Chapter 48 - Death Curse 3

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 searching for religious artifacts.

While other items were easy to find, this Daoist robe was troublesome.

I searched the entire city and finally found a genuine piece in the uniform section of a sex shop.

Look, it even has a genuine label, ‘Putian’s top replica, pursuers will be prosecuted.'”

After his explanation, not only was Stack Soldier filled with question marks, but the two girls also looked over with bizarre expressions.

“What on earth is ‘wearing knockoffs is a grave crime’?

Daoist robes = national goods = Hanfu, is that something to call the police over?

And the sex shops in your city sure are interesting, stocking up on Daoist robes as uniforms for seduction.

Do they also carry Ultraman suits in the same section?”

Stack Soldier’s eyelids twitched uncontrollably, and he couldn’t help but retort.

Li Cheng thought for a moment, “They didn’t have that, but they did have a bunch of theatrical costumes from the neighboring movie city, including but not limited to dragon robes, general’s armor, Qing Dynasty official uniforms.

The poetry goes like this, ‘The lotus curtain warms the spring night, I and the general untie the war armor.

An endless call of monkeys on both shores, I and the general untie the war armor.

Outside Suzhou’s Hanshan Temple, I and the general untie the war armor.

The flower path has never been swept by guests, I and the general untie the war armor.

Perhaps for this reason, that shop sells general’s armor especially well; they can’t keep enough in stock.'”

Hey, hey, hey, what kind of ancient poetry is that?

So, the emperors BYD just spent their days not doing any official business, just stripping off the general’s clothes?

Something’s wrong, very wrong.

Stack Soldier almost spat out his water, instinctively wanting to mock, but then he thought if he went back at him with sarcasm, Li Cheng would surely have some weird retort, and it would never end, so he held it back as if he hadn’t heard.

He secretly wondered if this guy came from the Wild Laughter Troupe, suspecting that Li Cheng’s mind might be a bit off.

In fact, Li Cheng didn’t do this purely out of a sense of mischief.

On one hand, as a novice player, he didn’t have that much to carry, with weapons and gear all in a large rolling suitcase, which was convenient and space-saving for his backpack slots.

On the other hand, summoning the Mantis Arm Bone Blade and the full body armor pieces would tear his clothes, so wouldn’t he need to have a few spare clothes on hand?

An iron could destroy biological evidence on clothing, and a diesel engine could be used for power generation, to recharge unmanned recon drones and cell phones; each had its purpose.

“Anyway, let’s complete the first stage of the mission and head to that Shuijing City TV station.”

Stack Soldier cleared his throat, bringing the conversation back on track.

He flipped his hand and pulled out an old-fashioned plastic button cell phone, entered a long string of code, and pressed a button directed at the van soaked in the river.

On the verge of sinking, the van transformed into strings of green, streaming digits of 0s and 1s.

Directed by the motions of Stack Soldier’s hand, the van slowly emerged from the water and drifted ashore, returning to its physical form.

Even the river water that had filled the van was expelled.

“Wow.”

Li Cheng and the two others, having never seen such a dazzling special effect, all exclaimed in awe.

“Just a little trick, a perk from the Whale Song Guild.”

Stack Soldier, who just showed off a little skill, was in good spirits as he got into the driver’s seat.

Following the map’s guidance, he drove towards Shuijing City.

He made no attempt to hide the fact that he was a member of the Whale Song Guild.

At the beginning of the Slaughter Field Game, the guild was just a group of programmers who accidentally became players, forming a small community online mainly to stick together for warmth and mutual support, avoiding the hunt by the nation’s machines of violence, the financial oligarchs, and the gangs.

Later, due to the programmers’ natural abilities, they began trying to build their own forum websites, eventually establishing the rudimentary shape of a player forum.

As of today, Whale Song has continuously expanded and has become a rather significant large guild.

Moreover, because they often engage in public welfare activities for free, such as maintaining forums and laying out networks in Physical Killing Fields, they have a quite good reputation among other guilds.

As a member of Whale Song, Stack Soldier also enjoyed the benefits provided by the organization, such as dataizing his body and vehicle—this is usually an Extraordinary Power that only players of Lv10 or even Lv15 and above could master.

It takes about half an hour to reach the TV station by car, during which the four exchanged information.

Stack Soldier, as a member of Whale Song, has the capability of electronic technology and dataized attacks, and has certain countermeasures against Spiritual Bodies.

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.

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