Chapter 48 - Death Curse 3
Starting Chapter 128 of "Player Reload": 48: 52 Chapter Death Curse (3)48: 52 Chapter Death Curse (3)Li Cheng raised his head... See what happens next!
48: 52 Chapter Death Curse (3)
48: 52 Chapter Death Curse (3)
Li Cheng raised his head and naturally said while holding an iron, “Oh, I just soaked my clothes and they got wrinkly, so I’m taking the chance to iron them now.”
“…You’re actually using a backpack slot for this?
And, is your clothing genuine?
Why does the material look so sheer?”
Stack Soldier pointed at the diesel engine and the ironing board on the ground, feeling a twitch in his temple.
You see, players of this level typically don’t have storage equipment, with only twenty slots in their backpacks, where each slot must be carefully allocated for useful items.
Who would waste space on such trivial things?
“Of course, it’s genuine, ‘Wearing knockoffs is a grave crime!
You could get expelled from the circle for that.'”
Li Cheng said seriously, “This morning, right after I received the mission notification and guessed it was a supernatural task, I immediately began
Little Red Riding Hood, as a member of Japan’s Unusual Affairs Investigation Bureau, has standard issue equipment.
Jingzhe Xiazi claims to be non-combat specialized but carries some items that can counter supernatural forces.
Ant claims to be a lone wolf player, good at using modern weaponry and is capable of close combat if necessary—though it’s unclear what a Lv2 player hopes to achieve in close combat.
After clarifying each other’s abilities, the group collected more information by looking through the items in the car.
Firstly, the location for the script task is similar to Earth’s Japan, around the year 2000, when the internet was not very developed.
They are playing the production team of a late-night show called “Night Horror” in the Shuijing City TV station.
The show mainly focuses on horror, thriller, and supernatural stories, often actually visiting so-called haunted houses and forbidden areas.
However, due to the abundance of similar TV shows, it remains relatively unpopular.
The production team consists of four people.
Stack Soldier plays the role of the director, Li Cheng the cameraman, Little Red Riding Hood the sole narrator, and Jingzhe Xiazi the makeup artist.
Due to fortuitous circumstances, each member’s family is either deceased, studying abroad, or back in their hometown, none of them are in Shuijing City.
This might be a small patch implemented by the killing field system—to prevent family and friends of the characters played by the Summoners from showing up, allowing players to focus on the task itself.
Stack Soldier with glasses flashing with pages from this era’s relatively primitive Japanese internet said, “I’ve looked up information on Ishikawa Kenichi, the folklorist mentioned in the mission brief.”
“This Mr.
Ishikawa lives alone in the neighboring city without a family.
His research field is broad, including local dietary customs, dialects, death and burial customs, ethnic changes, witchcraft, and even contemporary strange tales like the Japanese Slit-Mouthed Woman legend of the late 1970s.
He has published several books and is a professor at a university.
Three days ago, he left this message on his Yahoo website blog: I have figured out the truth behind the Death Curse.
After that, there were no further updates.
Below that blog post are a dozen messages from his readers showing concern, but nothing valuable as a clue.”
Li Cheng smacked his lips, “Yahoo…
that really is a term full of a sense of the era.”
“Well…
that, even though Yahoo’s global business has declined significantly, and many branches have shut down, it’s still widely used in Japan, even now it ranks second in website traffic.”
Little Red Riding Hood as a local, raised her hand and spoke softly, her eyes suddenly lit up, handing over news found on her phone’s screen to the others, “Half a month ago, a couple named Suzuki, both in their fifties, died mysteriously by drowning in their home in the northern part of Third District.
A week ago, there was another violent case on the other side of the city.
A 34-year-old real estate salesman named Sakaihara brutally murdered his wife and then jumped to his death from a high-rise building.
These should count as special recent news in Shuijing City, right?”
“Of course it counts.” Stack Soldier’s eyes brightened, murmuring, “Four people died within half a month, this event is really brutal…”
While they were talking, the car entered the city and turned towards a TV station building.
“Mr.
Producer?”
As the car was waiting in front of the slowly rising barrier gate, the security guard saw Stack Soldier in the driver’s seat (in the guard’s view, he now looked like a TV program director), and immediately fumbled out a folder from behind the seat and handed it over through the car window, “This is a package sent to you by express delivery, it just arrived this afternoon.
The sender seems to be called…
Ishikawa Kenichi?”
“Alright, thank you.”
Stack Soldier took the folder, which contained something flat and round, like a CD.
Meanwhile, the system notification sounded in the minds of everyone.