Chapter Twenty-Two: The Terror of the Cursed Grudge

Chapter Twenty-Two: Terror of the Grudge

"Enter the light column within thirty seconds. Target transfer locked. Transmission of the Grudge commencing..."

Seven of them, plus Jing Chen and Arno, a total of nine people, stepped into the ring of light cast down by the Main God.

Again came that half-waking, half-dreaming state. No one knew how much time had passed before they came back to their senses and found themselves standing in a very ordinary room. The floor was covered with tatami mats, the rooms were separated by paper doors, and judging from the furnishings, this should have been a Japanese-style home.

As soon as they regained their senses, everyone began counting the people on the floor. There were fifteen newcomers lying there in all. Counting everyone together... twenty-four people... highest difficulty...

Zhang Jie sat on the floor and murmured, "The Grudge, huh? So it's The Grudge... and the highest difficulty version at that. This is going to be..."

Zhan Lan was the first to fully recover. She hurried to the window and looked outside. This was a courtyard-style single-story residence, and she was on the second floor looking out from within it. If one stood outside and looked in, this place was exactly the same as the haunted house in The Grudge.

Her face pale, Zhan Lan turned back and said to Chu Xuan, "I suppose supernatural horror is the kind you handle least well, right? Then how about I do the analysis this time?"

Chu Xuan nodded silently.

By then, some of the newcomers were already getting up from the floor. Zhan Lan did not bother paying them any special attention, and instead focused on explaining the concept of The Grudge to Zheng Zha and the others.

"The Grudge means this: when a person dies with overwhelming resentment, that resentment turns into a curse. Such a curse usually remains in the environment where that person lived. Once someone enters that place, the curse kills them. In this horror film... the place where the curse resides is this very house!"

Zhan Lan touched her forehead and went on, "In The Grudge, once someone is marked by the curse, they are doomed. It might be days later, or weeks later, but in the end that person can be killed by the ghost at any time."

Zheng Zha sighed. "So what you're saying is, we've already been cursed? And once the movie starts, any one of us could be killed by the ghost at any moment?"

Zhan Lan gave a wry smile. "Yes... this is the kind of supernatural horror that science can't explain. We can't analyze what the ghost uses to kill people, and we have no way of knowing how to avoid it..."

"There are many ways to deal with ghosts, from talismans to overwhelming power. Here, everyone, use the enchanted bullets I prepared. Oh, and let's look at the mission first." Xiust spoke up from the side. This horror film truly was dangerous. He had not expected to have access to peak sixth-tier energy here; that alone showed how hard this scenario was. Still, it also meant he could use a few lesser forbidden spells.

The five of them looked at their wristwatches at the same time. The mission for The Grudge was to survive for seven days. There was also another option: kill the core entity of The Grudge, Kayako, once, and receive one B-rank side story reward, plus... five thousand reward points!

"B, B-rank side story? Reward points... five, five thousand?"

Zhang Jie sprang to his feet on the tatami, shouting excitedly, "Damn it, let's do it! A B-rank side story plus five thousand reward points? Worth betting our lives on! After we cash in on this one, brothers, we can eat dry food if we want dry food, drink thin soup if we want thin soup, have two bowls at every meal, one to eat and one to throw away..."

The oppressive atmosphere from before was instantly dispelled somewhat by Zhang Jie's outburst. Everyone sat quietly on the tatami. Xiust watched as Zhan Lan began explaining the rules of the Main God space to the newly awakened newcomers, while he listened quietly to Zheng Zha describe the plot of The Grudge.

The plot itself was nothing special, but the crucial thing was this: in The Grudge, every person who was cursed died, without exception.

"Damn it, if you say this place is heaven, I'd believe it a hundred percent!"

A roar suddenly burst out from among the newcomers.

A big, red-faced man from the Northeast stood there barking in a rough voice, "I was just doing business online, all I did was click on a pop-up ad, and then I suddenly ended up here. Damn it, don't think I don't know what you're up to. You knocked me out from behind with a tranquilizer needle, then hauled me into a house next to an Internet cafe to scare me and extort me, right? Don't think that's some brilliant trick; countless people have tried that crap before..."

The newcomers all seemed very ordinary. In terms of clothes, movements, and their reactions to the sudden change, they were no different from normal people, except that three of them reacted somewhat strangely. The other twelve were already chattering noisily, and the big Northeasterner even took the lead in heading downstairs, followed by eight others.

