Chapter 58 - Death Curse 11

The once tranquil reservoir surface abruptly surged with waves several meters high, crashing towards the shore.

Stack Soldier promptly dataized its body, passing through the water.

Li Cheng grabbed Jingzhe Xiazi by the collar and hurriedly pulled her back, leaping onto a tree on the other side of the mountain road, narrowly avoiding the torrent.

Whoosh——

The waves of the lake rose and fell, and Fujita Nobuko’s corpse surfaced, surrounded by a massive amount of black water.

These black waters slowly condensed into a solid mass, forming into a…

shapeless, multistory-tall object that enveloped Fujita Nobuko’s body.

Stack Soldier’s glasses rapidly flickered with green light, using the Whale Song Guild’s inherited Detection Skill to scan the information of that black mass.

So this thing is the Death Curse…

With a tense heart, Stack Soldier informed teammates of this information and took out a rocket launcher from the Backpack, firing a rocket at the black water.

Boom!

The explosion from the high-explosive charge cut away a large chunk of the black water, but more black streams immediately replenished it.

This attack seemed to completely enrage the Death Curse, which formed a giant palm and struck heavily towards the shore.

It engulfed the road itself, the roadside guardrails, and a large swath of trees where Li Cheng and Jingzhe Xiazi were, all tumbling into the lake.

This destructive power was comparable to a mountain landslide.

Li Cheng fell into the water, his vision obscured by the dark currents, his ears filled with bubbling sounds, and something unknown underwater attempting to drag him down.

Cling!

In the water, he ejected the Mantis Arm Bone Blade, stuck a Talisman to it, and slashed at his feet, severing several pairs of pale arms before striving to surface, gasping for fresh air.

Stack Soldier had already ended their energy-consuming dataization skill and was driving the car they arrived in at breakneck speed along the road beside the reservoir, single-handedly reloading the rocket launcher, continuing to draw the attention of the Death Curse.

Jingzhe Xiazi lay pale-faced on the trunk of a tree, vomiting large mouthfuls of black water, gripping the remote controller tightly, controlling the underwater robot to surface.

“Drive the robot forward!”

Li Cheng shouted, flipping onto a log, moving swiftly from log to log, floating on the water, rushing towards the Death Curse.

Just as he was about to fall into the water, he stepped right on top of the submariner robot, reached out to grab the pricey incense ashes bomb, and with his other hand clenched fiercely, cast the Fog Concealment Skill.

Whoosh——

Thick fog billowed rapidly out from him in all directions.

Since Li Cheng didn’t have any skills that required the consumption of Spiritual Power Value on him, he turned the Fog Concealment Skill up to maximum power, prompting the dense fog to cover nearly half of the lake.

The Death Curse shot out dozens of black streams, but the effect of the Fog Concealment Skill simultaneously weakened the caster’s voice, heat reflection, and even the sense of their presence.

Concealed by the fog, the black water couldn’t accurately pinpoint the tiny human figure.

In a flash——

Li Cheng emerged from the fog, pulling the pin from the incense ashes bomb, counting three, two, one, and threw the bomb forcefully into the midst of the black water.

Boom!

The fierce explosion dispersed the fog, and as it cleared, the black water mass was blown apart at the waist, and the torso of Fujita Nobuko’s corpse, now maimed and scarred, floated in the water.

Did we succeed?

Stack Soldier slowed down, nervously eyeing the pool of black water.

The scanning information on the glasses was gradually fading…

Boom!

A sudden roll of thunder came from the sky, followed by a torrential downpour that descended upon the mortal world without any warning.

The rain came early!

Stack Soldier’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets as he watched the rain beat down on the surface of the Death Curse.

The black water, previously showing signs of dissipating, trembled and adjusted its posture, erecting the corpse of Fujita Nobuko and its lifeless eyes gazed upon the three players.

“Son of a bitch.”

Stack Soldier cursed the local weather bureau a thousand times in his heart, slammed the steering wheel, executing a drift to take his companions and evacuate from the mountain.

