Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 304 Fruit Shop Blood Letter Mission

Lin Xiuying looked frightened and continued, "Another task was to deliver takeout to six residents in a community called Xinyuan one night between 10 pm and 4 am. We went to a secluded barbecue restaurant designated by Blood Letter to pick up the sealed takeout. Then, according to Blood Letter's rules, we had to personally deliver the barbecue takeout to the residents and collect the money."

Kong Huaizheng asked doubtfully, "Can't we just pay through the food ordering app?"

"Back then, it wasn't the era of smartphones, and mobile payment was still a thing of the past. You had to pay for takeout in person."

“Yes,” Jiang Jin nodded, “the original novel was written quite early.”

“At the very beginning, a resident named Da Liu got caught. He was in charge of apartment 402 in building 3. After knocking on the door, he heard Da Liu shout ‘The door is open’ over the intercom, followed by screams and dragging sounds—he was gone.”

"Another resident named Xiao Wang was so frightened that his legs went weak. Another resident, Sister Sun, accompanied him to deliver the package to apartment 201 in building 4. As a result, those two people also disappeared."

"At this moment, Chu Mizhen—that girl was very calm—made a bold deduction: the takeout ordered by the ghost wasn't just the food; the residents who delivered the takeout were also takeout in the ghost's eyes! Finally, she tore open the sealed takeout packaging and, sure enough, found that there was no food inside at all; the box was filled with knives! Clearly, these were cutlery!"

Jiang Jin gasped. Was there really such a thing?

"Then we went to a real barbecue restaurant to buy some barbecue and delivered it. This time, everyone finally survived."

"So listen to me: in those places, the rules are life. If you ignore a word or are a step too slow, what's behind the door can pull you in without a sound."

After Lin Xiuying finished her narration, a brief silence fell in the secret room.

Jiang Jin and Kong Huaizheng could still feel the coldness and despair that permeated the corridor of "Xinyuan Community".

“It was brilliant, and… terrifying.” Jiang Jin spoke first, breaking the silence. “Thank you for the information.”

He took out the crystal of resentment and pushed it in front of Lin Xiuying.

"This is the agreed-upon compensation."

Lin Xiuying skillfully put away the crystals, a shrewd smile on her face, but deep in her eyes, there was still lingering fear of her past experiences.

"It's a pleasure doing business with you. I hope this information is useful to you, but I must warn you, places like the [Hell Apartment]... are best avoided."

Jiang Jin didn't directly respond to her reminder. Instead, he looked at her thoughtfully and asked a question: "Ms. Lin, if I may ask, after you completed that food delivery task, you could choose three rewards from the apartment... or rather, from the dungeon rules. Did you choose [Russian Matryoshka Doll]?"

Lin Xiuying's smile faded slightly, tinged with self-deprecation and heartache: "Yes, because I completed two tasks, and could even choose two out of five rewards, I chose the [Russian Matryoshka Doll] and the [Death Rewind Rule Scroll]. Unfortunately..."

She sighed, her tone turning indignant, "I was just unlucky. Later, during a team conflict, I was robbed by the 'Butcher' of the 'Blood Skull Team'!"

The Butcher later died at the hands of Yu Tianlun, but unfortunately, his Skull Key didn't yield the [Russian Doll]. The [Death Rewind Rule Scroll] was given by the Butcher to Valeria the Blood Spider, who, possessing a high aptitude for rule-based abilities, was able to comprehend the rule-based skill [Death Rewind] from the scroll.

The regular rewards are a choice of three, while voluntary participation offers a choice of four, neither of which includes this scroll.

What Jiang Jin wants is the Russian nesting doll, which is included in the standard three-choice option!
Afterwards, Jiang Jin and Kong Huaizheng left the bar and wandered around the underground black market in Linkang District for a while.

After purchasing some items, the two left this chaotic place.

Suddenly, Jiang Jin heard a notification sound from the Reincarnator's Watch.

He immediately checked and found the entry for "Hell Apartment (Complete Rules)" in the "Self-Registered Tasks" section.

The status has been updated to: [The instance entrance is now open. You must enter within 3 hours. Please ensure you are within the designated 'isolation zone' area.]

Three hours! This time window is extremely demanding, giving participants almost no time for preparation or hesitation.

Kong Huaizheng also saw the notification, his face turned pale, and he shook his head repeatedly: "Vice Commander, this... is too risky! It's a completely rule-based class, and Hell Apartment is the most difficult of the completely rule-based classes! Don't you want to reconsider?"

Jiang Jin patted him on the shoulder, indicating his understanding: "It's okay, Kong Huaizheng, you've already helped me a lot. Go back and tell the commander that I'll come out alive."

His tone was calm, but his eyes were firm, clearly indicating that he had made up his mind.

To get to "The Ring," he must obtain "Russian nesting dolls"!
Without further farewells, Jiang Jin headed alone to Metro Line 14.

……

At night, Li Yin rubbed his throbbing temples. On his laptop screen, the document "Bullets Fly Over" was recording the smoke and fire of World War II.

A wave of fatigue washed over him, so he got up and made himself a cup of instant coffee. The rich aroma temporarily dispelled some of his mental drowsiness.

Thinking that his neighbors on the fourth floor, Sachiko Odagiri and Kexin Ye, might also be staying up late, he picked up the coffee pot and planned to ask them if they wanted a cup.

