Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 300 Hell Apartment
On the edge of Wenbei District, in Muxu City, a deserted seven-story residential building stands alone.

This area is even more severely polluted by memes than the area around Blue Rainbow Academy. Ordinary people will start to experience symptoms of mental confusion and sensory distortion if they stay here for more than half an hour.

Lin Zhen chose this place as a temporary hiding place precisely because of its seclusion from the world.

The failed assassination attempt on Blood Lord, coupled with his exposure, meant he was already at his wit's end.

At this moment, he was standing in an empty apartment on the fifth floor, cautiously observing the street outside through the broken window.

"We shouldn't have listened to them!" Lin Zhen suddenly turned around, her voice trembling with suppressed anger.

His gaze was like a knife piercing the two women in the corner of the room—Madette and Kateeva.

"You shouldn't have assassinated Blood Lord in the first place! You just had to covet that Spring and Autumn Moth. Now that things have been exposed, do you know what that means?"

Madeleine calmly looked back at him: "Commander, you were the one who made the final decision. We only provided the information."

"Information?" Lin Zhen sneered and strode up to them. "Now the Bug Nest and the Old Core are turning their backs on us, refusing to give us shelter and let us escape into their home world! Now we're like rats in the street, the Reverse Light team is torn apart, and less than ten core members have survived!"

Kateeva, the Eastern European Slavic woman, hurriedly said, "We were all captivated by what Lady White Night presented, Commander. The temptation of immortality—didn't you succumb to it too? You, a grown man, are now shifting the blame to a woman?"

Lin Zhen slammed his fist against the wall, dust falling in a flurry, and roared, "Don't try to clear yourselves! I became like this entirely because of your lies! Now I wish I could kill you all!"

His words echoed in the empty room, a desperate roar.

Madeleine and Kateeva exchanged a complicated look. They realized that their opponent was, after all, a Level 4, and could kill them with a flick of his wrist.

Actually, they regret it now. Back then, it was indeed they who conveyed Madam Baiye's suggestion to Lin Zhen through their contact with the Insect Nest Organization.

“Alright, guild leader, we should figure out how to leave Muxu City now,” Madeleine tried to ease the tension. “Let’s find a way to sneak into Metro Line 14 and then head to the [Miao Jiang Gu Shi] instance…”

Her words stopped abruptly.

A commotion arose downstairs—the clanging of metal, hurried footsteps, and bursts of explosions!

Before Lin Zhen could even check the window, a blood-covered team member burst through the door: "Commander! The Bloodstained Team! They've found us! And Vice Commander Jiang, he's brought Yongmeng's men too!"

Lin Zhen's face turned deathly pale instantly.

The next twenty minutes or so turned into a hellish battle.

The remnants of the Reverse Light team fought desperately, relying on the complex structure of the building, but the disparity in strength was too great.

Members of the Bloodstained Team and the Eternal Dream Team flooded in from various entrances like a tide. They were well-trained and worked in perfect coordination, while the Reverse Light Team, already terrified, retreated step by step.

"Surrender and you will not be killed!" A chilling voice echoed throughout the building. It was the Blood Lord's own declaration. "Those who resist to the bitter end, I will personally extract their souls and refine their spirits!"

Upon hearing this sound, the remaining fighting spirit of the Reverse Light team completely collapsed.

One by one, the survivors laid down their weapons, raised their hands, and stepped out of their hiding place.

Lin Zhen stood at the top of the stairs, watching Blood Lord standing there, surrounded by almost visible dark red soul power fluctuations, which had formed the [Black Prison Sacrifice] domain. This was the sign that Blood Lord had recovered to the LV4 Soul Prison Master!

Standing beside him were figures who plunged Lin Zhenxin into despair: Jiang Jin, the vice-captain of Nirvana, and Lin Zhi and Li Shang from the Yongmeng team!

Lin Zhen closed his eyes in despair. If it were only Blood Lord alone, he might still be able to fight to the death and try to break through. But with Lin Zhi and Li Shang, both LV4 and known for their spatial manipulation, he had no chance of winning whatsoever.

“Blood... Blood Lord,” his voice trembled with fear, “we...we surrender. Please, have mercy and spare us.”

