Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 333 Control and Warning

[Midnight Ring] Horror Dungeon.

The sound of rain outside the window grew louder and louder, turning into a torrential downpour.

Raindrops pounded incessantly on the villa's roof and windows. The sky was completely covered by thick, dark clouds, with only occasional, deafening flashes of lightning briefly illuminating the solemn faces of everyone inside.

In this weather, any plans to go out had to be put on hold, and the reincarnators could only remain trapped in this villa.

A somber atmosphere filled the living room; no one spoke.

Deathstroke and Sadie appeared unusually agitated, pacing back and forth in the room, their claws and sharp teeth flashing at the air as if confronting an unseen enemy.

Suddenly, Lian De, who had been sitting silently, stood up abruptly.

"Ade?" Lian Xuan looked at his younger brother with concern and asked, "What's wrong?"

Lian De didn't look at his brother, his gaze drifting towards the second floor, and said, "I'll go up and take a look."

After saying that, without waiting for Lian Xuan's response, he walked straight towards the stairs.

Lian Xuan frowned slightly as he watched his younger brother's retreating figure. He whispered to Yu Tianlun beside him, "Guild Leader, my brother is probably having some trouble adjusting to this dungeon. We haven't experienced many Japanese-style horror dungeons in the past."

Jiang Jin also sensed something was wrong and chimed in, "It's definitely not like Lian De's usual way of doing things. He might really be under a lot of pressure."

At this moment, an ominous premonition arose in Jiang Jin's heart.

He subtly gave Yu Tianlun a wink, then quietly got up.

Lian De walked directly into the room on the second floor where the videotape was being played and closed the door behind him.

Then, Lian De turned the Toshiba CRT television back on and played the videotape again.

Soon, the scene shifted to the eerie ancient well, and Lian De actually pressed the pause button on the remote control!

"Lian De! Stop!" Jiang Jin quickly opened the door, shouted sharply, and rushed over.

On the television screen, the image of that deep, ancient well froze instantly!
"What are you doing?!" Jiang Jin was both shocked and angry. He shoved Lian De aside, snatched the remote control, and reached out to press the play button, trying to continue the recording.

However, no matter how hard he tried, the play button didn't respond; the recorder seemed to have frozen.

A chilling sensation spread from his fingertips.

After being pushed away, Lian De's eyes showed a moment of confusion, which was then replaced by immense fear. He looked at the finger that had just pressed the pause button, as if it didn't belong to him.

"What...what did I do?"

Jiang Jin had no time to pay attention to Lian De's abnormality; a strong sense of crisis made his hair stand on end!

Without hesitation, he immediately activated the [Space-Time Deep Eye]!
Then, his vision transcended the present, projecting a three-minute segment into the future. Within half an hour, he could choose any time period to watch.

In that vision of the future, he saw a scene that chilled him to the bone: on the paused television screen, at the frozen opening of the ancient well, a bloodless, wet, pale arm slowly reached out and gripped the well's edge! Then, another hand appeared!

She's about to be born!

"Damn it!" Jiang Jin instantly withdrew his power, his back soaked with cold sweat!

At the critical moment, Jiang Jin immediately used the professional skills of the Level 2 Logic Sophist, the Deceptive Lawyer!
The original rule "prohibiting the use of any fast forward, rewind, or pause functions on the remote control" has been changed to "prohibiting the use of any fast forward or rewind functions on the remote control, but the use of the pause function is allowed."

Modification complete! Now set it to apply to Lian De!
Then he pressed the play button again!
This time, the button worked!

The frozen image of the ancient well continued its playback flow, but the camera quickly turned into large patches of snow-like noise.

"Phew...phew..." Jiang Jin breathed a sigh of relief.

At this moment, Yu Tianlun, Xu Yinqiu, Kong Huaizheng, Lian Xuan, Li Shang, and Gao Gongwei were also alarmed and rushed upstairs.

They saw Lian De standing frozen in place, his face deathly pale, and Jiang Jin gripping the remote control with a solemn expression, as well as the static on the television screen.

"What happened?" Yu Tianlun asked in a deep voice. Jiang Jin briefly recounted what had just happened, omitting the details of using the "Lawyer of Ghosts" ability, only saying that he reacted quickly and forcibly restored the playback before the anomaly occurred.

“I was controlled… I had no idea…” Lian De’s voice trembled, filled with lingering fear and self-blame. “When I went upstairs, I only had one thought in my mind, which was to pause the video and look at that well… I couldn’t control myself at all!”

"Mind control!" Everyone's hearts sank.

One of the most terrifying situations is when a player is mentally controlled by an evil spirit within the instance. This signifies a major security vulnerability within the team, undermining the foundation of trust, and leaving the controlled player virtually defenseless.

