Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 303 The Reincarnator Black Market

On the other side, Blood Lord was very troubled at this time.

Jiang Jin is the most extraordinary talent he has ever seen. Training him will definitely be a great help in dealing with the Insect Nest team in the future.

Therefore, he really didn't want Jiang Jin to enter the [Hell Apartment], a world of strange rules and legends, a forbidden zone that countless reincarnators found troublesome and were unwilling to easily venture into.

The ubiquitous "rules" and the near-unsolvable path to survival are completely different from the conventional cycle dungeons that rely on strength, skills, and items to fight head-on.

Blood Lord knew that Jiang Jin was going there specifically for the rewards. While he could lend Jiang Jin many resources, without sufficient strength, they wouldn't be truly effective. Take the Zhong Kui Judge's Pen, for example; in Feng Ya's hands, its effects would far exceed that!
On the other hand, he also has his own troubles.

"Captain! You can't go!" Vice-Captain Bernadette rushed in and immediately shouted at Blood Lord, "The [Red-Clad Ghost Woman] is the highest difficulty dungeon in the Annihilation Layer! That 'Red Aunt'... her resentment is so deep and her corrosive power so strong that she already has one foot in the Abyss Layer! Just from the experience of the original movie's heroine Kanako, we know that this evil spirit is a terrifying existence that can completely reverse and tamper with the law of causality!"

Blood Lord frowned: "I know it's dangerous. But only by taking risks can I hope to advance to Quasi-LV5. Don't worry, I have a return-to-town rune. I'll retreat immediately if things go wrong."

"Return-to-town runes?" Bernadette almost jumped up. "Guild leader, do you think those things are as cheap as cabbages? We're out of them in stock. Now the whole guild, including you, only has two left! I specifically asked Lin Wenqiang before I came over, and he already checked the accounts and inventory!"

Blood Lord's heart sank.

"Are you using up your return-to-town runes so quickly lately?"

Will he still go to see the "Red-Clad Ghost Woman"?

The Annihilation Layer is at its highest difficulty... Aunt Red's terror has caused many veteran reincarnators to perish at her hands. In the original movie, many ghosts' resentment was completely annihilated and reduced to nothingness before Aunt Red!
For a moment, Blood Lord was caught in a dilemma. Should he venture into the [Red-Clad Ghost Woman] dungeon, or consume another return-to-town rune?
Just as he was struggling internally, Bernadette stepped forward and whispered, "Captain, calm down. Why don't you go find Jiang Jin and get back the return runes you gave Nirvana as compensation? You gave him a LV4 Reincarnator Skull Key anyway, so it's worth it to get a few return runes in return!"

Blood Lord took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

With a return-to-town rune, venturing into the [Red-Clad Ghost Woman] horror dungeon would be relatively safe, but consuming another one for that purpose... While he was keen to cultivate Jiang Jin, he also had to consider the cost. This concerned the lives of core team members; losing even one could mean the loss of a life!

“In the next few days,” he finally said in a low voice, “I’ll find some time to talk to him.”

Blood Lord sighed inwardly. Jiang Jin was cursed to enter the [Midnight Bell] horror dungeon and had to force his way in. He couldn't use the return rune to cheat and return without clearing the dungeon, and he would still be pulled into the ancient well.

What will be the fate of Jiang Jin after he enters the "Hell Apartment"? He really can't imagine.

No one knew better than him how dangerous that instance was...

The following morning, Jiang Jin and Kong Huaizheng, a newly promoted member of the Nirvana team, headed towards Linkang District, the easternmost part of Muxu City, along a secret route.

Their target is a special area outside the outer ring, an underground black market secretly organized by the Black Sparrow Pavilion, called Dongyuan Town.

Dongyuan Town is an ordinary town that is somewhat old and underdeveloped, with low-rise buildings everywhere, giving it a sense of being forgotten and desolate.

But both Jiang Jin and Kong Huaizheng knew that at least half of the "residents" on this land were reincarnators.

The Black Sparrow Pavilion governs the underground order here. Here, as long as you pay enough resentment crystals, almost anything you need can be fulfilled: from strange organs to enhance yourself, tamed or imprisoned characters from the storyline, various items with bizarre abilities, to crucial dungeon information and strategies, everything is available.

Because all the victims involved in the transactions came from the Horror Dungeon, the government maintained a subtle tacit approval attitude towards the area, partly to maintain a semblance of stability, and partly, supposedly, to curry favor with the Duncan Club behind Blackbird's House.

Kong Huaizheng was assigned by Yu Tianlun to protect Jiang Jin. Although he was only a Level 2 reincarnator, as a sorcerer, he was skilled in cursing and resisting curses, and had often engaged in transactions in such shady dealings in the past, so he knew a lot of slang. Of course, he had his principles and wouldn't take on any dirty work.

The two walked through what appeared to be an ordinary street, turned into a small alley, and finally stopped in front of a black iron gate.

Kong Huaizheng knocked on the door rhythmically a few times. A small window on the door slid open, and a pair of wary eyes scanned them for a moment before the iron door slowly opened.

Behind the door was a dimly lit bar. A few scattered customers sat at the bar, most of them silent and wary, clearly not friendly people.

Jiang Jin could feel several gazes lingering briefly on him and Kong Huaizheng, filled with scrutiny and assessment.

They walked straight to the bar and whispered a coded message to the bartender. The bartender, expressionless, pointed to a deeper, more secluded passageway behind the bar.

Walking along the corridor to the end, you'll find a more private room. There's only one woman in the room; she sits in a high-backed chair, wearing a tight leather outfit that accentuates her curves.

