.”

"She...she broke into my house, smashed down my door, and then a man magically fixed the lock. Later, my mother came back, and she made us wear this and not take it off..."

At that moment, Yuko felt as if her heart was being torn apart.

The image of her mother's bleeding chest flashed before her eyes again. At that moment, she could do nothing but watch helplessly as her mother died in front of her.

She finally managed to recount her subsequent experiences in detail.

After hearing her finish speaking, Zhou Chen sheathed his sword, turned to Han Wei in the corner, and said, "Han Wei, where is the Demon Bone?"

"It's been put into hibernation for now."

"Call it out."

Han Wei sighed, took a stark white dog skull from his Reincarnator watch, and tossed it to the ground. The bone fragments automatically assembled into a complete canine skeleton, ghostly blue flames flickering in the empty eye sockets. Soon after, the skeleton formed a complete Undead Hound Demon Bone.

This is a characteristic of undead hounds that are transformed from ash and black bones. Deathstroke was transformed into an undead hound by ash and black runes, so he couldn't turn into bones.

"Let it keep watch over the surroundings, especially the Self-Defense Forces. Although the Concealment Array is a mobile array and can be used here, I'm still not entirely at ease with it."

“Alright,” Han Wei snapped his fingers, “Demon Bone, go.”

The ghost dog silently passed through the wall and disappeared.

Yuko's eyes widened, and she let out a suppressed scream.

Zhou Chen immediately sensed that something was wrong.

She can see the undead hounds? Because her SAN value has dropped to 60%?
He walked over to Tang Min and asked, "What is this girl's SAN value?"

Tang Min observed with her Incantation Eye and said, "65%."

"Then she can see..."

"Little sister, don't be afraid..." Duan She suddenly grinned and leaned closer, brushing a strand of Yu Zi's hair aside with his finger. "Your brothers are much more reliable than the police..."

Yuko shrank back and tried to avoid it, but bumped into Lu Cun's thigh.

The burly man was greedily peering into the depths of her collar.

Zhou Chen immediately retorted angrily, "Do you think I'm just ignoring you?"

"That's enough!" Ruan Hong flung a handful of bone needles at the feet of the two men. "Commander, what should we do with this girl?"

Zhou Chen didn't answer, but instead shook out a yellow talisman from his sleeve. The talisman spontaneously combusted in the air, and the ashes formed a complex array that stuck to the doors and windows.

He was stabilizing the concealment array, which was on the verge of collapse. Earlier, the Self-Defense Forces had passed by, but because of the array, the thermal imager showed no one inside, so they left.

“She can see the undead hounds, and maybe all the balloons.” Zhou Chen crouched down, looking directly into Yuko’s eyes. “Right?”

Yuko's breath hitched. She really saw it—those human-head balloons floating in the sky, each with the face of a different resident, and thin ropes hanging down from them. The most terrifying one was in the northwest; it looked exactly like Fujita from the Astronomy Club…

Even if she denied it, it was no use; Zhou Chen had already confirmed it through her expression.

“Ordinary people can only see balloons like their own.” Zhou Chen instructed Han Wei to take out a silver pistol from his watch and skillfully unload the magazine to check it. “You can see everything, it’s truly a godsend.”

The gun body is covered with fine runes, making it clear that it is not an ordinary firearm.

Yuko thought they were going to kill her, and crawled backward on all fours, crying out, "No, I don't want to die!"

"Your mother is dead," Zhou Chen suddenly said. "Do you want to bring her back to life?"

Yuko froze, the voice of the young reincarnator before her possessing a bewitching magic.

Can the dead be brought back to life?

"Duan She," Zhou Chen ordered without turning his head, "show her the jar."

The sorcerer reluctantly brought out his small black pottery jar and removed the talisman seal.

A cloud of gray mist drifted out of the jar, gradually coalescing into the image of an old woman mechanically repeating the motions of knitting a sweater.

“My grandmother,” Duan She said smugly, shaking the jar. “She’s been dead for twelve years, but I’ve taken very good care of her.”

At the same time, he lifted his shirt to reveal a string of small bottles at his waist: "My ex-girlfriends, they were all very obedient."

Yuko felt a sharp pain in her stomach. These floating "human figures" had no facial features, only blurry outlines, yet they exuded a chilling sense of familiarity.

“The art of raising ghosts is just a low-level trick,” Zhou Chen sneered. “But I can completely resurrect your mother.”