But…

With the rain falling, moisture spreading, shadows mysteriously appeared on the mountain road.

There was the decapitated mistress of the Fujita Family, the drowned Suzuki couple, the missing Funeral Master, the police forensics officer who had died just yesterday, and even some unknown deceased…

All the Resentful Spirits affected by the Death Curse collectively blocked their escape route.

“Really is like a parade of a hundred demons.”

Stack Soldier’s forehead veins throbbed, Jingzhe Xiazi, still sprawled on the logs, took a deep breath, and racked her brain, “Something’s off, this mission shouldn’t be this hard, we must have missed something…”

“The mission target!”

Li Cheng’s voice came across the lake, as he stood on the underwater robot, half-floating on the surface, his mind’s palace of thought assembling all the clues collected from this mission, organizing and synthesizing them.

The answer was crystal clear.

He shouted, “Ensuring the survival of at least one person doesn’t mean everyone has to stay alive!”

This statement struck Jingzhe Xiazi like a bolt of lightning, and understanding Li Cheng’s meaning instantly, she pressed the Bluetooth earpiece call button and shouted towards the hospital’s Red Riding Hood, “Kill Ishikawa Kenichi!

He is the key connection point!”

Fujita Nobuko’s corpse in the center of the black water had large scars, obviously from when she was still alive.

In the photo found at Shuijing City Elementary School, she was always in long sleeves and long dresses, meant to cover those scars.

Considering her gloomy and reclusive nature, along with the incontinence incident during the sports meet, it’s quite likely that she had been suffering from domestic violence for a long time.

After the family annihilation case, the police discovered the bodies of the head of the household, Fujita Yuuhi, and the mistress, Fujita Yu, but never found Fujita Nobuko’s remains—now it is known that her body was in the reservoir of Shuijing City.

Twenty-five years ago, Shuijing City’s old police station, as well as the Ishikawa Kenichi’s old home, were built beside the reservoir.

Thus, the clues linked together.

On the night of the tragedy, Fujita Yuuhi, for some reason, first killed his wife and then attempted to kill his daughter.

Fujita Nobuko escaped the house in Third District and headed for the mountains, either to go to the police station to report or to seek help from her only friend, Ishikawa Kenichi, but unfortunately, she was still caught and killed by Fujita Yuuhi and her body was discarded in the reservoir.

Her intense grudge gave birth to the Death Curse, which caused a series of tragedies twenty-five years ago.

As time passed, the curse naturally weakened.

A month ago, the Death Curse revived for some reason—most likely Ishikawa Kenichi had returned to his old home or paid respects to Fujita Nobuko, reactivating the curse.

Then Ishikawa, having read the news, realized something was wrong, came to the Fujita estate with a gasoline can and lighter, intending to burn down the house.

In the process, he must have realized something, turned to try and immolate himself, kill himself, but was preserved by the Death Curse and trapped in the black water.

Not just because he was Fujita Nobuko’s only friend, but also because he was the point of connection between the Death Curse and this world.

“Kill…

the…

connection point…”

In the hospital room, Red Riding Hood’s Bluetooth earpiece filled with noise, unclear.

Kill who?

She called out loudly, but the connection on the other end of the earpiece was completely lost.

Wait, the connection point?

Meaning there’s a connection point for the Death Curse inside the hospital?

Red Riding Hood’s eyes trembled, she opened the mission log in the player panel, where the mission target was clearly written.

[Mission Target: Find Suzuki Kazuya, Suzuki Youko, Yoshikai Ryomi, Ishikawa Kenichi, a total of four people within Shuijing City.

Ensure the survival of at least one person within 24 hours.

Do not leave Shuijing City during this period.]

These words were both a hint and a trap.

By normal logic, a killing field requires players to try to protect each target person as much as possible, but what if we turn it around, and consider the actual mission target is among these four people?

Then the key to completing the mission wouldn’t lie in protection but in discerning who the real target is among these four people and killing them…