Chapter 60: Resentment of the Death Curse (Part Ten)
In the intensive care unit of Shuijing City Hospital, Kenichi Ishikawa, a folklorist wrapped entirely in bandages, lay on a hospital bed while a nearby electrocardiogram monitor emitted a steady, rhythmic beep.
Stack Troopers stood by the bed, his hands transforming into streams of green data that pressed down onto Ishikawa's chest.
[Skill Name: Elementary Digital Recovery]
[Type: Psionic]
[Tier: Rare]
[Special Effect: Sector Recovery. Scans an object, digitizes it, and partially repairs physical damage]
[Cost: Base 100 points of spiritual power, with subsequent costs calculated based on duration and repair intensity]
[Cooldown: 10 minutes]
[Notes: Healing effects on living targets are halved; attacking or being attacked during use will interrupt the skill's channeling]
[Notes: Rebooting solves 90% of computer problems, reinstalling the OS solves 99% of computer problems, and buying a new one solves 100% of computer problems]
[Notes: "How can software be installed on a hard drive? Of course it must be saved on a floppy disk!" Smelling business opportunities in the software wave, Old Man Wang spent his entire fortune acquiring and hoarding floppy disks.]
As the streams of green data continued to spread, the burn marks on Kenichi Ishikawa gradually faded, yet he showed no signs of waking up—according to the hospital staff, he was in a coma induced by post-burn shock, and it was uncertain when he might regain consciousness.
"I can't go on."
His spiritual power nearly depleted, Stack Troopers had no choice but to drop his hands and wipe the sweat from his forehead.
This folklorist was undoubtedly the person in the mission world with the deepest understanding of the curse's power. If he could be awakened, more intelligence could be acquired.
Stack Troopers turned his head to look at Little Red Riding Hood. "How is Yuko Suzuki? Have her injuries stabilized?"
In a daze, Little Red Riding Hood subconsciously straightened her posture and stood at attention. "The doctor says there's no immediate danger to her life..."
The flow of time inside the Fujita residence truly had anomalies. Not much time had passed for Li Sheng and Stack Troopers subjectively, but an hour had passed in the outside world, and rain was beginning to fall once more. Little Red Riding Hood's group had also been attacked.
First, she herself had almost had her eyeballs dug out by a vengeful spirit; then, Yuko Suzuki's stomach had inexplicably bloated as if she were eight months pregnant and on the verge of bursting; and finally, Yoshimi Sakai and her best friend had been strangled by an unseen force and hoisted into the air.
Under those circumstances, Little Red Riding Hood had narrowly managed to break free, save Yoshimi Sakai and her friend, plunge a fruit knife into Yuko Suzuki's abdomen to kill the infant-shaped vengeful spirit hidden inside, and drive everyone to the hospital. After a flurry of emergency resuscitation and turmoil, no one had died after all.
"If the Fujita residence itself is the focal point of the curse, then after we blew up the house, the curse should have gradually dissipated," said Start of Autumn and Summer solstice, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose as she analyzed.
"The problem is, it hasn't. That feeling of being watched still hasn't vanished."
"Indeed," Li Sheng nodded in deep agreement. "I still feel as though needles are pricking my back, utterly uncomfortable."
"...That is truly literal when you say needles are pricking your back," Stack Troopers remarked, squinting as he looked at the toothpick stuck horizontally inside the inner lining of Li Sheng's Taoist robe.
"Huh? Who put this in?!"
Li Sheng plucked the toothpick from the inside of his robe with an indignant expression.
Having spent some time together, Start of Autumn and Summer Solstice had already developed a tolerance for Mayfly's sudden antics. She continued her analysis: "If folklorist Kenichi Ishikawa's conclusion regarding the three elements of the curse is accurate, it can only prove one thing—the connection between the curse and this world is not the house, but something else. For example, the black water in the bathtub."
