Chapter 54 - Death Curse 7

54: 57 Chapter Death Curse (7) 54: 57 Chapter Death Curse (7) The brass knuckles’ talismans slowly burned, a faint flame rising and twining around the fist.

Under the influence of the fireworks, every punch Li Cheng delivered on the flat silhouette kicked up black smoke.

All the while, he muttered a chant.

“Si Dong Fist, thoughts gushing forth like a spring!”

The fist hit the silhouette’s chest squarely, smashing it into the faux wood flooring and sending cement debris flying with an echoing clatter.

The flat silhouette struggled desperately, slithering along the floor like an eel, heading for the TV stand.

“Si Dong Sword, remember me always!”

Li Cheng struck out with both arms, piercing through the television and impaling the silhouette’s chest.

The latter’s body shattered, wriggling out of the brass knuckles embedded in its chest and scurrying towards the shoe cabinet.

“Haodong Palm, for eternity!”

Li Cheng chased after it, stomping on the ground, transforming his fists into palms and smashing the wooden shoe cabinet with a mighty blow.

“My shoes—” Suzuki Youko, seeing her collection of designer shoes accumulated from years of hard work—some barely worn a few times—all written off, couldn’t help but feel a surge of grief that temporarily overwhelmed her fear.

After several chases, the whole room looked like it had been demolished, in complete ruin.

Finally, Li Cheng caught hold of the flat silhouette by its neck.

“What on earth are you?” Li Cheng narrowed his eyes to examine it, the silhouette remaining expressionless, staring straight at him as the talisman flames reduced it to ashes.

The ash scattered with the wind, vanishing into nothingness.

The cold and gloomy atmosphere that had filled the room from the beginning also dissipated.

“…” Li Cheng frowned slightly, looking thoughtfully at the spot where the flat silhouette had vanished.

Can so-called ghosts really cool down a room?

Does that mean keeping a ghost at home would eliminate the need for air conditioning in the summer?

And no need for electricity for the fridge?

If the cooling ability of vengeful spirits could be stacked, could that mean tying a bunch of ghosts together could be used to create low-temperature superconducting materials?

Having these ghosts contribute to human civilization in the fields of energy, power, medical care, and transportation, working like this for a few years, accumulating merit could even allow them to be reborn as humans, earning immeasurable virtue…

“Excuse me,”

Suzuki Kazuya’s anxious and fearful voice interrupted Li Cheng’s contemplation.

Standing in front of his wife, he cautiously asked, “Who are you, exactly…?”

“Me?

Just a passerby named Fire Fist Ace.”

The timeline of this script world had just passed the year 2000, and “One Piece” had been serialized for a while.

Li Cheng casually removed the talisman-laden knuckles, which were nearly burned out, from his hand and placed them in the Backpack.

This item was a disposable, cheap Equipment purchased from the black market, priced at 20 Game Coins, its effect was to be able to touch incorporeal Spiritual Bodies, with the duration inversely proportional to the strength of the evil spirits encountered.

Glancing out the window, where the rainy season’s rain had stopped as abruptly as it started, Li Cheng strode out of the room, “You two have been cursed.

If you don’t want to die, follow me.”

Time, nighttime.

Location, within an unfinished, rough-hewn building.

Apart from Li Cheng, the other three players gathered together to discuss the mission while on the other side of the room were the targets mentioned in the mission: Suzuki Kazuya, Suzuki Youko, Yoshikai Ryomi, and her classmate Miyazaki Ayaki.

These four Ordinary individuals really witnessed the existence of Supernatural Powers today, walking to and from the Ghost Gate.

Thus, they didn’t spout nonsense like certain brainless characters in horror films who would yell things like “This is all fake, it’s Special Effects.

I’m going to call the police.” Instead, they sat on temporary mats, either staring blankly or sobbing.

As for Ishikawa Kenichi, the drone he sent out didn’t find any trace of him, including no heat signatures in the Third District house.

“So, these are the information we have at the moment.”