Zhou Chen's voice was sinister as he said, "Do us a favor and kill our enemies. They are also responsible for Mom's death. They made this bracelet. That group of people are the culprits behind these balloons' rampage."

“Move about one kilometer northwest,” Zhou Chen said, shoving the silver pistol into Yuko’s trembling hand. “Shoot any balloons that look like these people.”

He pulled up photos of Jiang Jin and the others on his phone and said, "Burn one of them, and I'll resurrect a part of your mother. Blow them all up..."

"She can come back intact?" Yuko's voice trembled.

Zhou Chen revealed a cruel smile: "At least it's better than the current situation. Duan She, give her a disguise."

The sorcerer pulled out a bottle of foul-smelling liquid and smeared it on Yuko's face without a word: "This is a special corpse oil that will allow you to remain undetected by anyone or any curse." "A curse?"

“Remember the rules.” Zhou Chen didn’t have the patience to explain to her, and finally instructed, “Don’t look at your own balloon for more than three seconds, don’t respond to calls, protect your neck, and run with the silver thermal blanket on.”

He pried open Yuko's fingers to adjust her grip on the gun. "Change positions immediately after firing, but remember, you might see the woman's balloon with the bracelet on you. Don't pop her balloon, or I'll make your mother's ghost wish it were dead."

Just in case, he showed Yuko Qin Mei's photo.

"She must live! Do you understand?"

"Why should I believe you?" Yu Zi remembered that Qin Mei had repeatedly assured her that she would not kill them.

"If you believe me, your mother will have a chance to live."

Although Zhou Chen is only eighteen years old, he is very knowledgeable about psychology.

People always believe what they want to believe.

Using an NPC to kill someone, the Nirvana team's Bagua Formation couldn't detect it at all.

Of course, they would all be killed, the Blood Lord's orders would be disobeyed, and he would have no chance to find out the cunning lawyer.

But... compared to Qin Mei's life, Zhou Chen could give up all of this!

It's just LV4? He can easily advance himself! It's just a matter of time!

But Qin Mei is his woman! What kind of man can't protect his woman?
When Zhou Chen saw Qin Mei again after the "Sweet Home" instance, she was slitting an NPC's throat with a dagger.

That was on the evening of the third day of the horror instance.

This is a dungeon suitable for soloing at level 3.

The eighteen-year-old boy squatted behind the second-floor railing of the church, looking down at the woman in the black trench coat.

Her movements were clean and swift; not a single drop of blood splattered when the blade sliced ​​through her carotid artery.

"We meet again." The woman suddenly looked up. "Now, we're colleagues."

Zhou Chen hadn't expected to be discovered. But before he could react, Qin Mei had already flung out the dagger infused with spiritual power—the tip grazed his ear and pinned the nun behind him who was preparing to launch a sneak attack to her death.

"Come down."

Zhou Chen remembers laughing at the time. He braced himself against the railing with one hand and jumped straight down from a height of three meters, landing without even bending his knees.

This gesture made the woman squint—she was thirty-seven years old, yet there wasn't a single fine line at the corner of her eyes, but her eyes were still as sharp as knives.

"I heard you've been appointed as the leader of the Shadow Blade."

"From now on, you'll have to call me Commander Qin." The woman raised her hand, and the dagger flew back. "You shouldn't be in this instance."

She was right.

This dimension is an emotional and psychological thriller instance, which is usually only entered by reincarnators who have experienced severe emotional trauma.

That evening, they walked together through the cemetery.

The boy noticed that she was wearing a wedding ring on the ring finger of her left hand.

“I’ve come to pay my respects to my husband,” Qin Mei replied. “In this instance, reincarnators can see the tombstones and spirits of their deceased relatives.”

Qin Mei suddenly stopped and looked at Zhou Chen's wrist, which was half-hidden by his sleeve.

There were more than a dozen parallel scars there, the newest one still covered with scabs. Zhou Chen instinctively tried to pull his hand away, but the woman had already grabbed his wrist with astonishing strength.

"The Blood Pact of a Level 3 Oathbreaker." The boy tried to pull his hand back. "It's a job requirement. I deliberately didn't heal him."

Qin Mei's thumb traced over the scars, her movements unexpectedly gentle.

Zhou Chen froze—no one had ever touched his wounds like this before, not since he was a child.

"Does it hurt?" she asked.

Just those two words made Zhou Chen's heart skip a beat.

"No...it doesn't hurt."