Compared to the water flowing from the tap in ordinary residential homes, the black water in the bathtub was much murkier, containing more bacterial colonies, moss, aquatic organisms, and sulfates, while lacking the residual chlorine smell typical of tap water.
In other words, the black water came from somewhere outside the city's tap water system.
"...The reservoir in Shuijing City. It's not far from the mountain behind the Fujita residence."
Stack Troopers glanced at the clock on the hospital wall. "It is now six-thirty-seven in the morning. We have an hour and a half before the next rain starts, and our available time is running out.
Little Red Riding Hood, you stay behind to guard. The three of us will head to the reservoir."
"Eh? Still me?" Little Red Riding Hood looked ready to burst into tears.
"Someone must stay behind to protect these target individuals. Staying here is actually safer for you than coming with us," Start of Autumn and Summer Solstice said calmly.
"Inside the Fujita residence, the curse already demonstrated the ability to divide the battlefield and isolate players. If you come with us, you might be treated as the primary target and forced into a single combat against it.
At that point, it won't be a mere avatar, but the main body acting in person."
Me fight the curse? Eh... seriously?
Imagining that scenario, Little Red Riding Hood could only clutch her fruit knife and watch her three companions walk out of the hospital ward.
---
A wave of yellowish, archaic memories surged into his mind.
Summer. Sports day. The playground.
An unremarkable girl wearing long sleeves and a long skirt stumbled and fell by the roadside, her lower garments soiled and exuding a foul stench.
"Ew. How disgusting."
"So stinky! Teacher! Fujita has lost control of herself!"
"Ishikawa, aren't you her friend? Hurry up and help her up."
"Hehe, stupid, clumsy, and ugly, she can't even control her own bowels."
Classmates who had long been accustomed to bullying and teasing her surrounded her, jeering and mocking. The teachers saw the scene from afar, turned a blind eye, and went on chatting amongst themselves.
The girl raised her head, her helpless gaze turning toward her only friend. Ishikawa, held back by his classmates, opened his mouth, then slowly and laboriously averted his gaze. "A person like her is no friend of mine."
The girl's eyes widened involuntarily, her gaze vacant and stripped of all brilliance.
She slowly picked herself up, dragged herself alone to the restroom to clean up, and then fetched cleaning tools to wash away the filth on the ground.
After school, he broke away from his companions and caught up with the girl on a narrow path. "I'm sorry."
"..."
"Can you forgive me? What I said during the day wasn't from my heart."
"..."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
The memory abruptly cut off, the final image lingering on him standing on the mountain path beside the reservoir, watching the girl with her head bowed as she walked toward the Fujita residence down the mountain.
"Hah—"
Folklorist Kenichi Ishikawa jerked awake from the hospital bed, his eyes wide beneath the bandages as he cried out in a hoarse voice, "No!"
Little Red Riding Hood, standing nearby, was startled and instinctively asked, "No what?"
"Don't go near it... that reservoir..."
---
Bathed in the first rays of morning light, the mountain reservoir gleamed as three players stood on the shore of the lake.
Who knew what background Start of Autumn and Summer Solstice came from; aside from premium-grade consumable explosives, she even possessed the latest Prometheus Laboratories underwater drone.
The submarine-shaped drone was dropped into the water, immediately emitting sonar pulses to scan the lakebed.
"Found it."
Start of Autumn and Summer Solstice's gaze sharpened. In the footage transmitted back by the underwater drone, the corpse of a young girl was clearly visible lying at the bottom of the lake.
Half of her body was buried in the silt, her upper body clad in a long-sleeved dress, half of her face heavily decayed, and her hair floating naturally like aquatic weeds. It was precisely Noriko Fujita, who had been missing for twenty-five years.
Taking a deep breath, Start of Autumn and Summer Solstice pressed the remote control joystick of the drone. "Approaching. Preparing to deploy the sandalwood ash bomb..."
The very next second, a sudden transformation occurred.
Noriko Fujita abruptly opened her right eye, which had not yet decayed, and shrieked silently underwater.