As soon as he opened the door, he caught a glimpse of a strange man standing at the end of the corridor in front of room 410.

The man, dressed in an ordinary jacket, was tall and imposing. Under the hallway light, his shadow distorted unnaturally, making a clear movement as if he were putting something small into his pocket. His hands were clearly hanging at his sides! A new resident!
"Hello, are you a new resident? My name is Li Yin, and I live in 404." Li Yin walked up to the apartment, giving it as friendly a smile as possible.

The man turned around, his face showing just the right amount of bewilderment. He asked, "Hello, where is this? Why is my shadow here?"

“It seems you need to learn the basic rules here,” Li Yin sighed, beginning to fulfill his duties as a “senior,” even though he himself had only been there for a short time. “This apartment is located in the void, and we cannot leave for more than 48 hours, otherwise we will be… killed by the shadows. Most importantly, ‘blood-written instructions’ will appear on the walls from time to time, which are the tasks we must carry out, and the task locations are usually… haunted.”

His throat was a little dry when he uttered the last word.

As the man listened, his expression gradually changed from blank to serious. He murmured, "A blood-letter quest... a ghost... I see."

In Li Yin's view, his reaction was quite calm, at least he wasn't hysterical, but something still felt off, as if he had accepted reality too quickly.

at this time--

A burning sensation powerful enough to make one's soul fly away suddenly exploded from Li Yin's heart!

The sharp pain caused him to drop the coffee pot. He clutched his chest, his forehead beaded with cold sweat, and gasped for breath.

"Ah!" The man also clutched his heart, his face contorted in agony.

Li Yin struggled back to his home, only to see nauseating scarlet writing appearing line by line on the snow-white wall:

"You can leave the apartment after executing ten Bloodletter instructions. This is your first Bloodletter."

2009年7月15日晚上19：00前，进入S市南郊北辰镇云天路的‘果缘鲜品’水果店。请严格遵守以下规则：

1. This is an unmanned fruit shop with 18 kinds of seasonal fruits. In the center of the fruit shop, there is a body lying on the floor. Do not move or touch the body.

2. Following the order of apartment floor and room number from lowest to highest, each person must select one type of fruit from the store (it must be a whole fruit, not cut) and place it in the corpse's mouth to feed it (any size fruit can be stuffed in). During the fruit selection process, others must enter the fruit store's back storage room; peeping at the residents selecting fruit in any way is strictly prohibited.

3. Ten minutes later, a ghost will appear in any area of ​​the fruit shop. The ghost will point to the type of fruit previously selected by a resident. If the ghost correctly identifies the fruit, the resident will be killed by the ghost (denial and lying are pointless; the apartment will inform the ghost of the correctness of its identification afterward). After the identification is complete, the next resident will have ten minutes to select fruit.

4. Starting with the second resident to choose, it is forbidden to use the same fruits chosen by previous residents to feed the corpse. Similarly, the demon's identification will only guess the types of fruits a resident can choose. However, the demon can choose the same fruits a second time.

5. Regardless of whether the ghost guesses the chosen fruit correctly, after the ghost disappears, the resident must immediately reveal the type of fruit they previously selected and must not lie.

6. Every type of fruit in the fruit shop is automatically restocked after each selection, and even the fruit's original placement is restored. Therefore, it's impossible to determine which fruit a resident selected by calculating the quantity and location of the fruit.

7. After you arrive at the fruit shop, your memories will be altered. The vengeful spirit of the demon will infiltrate the residents participating in the mission, and will participate normally in choosing fruit during the mission. The one who kills in front of the residents is the demon's clone. No matter what methods you use, you will not be able to know which resident is the "demon," and you can only deduce it.

8. Before all the fruit varieties are selected, find the ghost. Then, any resident can point to the ghost and say, "XXX, you are the ghost!" The corpse on the ground will then rise and completely destroy the person pointed at. The identification opportunity is only once; the resident who has become the ghost cannot speak to identify the ghost.

The contents of the blood-written words are cold, eerie, and filled with malicious rules.

Despite the lingering pain in his heart, Li Yin took out his phone and photographed the intricate instructions written in blood. Eighteen kinds of fruit, selected in order, fed to the corpses, then mingled among the crowd; only one chance to identify them…

Every word struck his nerves like a heavy hammer.

At that moment, the new resident entered.

“Hello, Mr. Li, my name is Jiang Jin,” Jiang Jin said, staring at Li Yin. “I have an extra key on me, labeled 410. I opened the door to 410 and went inside, and saw… inside there was…”

Li Yin turned around and looked at Jiang Jin.

The newcomer, who had just been informed of the apartment rules, was now staring intently at the blood-written words on the wall. His previous blankness had vanished, replaced by an extremely complex expression.

Jiang Jin's lips moved silently, as if whispering, "...It's starting. Fruit shop...rules-based...it's definitely a high-difficulty start."

Li Yin had many doubts, but now was not the time to delve into them.

His first Bloodletter quest has been issued, and Death has his neck in his grasp.

He had to survive, he had to figure out the way to live behind these rules.

The blood-red words gradually disappeared from the wall.

On July 15th, at Guoyuan Fresh Fruit Shop, a deadly "fruit riddle" game with ghosts awaited them.

And the ghosts will infiltrate their ranks!

(End of this chapter)