Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 244 Deputy Commander Jiang Jin

Gao Gongwei was taken aback, then realized: "So, Wang Sang, you are..."

“That’s right. I’m the same as you.” Wang Qiusen pulled up his sleeve, revealing his watch.

"Okay, then I'll order a bowl of Tianjin-style fried noodles."

The noodles arrived quickly, and the two chatted about their recent lives while eating.

"Given the current situation in Edo, are the Americans just going to abandon their responsibilities?"

“The Americans are too busy taking care of themselves. I heard that the Duncan Club over there is very powerful,” Wang Qiusen said in a low voice as he wiped the table. “Their minister, that Douglas Duncan, although not a formal politician, has terrifying influence. He went to Europe and met with heads of state from various countries. He is already the most popular candidate for the next US president... This world has really changed.”

Takamiya Yui listened silently, but her mind was entirely focused on revenge.

Looking at his gloomy expression, Wang Qiusen sighed and advised, "Takamiya-kun, take my advice and don't go to the Shibuya subway station area. The meme situation has been very unstable lately, and several high-risk dungeon entrances are very active. It's too dangerous."

Takamiya Yui suddenly looked up: "Wang-san... do you know anything about the dungeon inside Shibuya subway station?"

“Those of us in this line of work need to have a keen eye. To be honest, my shop also does some intelligence work on the side, doing favors for certain ‘special clients,’” he readily admitted.

“Japanese horror dungeons… are the most sinister.” Wang Qiusen’s expression turned serious. “Especially Sadako from ‘The Ring’, Kayako from ‘Ju-on’, and the eerie dungeons based on Junji Ito’s manga… those who go in have a nine-out-of-ten chance of dying. Recently, the entrances to these dungeons have been very unstable and could open suddenly.”

"I have to go!" Takamiya Yui clenched her fists, her eyes burning with hatred. "The people from the Old Core are there! I'll kill them! Avenge my wife! I'm going to... the [Undying Curse] instance!"

He recalled that Gu Poshan had once proudly mentioned some of the old core's strongholds in the Japanese-style dungeons, including [The Undying Curse].

Wang Qiusen frowned: "Old Core? Those lunatics... Are you sure? You, a level 1, going to the Ju-on dungeon? If you want to commit suicide, you can just cut your seppuku."

"Do you have any information? About the Ju-on dungeon?" Takamiya Yui asked eagerly.

Wang Qiusen hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "Yes. A while ago in China, two people actually survived from the Ju-on instance, bringing back some fragmented information. I managed to get my hands on it with great difficulty, and I can sell it to you, but..."

He rubbed his fingers together. "It's not cheap."

In the Japanese reincarnation community, the circulating hard currency is not the crystallization of resentment, but rather—the bottle cap of hatred.

Japanese Reincarnators can collect a special item—the Abomination Message Bottle—with a small probability in various dungeons. Only professional Japanese Reincarnators can see and touch it. The cap of this message bottle is known as the "Abomination Bottle Cap."

One Abomination Bottle Cap, based on the current international exchange rate, can be exchanged for approximately five Resentment Crystals.

Wang Qiusen immediately said, "For this kind of crucial information, at least... twenty or thirty Abomination Bottle Caps are needed."

Gao Gongwei gasped. He simply couldn't afford that many!

When a Japanese Reincarnator dies, their Reincarnator Watch doesn't turn into a key, but rather into a special "bottle opener." Other Reincarnators can use this "bottle opener" to summon an Abomination Bottle, randomly taking three items from the deceased's watch's storage space and obtaining an Abomination Bottle Cap. Therefore, the best way to get the Abomination Bottle Cap is still to kill someone, but he hasn't killed many Reincarnators, so where would he get the Abomination Bottle Cap?

He sighed dejectedly.

Wang Qiusen patted him on the shoulder: "Take my advice, Takamiya-kun, going now is just suicide. Kayako from [The Curse of Immortality] is one of the most terrifying evil spirits in the Annihilation Layer! Her resentment is almost endless, and her rules are unpredictable. She is simply not someone you can handle right now."

But Takamiya Yui shook her head, her eyes resolute yet filled with despair: "My wife is dead, so there's no point in me living. All I have left is revenge! Even if I die, as long as I can kill a few more of those Old Core beasts to take with me, that's enough!"

He finished his noodles with soybean paste, paid the bill, and left.

