Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 197 Human-faced Scarecrow Meme

At 6:45 a.m. the next morning, Jiang Han and others arrived at the Pingdong District Public Security Bureau to discuss with other units in the district how to handle the case.

The higher-ups also attached great importance to this investigation.

After all, serial murders are extremely heinous. If a third case were to occur, how would the police force explain themselves to the public?
However, it was already seven o'clock, and Xiao Zhang still hadn't arrived.

This is very unusual.

Jiang Han remembered clearly that when the team was leaving last night, Xiao Zhang had confidently promised: "Team Leader Jiang, I will be there at 6:30 tomorrow. Let's set off early and try to visit and investigate all the nearby villages in the morning."

But he is still nowhere to be found.

Jiang Han took out his phone and dialed Xiao Zhang's number for the fifth time.

"Beep-beep-beep-"

The long wait echoed in my ears, finally turning into a cold, electronic female voice: "The number you dialed is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."

Jiang Han's brows furrowed deeply, the lines between them almost deep enough to trap a fly.

He muttered a curse under his breath: "That kid, he was all right yesterday, and now he's nowhere to be seen?"

The detective next to him asked, "Captain Jiang, what's wrong? Why isn't Xiao Zhang answering the phone?"

"Hmm." Jiang Han put away his phone, his tone clearly displeased. "At this crucial moment, he let me down in front of our brother unit? I'll teach him a lesson when we get back!"

"Could something have happened unexpectedly?"

“If there’s an accident, I should be able to call him by phone; there should be a police officer or a doctor answering.” Jiang Han hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said, “Never mind, let’s continue helping with the visits today, and I’ll keep making calls on the way.”

The police car slowly drove out of the Public Security Bureau. This time, the Changming District General Bureau and the Heping East District Branch had divided their respective areas of investigation. Both sides hoped to catch the murderer as soon as possible and prevent a third murder from happening.

The tires made a soft "rustling" sound as they rolled over the muddy road.

Jiang Han sat in the passenger seat, his gaze sweeping through the car window over the shops that were gradually opening on both sides of the street.

Steam rose from the steamer baskets at the breakfast stall, and a few early-rising students hurried past with their schoolbags on their backs. Everything seemed so ordinary.

But a sense of unease lingered in his heart.

Xiao Zhang's disappearance is too unusual.

The police car drove onto a country road, surrounded by a large cornfield.

Jiang Han's thoughts involuntarily returned to the case itself—the two victims, with straw menacingly placed in their chests, died in bizarre circumstances. There were no witnesses, no surveillance footage, and not even a motive could be found.

This case had an eerie quality from the very beginning.

Not long after, they arrived at the workplace of the second victim, Lin Xiaowan.

Lin Xiaowan's colleague—a young girl wearing black-rimmed glasses—greeted them.

“Xiao Wan didn’t seem to have any unusual behavior before she died.” The girl pushed up her glasses and recalled, “She was usually a bit introverted, didn’t talk much, and never offended anyone.”

"Does she have a boyfriend?"

The girl shook her head: "I'm not sure, Xiaowan didn't tell me."

Jiang Han showed the girl a photo of the first deceased, Li San.

Have you seen this person before?

"No." The girl shook her head without hesitation.

After that, I asked a lot of people, and they all gave the same result.

Li San, 58 years old, a farmer, lives in Dongtu Village, Pingdong District.

Lin Xiaowan, 28 years old, white-collar worker, lives in Nanjia Town, Pingdong District, which is only two kilometers away from Dongtu Village.

However, based on the current investigation, the two people do not know each other and their life trajectories have no overlap.

"How did the murderer choose them?" Jiang Han muttered to himself.

Worse still, the nearby surveillance cameras offer few clues. The few intersection cameras that exist only capture blurry figures, making identification impossible. These cameras are old and dilapidated, and the higher-ups are lazy and refuse to replace them.

It was soon noon.

Jiang Han stepped on the soft, wet soil and climbed upwards step by step.

This time, the plan is to visit the area around Dongtu Village to see if there are any transient individuals around. Based on Jiang Han's criminal investigation experience, the murderer is probably not part of the two victims' daily social networks.

It rained last night, making the surrounding ground extremely muddy. With every step, the soles of my shoes would get covered in sticky, reddish-brown mud.

Jiang Han raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, squinted, and looked around.

Suddenly, his right foot stepped into a soft mud pit, and he instantly lost his balance.

"--Hold!"

Jiang Han's body suddenly leaned forward. He subconsciously reached out to grab something, but only managed to tear off a few weeds.

