Chapter 70: The Resentment of the Death Curse (4)

Duizhan Qibing took the folder, thanked the guard, and casually glanced at the mailing date on the cover—it was exactly three days ago.

Just as he was about to drive off, the long-haired girl in the back seat, Jingzhe Xiazhi, suddenly rolled down her window and asked the guard: “Hello, may I ask what time you usually finish work? If we arrive here two hours from now, will you still give us this package?”

This remark, in this context, was bizarre and impolite, as if questioning the guard’s professionalism.

The guard’s face darkened with anger. “What do you mean? I still have an hour left. Even if I don’t see you today, I’ll find a way to deliver the package tomorrow.”

As the guard grumbled, the car started and drove forward. Xiao Hongmao looked bewildered, clueless about what had happened, while Li Cheng narrowed his eyes—he understood Jingzhe Xiazhi’s intent.

The first-stage task gave a two-hour time limit; according to the original scenario of the vehicle plunging into the river, walking to the TV station would fit within that timeframe.

It was Duizhan Qibing who used his special skill to digitize the vehicle and pull it back onto land, allowing them to arrive at the TV station early, retrieve the disc, and unlock the next stage.

“Assuming the video’s content is authentic, Ishikawa Kenichi said that anything touched by the curse, and anyone killed by it, becomes a new medium.”

Xiao Hongmao, stunned beside her, snapped out of it after a moment, hurriedly climbed into the driver’s seat, frantically opened the water-jing city map sent by Duizhan Qibing on her phone, and drove toward Chengdong.

After doing all this, Jingzhe Xiazhi remained calm, moved to the front passenger seat, tied her shoelaces, and said to Xiao Hongmao: “Get in. You drive.”

【Task Objective: Locate Suzuki Kazuya, Suzuki Yūko, Sakai Yoshimi, and Ishikawa Kenichi—four people total. Ensure at least one survives within 24 hours. Do not leave Shuijing City during this time.】

Shuijing City Police Station was not far from the TV station; Duizhan Qibing walked there. As the team’s highest-level member, he voluntarily took the potentially dangerous disc.

Anyone can become a multi-skilled person if they know how to seek knowledge and have the perseverance to learn.

It was evening; several colleagues stood in the hallway chatting: “Ugh, it’s thundering again outside. I haven’t brought in the laundry from the yard.”

These people, directly or indirectly, had all encountered the Death Curse. Ultimately, everything began with the family massacre twenty-five years ago in the fourth house of San Dingmu—and the chain of deaths that followed.

The Kill Notification sounded in time; all four players felt a sudden chill crawl up their necks, a strong sensation of being watched.

Jingzhe Xiazhi, no longer hiding her awareness of the task’s danger, narrowed her eyes and explained: “Remember the rules of the curse?”

“Anything touched by the curse, and anyone killed by it, becomes a new medium.”

Xiao Hongmao, deeply shaken, asked cautiously: “May I ask—what do you do in the real world?”

“What’s wrong with Pi Fu?”

During the script task, players cannot add each other as friends or use the system’s built-in communication features. They can only use walkie-talkies, phones, or similar methods.

“Uh…”

Li Cheng glanced at the back seat through the rearview mirror. Jingzhe Xiazhi had barely spoken since entering the task—only now, as the car was about to leave and time was running out, did she finally speak up.

Boom!

Otherwise, we haven’t even started looking, and these four suddenly die—that wouldn’t make sense. So right now is actually the best time to search for them and gather clues.”

He sat in a study room; through its open window, he could see the tall buildings outside.

The disc had become a medium, meaning Ishikawa himself had been tainted by the curse. Hence his disappearance.

————

After a fluid, seamless car-breaking process, she slipped into the vehicle, pried open the dashboard panel, connected the starter wire and ignition wire, and successfully started the car.

“Hey, you two wanna grab a drink after work?”

He handed the disc to Li Cheng, who took it, stuck his right index finger through the center hole, held it above his head, then tapped its edge with his left hand—like spinning a bamboo helicopter—to make it rotate.

He pushed open the room door and stepped out first from the TV station building.

“Online self-study.”

Xiao Hongmao asked, naturally clueless: “Wait, why are only the two of us going to find Sakai Yoshimi, while Pi Fu has to find Suzuki Kazuya and his wife? Shouldn’t it be two people each?”

Duizhan Qibing was puzzled. From his perspective, this Pi Fu—only Lv2—was bizarre in dress, speech, and behavior: either mentally ill, faking insanity, or a lunatic from the 【Crazy Circus】.

Saying this, he stood and walked toward the camera, turning it off.

Boom—

He had no choice but to take out the disc, scan its contents with his glasses, received no result, and turned to his teammates: “Do any of you have a way to repair the disc?”