Blood Lord let out a low laugh: "Lin Zhen, you certainly know how to bend and stretch."

Jiang Jin said coldly, "The space has been sealed off, they have nowhere to escape, and they have no choice but to surrender."

As the captain of the 12th Patrol, he must avenge his men!
Blood Lord slowly walked up to Lin Zhen, taking advantage of his height to look down at him: "Of course I can spare your life, but there's a condition: from now on, you and your Reverse Light team will have your soul imprinted by me and submit to me. Moreover, you must provide me with... all the information about your communication with the Old Core of the Insect Cave."

Lin Zhen nodded vigorously without any hesitation: "I agree! I agree to everything! Just spare my life, and I'll tell you everything!"

Blood Lord nodded in satisfaction and said, "Then tell me, how did you get in touch with the Insect Nest?"

Kateeva spoke first: "Lady White Night! It was Lady White Night who sent someone to contact us!"

at the same time……

In the terrifying dungeon 【Miao Jiang Gu Shi】, the Insect Cave team's home world.

Deep in the mountains of Miao territory, there is a luxurious villa nestled against the mountain and beside the water.

The hot spring pool was filled with steam, and countless pale golden insect shells floated on the surface. They were as thin as cicada wings, yet shimmered with a strange light.

This is the molted skin of the Spring and Autumn Moth, a unique creature found only in this horror instance. It's a bizarre worm that feeds on the flesh and blood of virgins. The sheer number of molted skins suggests the unimaginable loss of countless innocent girls!
Bai Yewei was lazily soaking in the pool, enjoying the wonderful sensation of the insect molt bath. Bai Miya sat opposite her, also immersed in the pool filled with insect molts.

“These spring and autumn moths are truly wonderful,” Bai Miya said softly, raising her arm to watch the molted insects adhere to her skin, slowly melting and seeping in. “Who can resist the temptation of immortality?”

Bai Yewei, however, was not as relaxed as her daughter. A layer of worry shrouded her brows: "As long as the Blood Lord lives, I will not have a moment of peace. Mia, our hatred for him is too great. Either he dies, or we perish."

Bai Mia scoffed, "Hmph, he's destined never to advance to LV5 in this lifetime, what's there to be afraid of? He's bound to die someday! I just didn't expect Lin Zhen and that bunch of good-for-nothings..."

“Don’t worry, Lin Zhen and his group are just the first step. Even if they fail, there will be plenty of opportunities later.” Bai Yewei closed her eyes, feeling the changes in her body: “If we continue bathing for a few more days, the loss of collagen in our bodies will stop permanently, and we will stay young forever.” Bai Miya was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, “Mother, will Lin Zhen and his group betray us?”

Bai Yewei opened her eyes, a cold glint flashing in them: "It's alright, no one can intrude into this instance. Madam has long since made it impregnable!"

Meanwhile, the interrogation was nearing its end in an abandoned apartment building in Wenbei District.

Jiang Jin, Lin Zhi, and the others have already left, leaving only the Blood Lord behind.

Lin Zhen, Madeleine, and Kateeva all knelt on the spot, vying to confess and accusing each other in a disgraceful manner. This scene, in the eyes of the Blood Lord, was a stark contrast to the unity and friendship of the Perrin family.

"So, Lady White Night demonstrated the abilities of the Spring and Autumn Moth to you, promising to grant you eternal life after the deed was done, is that right?" The Blood Lord's voice was terrifyingly calm.

Lin Zhen nodded quickly: "Yes, she showed us several experimental subjects who were eternally frozen in time!"

Blood Lord nodded thoughtfully.

What a good thing!

I must find a way to obtain it!
He slowly walked up to Lin Zhen: "Very good, you cooperated well."

Then, in the blink of an eye before anyone could react, Blood Lord's hand, enveloped in dark red soul power, pierced through Lin Zhen's chest.

Lin Zhen stared wide-eyed at the bloody hand on her chest in disbelief, making a gurgling sound in her throat, but unable to utter a single word.

"Why..." he finally managed to squeeze out those three words, his eyes filled with incomprehension and resentment.

Blood Lord coldly withdrew his hand, and Lin Zhen's body slumped to the ground, his life force rapidly dissipating, his SAN value returning to zero, and his watch transforming into a skull key, which Blood Lord picked up.