The next second, he rolled down the steep slope and finally crashed to the bottom. Fortunately, the soil there was relatively soft, but the intense pain still made him groan several times.

"Hiss—" He gritted his teeth and propped himself up, his knees burning with pain, his trouser legs torn by sharp stones, blood seeping out.

He shook his dizzy head, and when he looked up, his pupils suddenly contracted.

Five meters ahead, a scarecrow stood out.

It was stuck crookedly in the mud, the rough hemp rope binding it into a human shape, while the dry straw rustled in the breeze.

Its head was wrapped in yellowish coarse linen, with simple facial features drawn on it in charcoal—two crooked eyebrows, an exaggerated grin, and eyes that looked like a child's doodle, making people want to laugh.

A wooden stick pierces through the scarecrow, supporting it. The stick is deeply embedded in the straw-filled body, and at the bottom, it is deeply rooted in the soil.

Jiang Han's breath caught in his throat.

He knew very well that the farmers in the surrounding villages did not have the habit of using scarecrows!
He slowly propped himself up, his fingers silently reaching for the pistol at his waist.

The mountain wind suddenly turned cold, making the scarecrow rustle!

"Captain Jiang! Are you alright?" A colleague's muffled voice came from the hillside.

Jiang Han's gaze was fixed on the scarecrow. His Adam's apple bobbed, and he looked up toward the source of the sound—his subordinates on the hillside were peering out. So he called out in response, "There's a scarecrow here!"

Before he could finish speaking, a chilling cold suddenly crept up his spine.

When Jiang Han turned around again, the scarecrow... had actually disappeared!

Jiang Han's body trembled slightly.

Impossible! He turned his head, but it was only for a second or two!
"Captain Jiang!" Several of his subordinates slid down the hillside, panting. "Are you injured?"

Jiang Han pointed behind him and said, "There was a scarecrow here just now, did you see it?"

My colleague shook his head blankly: "No, I've been watching from up there the whole time. You're the only one around here."

Jiang Han's temples throbbed.

Back in the police car, Jiang Han's expression was extremely grim.

His temples throbbed, and the image of the scarecrow that had suddenly appeared and disappeared kept flashing through his mind.

"Captain Jiang, what's wrong?" the young police officer sitting in the passenger seat asked cautiously, his eyes filled with concern.

Jiang Han took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down: "Stay away from me for a bit, I'm worried... I'm showing symptoms of meme contamination."

"what?"

Jiang Han rubbed his temples, his knuckles pressed against his brow, trying to suppress the lingering chill.

That scarecrow...it looked so real, it didn't seem like an illusion.

But if it really existed, why did it disappear in the blink of an eye?
“You guys continue your investigation here,” he finally decided. “I’m going to do a SAN value test.”

After receiving basic treatment and disinfecting the wound, Jiang Han went to the nearby testing area.

This place is quite close to the night amusement park, so there are a relatively large number of checkpoints.

The testing area is lined with several enclosed booths, each about the size of a telephone booth, with one-way glass so that no one can see inside from the outside.

Jiang Han walked into one of them, opened the door and went inside. It then automatically locked, and a soft blue light shone inside.

"Please wear the testing helmet." A mechanical female voice came from the speaker above.

Jiang Han took down the helmet hanging on the wall; the metal felt cold to the touch.

After he put it on, the sensors inside the helmet automatically conformed to his temples and neck, and the subtle electrical stimulation made him frown slightly.

"Detection in progress... Please remain still."

A few seconds later, a mechanical electronic voice came out:
"SAN value 81.5%, normal. The report will be sent to your mobile meme monitoring app in 2 minutes."

“81.5…” Jiang Han breathed a sigh of relief and took off his helmet.

For a normal person, a SAN value above 80% is considered safe. Only values ​​below this number are considered to indicate a precursor to memetic contamination. The 60%-80% range is similar to a systolic blood pressure of 130-140 mmHg. Although a value below 140 mmHg is not considered hypertension, maintaining this level long-term will increase the risk of hypertension.

And 81.5% means that he may soon enter this range.

However, during this period, clear visual hallucinations are generally not expected. After leaving the testing station, Jiang Han hesitated for a moment, then took out his phone and dialed Xiao Zhang's number again.

Still no one answered.

"This kid..." The unease in his heart grew stronger and stronger.

Upon closer examination, both deaths occurred after the victims entered that abandoned tunnel.

Yesterday, he and several other criminal police officers, including Xiao Zhang, also entered that tunnel...

"Probably not... If something happened, that tunnel would quickly be designated a red zone and then sealed off by the Membrane Contamination Monitoring Department..."

