Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 310 Extreme joy leads to sorrow
Time passes minute by minute...

When that familiar chill descended again without warning, everyone held their breath, their eyes scanning every corner of the shop in fear.

This time, the location where the ghost appeared has changed again!
Behind an empty shelf near the warehouse door, a shadow began to twist and expand violently! Then, the ghostly clone slowly and stiffly emerged from behind the shelf!

It was so close to the crowd that the extremely strong stench of decay almost instantly filled everyone's nostrils, and that turbid, dead white eye coldly swept over every resident who was right next to it!

"what!"

Zhao Meiling, who was closest to the victim, was terrified. She screamed and instinctively tried to back away, but she twisted her ankle and lost her balance, falling to the ground with a thud.

"Damn it! Get out of the way!" Wang Tianba was terrified and jumped back, only to crash into Zhou Qiang behind him in his panic.

Surprisingly, Zhou Qiang, who looked sturdy, only swayed slightly after being bumped into, and remained rooted to the spot. On the contrary, Wang Tianba was shaken by the reaction force and staggered.

"Watch out!" Sun Miao, who wore glasses and looked somewhat timid, reacted extremely quickly. He suppressed his fear and did not retreat on his own. Instead, he rushed forward and helped Zhao Meiling, who had fallen to the ground, up.

This series of chaotic events happened in the blink of an eye, and the ghost clone's rotting fingers, carrying the meaning of death's judgment, slowly rose and moved across the remaining fruit selection area, finally settling on the boxes of bright red, juicy strawberries!

It pointed to strawberries!

Instantly, all eyes were focused on Jiang Jin, who had just made his choice!
Jiang Jin's heart skipped a beat!
Strawberries! It's strawberries!

You should know that the strawberries were placed right next to the blueberries he had just chosen!
It was just a moment's hesitation; if he had reached for the strawberry next to him, then now...

That was close... A chill ran straight to the top of his head, instantly soaking his back in cold sweat.

In games of probability, life and death hang by a thread; nothing beats this.

A few seconds later, the murderous intent that had been locked onto him receded like a tide.

The ghost clone's form began to fade and eventually disappeared completely.

Jiang Jin couldn't help but breathe slightly, calming his racing heart: "I chose blueberries."

"It's...it's alright again!" Sun Miao said, supporting the still-shaken Zhao Meiling, her voice filled with relief.

Wang Tianba wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and forced an awkward smile, trying to dispel his fear.

Then, he clenched his fist and said in a rough voice, "See! I told you! The first blood-letter instruction wasn't difficult at all! This thing is just trying to scare us; if we can't guess it, it can't do anything to us!"

He seemed to be trying to embolden himself and others with this tone, completely forgetting his disheveled appearance just now.

Qian Yong, however, frowned and calmly pointed out, "Don't be too happy yet. With each fruit selection and feeding, the number of fruits the ghost has to guess decreases. At first, it was eighteen to one, now it's... well, Zhou Qiang gave lemons, Zheng Jie gave pomegranates, Li Yin gave oranges, Jiang Jin gave blueberries, and the ghost has pointed to lychees, bananas, apples, and strawberries but hasn't gotten it right... Now there are fourteen left. For those of us who came before, the survival probability isn't too low, but for those who choose later, the higher the level and the larger the room number, the fewer the choices there are, and the more dangerous it becomes!"

His words were like a bucket of cold water, waking up the crowd who had just begun to feel a glimmer of hope.

The shadow of death has not gone away; it is merely slowly and steadily tightening the noose around their necks.

Li Yin spoke up at the opportune moment: "Qian Yong is right. Moreover, you also need to consider this question: Is the guess about the ghost completely random? Is there some kind of pattern that we haven't discovered yet, or... some kind of limitation?"

Jiang Jin immediately chimed in, his sharp gaze sweeping across the shelves: "At least for now, it hasn't guessed the same fruit twice. The lychees, bananas, apples, and strawberries it identified were all different."

His words awakened some people.

Some people's eyes lit up with a new idea: That's right! None of its guesses were correct, so does that mean the fruits it guessed were actually safe? Then, could we choose the fruits it guessed wrong before? Like lychees or bananas?
This idea sprouted like weeds in the minds of some people.

After all, with the probability of being guessed correctly gradually increasing, choosing a target that a ghost has "proven" to be wrong seems like a good idea.

In any case, the brief exchange ended, and it was now Qian Yong's turn to make a choice in Room 601. Everyone rushed back into the warehouse.

This time, the waiting time ended quickly, and Qian Yong finished feeding the ghost. The ghost then appeared and pointed to a plum, which was wrong again. Qian Yong then revealed that he had chosen a raspberry, a less common fruit.

Next up was Zhao Meiling from room 905. She chose the banana, which the ghost had previously mistakenly identified! After the ghost appeared, it pointed to an apricot—wrong!

Zhao Meiling is safe. When she announced that she had chosen bananas, many people had a "I knew it" expression on their faces. They just regretted that her choice would make the ghosts more vigilant.