She held a slender cigarette between her fingers, and her face was somewhat blurred by the swirling smoke, but her eyes, like those of a female cheetah, sized up Jiang Jin and Kong Huaizheng as they entered.

"Lin Xiuying?" Jiang Jin confirmed.

The woman exhaled a smoke ring, a cryptic smile playing on her lips: "It's me. Just so you know, there's an extra charge if two people are together."

Her voice was slightly hoarse, with a nonchalant allure.

Jiang Jin immediately clarified, "You misunderstood. We're not here to do 'that kind of' deal. We're here to buy information." Lin Xiuying raised an eyebrow, seemingly unsurprised, "I know. But those who come to me to buy information usually also patronize my 'special services'."

Her gaze lingered unabashedly on Jiang Jin and Kong Huaizheng as she said, "After all, after experiencing those awful dungeons, you need a way to relax, don't you? My 'service' can help you temporarily forget your fears, and it's great value for money."

"No need, we only need intelligence." Jiang Jin's tone was firm; he didn't have the Blood Lord's hobbies.

Lin Xiuying looked him over again and noticed the wedding ring on Jiang Jin's wrist. She couldn't help but chuckle, a hint of self-deprecation and regret in her voice: "Tsk, how come all the good men are already married and taken?"

Then, she turned her gaze to Kong Huaizheng beside her and asked, "Young man, are you also sure you only need information? My fees are very cheap."

Kong Huaizheng felt a little uncomfortable under her gaze. He opened his mouth, and the words "Actually, I can" almost slipped out, but in the end, reason prevailed, and he swallowed them back.

Lin Xiuying smiled and stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray.

"Alright, let's not talk about romance, let's just talk business. Come with me."

She stood up, pushed open another, more secluded door in the room, and gestured for them to enter.

Behind the door was a small, enclosed room with excellent soundproofing; once the door was closed, all outside noise disappeared completely.

The only illumination came from a dim, yellowish incandescent bulb overhead, which contained a lot of lubricant, candles, and condoms.

Jiang Jin looked slightly embarrassed and pretended not to see it.

After the three of them sat down, Lin Xiuying's flippant expression became much less pronounced, replaced by a solemn look as if she were lost in unpleasant memories.

"You want to inquire about the [Hell Apartment] instance..." she began slowly, her voice lowering, "That hellish place... I was really unlucky; I went in once and participated in their 'Blood Letter Quest' twice."

"Twice?" Jiang Jin was a little shocked: "You actually survived it twice?"

She took a deep breath, her eyes becoming somewhat vacant, as if she had pierced through time and space, returning to the moment when that nightmare occurred.

"Bad luck. But I survived thanks to the fact that I carried out two Blood Letter quests with the twin siblings surnamed Chu. In the completely rule-based quests, all my professional skills were sealed."

"The location of my first Blood Letter mission was... an old-fashioned textile factory that had been abandoned for many years. There were five people in total, including myself and a resident named Chu Mitian. The other three people also included a reincarnator."

As she spoke, Lin Xiuying's fingertips unconsciously traced patterns on the table.

"The instructions in blood are that we must find and 'appease' the 'vengeful spirit' of a female worker named 'A-Lian' in the factory. The factory is large and dark, filled with the smell of mildew and... a faint, lingering stench of blood."

"At first, everything was normal. We tried to find clues about how 'Ah Lian' died and what injustice she suffered. But soon... strange things started to happen."

Her speech slowed, as if she was struggling to organize her thoughts to describe the surreal horror.

"First, they heard the sound of a spinning machine running in the empty workshop... Then, someone discovered that their clothes had somehow turned into rough fabric, as if woven from blood-soaked hemp thread..."

"As we split up to search for clues, the first resident died. When he was found, his entire body was tightly wrapped in cotton thread like a cocoon, tangled in a huge spinning wheel... The thread was growing out of his mouth, nostrils, ears...!"

The temperature in the sealed room seemed to drop several degrees suddenly.

“We tried to escape, but the factory gates had vanished without a trace. The second… the third… their deaths were more gruesome than the last. The second man was impaled by a spindle and nailed to the wall; the third, the reincarnator, was suffocated by the pile of cloth…”

Lin Xiuying's voice trembled slightly, a tremor that was easily noticeable.

"When only I and a resident named Chu Mitian were left, he was surprisingly calm. He noticed that all the unusual phenomena seemed to be related to 'reflections'. The glass windows and the smooth metal surfaces of the machines would sometimes reflect expressions that were not our own, or make movements that were inconsistent with ours."

"Chu Mitian also called his twin sister Chu Mizhen to analyze the situation. The siblings speculated that 'Alian's' vengeful spirit might be attached to those 'mirrors.' The way out might be to completely avoid them or destroy everything that could reflect an image, and absolutely not to stare at one's own reflection for too long."

"Then we desperately avoided all reflective surfaces, covered the machines with rags we found, and smashed the glass... I don't want to go into details about the process. In short, in the end, only Chu Mitian and I survived in that hellish factory until the mission ended."

Lin Xiuying let out a long breath.

"That experience made me fully understand the horror of the Hell Apartment. It was not just about facing ghosts and monsters, but also an extreme test of rules, mentality, and luck."

Chu Mizhen and Chu Mitian, siblings, are characters who only appear in the latter half of the original novel. Indeed, the information she provided concerns a blood-letter quest never mentioned in the original work, making it somewhat valuable.

"So, what about your second mission?" Jiang Jin pressed.

(End of this chapter)