"It's because of that copy tape!" Xu Yinqiu immediately made the judgment, her eyes filled with worry as she looked at Lian De. "He carried and participated in the copying process. The curse has already had a deeper impact on him, making him more susceptible to being corrupted by 'her' mind!"

This conclusion sent chills down everyone's spine. Copying the videotape wasn't a way to break the curse like in the original movie. In this meme-contaminated copy, it was more like an "assimilation" ritual, forging a stronger connection between the performer and the source of the curse, even turning them into a puppet that Sadako could control at any time!
This is completely different from the original movie's plot.

Lian De sensed the complex emotions in everyone's eyes; fear, self-blame, and a strong sense of guilt almost overwhelmed him.

He is a person with a strong sense of responsibility and morality, and he cannot accept that he almost caused the deaths of all his teammates because he was controlled.

"Commander...Deputy Commander...I..." His voice choked, and he couldn't continue.

Yu Tianlun patted his shoulder, his tone heavy but reassuring: "Don't think too much about it right now. The most important thing is to ensure that similar incidents don't happen again. Listen, temporarily stop all actions of copying the videotapes and letting others watch them!"

At this moment, Jiang Jin reminded him, "Captain, stopping the replication means we've voluntarily abandoned the obvious path of Rule Seven. Based on my experience in the park today and what we just encountered, 'her' activity and aggression are clearly increasing. I suspect that if we don't continue to execute Rule Seven for 'transmission,' 'she' might attack us prematurely instead of obediently waiting for the 'seventh day'!"

Gao Gongwei then raised a question, pointing to the television that had stopped playing: "Jiang-san, according to the rules, isn't pausing prohibited? Why...didn't it trigger rule corruption?"

Jiang Jin felt a chill run down his spine, but remained outwardly calm, having already prepared his explanation: "It's probably because I pressed the play button fast enough that I forcibly brought the process back on track before the rules determined that the 'violation' had occurred and imposed the penalty. Although the rules of this instance are strict, there may be an extremely short 'buffer period' or 'correction window'."

This explanation sounded reasonable, and although everyone felt lucky, they accepted it for the time being.

Time passed in a tense atmosphere, and the torrential rain outside showed no sign of abating. After discussion, the group decided that as soon as the rain stopped the next morning, they would immediately set off for Izu Oshima to find the crucial well and "her" remains, which seemed to be the most fundamental solution at present.

Night fell completely, and no one dared to sleep in this environment. Xu Yinqiu distributed the sleep-inducing drugs she had purchased to ensure that everyone could stay awake at any time without needing to sleep.

The villa was brightly lit; every light that could be turned on was switched on, in an attempt to dispel the fear brought by the darkness with light.

Under Jiang Jin's command, the two undead hounds, Deathstroke and Sadie, patrolled every corner of the villa, including the shadows, the ends of the corridors, and even the attic. Their spirit forms could penetrate material barriers and sense any abnormal fluctuations in the pollution layer.

Everyone paid extra attention to every telephone in the villa, and the rotary dial telephone that received the "death call" was a key target for surveillance.

Lian De was overwhelmed by inner pain and self-blame. He asked Yu Tianlun to cover his body with all sorts of talismans for exorcising evil spirits and warding off impurities. From his forehead to his chest and then to his limbs, he was almost covered with yellow paper and cinnabar talismans from shamans, hoping to resist the mental attacks that Sadako might launch again.

Time ticked by, and amidst the torrential rain and the tense vigil, it was four in the morning. This was the time when the body was most exhausted, and the night was at its deepest.

Sudden--

hum... hum... hum...

A burst of ringing cell phones shattered the silence!
Apart from Lian De, whose body was covered in talismans, everyone else's cell phones—Jiang Jin, Yu Tianlun, Xu Yinqiu, Kong Huaizheng, Li Shang, Lian Xuan, and Gao Gongwei—rang!

The two undead hounds immediately barked wildly at the same time!

The six people pulled out their phones almost simultaneously.

The screen lit up automatically, playing the contents of that cursed videotape!
Hair-like dark clouds, shifting mirrors, floating words, twisted crawling figures, a man covered with a white cloth, the inverted character "贞" (zhen) in his pupils...

The scene shifted rapidly, finally settling on the deep, ancient well in the forest.

The darkness at the wellhead, illuminated by the faint light of the phone screen, made it seem as if something might crawl out of it at any moment.

Six phones, six identical frozen screens, the screen finally switches to a normal phone background.

Yu Tianlun slowly put down his phone, his voice dry and heavy, expressing everyone's thoughts: "This is 'her' warning to us... it's also telling us to continue copying and distributing the videotape, otherwise..."

Yu Tianlun didn't continue, but everyone knew what he was about to say.

Everyone understood that this was a Sadako from the mountain village who had been completely upgraded by meme contamination, with more bizarre and unpredictable abilities, and who could even actively distort the rules and use modern technology to erode others!
(End of this chapter)