Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 269 School
At this moment, inside the "Siam Pixel" studio.

Seeing everyone so confidently claiming they hadn't seen Parang come out, a chill instantly ran up Jiang Jin's spine and to the top of his head!

He... he didn't come out?
Who was that who just walked out?! I clearly saw him open the door and leave with my own eyes!

Without any hesitation, Jiang Jin instantly activated his Ghostly Eyes, switching his vision to look at the Mysterious Layer!
The sight before him made him gasp in shock!
Inside the mysterious layer, the once neat and bright studio had completely changed its appearance!
The walls were covered in splattered, dark red blood! Long trails of blood stretched across the floor, and thick, still-dry blood stained the desk, the computer screen... everywhere!
The entire space was filled with a nauseatingly strong stench of blood and intense resentment!

A bloody massacre had just taken place here! And the materialists were completely unaware!

At the same time, Jiang Jin suddenly sensed another terrifying thing—he could vaguely sense the existence of the regrouping ash of resentment before, but now, even that faint sense had completely disappeared!
It was as if it had been completely shielded or isolated by some more powerful force!
It's that "third party" again! Not only did it target Palantir, but it may also be interfering with or even attacking Deathstroke, who is recovering!

"Not good!" Jiang Jin knew something was wrong. Palang was probably already in grave danger, so the ghost might target him and Lin Lu!

He forced down his shock and said to Seti and Saran, "I'll go find Palang! Luni, let's go!"

He must leave this dangerous area immediately!

Seeing Jiang Jin's pale face and hurried manner, Seti was even more puzzled: "What happened? Parang, he..."

Jiang Jin didn't explain, but pulled up the still bewildered Lin Lu and quickly left the studio.

Once he reached the ground floor and was away from the office building, Jiang Jin finally breathed a sigh of relief, but his mood remained incredibly heavy.

"Officer Jiang, just now..." Lin Lu's voice trembled, "Palang..."

“It’s very likely… that they’ve already met with misfortune.” Jiang Jin’s expression was grave. “Right under our noses, without any warning in the material world… and, even my sense of Deathstroke has completely disappeared.”

"Why?" Lin Lu felt fear and confusion. "Deathstroke is gone too? Why doesn't it even spare Deathstroke? And why is it trying to kill Atai's classmates? Tana too, and Parang too..."

“The motive is still unclear.” Jiang Jin shook his head, “but it’s definitely related to Atai’s past and what happened in college. I’ve thought about it, we have to go to the school, the answer is probably there.”

"Officer Jiang, do you have any way to find Deathstroke? Can my black magic help?"

Jiang Jin gave a wry smile and said, "That's the problem. Theoretically, the connection between me and Deathstroke can't be severed, so there's no way to track him. This situation is a bit tricky..."

Meanwhile, Cetti in the studio found it increasingly strange.

He walked to the break room and glanced inside; it was empty. He then looked at the office door… Had Parang really come out? Or had Atai been mistaken?
He felt a vague unease, but couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"What... what's going on?" Saran asked in shock. "This is impossible! If Parang had come out just now, we would have all seen it!"

"What...what's going on?" Lubana began to feel fear. "Where...where did Parang go?"

An hour later, Jiang Jin and Lin Lu arrived at Atai's alma mater—Rama IX Royal University of Technology Bangkok.

Tomorrow is the school's anniversary. The school is decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations, filled with a joyful atmosphere. The students' faces are beaming with smiles, which contrasts sharply with the somber mood of Jiang Jin and his companion.

Jiang Jin was certain that the source of all the clues must be hidden in this university.

However, as soon as Jiang Jin stepped into the school gate, he felt a strong, cold sense of being watched, as if countless eyes were staring at them from the shadows.

The feeling was more subtle than at "Sweet Home," but it was broader and more omnipresent.

About ten minutes later, Valeria the Blood Spider walked over to the school gate. She had changed into a tight-fitting red dress with a deep V-neck, which perfectly accentuated her stunning figure and attracted the attention of countless passing students.

She originally planned to go directly into the school to find her target, but the moment she stepped into the school gate, as a medium, she keenly sensed that the entire campus was shrouded in an extremely strange and powerful force field! This force field caused her medium's power to stagnate and give her a warning!
"Tsk, troublesome..." Valeria frowned, and to be on the safe side, she withdrew her foot.

Although she possesses the seemingly overpowered rule-based skill of Death Reversal, frankly speaking, the cost of this ability is also very dangerous. It's best to avoid using it if possible. Time reversal itself belongs to the deepest level of rule corruption in the Annihilation Layer. After all, she is not a Level 4 Reincarnator, and using it lightly will inevitably bring backlash.

Of course, she was confident that even without using the Death Reversal ability, she could still protect herself; otherwise, she, the Blood Spider, wouldn't have survived this long. However, she wasn't sure how many members of the Nirvana team had entered. If she were surrounded and attacked, and faced with the curse of ghosts, she feared she would have no choice but to use Death Reversal.

