Chapter 68: The Curse of Vengeful Spirits (3)

Li Cheng lifted his head and said matter-of-factly, holding up the iron: “Oh, my clothes just got soaked, got all wrinkled—best to iron them now.”

“You’re storing this in your backpack slot? And is this even an authentic garment? Why’s the material so sheer?”

Stack Trooper pointed at the diesel generator and the ironing table, feeling his temples throb.

Players at this level rarely have space equipment—their backpack slots only hold twenty slots, each one must be used wisely for useful items. Who’d waste one on something this trivial?

“Of course it’s authentic—wearing a Daoist robe outside your sect is a serious offense! You’d get expelled from the sect roster.”

Li Cheng’s expression turned serious. “This morning I got my mission notice, guessed it was a supernatural task, and immediately scoured the city for religious artifacts. Everything else was easy to find, but this Daoist robe was a nightmare—I searched everywhere, finally bought the real thing at a sex shop’s uniform section. Look, here’s the official label: ‘Putian’s First Fake, Any Further Imitation Will Be Punished.’”

After this speech, not only did Stack Trooper’s face fill with question marks, but the two girls also turned to stare, expressions odd.

“What the hell is ‘wearing a Daoist robe outside your sect’? Daoist robe = domestic product = Hanfu? You’re gonna call the cops?”

“And your city’s sex shop really goes all out—stocking Daoist robes as uniforms to entice customers? Is there also an Ultraman suit in the same section?”

Stack Trooper’s eyelids twitched uncontrollably; he couldn’t help but retort.

Li Cheng thought for a moment. “No Ultraman suit, but they do have a whole batch of costumes wholesale from the nearby film studio—dragon robes, general’s armor, Qing dynasty official attire, and more.”

An ancient poem says: “The hibiscus curtain warms through spring nights—my lord and the general unfasten their battle robes.”

“The gibbons cry without ceasing—my lord and the general unfasten their battle robes.”

“Outside Suzhou’s Hanshan Temple—my lord and the general unfasten their battle robes.”

“The flower path never swept for guests—my lord and the general unfasten their battle robes.”

“Probably because of this, the general’s armor sells exceptionally well at that shop—always out of stock.”

“Hey, wait—what universe are these ‘ancient poems’ from? So the emperor spends all day doing nothing but taking off the general’s battle robe? That doesn’t make sense. That doesn’t make sense at all.”

Stack Trooper nearly spat out his drink. He instinctively wanted to retort, but then remembered that if he did, this fly would likely spout more bizarre nonsense, and it’d never end—he swallowed it down and pretended he hadn’t heard.

He privately suspected this guy might be from the Laughing Troupe, with something wrong in his head.

In truth, Li Cheng wasn’t just being mischievous or staging this for fun.

On one hand, as a new player, he didn’t have many items to carry—weapons and gear were all packed in a large rolling suitcase for easy access, saving precious backpack slots.

On the other hand, summoning the Mantis Arm Bone Blade and full-body armor would tear his clothes—so he needed spare outfits on hand.

The iron could destroy biological evidence on clothing; the diesel generator could power the drone and recharge phones—each had its purpose.

“Anyway, let’s first complete the first-stage objective—head to that Water Purification City TV station.”

Stack Trooper cleared his throat, steering the conversation back on track. He flipped his palm and pulled out an old-fashioned plastic-button mobile phone, entered a long string of code, and pressed it toward the submerged van in the river.

The nearly sinking van, under some unknown force, transformed into streams of green, flowing 0s and 1s. Guided by Stack Trooper’s hand motion, it slowly rose from the water, floated ashore, and reformed into a solid object.

Even the water that had flooded inside the van was expelled.

“Whoa.”

Li Cheng and the two girls had never seen such a flashy effect—they all exclaimed together.

“Just a small trick—the Whale Song Guild’s perk.”

Stack Trooper, pleased with his little display, climbed into the driver’s seat and, following the map, drove toward Water Purification City.

He made no effort to hide that he was a Whale Song Guild member.

When the Killing Field game first began, the Whale Song Guild was just a small online group of programmers who’d accidentally become players—formed mainly to stick together, watch out for each other, and evade state violence, conglomerates, and gangs.

Later, leveraging their professional skills, they began building their own forum website—the prototype of player forums.