Then came Wang Tianba from room 1107. He chose the peach. After the ghost appeared, it pointed to the lychee, which he had guessed earlier—wrong again!

Wang Tianba triumphantly announced that he had chosen Peach, and then provocatively glanced in the direction where the ghost had disappeared, giving it the middle finger!
The series of successes, especially the fact that the fruit the ghost had previously mistakenly identified remained unscathed, led to a sense of blind optimism spreading.

It now appears that the ghost's finger is indeed completely random. However, it has been proven that the ghost can repeatedly guess the fruit it has chosen.

However, Li Yin and Jiang Jin's brows furrowed even more deeply. Could things really be that simple?

Next up was Wu Qian from room 1411.

The fruits that have been selected so far are: lemon, pomegranate, orange, blueberry, raspberry, banana, and peach.

The probability that Wu Qian faces has now changed from one in eighteen to one in eleven!

A one in eleven chance of death still doesn't sound too high, but it's almost double what it was initially!
Moreover, this number will continue to increase with each choice. Wu Qian's face turned deathly pale, and her body trembled slightly.

She was just a seemingly frail college student, and the relentless pressure of death was almost crushing her nerves.

"One in eleven, the probability is very low, Wu Qian, don't be afraid!" Wang Tianba comforted her casually, seemingly having completely recovered from his previous fear.

"Exactly, they definitely won't be able to guess it!" Sun Miao encouraged from the side.

However, looking at Wu Qian's petite and frail figure, Li Yin felt a sense of foreboding.

He realized that, strictly speaking, Wu Qian's probability might not be an equal one-eleven.

If the identification of a ghost is based on some kind of "rational" inference...

Li Yin's gaze swept over the larger fruits, such as huge watermelons, heavy cantaloupes, and Elizabethan melons.

For girls like Wu Qian, who are slender and have thin arms, the probability of them being chosen by ghosts is relatively low. These are fruits that require a lot of strength to move and have the risk of being accidentally dropped (the rules require that the fruit be whole; if a watermelon is dropped on the ground, it will break).

The ghost would likely tend to rule out these options, focusing its accusations on the smaller fruits that are easier for her to reach. Therefore, choosing the larger fruits might be safer for her.

However, Li Yin didn't intend to directly remind her. After all, the ghost had predicted her prediction, and if he reminded her to choose the larger option, what if the ghost just happened to point to the larger one? Wouldn't that be putting her at risk? He didn't dare give advice on such a life-or-death matter. Besides, she couldn't rule out the possibility that she was the ghost, and might not listen to his advice.

"It's time, let's go into the warehouse," Zheng Jie calmly reminded them, breaking the brief silence.

The group headed back towards the warehouse.

This time, the atmosphere was different from the previous times.

Before entering the warehouse, everyone subconsciously glanced at the timid girl a few more times, their eyes filled with complex emotions.

The warehouse door closed, and darkness engulfed everyone.

They waited for almost seven minutes before they heard a voice outside the door, trembling with sobs: "Okay...okay...come out now..."

The warehouse door opened, and everyone filed out.

When people saw Wu Qian's pale, bloodless face and her body that was clearly still trembling violently, many felt sorry for her.

What fruit did she choose?
No one spoke again; a deathly silence enveloped the fruit shop.

Wu Qian gripped the hem of her clothes tightly, her nails almost digging into her flesh, her eyes fixed on the surroundings of the shop, awaiting her fate.

Soon, the time is up.

The lights in the store began to flicker again, and a cold, intense aura of resentment swept over them!

"They're here!" Qian Yong shouted in a low voice.

Under the harsh, flickering white light, the ghostly figure appeared behind the watermelon shelf!

Then, it raised its rotting, bone-exposing arm and pointed sharply at—the bunches of purplish-black grapes!

It pointed to grapes!
"No!!!" Wu Qian let out a shrill scream, and collapsed to the ground as if her bones had been removed!
This scene made everyone instantly realize... the ghost had guessed correctly!
The next moment, the ghost clone let out a low and satisfied roar and pounced on Wu Qian, who was lying on the ground!
"what!"

"Get out of the way!"

Everyone was terrified and frantically fled from Wu Qian's side, retreating backwards in a panic!
The lights suddenly went out at that moment!
The entire fruit shop was plunged into utter, hopeless darkness!

All that could be heard was Wu Qian's brief, almost negligible, abruptly cut-off sob...

Snapped!
The lights come back on.

A new body was found on the shop floor.

It's Wu Qian.

She lay there on her back, her eyes wide open, pupils dilated, filled with extreme fear and disbelief.

Her mouth was wide open in a way that completely defied human physiology, with the corners of her mouth even torn to her ears, forming a terrifying black hole that was exactly the same as the original corpse in the center of the shop.

silence.

Deathly silence.

The first resident died.

The Blood Letter quest is finally beginning to reveal its cruel true nature!

(End of this chapter)