Wang Qiusen watched his resolute figure disappear outside the shop, and could only sigh heavily and shake his head. The flames of revenge were enough to destroy a person's reason and all means of survival, but he was just a restaurant owner who also sold information; there wasn't much he could do.

Just then, Wang Qiusen's phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID, walked to a quiet spot in the kitchen, and answered, "Moshi Moshi, Commander Yu, hello."

On the other end of the phone came Yu Tianlun's calm voice: "Boss Wang, long time no see. This time you're calling to purchase some detailed information about the terrorists active in Edo, especially in the Shibuya and Shinjuku areas."

"Oh? So you're patronizing my business again so soon. Are you planning to go to a Japanese horror game dungeon, Commander Yu?"

Yu Tianlun skipped the pleasantries and cut straight to the point: "You know, our 'White Plum Hospital' here leads to a Japanese horror game instance. We need to plan ahead."

Wang Qiusen was not surprised; he had done this kind of transnational intelligence transaction more than once. He pondered for a moment, then rattled off several names as if they were second nature:

“In the Shibuya and Shinjuku area, the most abnormal and dangerous meme fluctuations currently occur not only in well-known games such as Ring, One Missed Call, Ju-on, and Tales of the Dead, but also in several dungeon entrances originating from classic horror games that are very active.”

He paused, then added, "There are also places like the 'Ice Chamber Mansion' and 'Minakami Village' in the 'Zero' series (特に『零～ゼロ～』や『零紅い蝶』), where the rules of vengeful spirits and cursed cameras are tricky; there are also the eerie villages in 'SIREN' that are occupied by 'corpse people,' where sound and visual misdirection can drive people mad; the narrative rule dungeons in the 'Kamaitachi no Yoru' series, where one wrong step means certain death, are also troublesome; and there are the various school curse dungeons derived from 'School Ghost Stories'... The walkthroughs for these horror dungeons are not cheap."

The two sides negotiated the level of detail, scope, and price of the intelligence.

In the end, Yu Tianlun readily agreed to an extremely expensive quantity of "Abomination Bottle Caps".

Yu Tianlun is now truly not short of money.

After ending the call with Wang Qiusen, Yu Tianlun put his phone away.

At this moment, he was walking side by side with Jiang Jin in the Yihai camp.

Along the way, several groups of representatives from different teams have approached us to chat, their words full of flattery, all expressing their strong desire to lead their entire teams into Nirvana and become their subgroups.

Under the rules of the reincarnation system, the establishment of a branch group requires the main group leader to apply and confirm through the system interface. Faced with these enthusiastic "surrenders," Yu Tianlun maintained a polite smile and politely declined them one by one.

He knew very well that most of these teams were not very capable and were just looking to hitch a ride. Even if the team wanted to expand, it would be better to have fewer but better teams; both ability and mentality were extremely important.

Back at the Nirvana team's villa, which wasn't particularly luxurious but was fully functional, Yu Tianlun gathered all the members in the living room.

Without wasting words, Yu Tianlun's gaze swept over everyone before finally landing on Jiang Jin, and he officially announced: "I have made the appointment through the Reincarnation System. From today onwards, Jiang Jin will be the vice leader of our Nirvana Team."

No one was surprised by this, and they all congratulated Jiang Jin.

Liu Yan held Jiang Jin's hand tightly, her eyes filled with excitement and support.

Yu Tianlun then unveiled an even grander plan: "Now that our resources have greatly expanded, the Yongmeng team is basically able to follow our orders. Jiang Jin and I have already discussed it and plan to select a portion of the Yongmeng reincarnators to take the initiative and explore the Japanese-style horror dungeon, which is currently recognized as dangerous but also full of opportunities!"

His eyes gleamed with ambition: "Those lunatics in the old core like to cause trouble, but the higher the risk, the greater the reward! This might be our complete rebirth and rise, and it might also be my personal..."

He paused, then said, "A crucial opportunity to advance back to LV4!"

As the saying goes, wealth can be found in danger!

Yu Tianlun has never forgotten his former LV4 level and status.

Just then, Yu Tianlun and Jiang Jin's phones rang almost simultaneously, and their calls continued throughout the afternoon.

Yu Tianlun glanced at the caller ID, raised an eyebrow slightly, and walked to the window to answer: "An Ya?" A gentle yet slightly timid female voice came from the other end of the line: "Commander Yu, congratulations..."

Anya was one of his former subordinates from the Dawn team, a talented medium reincarnator.

The two exchanged a few pleasantries, and the atmosphere became somewhat awkwardly subtle.