He grew increasingly uneasy, so he called the Pingdong District Police Chief, saying he had thought of some clues and wanted to return to the city first. After the chief agreed, he also called his subordinates and went straight back to the city, intending to find Xiao Zhang and see what had happened to him.

Xiao Zhang lives in Songtao Apartment in Changming District, an old-style six-story residential building.

Jiang Han had been to his house for drinks many times and knew that the key was hidden under a flowerpot by the door.

When Jiang Han stood in front of Xiao Zhang's house, the hallway was quiet, with only the faint sound of the television from the neighbor's apartment coming from next door.

I rang the doorbell, but no one answered.

He lifted the flowerpot, took out the key, and inserted it into the lock.

The moment the door opened, he was surprised to find that the lights were on inside.

Why is Xiao Zhang turning on the light in the middle of the day?

"Xiao Zhang?" Jiang Han called out, but there was no response.

He stepped into the house, but the living room was empty.

"Xiao Zhang? Are you there?"

Still no response.

Jiang Han's heartbeat quickened, and his fingers reached for the pistol at his waist.

He slowly walked towards the bedroom, the door ajar.

He pushed open the door—

The next second, his blood almost froze.

Xiao Zhang's body lay face up beside the bed, his eyes wide open, his face frozen in an expression of extreme terror.

And a scarecrow was stuck in his chest.

The most terrifying thing is the cloth hood over the scarecrow's head...

It's a face exactly like Xiao Zhang's!
Although there were still some patches on the hood, the face was exactly the same as Xiao Zhang's!

Jiang Han staggered backward, knocking over the chair behind him.

He forced himself to calm down and, with trembling hands, pulled out his phone to call the police.

"This is apartment 502, Building 3, Songtao Apartment, Changming District..."

His voice was hoarse, and his fingers could barely hold the phone.

Ten minutes later, police sirens blared throughout the neighborhood.

When the criminal investigation team rushed into the room, everyone froze the moment they saw the body.

Jiang Han stared intently at the scarecrow face that looked exactly like Xiao Zhang's, his throat tightening: "Check...check the surveillance footage."

After the apartment building's surveillance footage was retrieved, the images showed:

At 18:47 last night, Xiao Zhang returned home alone, appearing normal.

After that, no one entered or left his house.

"How did the murderer get in?!" the officer shouted in despair.

Jiang Han stared at the screen and suddenly noticed a detail—

"Captain Jiang, this case..." Forensic doctor Chen hesitated before speaking.

Jiang Han took a deep breath: "Request the intervention of the Membrane Contamination Monitoring Department."

At this moment, Jiang Jin sat cross-legged in the cultivation room, surrounded by dark red energy fluctuations.

The crystallized resentment floated above his palm, slowly rotating with the rhythm of his breathing.

Suddenly, the door to the cultivation room was pushed open, and Yu Tianlun strode in with a solemn expression.

"Jiang Jin, something's happened." Yu Tianlun's voice was unusually urgent. "The Membrane Contamination Monitoring Department just sent an emergency notice: a high-risk membrane contamination incident has occurred in Pingdong District. Your brother... is involved too!"

Now that the Nirvana team has returned victorious, the imperial court no longer dares to underestimate them. They've wiped out both of the Bloodstained factions, and a huge number of Bloodstained Keys are now in their hands! If it weren't for some people still wanting to observe the Bloodstained team's attitude, a large number of people would likely be joining Nirvana in the next few days. The Membrane Contamination Monitoring Department has also drastically changed its attitude, immediately sharing various intelligence with Yu Tianlun.

Jiang Jin suddenly opened his eyes, the energy fluctuations instantly becoming chaotic, and the crystal fell to the ground with a "thud": "What did you say? My brother?"

Yu Tianlun handed over a tablet computer, the screen displaying an official report: "A series of murders has occurred in Pingdong District. All the victims had straw figures inserted into their chests, suspected to be due to memetic contamination. One police officer has been confirmed dead; the deceased is Zhang Xiaolin, a criminal investigator from the Changming District Public Security Bureau..."

Jiang Jin's pupils contracted sharply. Zhang Xiaolin was his brother's subordinate!
Jiang Jin stood up abruptly and asked, "Where is my brother now? Has he been contaminated?"

"Monitoring data shows that Jiang Han's SAN value is still above the safety line, but it's approaching the Mysterious Layer. However, he experienced hallucinations at the crime scene today, which is a precursor to memetic contamination. The fact that the Mysterious Layer can be observed in the Material Layer means the situation is more serious... His SAN value's potential for decline is still being assessed..."

