Chapter 237: 233 The Origin of the Curse

In the car, He Jia'an remained silent throughout, while the Investigators of the Chosen Alliance in the vehicle acted as if nothing had happened. The driver was driving, occasionally chatting and joking with teammates nearby; some were recording and reporting their work, while others were treating each other's wounds.

Matsumoto Gin sat opposite He Jia'an, his face expressionless, no longer maintaining the relaxed and composed smile he had before. He also remained silent for a long time. After letting out a sigh that broke the deathly silence between the two, he spoke: "He-kun, is there anything you would like to ask?"

"Would you mind sharing the investigation results and progress on your end with me?" He Jia'an subconsciously wanted to fold his arms, but the movement of his arms tugged at the wound under the bandage, and he immediately lowered his hands.

Matsumoto Gin raised his eyebrows and said, "If you wish to hear it, that is naturally possible."

"I presume you are already aware that a plague called 'Curse' has recently become prevalent on Sakura Island. They spread using Urban Legends as carriers, such as 'The Name That Cannot Be Spoken,' 'The Kosodate-gama That Steals Infants,' 'Kuchisake-onna,' and so on. This includes the Urban Legends of Taomu City, which have had a severe impact and resulted in casualties, such as Mimiko's Curse and Hanako's Curse."

"Of course, I believe you should also know that Mimiko's Curse and Hanako's Curse did not appear recently. They appeared before the 'Curse epidemic,' but during this epidemic, they developed stronger destructive power."

"According to incomplete statistics, the number of people who have died due to Mimiko's Curse has already exceeded 20, most of whom were students at Kisaragi High School. As for those who died or disappeared due to Hanako's Curse, the number cannot be fully determined, but if we consider everyone who has mysteriously disappeared on campus since the founding of Kisaragi High School as being affected by Hanako's Curse, then the number has already reached 50!" Matsumoto Gin recounted to He Jia'an.

He Jia'an: "Why didn't you have Kisaragi High School suspend classes earlier?"

"It is a pity. If it weren't for the recent strengthening of Mimiko's Curse and Hanako's Curse, which led to clearly observable Abnormal death phenomena, we truly would not have noticed the peculiarities of this high school," Matsumoto Gin said with some regret. "Once we locked onto the Abnormalities at Kisaragi High School, we immediately had the school cooperate in suspending classes."

Immediately after, Matsumoto Gin continued: "After some data analysis by our Chosen Alliance Investigators, if we take Kisaragi High School as the radiation source point, the closer the Curse is to Kisaragi High School, the more terrifying the Curse effect; the further away, the weaker the generated Curse effect."

"Does this mean that people who have been struck by Mimiko's Curse or Hanako's Curse, as long as they leave Taomu City at the first opportunity—for example, by fleeing directly to our Shenzhou inland region—are safe?" He Jia'an proposed a bold and constructive idea.

"That is not the case. Perhaps I did not express myself clearly. The power of the Curse has nothing to do with space-time distance; it is only the birth of the Curse that is related to the distance from the birth point to Kisaragi High School, and the strength of the born Curse is also related to this. For those who have been struck by a Curse, the effect the Curse will have is only related to the Curse's performance at the birth point. Like those struck by Mimiko's Curse, those who have been struck by this Curse will inevitably be unable to escape their fate, either dying or vanishing. Even if the cursed person flees to the End of the World, it will not change this result." Matsumoto Gin shook his head.

Upon hearing this, He Jia'an let out a long sigh through his nose. He had been thinking that if he could avoid the disaster this way, he could simply take Naomi back to Shenzhou, and then she would be safe.

Matsumoto Gin said in a deep voice: "After we launched an investigation into Kisaragi High School, I finally became convinced of one thing: the recent prevalence of Curses is closely linked to the Space Channel that is gradually opening in the Inner World. Most of those Urban Legend Curses are powers that ran out from the Inner World. None of us know why the Inner World has such a massive amount of Curse Power, but we do know that more than one malicious incident has occurred on the land of Kisaragi High School."

"Over a thousand years ago, the ancestors of this place used to worship a sea monster that lived in the nearby sea. Because that sea monster had a bald head and someone had once seen it reveal a pair of huge, human-like eyes, just like a demonic monk, it was named 'Umibozu.' The villagers prayed to and worshipped the Umibozu regularly. Fishermen going out to sea would hold necessary Sacrificial Rituals so they could sail safely, and others did so to gain benefits from the Umibozu."

"It was only later that a righteous general passed through this place. He and his soldiers saw those horrific rituals and, in their rage, slaughtered the corrupt and depraved villagers to the last man. However, before the village shaman died, he hid a secret incantation containing mysterious power in his final words. The incantation took effect immediately, and from then on, phenomena that were difficult for humans to understand often appeared on this land."

"The general, who was unaware of this at the beginning, buried the mentally corrupted villagers they had killed beneath the land of Kisaragi High School. Because the area around Kisaragi High School had the most Abnormal phenomena, it became a notorious place of great misfortune in the local area."

"From the distant ancient times all the way to the Showa era, countless dangerous events have occurred in this place of great misfortune. Modern people, having accepted scientific rationality, gradually stopped taking the place of great misfortune seriously, which gave the first principal of Kisaragi High School, who was already crooked, an opportunity. As a descendant of the survivors of the village that was slaughtered over a thousand years ago, he actually wanted to imitate his ancestors and restart the ritual!"

"This first principal learned from an ancient book that the Umibozu his ancestors worshipped was actually just one of the split bodies of a great existence in the Inner World. So, he wanted to use the power of the ritual to try to summon the Alien God, the Thousand-Illusion Moon, who lived in the Inner World. However, this was not easy. With just the accumulation of his generation, it was very difficult to reach the point of success. So, the first principal patiently made a grand plan. They wanted to imitate the 'Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountains' and have the ritual carried out generation after generation, luckily believing that one day they would succeed."

"But what the first principal did not know was that the ritual he created with his half-baked knowledge also hid an unexpected effect. While opening the Space Channel to the Inner World, the gloomy and terrifying environment of the Inner World actually attracted the power of the Curse and began to aggregate in large quantities into the Inner World, thus becoming a part of the air of the Inner World."

"The gathered Curse Power, under the influence of human malice, very naturally turned into the various Urban Legends that people are familiar with today."