Chapter 52: Resentment of the Death Curse (Part III)

Li Sheng raised his head, holding the electric iron, and said matter-of-factly, "Oh, my clothes just got soaked and wrinkled, so I'm ironing them right now."

"...You used your inventory slots just for this? Besides, is this even an authentic piece? The fabric looks so sheer."

Stack Raider pointed at the diesel generator and ironing board on the floor, feeling a throbbing sensation in his temples.

Players at this level basically had no spatial equipment, and inventory slots were limited to a mere twenty slots, meaning every single slot had to be meticulously calculated for useful items. Who on earth would waste them on such trivial things?

"Of course it's authentic! Wearing counterfeit Daoist robes is a grave crime! You'll get expelled from the circle."

Li Sheng said with a solemn expression, "I just received the mission notification this morning and guessed it was a supernatural mission, so I immediately scoured everywhere for religious ritual implements. Everything else was easy to find, but this Daoist robe was a pain. I searched the entire city and finally bought an authentic one in the uniform section of an adult novelty store. Look, it even has the genuine label: 'Putian's First Replica, Imitation Subject to Prosecution'."

After this speech, not only was Stack Raider's head full of question marks, but the two girls also looked over simultaneously, wearing peculiar expressions.

"What on earth is a counterfeit Daoist robe? Daoist robe equals domestic brand equals Hanfu, you want to call the fashion police or something?

Besides, the adult novelty stores in your city have quite wild tastes. They stock Daoist robes as uniform temptation play? Is there an Ultraman bodysuit in the same section too?"

Stack Raider's eyelids twitched violently as he couldn't help but吐槽 (complain).

Li Sheng thought for a moment. "Well, not that specifically, but they do have a bunch of costumes wholesaled from the neighboring film and television city, including but not limited to imperial dragon robes, general armor, and Qing dynasty official uniforms.

As the ancient poetry goes:
The hibiscus tent is warm for a night of spring, the Emperor and the General shed their battle robes.
The apes on both banks keep crying in vain, the Emperor and the General shed their battle robes.
Outside Gusu City, the Hanshan Temple rings deep, the Emperor and the General shed their battle robes.
The flower-lined path has never been swept for guests, the Emperor and the General shed their battle robes.
Probably because of this reason, the general armor in that shop sold exceptionally well, falling short of demand."

Hey, hey, hey! Which plane of existence's ancient poetry is that? So the emperor doesn't do any proper work all day and just goes around stripping the general? Something is seriously wrong here!

Stack Raider almost spat out a mouthful of water, instinctively wanting to retort, but the thought that if he did, this Mayfly would likely spew out more bizarre nonsense and drag the conversation on endlessly forced him to swallow it back and pretend he hadn't heard a thing.

Inwardly, he began to suspect whether this guy came from a laughing troupe and had something wrong with his brain.

Actually, Li Sheng wasn't doing this purely out of mischievous humor or staging such a stunt on purpose.

On one hand, as a novice player, he didn't have that many items to carry. His weapons, equipment, and everything else were placed in a large rolling suitcase for easy access, which saved a lot of inventory slots.

On the other hand, summoning his mantis arm blade and full-body armor would tear apart the clothes he was wearing, so he naturally needed to store a few extra changes of clothes as backups.

An electric iron could destroy biological evidence on clothes, and a diesel generator could be used to generate electricity, recharging reconnaissance drones and mobile phones, both having their own uses.

"Anyway, let's complete the first-stage mission objective and head to that so-called Mizujing City Television Station."

Stack Raider cleared his throat, pulling the topic back on track, flipped his palm, and produced an old-fashioned plastic-button mobile phone. He punched in a long string of code and pressed it toward the van soaking in the river.

Under the influence of an unknown force, the sinking van turned into streams of green, flowing numbers 0 and 1. Guided by the movement of Stack Raider's palm, it slowly rose from the water, drifted to the bank, and restored to its physical form.

Even the river water that had flooded into the vehicle was expelled along with it.

"Whoa."

Li Sheng and the other two had never seen such dazzling special effects and exclaimed in unison.

"Just a little trick, perks distributed by the Whale Song Guild."

Feeling quite pleased with himself after showing off a bit, Stack Raider got into the driver's seat and drove toward Mizujing City according to the map's guidance.

He made no effort to conceal the fact that he was a member of the Whale Song Guild.