Stack Soldier sighed; his clothes were torn in several places, apparently, he had encountered quite a bit of trouble at the police station.

“Every time it rains, we’re attacked by the Death Curse.

The rainy season, so that’s what it means.”

Jingzhe Xiazi pushed up his glasses on the bridge of his nose and asked, “What’s the weather like tomorrow?

Can we accurately pinpoint every rain cycle?”

“Based on the weather forecast for this world, combined with the meteorological data analysis program I brought, I can roughly estimate that Shuijing City will receive two bouts of rain over the next eighteen hours,” said Stack Soldier.

“The first will be from eleven tonight to six in the morning the next day, and the second from eight until five in the afternoon.

In other words, if we don’t want to move in the rain, we only have two windows.

Namely, from now until eleven tonight, and then from six to eight tomorrow morning.”

Killing fields can indeed be treacherous, and if it were a survival mission that required continually being on edge, that would be one thing, but to offer two periods of uncertain safety is another thing once.

“Um…”

Little Red Riding Hood tentatively raised her hand and whispered, “Is it possible for us to artificially shorten the rainy period through artificial rain reduction?”

When her two companions turned to look at her, Little Red Riding Hood became inexplicably nervous and quickly waved her hands, saying, “I don’t know much about it, just talking off the top of my head…”

“That’s a good suggestion, but its feasibility is limited.”

Jingzhe Xiazi explained, “So-called artificial rain reduction boils down to three methods.

First, before the rain clouds reach the local area, use artificial rain enhancement to make it rain earlier.

But now the clouds are already covering Shuijing City, so it can’t be done.

Second, excessively scatter nuclei, that is, silver iodide or diatomaceous earth, to make as much water vapor turn into small droplets as possible, rather than letting small droplets grow, creating a competitive mechanism to suppress rainfall.

However, Shuijing City lies in a hilly region, with abundant water vapor transport, excessive nuclei would turn the competitive mechanism into a catalyst for rain.

As for the third method, it involves dynamic settling, implementing large-scale artificial rain enhancement in the upstream area of the rain clouds to dissipate the energy of the weather system.

To achieve this effect in a short time would require mobilizing the U.S.

forces stationed in Japan.”

But such an action would lead to even more serious consequences.”

Little Red Riding Hood blinked bewilderedly, “More serious, consequences?”

You don’t even know this?

Stack Soldier couldn’t help but take another look at Little Red Riding Hood and explained, “That would be a plot runaway.

There was a case before where a group of players in the backdrop of the Cold War during the 60s were executing a team script task that required hunting a centuries-old vampire hidden in the city.

The task wasn’t particularly difficult, but then a self-proclaimed smart novice player, after seeing a few teammates die,

took the initiative to contact a TV station and show off their so-called ‘superpower’ of storing and retrieving items from their Backpack, precisely predicting lottery numbers, football match results, and breakthroughs in scientific research worldwide.

They wanted to attract the attention of national governments, hoping that senior officials would deploy forces to help kill the vampire.

The result was a plot runaway situation, with the Soviet Union and the United States employing all national efforts to capture these people, even resorting to using nuclear bombs.”

“Ah?” Little Red Riding Hood, mouth agape, didn’t know what to say, “What happened in the end?”

“In the end, none of those players survived.

It was through the diaries found on their bodies, which were sent back to Earth full of radiation, that we were able to infer the conclusion.”

Stack Soldier shrugged and said, “The killing field allows players to complete the game in many ways, but this time the mission has set boundaries; we’re not allowed to leave Shuijing City, so it’s best to forget about those unorthodox tricks.”

Diwu diwu—

The sound of sirens wailed in the distance, and the flashing blue and red police lights seemed especially bustling as they passed through the streets.

At the police station today, a real medical examiner has died, and the two officers lucky enough to survive are half-crazed with fear, casting yet another shadow over the small town.

Tap tap tap.