"Damn it!" Jiang Jin slammed his fist against the wall. "I absolutely cannot let my brother become a reincarnator!"

He looked up abruptly, a cold rage igniting in his eyes, and said, "Was this the work of the Bloodthirsty Gang? They couldn't get revenge on us, so they targeted my family? Otherwise, what a coincidence!"

Yu Tianlun pressed down on his trembling shoulders: "Calm down! I specifically warned Blood Lord about this point. It's more like meme contamination from the leak of Junji Ito's horror world."

"Where are Liu Yan and Sister Yinqiu?"

"He went out to buy supplies and won't be back for a while."

"I can't wait any longer." Jiang Jin grabbed his coat and rushed out. "I'm going to find Wen Qi!"

Inside the aide's office.

Wen Qi's office was piled high with documents, and she was processing data simultaneously on three laptop screens.

Seeing Jiang Jin burst in, she immediately pulled up an encrypted video: "I knew you would come. The monitoring department just sent back the footage from the scene."

In the video, Xiao Zhang's body is lying supine on the bedroom floor, and the scarecrow stuck in his chest has a face that looks exactly like the dead man's.

"This is the 'human-faced scarecrow' meme from Junji Ito's manga. I have received the latest document from the Meme Analysis Department."

The display screen showed a meme analysis file, and the scarecrow currently contained by the cleaners has been classified as an Euclid-class containment object by the Reincarnation System.

The document is very detailed:

In the early stages of meme contamination, scarecrows will insert themselves into people's bodies and kill them.

At this time, they were just ordinary dolls made of agricultural straw, with rough hemp ropes binding the dry stalks, their heads haphazardly wrapped in rags, and crooked facial features drawn on them.

The core characteristic of the scarecrow meme is that at the location of a human's death, the scarecrow will begin to transform into the face of the deceased.

Twenty-four hours after the victim's death, the burlap wrapped around the scarecrow's head began to writhe as if alive, gradually revealing the deceased's facial features. Initially, it was only a vague resemblance, but as time passed, the face became clearer and clearer until it completely replicated the deceased's appearance, including the finest facial lines, the texture of the skin, and even... the look of terror before death.

Up to this point, the setting is not much different from that in Junji Itō's manga.

As the "face" becomes more refined, the scarecrow will gradually acquire more behavioral characteristics of the deceased during their lifetime:

Sound theft: Under certain conditions, it is possible to emit groans or fragments of speech similar to those of the deceased.

Residual memory: A reaction to people or things related to one's obsessions during a previous life.

The meme spread through an abandoned tunnel in Pingdong District. After the sanitation workers sent the scarecrows to the reincarnation system for evaluation, it was determined that when the density of scarecrows with human faces in a certain area exceeds 20 per km, it will cause collective facial dissolution—the facial features of living people begin to turn into straw, and straw textures emerge under the skin.

Conventional methods cannot destroy the face scarecrow; it will reassemble in the ashes after being burned. Decapitation will cause the head to regenerate, and new scarecrows will sprout from the broken ends. Even isolation can only slow down the rate of infection.

The only effective intervention method at present is to cut off the face of the deceased with a pure silver knife and place it in a dark environment before the scarecrow can completely replicate the face of the deceased (usually within a 6-12 hour window).

All of the above has been written down as detailed rules and posted inside the restricted red code area.

Wen Qi retrieved the database: "Bai Mei Hospital has never housed this type of meme before. The cleaning staff have already begun containing and cleaning up the meme. Although your brother is experiencing hallucinations, his SAN value is not below the limit and he is currently under home quarantine."

Jiang Jin stared at Jiang Han's test report on the screen: SAN value 81.5%, no infectivity at present.

This number gave him a slight sense of relief, but he immediately tensed up again—80% was the safe line, but if it dropped below 60%, his brother would have to enter the quarantine zone and face the terrifying trial level, just like him!
"I'm going to Pingdong District to see if they can solve this meme contamination problem!"

"No!" Wen Qi shouted sharply, "The red-code restricted area over there has been sealed off. The cleaning staff are responsible for dealing with the memetic contamination! You are a reincarnator, you can't go in!"

She pulled up a satellite image, where a glaring red light illuminated the edge of Pingdong District: "Moreover, we have detected old nuclear organizations active nearby."

"You mean the 'seeders' of the old nuclei?" Yu Tianlun's expression changed drastically. "Does that mean they specifically catalyze in memetic contamination zones?"

"It seems the Manhattan meme has really energized these lunatics," Wen Qi said through gritted teeth.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Jin was instantly consumed by rage!

Old core!

These scumbags!

(End of this chapter)