Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 49 Xiaoqiang Club

Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting a pale golden halo on Liu Yan's hair.

She stopped beside the bicycle, one foot on the ground, the cuffs of her white shirt fluttering gently in the wind, revealing the familiar red string on her slender wrist—a string that Jiang Jin had personally braided for her on her birthday last year.

Jiang Jin felt a tightness in his throat, and his stiff expression was reflected in the glass window of the guardhouse behind him.

She had lost weight, and there were faint dark circles under her eyes, but her phoenix eyes were still as bright as stars.

"Jiang Jin???" Liu Yan's lips trembled slightly, her knuckles on the bicycle handlebars turned white, and an expression of disbelief appeared on her face. "How could you possibly be here?"

This is a hidden dungeon! Even ordinary reincarnators can't get in!
Could it be... could it be a hallucination caused by a curse from a ghost?
"You...you are really Jiang Jin?"

Her voice was soft, yet it struck Jiang Jin's heart like a heavy hammer.

Jiang Jin quickly walked up to them until the distance between them was so small that a fist could barely fit between them. Students at the school gate walked past them, laughing and joking, occasionally casting curious glances.

“I’ve also become a reincarnator. But don’t worry, it has nothing to do with you. In the first newbie trial instance, I accidentally obtained a golden chest and then accepted a hidden quest. I know everything, Liu Wenqiang’s death, and why you broke up with me, Liu Yan, so… I’ve come to find you.”

Liu Yan's eyelashes trembled violently. Then she quickly kicked off the bicycle kickstand, raised her hand and stroked Jiang Jin's cheek, trying to confirm that this was a real person and not a hallucination caused by a curse.

"I couldn't possibly have infected you..." Liu Yan stared incredulously into Jiang Jin's eyes. "I checked my SAN value repeatedly before coming to see you. Then why... why did you also become a Reincarnator?"

Jiang Jin quickly stepped forward and hugged Liu Yan tightly.

“I told you, it’s none of your business. I don’t know why I was contaminated by memes.” Jiang Jin’s fingers tightened. “Anyway, I will definitely be there to accompany you on your journey from now on.”

"Wait, what mission did you accept?" Liu Yan immediately realized this biggest problem: "And you just mentioned the golden chest, could it be that you encountered Wu Qin, that Soul Stealer?"

She is an extremely determined person. Once she realized that the reality could not be changed, she stopped being indecisive and quickly sorted out the most important things to figure out.

"Yes, I met him."

Then, she released Jiang Jin's embrace, pulled him into the guardhouse, and closed the door.

"Listen to me, Wu Qin is no ordinary Soul Master. The infamous Bloodthirsty Team within the Reincarnators has tried to hunt him down multiple times, but without success! It will be very dangerous for you to provoke him! Tell me the specifics, only after you've explained clearly can I consider how to help you!"

"You don't need to worry, he's already dead."

"How could I not be worried? He's practically a level 3 Soul Refiner, and most importantly, he possesses a Soul Refiner crafted from a fragment of resentment crystal..."

Suddenly, Liu Yan stopped talking.

"What did you just say... he's dead?"

"Yeah, I took him down."

"You...you're kidding, right?" Liu Yan was clearly incredulous. "Jiang Jin, listen carefully, I'm asking you a very serious question now."

"I'm serious too."

Jiang Jin squatted down, touched the Reincarnator's Watch, and then took out the Soul Refining Jar and placed it on the ground.

"This is the Soul Refining Jar you mentioned, made from fragments of resentment, isn't it?"

Liu Yan was dumbfounded. Her natal Gu clearly sensed the aura of the resentment shattered crystal!
"You really killed Wu Qin?" She still found it unbelievable. "The entire Bloodstained Team couldn't kill... that Soul Stealer? And then all his things ended up in your hands?"

"Ah."

Liu Yan suddenly realized something.

"Could you be a seasoned reincarnator who has been around for many years? I just never realized it before?"

“Yes, absolutely not.” Jiang Jin put away the Soul Refining Jar. “I can guarantee that, according to real-world time, I wasn’t even a reincarnator yesterday afternoon.” Then, he added.

"I swear."

Liu Yan felt her brain freeze for a moment, and she became increasingly suspicious that she was really trapped in a hallucination caused by a curse.
So, she pursed her lips and asked a question.

"Jiang Jin, what color and brand of underwear was I wearing the first time we...?"

Jiang Jin blushed immediately and said, "Why are you suddenly asking this?"

"I need to confirm that you are Jiang Jin. The various transformation methods of ghosts are too terrifying; I can't afford to be careless. This is a question that only you and I in the whole world know the answer to."

“Um…that day…you were wearing…a pink…Victoria’s Secret…because when you were in school you often couldn’t find bras in the right size, and then Jin Lanlan recommended this brand to you…”

"Alright, I'm sure you are Jiang Jin."

Because of this topic, Jiang Jin's gaze unconsciously moved to the area below Liu Yan's neck.

Summer clothes, after all, all have one thing in common—they are relatively thin.

“Listen to me,” Liu Yan said, noticing his gaze but proudly straightening her back. “Wu Qin entered this hidden instance because of me. You know I’ve become a Gu Master, right? My natal Gu is a type of Gu worm called the Gray Thread Worm. I can let the Gray Thread Worm enter a corpse and manipulate it, making it appear as if it were alive, without revealing any flaws. Then, I skillfully manipulated that corpse to guide Wu Qin into this instance. He’s a ruthless Soul Seducer, so I could use him without any qualms to test the danger of this instance. My only miscalculation was not expecting him to have been hiding his strength, which caused my Gu attack to fail.”

"Then you can rest assured, your husband has already taken care of it for you."

"Pah! You wish! Did I ever say I wanted to marry you?"

"Then how did you know how to enter this instance? I saw you come in on a bicycle. Do you have an identity in this school?"

"To be precise, I belong to an organization called the 'Little Strong Club,' which is currently cooperating with the official authorities of this world."

"Xiao...Xiaoqiang? Seriously?" Jiang Jin was stunned. If Li Ruoxi, who was so eccentric, had said this, it would be normal. But given Liu Yan's personality, she would never play a prank on him at a time like this.

Then, she immediately said, "Jiang Jin, let's not talk about that now. I was just thinking about why you were contaminated by memes. I need to confirm one thing, please think carefully. Did you receive any photos from Lanlan... that showed some rusty metal sculptures?"

She was referring to her best friend, Jin Lanlan, who is a video blogger. Although she was his girlfriend's best friend, Jiang Jin wasn't particularly close to her. He found her loud and overly familiar personality a bit overwhelming, and they usually only talked about things related to Liu Yan.

"Photos? Ah... I think I do!"

During that closed-door training exercise on memetic contamination, officers only had one hour a day to get their phones and make calls to their families.

At that moment, Jiang Jin received a photo from Jin Lanlan.

This struck him as odd; the photo appeared to be taken in a town. Jin Lanlan was holding what looked like the broken arm of a metal sculpture, which was covered in rust.

But she withdrew the message only ten seconds later. Therefore, Jiang Jin didn't take it seriously and forgot about it afterward.

"Did she really send it to you? She told me she only sent it to me."

"Yes, she must have sent it to the wrong person and immediately deleted it. I didn't reply to her afterward. Plus, I was in closed training at the time, so she probably thought I hadn't seen the photo at all."

"That explains it! The person she really wanted to send the photo to was me! How long did you look at that photo?"

"No more than ten seconds."

"No wonder your SAN value only started to drop after about a month! That photo is the root cause of our meme contamination!"

　Please read it! Please collect it!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)