In fact, every time the spell was cast, the pain was so intense that it made her vision go black. When the shaman was training at level 3, he needed to directly introduce the resentment ash from the resentment crystal into his blood vessels, and the pain felt like a million ants crawling in his bone marrow.

But at this moment, the warmth of this older woman's fingertips was more effective than any pain reliever.

They spent the night in the abandoned church. The campfire Qin Mei lit crackled, casting flickering shadows on her face.

Zhou Chen secretly sized her up—the thirty-seven-year-old woman was extremely well-maintained, with a sharp jawline and a long, swan-like neck.

As she took off her trench coat to treat her shoulder injury, the boy noticed a tattoo below her collarbone: a dagger piercing a rose, with a string of numbers below it, forming a date.

"Wedding anniversary?" Zhou Chen asked.

"The anniversary of his death." Qin Mei didn't even look up, pouring alcohol onto his wound. "He died from meme contamination at Blue Rainbow Academy."

For some reason, Zhou Chen felt somewhat uneasy.

On the seventh day of the instance, they were trapped in the basement. This was the most dangerous part of the entire instance—someone had to volunteer to be chained up so that the other could get the key.

Just as Zhou Chen was about to step forward, Qin Mei had already put her hand into the shackles.

“I’m old enough to be your mother,” she scoffed. “Don’t make that face.”

The moment the chains automatically locked, water began to flood the basement.

Zhou Chen fumbled for the key in waist-deep icy water, while Qin Mei was suspended in mid-air, the water level slowly approaching her toes.

The boy felt panic for the first time—not from the fear of death, but from the fear of seeing the disappointment in the woman's eyes.

Zhou Chen finally noticed something was wrong with the third brick on the left. He tried tapping it a few times, and the hidden compartment opened.

A key appeared inside.

The water level had already reached above Qin Mei's neck.

Zhou Chen swam to her side and unlocked the shackles.

"Why do you trust me so much?" Zhou Chen asked.

Qin smiled enigmatically.

"Women make certain choices that are completely irrational."

On the day he left the instance, Qin Mei gave him an address.

It was a coffee shop in the old town of Muxu City. Zhou Chen went there every Saturday afternoon, sitting by the window writing incantations. Qin Mei sometimes came, sometimes she didn't, but she would always send a text message in advance: "Bring a slice of lemon pie" as their secret code.

One rainy night, only the two of them remained in the coffee shop.

At this point, all that's left is to break through that final barrier.

Qin Mei suddenly asked, "Why me?"

Zhou Chen was drawing a talisman when he paused, his cinnabar brush pausing. "Men make certain choices that are completely irrational."

Rainwater meandered down the glass window.

Qin Mei's coffee had gone cold, with a faint lipstick mark on the rim of the cup.

Zhou Chen continued, "So, what is your choice?"

Qin Mei suddenly grabbed his hand.

Zhou Chen grabbed her fingers with his own, their fingers intertwined.

The boy stared at their clasped hands and said, "Your palm feels like a feather in my hand."

That night, Qin Mei brought him into a hotel.

In the elevator, Zhou Chen pressed her against the mirror and kissed her; he could feel the woman trembling slightly.

The 37-year-old Shadow Blade captain was kissed so hard by the 18-year-old Crimson Boy captain that he could barely stand.

"Zhou Chen," Qin Mei gasped as she pushed him away, "Do you know how old I am?"

Zhou Chen licked off the lipstick residue on her lips: "You're nineteen years and four months older than me. But your heart beats faster than mine."

Upon entering the hotel room, the two showered together, kissed, and became completely naked before heading straight to the paid content on adult channels…

Afterwards, Zhou Chen leaned against the headboard and wanted to smoke, but Qin Mei stopped him.

Zhou Chen traced the date on Qin Mei's collarbone with his finger and suddenly said, "When I advance to LV4, we'll get married."

After gazing at each other for a long time, Zhou Chen lowered his head and gently kissed the corner of Qin Mei's eye, then moved down to imprint his mark on her red lips.

Memories of the past surfaced, constantly gripping Zhou Chen's heart.

He will definitely rescue Qin Mei!

This is a man's vow!

……

When Yu Zi was pushed out the door by Zhou Chen, it was already dark.

She walked along, watching in horror as balloons floated across the sky, trembling all over.

She didn't know how much time had passed when she saw several huge balloons floating above the old textile factory!

She immediately saw the nearest face that looked very much like Jiang Jin's, which was swaying strangely from side to side, as if searching for something.

Yuko raised her hand and pointed the gun at Jiang Jin's balloon!
(End of this chapter)