Footsteps ascended the staircase, and Li Cheng appeared at the stairs, actively displaying his player ID above his head, showing that he was not a ghost in disguise.

Upon seeing this, Stack Soldier breathed a sigh of relief, put down his phone, and asked, “Why so late?”

After taking the Suzukis to the rendezvous point, Li Cheng came up with a casual excuse about wanting to “see a sick friend’s hometown on behalf of them called Sakula,” left the group, and wandered around the city on his own, promising to return before it rained.

“Just getting to know the city a bit.”

Li Cheng sat down with a smile and took out a document from his Backpack, putting it on the ground.

“What’s this?” Stack Soldier glanced at the text on the paper, “Honorable judges, jurors, prosecutors, thank you for taking the time from your busy schedules to read my confession.

I, Ant, with deep regret in the detention center, have written this confession to deeply reflect on my own criminal behavior….”

“Sorry, wrong document.”

Li Cheng quickly took back the paper.

From the player’s perspective, compared to some national agencies, the Special Affairs Bureau is actually much more lenient and tolerant.

At least they wouldn’t sneakily abduct players to assassinate them and transfer their skills to other members within.

However, this leniency has its limits too.

According to the laws published by the Special Affairs Bureau, it’s a criminal offense for a player to be aware of their own supernatural power that could pose significant harm to the nation or society without reporting it.

Li Cheng, as both the Insect Master’s host and a player, not reporting to the Special Affairs Bureau was to some extent already a criminal act, and this confession was something he had written in advance during his spare time.

There were several other versions, all stored in a folder named “Paw Patrol Makes a Big Impact, Shengsheng Team in Prison.”

Clearing his throat to cover the embarrassment, Li Cheng took out another document.

Stack Soldier was full of question marks.

Thankfully, after a day’s worth of experiences, he had grown accustomed to Li Cheng’s eclectic thinking.

Just considering him as someone from the Wild Laughter Troupe, where any odd behavior was just part of their antics, he didn’t pay too much attention and began to read the new document,

“Is this the student list from Shuijing City Elementary School from 25 years ago?”

“Exactly.

You can’t find this information online, I had to hop over the firewall directly into the school archives to find it.”

Li Cheng pointed at a line in the document, “Pay attention to this here.

Fujita Nobuko, third grade, class one.

Also in the same class were Yoshikai Ryomi and Ishikawa Kenichi.”

Stack Soldier was astonished, “The deceased Yoshikai Ryomi and Fujita Nobuko, who disappeared 25 years ago, were elementary school classmates?

And Ishikawa Kenichi, isn’t he recorded as someone from a neighboring city?”

Li Cheng tapped the file, “According to the home addresses registered on the school records, and the old maps of Shuijing City, Ishikawa Kenichi’s former home was on the hill behind Third District of Shuijing City.

There used to be a reservoir and the old city police station there.

Afterward, the reservoir was expanded, his home was demolished, and he left this city after his third grade.

That coincides with the timeline of the Fujita Family’s massacre.

Given that Ishikawa Kenichi mentioned he has an inescapable responsibility concerning the Death Curse, all of this becomes very intriguing.”

“That…

Are you guys talking about my brother?”

Hearing the conversation from the other side of the room, as Li Cheng hadn’t specifically lowered his voice, Yoshikai Ryomi cautiously raised her hand to ask.

She had a significant age difference with her brother, living with him and her sister-in-law in the house left by their parents.

The night after her brother, who worked in real estate, returned from visiting that house in Third District, he mentioned something about his childhood memories related to Fujita Nobuko.

“According to my brother, Fujita Nobuko was frail and short as a child, always wearing long sleeves, and was very somber.

Besides Ishikawa, no one was willing to be her friend.

But during a sports event, she wet and soiled herself in public, which led to people mocking her, and caused Ishikawa to say, ‘She’s not my friend at all.’ The very next day, that tragedy occurred…”

The four players exchanged glances with a sense of rivalry.

It seemed, finding that Ishikawa Kenichi was necessary.