Today, after constant expansion, Whale Song had become a major, influential guild.

Moreover, because they frequently performed public services—like maintaining forums for free and installing networks in physical Killing Fields—their reputation among other guilds remained good.

As a Whale Song member, Stack Trooper received organizational perks—such as digitizing his own body and vehicle data, a supernatural ability usually only accessible to players at Lv10 or higher.

The drive to the TV station took about half an hour; during this time, the four exchanged information.

As a Whale Song member, Stack Trooper possessed electronic technology and digitized attack abilities, giving him some resistance against spirits.

Little Red Riding Hood, as a member of Japan’s Special Incidents Investigation Bureau, carried standard-issue equipment.

Insect Awakening Summer Solstice claimed to be non-combat-specialized but carried several items capable of countering supernatural phenomena.

The Fly claimed to be a lone wolf player, skilled with modern weapons, and capable of close combat if necessary—though no one knew why a Lv2 player would bother with melee.

After clarifying their respective abilities, the group combed through the van’s contents and gathered more information.

First, the script’s location resembled modern-day Japan, with a time setting around the early 2000s, when the internet was still underdeveloped.

They were portraying the production crew of a late-night TV program called “Yezhi Ju” at Water Purification City TV station.

The show primarily used horror, thriller, and supernatural stories as its hook, frequently visiting so-called haunted houses and forbidden zones. But because there were so many similar programs, it remained mediocre.

The crew consisted of four people: Stack Trooper played the director, Li Cheng played the cameraman, Little Red Riding Hood played the sole narrator, and Insect Awakening Summer Solstice played the makeup artist.

By coincidence, each of the four had family members who were either deceased, studying abroad, or still living in their hometowns—all absent from Water Purification City.

This was likely a small patch by the Killing Field system—to prevent the player’s portrayed character’s relatives or friends from appearing, so players could focus entirely on the mission.

“I looked up online information about the [Folklorist Ishikawa Kenichi] mentioned in the mission briefing.”

As Stack Trooper spoke, his glasses flickered with the primitive web pages of Japan’s internet from that era: “Mr. Ishikawa has no family and lives alone in the neighboring city. His research is extremely broad—covering regional dietary customs, dialects, death and burial rituals, ethnic migrations, witchcraft, and even contemporary urban legends like the Kuchisake-onna of late 1970s Japan.”

He’d published several books and was a professor at a university.

Three days ago, on his personal blog hosted by Yahoo!, he posted this: “I’ve uncovered the truth behind the Curse of Vengeful Spirits.”

After that, he vanished. Below the post were over a dozen comments from concerned readers, but none offered useful clues.

Li Cheng clicked his tongue. “Yahoo!—what a nostalgic internet term.”

“Um, although Yahoo!’s global operations have declined drastically and many branches shut down, in Japan, it’s still widely used—right now, it’s still ranked second in overall website traffic.”

Little Red Riding Hood, the local, raised her hand quietly. Suddenly her eyes lit up as she handed her phone screen to the others: “Half a month ago, a couple in their fifties, the Suzuki family, living in North 3-chome, were found mysteriously drowned in their home.”

“A week ago, another murder occurred on the other side of town—a 34-year-old real estate salesman named Sakaihara brutally killed his wife, then jumped to his death from a high-rise.”

“Are these considered recent special news in Water Purification City?”

“Of course they are.” Stack Trooper’s eyes lit up, murmuring: “Four deaths in half a month—this case is truly brutal.”

As they spoke, the vehicle entered the city and turned toward a TV station building.

“Producer-san?”

Just as the car waited for the rising barrier, the gatekeeper noticed Stack Trooper in the driver’s seat (to the guard, he now looked like the TV director). He immediately rummaged behind his seat, pulled out a folder, and handed it through the window: “This package was delivered for you—it arrived this afternoon. The sender’s name was… Ishikawa Kenichi?”

“Thank you very much.”

Stack Trooper took the folder. Inside was something flat and round—like a DVD.

At the same moment, a system alert chimed in everyone’s minds.

【Stage Two Mission Objective: Use the TV station’s third-floor projector to collectively watch the DVD mailed by Ishikawa Kenichi】

【Stage Two Mission Time Limit: 30 minutes】

【Stage Two Mission Failure Penalty: None】

(End of Chapter)