At the very beginning of the Killing Ground game, the guild was merely a small online group of programmers who had accidentally become players. Their main purpose was to huddle together for warmth, watch out for one another, and evade searches by state violence machines, plutocrats, and gangs.

Later, relying on their professional skills as programmers, they began attempting to build their own forum websites, forming the prototype of the player forum.

To this day, through continuous expansion, Whale Song had grown into a quite substantial and influential large guild.

Moreover, because they frequently engaged in public service activities such as maintaining forums for free and laying networks in physical killing grounds, they had a pretty decent reputation among other guilds.

As a member of Whale Song, Stack Raider had also received benefits provided by the organization, such as digitalizing his own body and vehicle—transcendent powers that usually required players of Level 10 or even Level 15 and above to master.

The drive to the television station took about half an hour. During this time, the four of them collected more intelligence by rummaging through the items in the car.

First, the location of the script mission was similar to Japan on Earth, and the time node was roughly the early 2000s, when the internet was not yet very developed.

They were role-playing the production team of a late-night show called "Midnight Tales" at the Mizujing City Television Station.

The show primarily used horror, thriller, and supernatural stories as gimmicks, frequently conducting on-site investigations of so-called haunted houses and forbidden areas. However, because there were many similar television programs, it remained mediocre in popularity.

The production team consisted of four people: Stack Raider played the director, Li Sheng played the cameraman, Little Red Hood played the sole narrator, and Midsummer's Awakening played the makeup artist.

Due to a twist of fate, the family members of all four group members—whether they had passed away early, gone abroad to study, or stayed in their hometowns—were not in Mizujing City.

This was likely a minor patch applied by the Killing Ground system—preventing the family and friends of the characters played by the Chosen Ones from appearing, allowing players to focus on the mission itself.

"I checked the internet for information regarding the [Folklore Scholar Kenichi Ishikawa] mentioned in the mission briefing."

In the glasses Stack Raider wore, primitive web pages from the Japanese internet of that era flickered continuously as he spoke: "This Mr. Ishikawa had no family and lived alone in the neighboring city. His scope of study was quite extensive, covering regional dietary customs, local dialects, death and burial folklore, ethnic changes, witchcraft, and contemporary urban legends like the Japanese Slit-Mouthed Woman legend from the late 1970s.

He authored several books and was even a university professor.

Three days ago, on his personal blog on the Yahoo website, he left behind this text: 'I have figured out the truth behind the curse's resentment.'

After that, there was no further news. Below that blog post were a dozen expressions of concern from his readers, with no valuable clues."

Li Sheng clicked his tongue. "Yahoo... what a nostalgic internet vocabulary."

"Um... well, although Yahoo's global business is far inferior to what it used to be and many branches have closed down, in Japan, a lot of people have always used it, and in reality, it still ranks second in traffic among all websites even now."

Little Red Hood, a local, raised her hand and said softly. Suddenly, her eyes lit up, and she handed her phone screen showing a newly found news article to the others. "Half a month ago, the Suzuki couple in their fifties living in the third block of the city's north side died mysteriously of drowning in their home.

A week ago, another murder occurred on the other side of the city. A 34-year-old real estate salesman named Sakaihara brutally murdered his wife before jumping from a high-rise building to commit suicide.

Shouldn't these count as Mizujing City's recent special news?"

"Of course they do." Stack Raider's eyes lit up as he muttered, "Four people dead within half a month, this incident is truly vicious..."

Amidst their conversation, the vehicle had already driven into the urban area and turned in front of a television station building.

"Mr. Producer?"

Just as the vehicle was waiting in front of the slowly rising barrier arm, the elderly security guard spotted Stack Raider in the driver's seat (in the guard's eyes, he now looked like the TV show's director), immediately rummaged behind his seat for a folder, and handed it through the car window. "This package was sent to you by courier, just arriving this afternoon. The sender's name seemed to be... Kenichi Ishikawa?"

"Alright, thank you very much."

Stack Raider took the folder. Inside was something flat and round, resembling a compact disc.

At the same time, the system prompt sounded in everyone's minds.

[Stage 2 Mission Objective: Use the third-floor projection room of the television station to collectively watch the disc sent by Kenichi Ishikawa]

[Stage 2 Mission Time Limit: 30 minutes]

[Stage 2 Mission Failure Penalty: None]