To be honest, Valeria knew very well that, given Yu Tianlun's righteous indignation, he had always wanted to find an opportunity to kill her. Back in the [Pale Youth] dungeon, Yu Tianlun almost killed her, and coincidentally, she was on the cooldown period of Death Rewind at that time. If it weren't for Blood Lord's intervention, she would have died at Yu Tianlun's hands long ago.

Then, she glanced around and saw a male student who happened to be passing by, staring at her in disbelief.

A charming smile instantly bloomed on her face as she swayed forward and said, "Handsome young man, can you do me a favor?"

The male student blushed instantly upon seeing the stunningly beautiful foreign woman with a hot figure, and stammered, "Wh...what kind of help do you need? Tell me, sister!"

Valeria extended her red-nailed finger and gently stroked the boy's cheek in a seemingly ambiguous manner, her fingertip slowly sliding down to the area around his eyes.

The boy felt a cold sensation mixed with a strange stimulation, and a burning sensation in his lower abdomen, making it impossible for him to think.

"Help my sister go in and find a few people..." Valeria said, while secretly activating her mediumship—temporarily borrowing spiritual vision.

A barely perceptible gray glint flashed deep within the boy's left pupil, temporarily granting him some of Valeria's medium vision.

She took out her phone and showed the other person several photos: Jiang Jin, Liu Yan, Yu Tianlun, and Xu Yinqiu, as well as the most crucial photo of Lin Lu.

“Find them, then call your sister and tell her where they are and who’s with them…” Valeria handed the boy a banknote and a note with her phone number on it. “Please.”

Blinded by beauty and money, the boy immediately nodded in agreement and excitedly ran into the school.

Under the influence of the medium's eye, the boy would subconsciously approach the location where Jiang Jin was.

Valeria turned around with satisfaction, found a decent-looking coffee shop near the school, sat by the window, and ordered an Americano and a whole-wheat chicken breast sandwich.

She is extremely strict with her diet, requiring a high-protein, low-fat diet to maintain her stunning figure.

Inside the school, Jiang Jin, as an outstanding graduate, successfully found the school's teaching affairs office and used the excuse of the school's anniversary to visit his former teachers.

After making inquiries, he learned that his female academic advisor, Dr. Chalermporn, who was in charge of his graduation thesis, is still working at the school.

Jiang Jin felt this was an important clue and immediately took Lin Lu to the office building where their mentor was located.

When Jiang Jin arrived at the office door, it was ajar. He knocked on the door and then pushed it open.

A middle-aged female professor with glasses and an intellectual air was sitting at her desk, carefully cutting up the documents on the table with a utility knife in her hand.

The utility knife looked very ordinary, but in Jiang Jin's eyes, it immediately gave him an indescribable sense of eeriness!
A utility knife... Could it be... the utility knife the female ghost in the game carries?
"Please come in." Professor Zhalunpeng looked up, saw Jiang Jin, paused for a moment, then smiled, "Ah, it's Atai! Long time no see! And Lu Ni, you're here too? Please come in!"

It seems that Atai has returned to his alma mater more than once, and even brought his wife back to meet his former mentors.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, the professor inquired about their recent situation and the development of their studio.

Jiang Jin's gaze kept seemingly lingering on the utility knife, and he couldn't help but ask, "Professor, this utility knife looks quite handy to you?"

Professor Zhalunpong casually picked up the utility knife and examined it, saying, "Oh, this? It seems to be a piece of shared stationery that used to be kept in the office. I don't know who bought it, but they just kept it because they got used to it. Do you need it?"

"No, no need." Jiang Jin suppressed his wariness, hesitated for a moment, and decided to test the waters by following Lin Lu's previous assumption. He lowered his voice and asked, "Professor, I remember the year we graduated, were there some rumors at school about students... um... like transgender people or homosexuals?"

He had only asked casually, but Professor Zhalunpeng, upon hearing this, adjusted his glasses, a look of recollection on his face, and then nodded: "Hmm... there have been some rumors, saying that some students in our college are gay, and it's quite a big deal. But nobody knows for sure. After all, they're all adults, and the school is quite tolerant of homosexuality, so the school didn't investigate further. Why did you suddenly ask about this?"

Jiang Jin was shocked! Such a thing actually happened!
Could it be that the "woman wearing a hair clip" was originally a male student? After graduation, he underwent gender reassignment surgery, had a secret relationship with Atai, was eventually abandoned, committed suicide, and became a vengeful ghost?
He then asked, "Professor, we contacted alumni to come back for the anniversary celebration, but I vaguely heard that some of my classmates... later committed suicide because they couldn't stand it? Have you heard about that?"

Professor Zhalunpong looked surprised and bewildered: "Suicide? No? I haven't heard anything like that. Which student was it?"

Unable to recall a name, Jiang Jin changed his approach: "Then... Professor, do you remember any students in our class, or those before and after, who particularly liked wearing hair clips? Whether they were boys or girls?"

The professor tried hard to recall, but ultimately shook his head: "Hair clips? I don't seem to remember... Nowadays, students dress in all sorts of ways, but back then, it didn't seem like hair clips were that popular. Boys wearing hair clips? I've never heard of that before."

The clue seems to have been broken again.