Suddenly, Anya whispered, "Commander Yu... Commander Su Yuan wants to say something to you..."

The phone seemed to be handed over, and then a female voice that Yu Tianlun knew all too well rang out: "Tianlun, it's been so long since we last contacted each other..."

Su Yuan's voice still carried its usual assertiveness, but this time he tried to soften it, rambling on about his recent situation and chatting about some trivial past events.

Finally, the topic inevitably veered towards its core.

"Tianlun, I feel that we've had quite a few misunderstandings in the past. I hope you'll have the opportunity to meet up again soon..."

Clearly, she was subtly expressing her desire to remarry Yu Tianlun, who knew her all too well.

As Yu Tianlun listened, a mocking smile curled at the corner of his lips.

Out of consideration for their past relationship as husband and wife, he spoke in a relatively calm tone, but firmly declined: "Su Yuan, I've been quite busy lately and don't have much time to meet with you for the time being. I hope you can lead the Chenxi team well and continue to advance in the future."

After Yu Tianlun hung up on Su Yuan, Jiang Jin's phone rang again. The caller ID showed Wu Ge.

Jiang Jin answered the phone, and Wu Ge's cheerful voice came through: "Brother Jiang Jin, congratulations!"

After exchanging pleasantries, Wu Ge conveyed the message from his godfather, Blood Lord—tonight, a banquet would be held in the banquet hall on the top floor of the Cloud Top Hotel, inviting all core members of the Nirvana team to attend.

Genting Hotel!

The last time, the two groups broke down in negotiations at this hotel, and they were ultimately forced to fight against the two major Crimson Shadow Blade groups in the [Headballoon] instance.

Why is the banquet being held in the same place again?
Jiang Jin handed the phone to Yu Tianlun.

After listening, Yu Tianlun said to Wu Ge on the other end of the phone in a very polite tone, "Thank you for your kind invitation, Blood Lord. Please tell him that our Nirvana team will definitely attend the banquet on time."

After hanging up the phone, Yu Tianlun said to Jiang Jin and the others, "It seems that Blood Lord is going to back down and reconcile. Perfect, we haven't settled the score from last time. This time, we can take advantage of him and squeeze him dry!"

Just then, Anya called again, relentlessly.

This time, Su Yuan seemed to have let go of all her reserve and did not mention remarriage again, but hoped that the Chenxi team could be integrated into Nirvana as a whole and become its sub-team. She was willing to bring all her old members back to Yu Tianlun's command.

After listening, Yu Tianlun simply replied, "No need. Everyone has their own path to development now, there's no need to force us to come together again."

Then he hung up the phone immediately.

He scoffed, "You kicked me out of the team when I was demoted a level before, and now that Nirvana is doing well, you want to climb up the ranks? There's no such thing as a free lunch."

Almost simultaneously, Xu Yinqiu's phone rang. It was some old friends from her time in the Morning Light team, who indirectly hoped that she could persuade Yu Tianlun to merge Morning Light with Nirvana, and even hinted that Commander Su Yuan still missed Commander Yu and hoped that the two could remarry and reconcile.

How could Xu Yinqiu possibly agree? She had always liked Yu Tianlun, so she could only give perfunctory replies to these requests, while her heart was filled with disdain for Su Yuan.

Immediately afterwards, a phone call came in that made Jiang Jin ecstatic—it was from his brother, Jiang Han!

"Jiang Jin, I can finally call you..."

Jiang Han's voice sounded much stronger. He told Jiang Jin that after various treatments and recuperation, the strange "scarecrow meme contamination" on his body had been completely cured!
This finally put Jiang Jin's mind at ease. What reassured Jiang Jin even more was that Jiang Han mentioned that a "Mr. Shen" had taken the initiative to contact them and arrange a professional team to carry out a comprehensive "meme eradication" of the community where Jiang Han lived and the community where their parents lived, to ensure that similar pollution incidents would not happen again in the future.

Jiang Jin secretly remembered Shen Mohan's energy and kindness.

The TV in the living room was on, playing the news.

Almost every channel was rolling news reports about the massive "meme contamination" attack on Edo, with shaky footage filled with chaos, panic, and incomprehensible bizarre phenomena.

Online forums erupted in heated debate, with many netizens gloating and mocking Edo's fate, while another group condemned such remarks as "the evil consequence of hate education," to which the opposing side retorted, "Get out, you pro-Japanese colonists!" The two sides engaged in a fierce war of words, using extremely vulgar language.

