Chapter 53 - Death Curse 6

“Hello?

Hello?

Mr.

Duistan?”

Little Red Riding Hood held up her phone, anxiously asking, but only a noisy electric current could be heard on the other end.

At this moment, she, along with Jingzhe Xiazi, disguised as mortuary staff, was visiting Yoshikai Ryomi’s home in East City, attempting to persuade her to come with them to handle funeral affairs.

To the outside world, Yoshikai Ryomi’s brother, Yoshikai Haru, had first brutally murdered his wife, then jumped off a building to commit suicide.

Such a severe criminal case rapidly spread throughout this city, neither too big nor too small.

The house had turned into a crime scene, now sealed off with police tape.

Yoshikai Ryomi, homeless, faced strange looks from teachers and classmates at school every day, and her spirit was nearly breaking.

It was her good friend, Miyazaki Ayaki, who convinced her parents to let her temporarily stay at their house.

At least until the police removed the tape.

“Curse Elements: connection point, medium, amplifier.

Yoshikai Ryomi has been placed under protective status by the system, indicating she has been infected by the medium and afflicted by the curse.

And rainy days act as the amplifier.”

Jingzhe Xiazi slowly stood up from the sofa, glanced at the gradually enlarging curtain of rain outside the window, and slightly pursed her lips.

Little Red Riding Hood hurriedly said, “Miss Jingzhe, Mr.

Duistan has been attacked; we need to go and rescue him—”

“The distance is too far, we won’t make it.

Besides, we have trouble here too.”

Jingzhe Xiazi came before the bedroom door and fiercely pulled it open.

The room should have contained Yoshikai Ryomi and Miyazaki Ayaki, as they needed to count the money they had on hand to pay for the funeral expenses.

But now, the sliding door of the closet in the bedroom corner was wide open, pairs of ghastly pale arms grabbed the two girls’ limbs, dragging them deep into the closet.

The fierce wind blew through the window into the room, lifting the edges of Jingzhe Xiazi’s thick white chiffon dress, from beneath which she pulled out…

a revolver machine gun.

Appearance-wise, this machine gun was modeled after the original General Electric Company’s M134, but because it used 5.56mm bullets, it was reduced in size and lighter in weight, allowing for handling by hand.

And it could reduce the recoil through mechanical exoskeletons connected to the arms at the gun handle.

Layers of yellow paper talismans stuck on the gun’s surface helped to expel evil spirits.

“Step back.”

Jingzhe Xiazi, standing sideways, held the machine gun with both hands, forcefully pulling the trigger,

Sizzling—

The direct current motor drove the gun barrels to rapidly rotate, the 5.56mm bullet metal chains grazed the bodies of Yoshikai Ryomi and Miyazaki Youko, fiercely bombarding deep into the closet.

The cardboard material of the closet door could not withstand the barrage of bullets, instantly shattering into pieces.

The ghastly pale arms hit by the bullet fragments started emitting black smoke, releasing their hold on the two girls, allowing them to fall to the ground.

“Grab them both, let’s go.”

Continuous flashing from the muzzle lit up the freckles on Jingzhe Xiazi’s face, her expression indifferent as she maintained firepower suppression on the closet, covering Little Red Riding Hood as she quickly pulled the two off the floor and exited the room.

At the same moment, in an apartment in Southern City.

“I’m home.”

Suzuki Kazuya, a corporate employee in his twenties, tired from working overtime, opened his front door and did not smell the usual scent of cooking.

“Husband, you’re back.”

His newlywed wife, Suzuki Youko, looked nervous yet excited as she fiddled with a camera, taking out the cassette and inserting it into the projector, “Come see the home video I shot.”

“Why are you messing with this thing again?!”

Suzuki Kazuya was genuinely a bit angry.

His parents had met with misfortune by drowning a month ago, and lately, his wife seemed delusional, always feeling that something was off about the placement of items in their home.

As if someone had sneaked into their house while they were out at work, rummaging through their belongings.

Even though the neighbors said they hadn’t seen any thieves, and the door lock had been changed two or three times, Suzuki Youko still felt something was amiss.

She had purposely bought a camera, hidden in a gap in the living room’s bookshelf, continuously filming the house while they were at work.

“Honey, come take a look.”

Suzuki Youko forcibly pulled her husband to sit on the sofa, grabbed the remote control, and pressed the fast-forward button.

The surveillance video sped up, displaying the current time in the top right corner of the screen.

Nine o’clock, eleven o’clock, two o’clock in the afternoon…

There was nothing unusual in the video, just the faint sound of rain.

Suzuki Kazuya, growing impatient, said, “See, I told you, you’re just overthin—”

Thud!

Suddenly, a knocking sound came from the television, startling both of them.

Thud, thud!

In the surveillance video, two more knocks were heard, followed by the sound of a door handle being frantically twisted as if someone was trying to open the door.

Suzuki Youko instinctively held her husband’s arm tighter while Suzuki Kazuya’s face turned pale, trying to remain calm, “It’s okay, we’ve already changed the locks on the doors.”

As he said, after several attempts, the sound of the door handle ceased.

Suzuki Kazuya breathed a sigh of relief and said, “See, I told you, it must be some neighbor’s kid playing a prank.

I’ll report this to the neighborhood association tomorrow…”

Before he could finish his sentence, the screen suddenly went dark.

A human-shaped shadow, thin and light as if weightless, slid slowly under the crack of the security door into the room.

The shadow crept slowly along the floor, reaching the living room and then gradually stood up.

It was a strange high school boy in uniform, with all-white eyes and an ashen face.

The uniform was from a school in this city.

Suzuki Youko screamed, pulling back her feet from the floor and curling into her husband’s arms.

Suzuki Kazuya, as if his neck was being strangled, stared wide-eyed, his body trembling, unable to utter a word.

In the surveillance video, the boy stood dazedly in front of the camera, glanced around the living room, then flattened again and slid under the sofa.

Moments later, the real sound of unlocking came from outside, and Suzuki Youko, who got off work earlier than her husband, entered the living room and took a camera from the bookshelf.

The video ended there.

Suzuki Kazuya felt a cold shiver down his spine, slowly lowered his head, and looked at the sofa he was sitting on.

The surveillance video had cut off after Suzuki Youko got home, meaning…

that thing was right underneath the sofa at this very moment.

Shaa—

As if confirming his suspicion, a flat, ghastly pale face slowly peeked out from under the sofa, staring at Suzuki Kazuya.

A scream echoed through the room, and Suzuki Kazuya was grabbed by a terrifying brute force by the ankles and dragged under the sofa.

Suzuki Youko, paralyzed with fear, clutched her husband’s arm tightly but still couldn’t prevent him from being slowly pulled into the darkness.

Bam!

The security door was forcefully kicked open, and Li Cheng swept his eyes around the room and rushed forward.

He didn’t pull Suzuki Kazuya out; instead, he grabbed the edge of the sofa, lifted it above his head, along with himself.

As the sofa was raised, the light brightened, and the shadow had nowhere to hide.

“Damn, a two-dimensional paper figure!”

Li Cheng looked at the flat shadow on the floor, exclaimed sincerely, threw down the sofa, and pulled out one of the items he had prepared for this mission from his backpack.

A brass knuckle wrapped in talismans.

“Looks like you died while still in high school, huh?

School violence is really terrifying.”

Saying so, Li Cheng put on the brass knuckles and delivered punch after punch to the flattened shadow.