Then, Blood Lord kicked the corpse aside and waited for the cleaners to come and collect it with a body bag.

"They're all LV4. I don't think it's safe enough to imprint them with soul seals. It's easier to just kill them." Blood Lord said casually, as if he had just crushed an insect.

Madeleine and Kateyeva watched in horror, trembling all over.

"It's your turn." Blood Lord turned around, his eyes, which had been gleaming in the shadows, looking at the two women.

"No, don't kill us! I'm a near-LV3! Please imprint my soul mark on me!"

"Me too, me too, I'm also a near-LV3!"

Immediately afterward, the two women, without uttering a word, began to unbutton their trench coats. Their movements were so practiced that in no time they had transformed into the state of Eve, the first human being, in the Garden of Eden.

The two women crawled on their knees and pounced at the feet of the Blood Owl Master.

"Please, don't kill us! We'll do anything!"

"Please! It was that beast Lin Zhen who forced us to this!"

Blood Lord took a deep breath and suddenly shouted to Jiang Jin outside the door, "Jiang Jin, did you hear that? If you like these two women, I'll give you one of them."

Jiang Jin's voice came through: "No need, I am a married man now."

"Hey, why are you being so serious? If there's any male vice-leader in any of your reincarnation teams who only has one woman, I'll change my name to Blood Lord! You're just picky! You're only complaining because she's been used by Lin Zhen, right? Of course, there are probably far more than just Lin Zhen who's been used... In that case, I'll just accept her all by myself!"

Jiang Jin, standing outside the door, shook his head, thinking: Do you think everyone is like you, with a minotaur collecting fetish?

Meanwhile, in the distant Miao region, Lady Baiye and her daughter remained immersed in a pool filled with insect molts, completely unaware of the impending storm.

An hour later, Blood Lord went up to the rooftop.

The Reverse Light Team thus became a sub-team of the Bloodstained Team, and all of them were implanted with soul imprints.

"Here you go!" Blood Lord generously tossed Lin Zhen's skull key to Jiang Jin.

The latter was very surprised: "You?"

"This is for you," Blood Lord then took out two cans of beer and handed one to Jiang Jin. "Why don't you consider cultivating in this area recently? Before entering [Midnight Bell], any amount of cultivation is not too much."

Then, Blood Lord changed his tone: "Or, you could consider entering a fully rule-based dungeon for a trial. For example, [I Have a Haunted House] and [The Corpse Retriever] are both well-known fully rule-based dungeons."

Jiang Jin suddenly thought of something and said, "These dungeons are indeed good, but I've heard that the most famous fully rule-based dungeons are [Strange Horror] and [Hell Apartment]."

Blood Lord shook his head and commented, "[Strange Horror] and [Hell Apartment]? Too dangerous."

"It seems that the two novels with the same name based on the prototype were written by the same author, whose pen name is something like Black. I heard someone mention him on the Reincarnator Forum. He is also considered a great figure in the ancient supernatural channel."

Blood Lord smiled contemptuously and said, "This author has fallen into a 'literary craze' and insists on going against the readers. First, he killed off the female lead in 'Hell Apartment,' and then his level got even worse starting with his third horror novel, 'Hell Cinema.' He added his own personal touches and turned a horror story into a cultivation story. Now he has long since gone from being the top supernatural author to just another nobody on the street."

Jiang Jin unscrewed the beer tab, took a sip, and said, "I've heard a rumor. Even before the fall of Edo, the book *Hell Apartment* was a banned book under strict control by the Meme Contamination Monitoring Department. And the corresponding copy of *Hell Apartment* was also…"

Blood Owl Master replied solemnly, "That's right, [Hell Apartment] is an extremely special horror instance. Even among many instances, it is highly monitored and restricted by the Reincarnation System. Everyone who has read that book, including the author himself, is strictly monitored and required to never reveal any of the plot details."

Jiang Jin nodded: "Yes, I still don't know the specific story it's about. Even on the Reincarnator Forum, mentioning those four words immediately results in a 404 error. But, high risk can also bring high opportunity, right? I think... I'll give it a try!"

(End of this chapter)