The chaotic state of the world made the atmosphere in the living room somewhat somber.

Yu Tianlun turned off the TV and steered the conversation back on track, explaining in detail his idea of ​​going to the Japanese-style horror dungeon trial.

"Without a doubt, 'One Missed Call,' 'Ringu,' and 'Ju-on' are among the top tier of Japanese horror dungeons, especially the 'Ju-on' based dungeon, 'The Undying Ju-on,' which is a notorious nightmare dungeon with a survival rate of less than 5%!" Yu Tianlun said solemnly. "Not long ago, Zhou Chen and Qin Mei miraculously survived the Ju-on dungeon, but at an extremely high cost—both of them plummeted from LV3 to LV2, and the Twilight team was completely wiped out! It is said that Zhou Chen was severely injured, his SAN value decreased and his potential increased, and he has no hope of advancing to LV3 again in the short term."

“So,” he concluded, “we absolutely cannot touch top-tier dungeons like The Ring and Ju-on right now. We need to choose some 'practice' dungeons that are slightly less demanding but still offer great rewards and allow us to familiarize ourselves with the rules of Japanese horror dungeons.”

He listed several alternatives: "For example, the [Heavenly God Elementary School] dungeon, which is derived from the Corpse Party series, is also very strange and has spatial distortions, but compared to the unsolvable grudge of Kayako, the rules are relatively traceable; or a school ghost story dungeon like [Twilight Syndrome]; or even some ghost story dungeons based on Japanese urban legends, which can be used as initial targets."

Night falls.

Jiang Jin, Yu Tianlun, and other members of the Nirvana team rode in a black SUV towards the towering Cloud Top Hotel in Changming District, the city center.

The closer you get to the city center, the more you can feel the unusual atmosphere.

Traffic control in the city became exceptionally strict, with multiple checkpoints set up. Armed soldiers and personnel in special protective suits carefully checked the documents of every vehicle. An invisible tension permeated the air, as if something major was about to happen.

Upon arriving at the Genting Hotel, the sight before them caused the Nirvana group to pause slightly in surprise.

At the hotel entrance, three stunningly beautiful women with exceptional looks and figures were personally waiting to greet us!
Leading the group was a beautiful Western woman in a red evening gown—Benadette, the vice-leader of the Bloody Team!
To her left was the goddess Georgia, dressed in a pristine white fitted dress; to her right was the priestess Kim Suk-mi, dressed in a black lace dress and exuding a charming aura.

These three women are all top-tier goddesses among male otaku, and their simultaneous appearance at the hotel entrance to greet guests drew the attention of the people coming and going.

Watching from a distance, Xu Yinqiu couldn't help but mutter to Yu Tianlun, "I'd heard before that Blood Lord was a lustful bastard driven by lust, and he certainly lived up to his reputation..."

Yu Tianlun, however, was not surprised and said in a low voice, "This is normal. It's very common for the leader of a large team to have a few confidantes or mistresses around him, as he holds resources and power."

Xu Yinqiu curled her lip in disgust: "I know Georgia. She and the Bloody Team's Aurora were both 'Brazilian Steaks,' disgracing our countrymen! They're clearly Chinese, but they insisted on having foreign names, went abroad together, and served countless foreigners. Later, they discovered that Western meme contamination was far more serious than they imagined, so they fled back. Jin Shumei's situation is pretty much the same as theirs. Blood Lord is really indiscriminate, accepting these worn-out shoes that have been used by countless people. I wonder how many green hats he's worn."

Little did she know that since that frame-up incident, the Blood Lord had long since lost any virginity complex. He had completely lost his allure for women who appeared innocent, and preferred to be with women of the night who didn't pretend to be pure.

The hotel doorman respectfully stepped forward to park their car.

Bernadette stepped forward with elegant steps and extended her hand to Yu Tianlun:
"Commander Yu, Deputy Commander Jiang, welcome everyone. On behalf of Commander Blood Owl, I would like to extend my sincerest apologies to the Nirvana team for the unpleasant incidents that occurred between our two teams in the past. I hope that tonight we can put the past behind us and look forward to the possibility of future cooperation."

She adopted a humble attitude and spoke sincerely.

Yu Tianlun smiled and shook her hand, but inwardly his sneer deepened: It seems the Blood Lord is truly going all out to mend fences this time. I wonder how much he can squeeze out of him?
(End of this chapter)