“Besides the connection point, the curse has two other elements—medium and amplifier. Anything touched by the curse, and anyone killed by it, becomes a new medium. As for the amplifier, it’s some kind of thing that amplifies the curse’s power—Xixixixi—”

Earlier in the staff lounge, Pi Fu had first tested that the disc had become a curse medium, deduced that the folklorist Ishikawa was infected, then destroyed the projector.

Thunder rumbled, clouds darkened the sky, and heavy rain was coming.

【Task Time Limit: 24 Hours】

To better explain, he picked up paper and pencil, poked a hole in the paper with the pencil, then held the paper before his face, staring intently through the hole at the camera.

The screen suddenly stuttered and glitched. It took over ten seconds to return to normal.

“I’ll try,” Li Cheng volunteered.

“I am Ishikawa Kenichi. By the time you see this disc, I may already be dead.”

The minivan they arrived in was handed to Pi Fu to drive, so he could quickly reach the distant Chengnan.

The system imposed many invisible restrictions on players’ inventory: no oversized items, no items not belonging to you, no living things, and no critical task items.

“You?”

Her tone was calm and composed, as if stating something utterly ordinary.

“Suzuki Kazuya is the only son of the deceased Suzuki couple; he lives in Chengnan with his new wife, Suzuki Yūko. Sakai Yoshimi is the younger sister of Sakai Hara, a high school student currently staying at a classmate’s house in Chengdong. I’ve sent you the exact addresses.”

Duizhan Qibing immediately tapped his glasses’ frame, captured the tall building in the frame, cross-referenced it with online data, and concluded—the video was filmed in Ishikawa Kenichi’s own home.

She paused, then said no more.

The four players, not wanting to draw attention, ignored the colleagues chatting and walked straight into an empty staff lounge, locked the door, took out the disc from the folder, and inserted it into the projector.

Thunder still rolled; Jingzhe Xiazhi, having tied her shoelaces, scrolled through known clues on her phone, her gaze sharpening, lost in thought.

Then she threaded the shoelace through the sealant strip, slid it inside the car, looped it into a slipknot around the door handle, and with both hands, yanked upward—pulling the handle open.

Four days ago, on May 16, Shuijing City’s Youzhu Real Estate salesperson Sakai Hara jumped to his death. Before dying, he stabbed his wife to death at home.

61.223.152.198

This is easy to understand: imagine a player locked in a cell, needing a key to escape. If there were no restrictions, the player could simply pack the cell’s iron door into their inventory and walk out.

“You all felt it, right? The task has officially begun.”

Li Cheng nodded: “Correct. Considering Ishikawa Kenichi already mailed the disc, the ownership has conceptually transferred. I lean toward the second possibility—that the disc itself is flawed, possibly already the curse’s medium mentioned in the video.”

Jingzhe Xiazhi rattled off a long list of titles, leaving Xiao Hongmao dumbfounded: “Of course, there’s also the player identity.”

“Heh, that’s because Duizhan Qibing realized Pi Fu isn’t a Lv2 player—or doesn’t possess the awareness or ability expected of one.”

Duizhan Qibing pressed the rewind button, skipping back to the glitched section where Ishikawa Kenichi spoke about the curse’s amplifier—but the screen remained torn.

“Still, this month’s rainy days are too frequent. They say there’s a downpour coming tomorrow.”

Duizhan Qibing rubbed his throbbing temple, sighed inwardly at how unreliable his teammates were, and casually explained: “Generally speaking, yes—horror movies often split up, turning into grave-splitting. But this task gives us 24 hours; there will definitely be a safe window early on for searching.”

“The term ‘curse’ refers to the intense resentment and fury left behind by someone who died unjustly, which, under extremely rare circumstances, carves a hole into the real world.”

???

“Alright, don’t break it.”

Heroes don’t ask origins; rogues don’t ask age. Become a player, and infinite possibilities open.

He took three phones from his inventory and handed them to his three teammates: “These are Whale Song’s standard-issue gear—maintain communication even in complex electromagnetic environments. Use them to stay in touch.”

“I’ll go to Shuijing City Police Station to look up the case files mentioned in the video—this part isn’t online.”

Duizhan Qibing quickly said: “Pi Fu, you find Suzuki couple. Jingzhe Xiazhi and Xiao Hongmao, find Sakai Yoshimi. Convince them—if you can’t, use force to bring them in and keep them protected together.”

【Task Reward 2: 500 Game Coins】

【Task Reward 4: Random Skill Scroll ×1, quality based on completion rating】

【Task Reward 1: 300 Experience Points】

The screen showed a middle-aged man in his thirties, exhausted, wearing a hat made of crumpled aluminum foil, and over his white shirt, another jacket of the same material—strange, unmistakably the folklorist Ishikawa Kenichi.

