Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 370 Ghost Apartment
Jiang Jin released his Ghost Eyes almost instantly, observing his surroundings.

The parking lot in front of us is a common "ground floor embedded parking" layout for small and medium-sized apartments in Japanese cities. It directly uses the first floor of the building as a parking lot, with the entrance connected to the parking area. It is a compact design that integrates "building and parking", which is very common in rental apartments, especially low- and mid-rise apartments, in the city center or narrow plots of land in Japan.

At the entrance, a white line runs horizontally across the ground, with a stone tied to each end of the line.

The apartment's exterior, and even the white lines... are exactly the same as in the original movie!
Then, as soon as Jiang Jin and Lingzi got out of the car, before they could even take a closer look, a group of people rushed out, their faces beaming with almost exaggeratedly enthusiastic smiles.

The leader was an elderly man with gray hair and a slightly hunched posture, wearing an administrator's uniform. He was holding a registration board and walking slowly at the front.

"Mr. Asakawa, Mrs. Asakawa, welcome to the new house." The old man's voice was hoarse, but his smile was still kind. "We heard that a new neighbor moved in today, and everyone is very happy and insisted on coming to help."

The old man left a very deep impression in the movie. Jiang Jin remembered that he was the apartment manager, named Ebisu.

Behind him, there were as many as seven or eight people, men and women, young and old.

Recalling the movie plot, Jiang Jin instantly recognized their identities:
Standing at the front, next to the building manager, was a middle-aged couple, the Hotai couple, who lived in room 103. The husband, Mr. Hotai, bowed to them with a simple, honest smile; his wife, Yami, seemed more shrewd, repeatedly saying, "Welcome, welcome."

Next to them was the Izumo family of three in room 201. Mr. Izumo was beaming from ear to ear as he looked at Jiang Jin and Reiko; his wife, Noriko, also had a gentle smile and bowed in greeting; their son, Izumo Takashi, a tall and handsome high school student, was looking at the freight car with a sunny smile and eager anticipation.

A little further away, there was a couple who seemed a bit awkward. The woman was clearly much older than the man, with heavy makeup, and was affectionately holding his arm. She was Tomoaki from room 203. The young man next to her, whose expression was somewhat indifferent and even a little impatient, was her boyfriend, Kakeru.

At the very back are a father and daughter. The father, surnamed Yamato, has a weathered face and eyes filled with an indescribable weariness and wariness. The daughter is the female lead of this horror film, Yamato Manami, a pretty but somewhat melancholic girl, played by Japanese actress Mei Kurokawa.

"Oh my, this is wonderful! I didn't expect that so soon after Mr. Yamato moved in, another new person has moved in!" Mrs. Yami said enthusiastically.

"Yes, yes, we'll be neighbors from now on, please take good care of me!" Ms. Shou happily echoed.

"A lot of stuff? Let me unload it!" Izumo Takashi's voice was clear and bright. Before Jiang Jin and Reiko could respond, he strode to the back of the truck and began unloading with practiced ease. His excessive enthusiasm and boundless energy seemed a bit abrupt, but Jiang Jin and Reiko had seen the movie and knew why he acted this way.

The elderly caretaker, Ebisu, watched all this with a smile and handed over a key: "Mr. Asakawa, Mrs. Asakawa, this is the key to room 304. The room has been cleaned and you can move in right away. These are all kind and helpful neighbors, so please don't be shy."

Jiang Jin took the cold metal key, a perfectly measured smile of gratitude on his face: "Thank you all so much! I feel so bad for troubling you all so much on our first meeting. I am Asakawa Jin, and this is my wife, Reiko. Please take good care of me in the future."

Reiko Asakawa also bowed slightly, her voice gentle: "Thank you all for your help."

"No trouble at all, no trouble at all!" Mr. Izumo laughed heartily and had already begun to help move a box.

Mr. Cloth Bag also said in a gentle tone, "A close neighbor is worse than a distant relative; it is only right to help each other."

Shou leaned against Xiaosheng and giggled, "Xiaosheng, you should go help too, show us what you're capable of!"

Xiao Sheng pouted, reluctantly stepped forward, and picked up the lightest-looking package.

Mr. Yamato simply nodded silently without stepping forward. His daughter, Ai, curiously glanced at Jiang Jin and Lingzi, then quickly lowered her head when their eyes met.

Surrounded by a crowd, Jiang Jin and Lingzi, the "couple," entered the apartment building.

The interior looked older than the exterior. This three-story apartment building was 35 years old and had no elevator. The air in the hallway was filled with a faint smell of disinfectant mixed with mildew. The lighting in the corridor was dim, and fine cracks could be seen on the walls.

Opening the door to room 304 reveals a small entryway.

Jiang Jin roughly checked the interior layout: the kitchen area leading directly to the entrance was about 6 square meters, next to it was a living room of about 9-10 square meters, and further in were two bedrooms, each about 10 square meters. The total area was 38 square meters, which was enough for a couple. Although the layout seemed a bit cramped, the usable floor area ratio was quite high.

At this moment, the balcony door was open, and the sky outside appeared hazy.

The neighbors helped pile the luggage in the center of the living room. As expected, Takashi Izumo took on most of the heavy lifting, and beads of sweat began to appear on his forehead.