At this moment, Jiang Jin pretended to go to the restroom and temporarily left the office, leaving Lin Lu and the professor behind.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Lin Lu pretended to be curious and asked Professor Zhalunpeng, "Professor, when my husband was in college... did he really never have a girlfriend? Don't worry, I'm just curious, I definitely won't be jealous!"

Professor Zhalunpong laughed: "Don't worry about that. Atai was a well-known honest kid back then. I remember a girl named Nuoyi had an abortion and caused a misunderstanding, which implicated him. At other times, he was either in the library or thinking about the web designs you guys later started. He was very busy and didn't have time to date."

The information Lin Lu received remained the same as before.

Jiang Jin walked out of the office building and came to the relatively quiet playground, where he summoned the Blood Eater Crow.

With the Death Knell unusable, he could only rely on crows for reconnaissance. However, blood-eating crows could only exist for a maximum of 15 minutes, and the campus was vast, making the search extremely difficult.

He found a quiet, secluded spot, sat on a bench, closed his eyes, and focused his mind, sharing the crow's perspective as it circled and scouted the campus for as long as possible.

At the same time, he took out his phone and opened an app.

He has placed various cameras in different locations in the "Sweet Home" that are not affected by ghosts or even memetic contamination. They are not expensive; one resentment crystal can buy several.

At the same time, he also placed long-unused...rusty animal traps in the living room, master bedroom, and in front of the refrigerator!
He then turned on the camera that was facing the refrigerator, and so far there was no sign of the trap being activated.

Of course, given the strength of this dungeon ghost, the Rusty Bear Traps probably won't hold for long, but he has drawn the Hunter's [Bloodstained Imprisonment] trap array on each bear trap!
"The timing of putting the mango sticky rice in is not fixed, but this ghost should come to the refrigerator to deliver the rice..."

Regardless, as long as it comes over, even for a brief time, the ghost will enter the material realm. At that time, the pollution of rules will momentarily and briefly destroy the physical laws of the material realm, allowing the ghost to appear briefly or be instantly captured as a physical image. Many so-called paranormal photos and videos are left behind in this way; when people see these images, their SAN value gradually drops to the mysterious realm. Therefore, the camera should be able to see it.

"Once the magic circle is activated, it can mark the ghost with a hunting mark! And, ideally, it will allow us to see the ghost's true form!"

Just then, the male student who had been fooled by Valeria was looking around the teaching building.

He walked to a window on the second floor and subconsciously looked outside—his medium eyes, granted by Valeria, immediately locked onto Jiang Jin on the playground bench!

"Found him!" The boy had excellent eyesight and recognized Jiang Jin at a glance. He was excited and immediately took out his phone to call Valeria.

In the coffee shop, Valeria was holding her freshly delivered Americano when her phone rang. She immediately answered, "Hello? Did you find it?"

"Yes, sister! I saw one of the people in your photo! He's on the bench over there on the playground!"

"Is he alone? Is there anyone else with him? Where exactly is he?" Valeria asked cautiously.

The boy carefully examined Jiang Jin, who was sitting on the bench, and then reported, "No, there's someone else next to him, their location is..."

Before he could finish his words, something strange happened!

The boy suddenly let out an extremely shrill scream!

A series of chaotic crashes and screams came from the other end of the phone!
Jiang Jin was also startled by the scream and suddenly "opened his eyes" to look—he saw that the male student had suddenly fallen out of the second-floor window and crashed heavily onto the hard ground below!
His neck was twisted at an extremely unnatural angle, clearly broken on the spot, and he died with his eyes wide open!

Almost at the same time!

Valeria in the café suddenly felt a strong urge to suffocate!

It felt as if a cold hand had gripped her throat! The coffee cup in her hand fell to the table, shattering with a crisp sound.

She clutched her neck in pain and staggered into the coffee shop's restroom. Looking in the mirror, she saw a clear, bright red handprint on her snow-white neck!
At the same time, a warning message from the reincarnation system forcibly popped up on the retina of her left eye:
"Serious Warning: Reincarnator Valeria Pasneorola, the system has detected that you are attempting to interfere with other Reincarnators' instance trials through illegal means, which has triggered the rejection and backlash of the memes in the Lost Layer and Annihilation Layer within that instance! Immediately cease all interference!"

Valeria looked at the horrific handprint on her neck and the warning on her watch in the mirror, and her face turned extremely pale.

She took a few deep breaths, and the feeling of suffocation slowly subsided, but the handprint remained, like a cold mockery.

"Consider yourselves lucky," she muttered through gritted teeth, knowing she couldn't personally intervene for the time being.

She glanced in the direction of the school, her eyes filled with malice, before finally turning and quickly leaving the coffee shop.

Standing by the playground, Jiang Jin stared at the student's corpse with an extremely solemn expression.

He realized that the horror and danger hidden deep within this seemingly celebratory campus far exceeded his imagination!
A large crowd rushed toward the body, shouting and calling the police and ambulance.

Just then, Jiang Jin's phone rang!
The caller is Lubana!
"Hey, Atai, have you and Lu Ni found Palang yet?"

"not yet……"

“Atai,” Lubana took a deep breath and said, “Can I come to your house tonight? I want to talk to you about my secret!”

(End of this chapter)