Japan’s administrative divisions include to, dō, fu, ken, and below them, shi, machi, and mura. Shi are smaller than ken. Shuijing City, though economically developed, had a TV station that, though small, was fully equipped.

He smoothed the curled paper around the hole, covering it.

At the same time, he closed one eye, stared at the bottom of the disc, and emitted a mechanical “ssss” sound.

This girl was clearly an official of Japan’s Bureau of Anomalous Affairs, yet she was as timid as a mouse. Had they really become that desperate for staff? Or had they simply never trained her properly?

“People’s physiques can’t be generalized. Once, when my home computer broke and I was furious, I rewrote a Windows OS overnight using only the 0s and 1s from my landline phone.”

Li Cheng made up an excuse, removed the disc from his finger, and said normally: “I just tried—it’s impossible to store this disc in my inventory. This usually means two things: one, the item has a clear owner with established ownership.”

As the disc began to spin, the old CRT television screen glowed green. After a delay, the normal image appeared.

【Task Reward 3: Random Item ×1, quality based on completion rating】

If the group had walked here, the guard would have already left work, and no one would have handed them the disc—would the system still issue the same task?

Or was seeing the disc’s content a day early a reward from the system for arriving at the TV station ahead of schedule?

If that’s the case, it’s intriguing—the Kill Field is hinting that the key to this task is time.

“Every curse has a connection point—a house, an object, or a pet owned by the deceased. Through this point, it draws power from beyond the real world and exists within it. Lose the connection point, and the curse weakens and fades. Like this.”

As he spoke, Li Cheng unplugged the power cord, reached into the projector, gently pried a component loose, broke the metal plug, and said: “My suggestion: let’s split up quickly. Find these three people first.”

“Well, it’s the rainy season.”

Two, the item itself has abnormalities.”

This task requires us to protect four people within 24 hours. Aside from the folklorist Ishikawa Kenichi, who has been missing for three days, the other three—judging by their names—are relatives of the deceased Suzuki and Sakai couples.”

“I bear undeniable responsibility for these events. So I must go, and end it all.”

The other three stared blankly. Duizhan Qibing blinked, then exclaimed: “Wait, are you seriously cosplaying a DVD player? Stop messing around!”

Something seemed skipped. Ishikawa Kenichi didn’t elaborate on the amplifier. Instead, he pulled out several newspapers and held them up to the camera: “May 1st. The Suzuki couple, both nearly sixty, lived in the fourth house of San Dingmu. They drowned—one in the kitchen sink, the other in the bathtub.”

Jingzhe Xiazhi said casually: “It’s the 21st century. The internet has every kind of tutorial—torture, weapon assembly, hazardous chemical synthesis, bomb-making, armed helicopter piloting, art forgery—even building nuclear reactors in your garage.”

“The curse isn’t a ghost born from death. It’s like a toxin—without self, intelligence, or notions of hatred. It instinctively attacks anyone who approaches, spreading malice outward from the corpse. Many famous family massacres, mass disappearances, and serial killings in history were caused by the curse’s power.”

【Task Failure Penalty: Erasure】

“I am a folklorist. After years of research and fieldwork, I am certain there are no gods or ghosts in this world—onmyōji, shrine priests, exorcists—all lack supernatural power. But one thing is real: the 【Curse】.”

As for Jingzhe and Xiazhi, at a parking lot surveillance blind spot, they selected an unassuming locked vehicle, removed their shoelaces, tied a slipknot in the middle, then pried up the door corner.

Perhaps sensing the atmosphere in the car was too heavy, Little Red Riding Hood licked her lips and volunteered, “Uh… where did you learn that car-stealing technique? I’m not saying it’s bad—just that your movements were clean and cool.”

Wasn’t that Lv7 Stack Warrior once just an ordinary programmer?

As for the other ant…

Hearing Li Cheng’s words, Little Red Riding Hood grew even more nervous, stammering, “Eh?! Split up? But in horror movies, splitting up is dangerous!”

On May 7, the mortician tasked with preparing the Suzuki couple’s remains died in the funeral home, cause of death: cardiac arrest. The next day, two of his friends went missing.

“Me? A mere detective, genius, Level 8 machinist, master chef, top lawyer, beauty vlogger, stock market expert, online KOL.”

The DVD content ended here.

The Stack Warrior realized, “You mean—”

Proving she had deliberately concealed her analytical abilities.

The vehicle entered the parking lot, and everyone got out to head to the third floor of the television station.

Clearly, he had realized the Curse’s power might have entered the projector via the DVD. If any TV station staff used the projector, they could be killed by the Curse’s influence and become part of its resentment—increasing our mission’s difficulty.

To have this awareness, he must either be very clever and perceptive, or have previously encountered supernatural events and understood the rules—or perhaps both.

(End of Chapter)