He smiled, revealing his white teeth, and said, "Mr. Asakawa, all your things have been brought up. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"No, thank you so much, Gao Zhijun." Jiang Jin patted his shoulder, his tone sincere. In the original movie, this boy died a very tragic death. The Izumo couple also asked with concern, "If you need any daily necessities, you can take them from us first. We're moving out soon anyway, so we'll just give you some things we don't need."

Jiang Jin looked at Mr. Chu Yun, pretending to be unaware, and asked, "Oh, you're moving out?"

"Yes, I was transferred to the company's branch in Osaka. The company offered a generous housing allowance for the transfer, so I accepted."

Reiko, standing to the side, looked at the Izumo family with a complicated expression. She knew very well that it was not a matter of "generous housing subsidies" but rather that they had no choice but to accept the job transfer arrangement.

As a fellow Japanese, Reiko is very familiar with the so-called "reading the air" (空気を読む) culture in Japanese workplaces. This is very common in Japanese workplaces and is essentially workplace bullying.

For example, if an employee refuses to participate in after-get off work dinners, they might be labeled as "uncooperative," affecting their image among colleagues and their chances of promotion. This seemingly pressured atmosphere is actually a form of covert bullying. Similarly, if a senior employee orders a large portion of ramen and asks a junior employee for their opinion, the junior might be perceived as disrespectful if they don't order the same large portion. In this case, eating ramen becomes a tool for power control. Furthermore, refusing a job transfer could lead to bullying to the point of being forced to resign. In the original film, their fear of this bullying even surpassed that of a ghost's curse!

Afterwards, the Hotei couple exchanged a few more pleasantries, and the caretaker, Ebisu, told them they could find him in the caretaker's office on the first floor if they had any questions. The strange couple continued to complain about Kacchan not working hard enough, while Kacchan seemed completely unconcerned. Yamato and his daughter stood silently at the door the entire time, not coming in.

Finally, the overly enthusiastic neighbors left one by one, leaving only Jiang Jin and Lingzi in the room.

The moment the door closed, the relaxed expressions they had been trying to maintain vanished instantly.

Jiang Jin walked quickly to the window, lifted a corner of the curtain, and looked down at the parking lot and apartment entrance.

"Commander, it seems that," Reiko walked to his side, her voice low, "that we've entered the original movie, the time before the Izumo family had to accept their transfer to Osaka. It seems that the three of them won't die as tragically as they did in the original movie."

Jiang Jin nodded and said, "The mission requirement is 'until the next new resident moves in.' This old and cramped apartment, which is not close to the station, usually has a hard time letting new residents in. There are only five households in total across the three floors. In extreme cases, we may have to stay in this instance for months."

Then, his expression turned serious.

"I wonder if Lian De, Murong Yan, and the others... will be able to escape from Bai Mei Hospital while being chased by Sadako..."

“You Chinese have a saying, ‘Good people are always blessed.’” Lingzi came up and comforted Jiang Jin: “I think as the main members of Nirvana, they won’t die so easily.”

Jiang Jin was still disappointed that he didn't have a phone that allowed him to communicate across dimensions. Such a phone required a team leader at level 4 to have access; otherwise, even if Blood Lord gave Jiang Jin one, he wouldn't be able to use it.

He walked to the wall, gently running his fingers across it, feeling its cold, hard texture.

“The administrator should be handing us the apartment’s rules of conduct soon,” Jiang Jin said to Lingzi. “Until then, let’s not make any rash moves. We don’t know the extent to which the horror instance has been corrupted. Judging from the vengeful ghost that was the source of the resentment in the movie, it should be an evil spirit from the Lost Layer, which commands many ghosts and usually operates in the apartment’s eerie layer.”

Lingzi nodded and said, "Judging from the movie's plot, the daily experiences of the apartment residents are basically the terrifying phenomena of the Mysterious Layer. I also observed them just now through the Eye of Zhuyou, and the residents' SAN values ​​are basically between 60% and 75%. As long as they follow the rules, they probably won't be at risk of being pulled into the Lost Layer. Overall, this is a typical rule-based evil spirit."

“When the Izumo family died in the movie, it was clear they had entered the Lost Layer,” Jiang Jin continued, recalling the plot. “They couldn’t escape the curse, whether in Tokyo or Osaka; this is typical of the evil spirits of the Lost Layer. But I wonder what changes will occur after meme contamination…”

Lingzi went to the kitchen, turned on the tap, and the tap water that came out had a rusty color, which became clear after a while.

“The infrastructure looks fine, but it feels… very uncomfortable.” As a journalist, she has a keen sense of perception. “My identity as a reporter can be used to investigate the history of the apartment and the backgrounds of the residents. Besides, I did work as a frontline reporter before.”

"Let's set up the basic defenses first." Jiang Jin took out several rusty animal traps from his Reincarnator watch; they wouldn't pose much of a problem against the ghosts wandering in the Mysterious Layer. He placed them in the entryway, on the balcony, in the bedroom… Then, he began setting up the Bloodstain Traps.

Lingzi then took out several jade talismans engraved with runes and began to place them in several key locations in the room, such as the doorway, windows, the center of the living room, and the headboard of the bedroom.

At six o'clock in the evening, the voice of the apartment manager, Mr. Ebisu, came from outside: "Mr. Asakawa, Mrs. Asakawa, are you there? I have something to tell you."

coming……

Jiang Jin and Lingzi exchanged a glance, then walked together toward the door!

(End of this chapter)