The three unusual ones were these: one ignored everyone around him and sat there reading a book. He was a boy of fifteen or sixteen, with a gentle, quiet appearance. Another began touching and examining the paper doors and tatami mats. The third was a beauty, apparently still half asleep. She was wearing a very revealing nightgown and stretching lazily. Her eyes were hazy, her expression languid, and she was certainly worthy of being called a stunner. Though she was far less striking than the three Xiust had been analyzing while listening quietly to the story of The Grudge, she was still outstanding compared with ordinary people.

As for the remaining three, they were three young men, all of them very ordinary in appearance and dress, around twenty-one or twenty-two years old. The reason they had not left yet... was probably because the sexy beauty was still stretching. Her breasts were almost visible beneath the nightgown, and the three young men stared at her with eyes wide open.

When Zhan Lan saw that the big Northeasterner intended to leave, she was about to speak up and warn him, but Zheng Zha suddenly grabbed her and said, "Let them go. This is the first supernatural horror film we've encountered. None of us can truly help one another. If they are willing to trust us, then following us and staying under our protection won't hurt. If they want to leave on their own... then let them live or die by luck."

The man who had been carefully studying the paper doors and tatami mats suddenly stopped. He let out a sigh and said, "I'm starting to believe what you said. This really does look like a common Japanese layout. The tatami and the pattern on the paper doors are also styles that were popular in Japan ten years ago..."

The sexy beauty yawned and said, "Japan? Why are we in Japan? I remember I was just chatting online, and then... anyway, what are you all doing in my house?" She looked around and finally realized something was wrong. Immediately, she let out a piercing scream.

Zheng Zha was just about to speak when a woman's cries suddenly came from downstairs, along with words spoken in Japanese. That woman speaking Japanese had to be a story character. In other words... the moment they could interact with a story character, it meant the horror film had already begun!

At once, a chill swept over everyone present. Yet for some reason, none of them seemed to notice it, except Zheng Zha, who began shaking violently all over. Without the slightest hesitation, he took an assault rifle from his spatial ring. The magazine was loaded with spiritual bullets. He raised the gun and sprayed fire diagonally upward toward the attic on the second floor.

"Calm down, Zheng Zha." Xiust suddenly placed a hand on him and said.

For reasons unknown, the coldness around his body dispersed somewhat, and Zheng Zha also calmed down.

"Geass, activate."

A blue bird appeared in Xiust's left eye.

"This is... such a powerful curse." What he saw were black threads wrapping around everyone, with the threads all connected to the ceiling above and to the left of them.

"Damn it! There!" A sense of danger slammed into him, and he immediately drew Heaven's Spark and fired without hesitation at the place where the black threads were gathering. "MAX Thunder God Strangulation!"

"Aaaaah!"

A female scream unlike any human cry rang out. In his sight appeared a woman in a long white dress, with long black hair and skin so deathly pale it was terrifying. A bullet hole had been blasted clean through her chest, and then she vanished.

After the gunshot, screams erupted both upstairs and downstairs. The newcomers on the lower floor immediately shouted and ran for the street, while the six newcomers upstairs were too frightened to move. At that moment, Chu Xuan silently stood up.

"Then it will be like this. I've seen The Grudge too. In this horror film, the chance of surviving has nothing to do with how many people there are. Even if you flee to another country, you'll still be killed. Even if dozens of guards stay by your side, you still won't be able to live... I'll leave the team here. If we can survive and meet again... Zhang Jie, the food your sister-in-law makes really does look good."

Having said that, Chu Xuan and Arno shouldered their military backpacks and walked downstairs.

"Wait. Take this." Xiust called him back, then tossed him a talisman identical to the one he had given Lori before.

Zheng Zha watched silently as Chu Xuan disappeared. Knowing that this horror film had little to do with numbers, he gave up on the idea of stopping him. Calmly, he withdrew his gaze and said, "If any of you six have questions, feel free to ask us. Zhan Lan, have you already received those one hundred reward points?"

Zhan Lan froze for a moment, then quickly nodded. For some reason, the image of the first time she had met Zheng Zha surfaced in her mind. Unconsciously, this man's bearing had changed greatly over the course of the two horror films. He had gradually begun to possess the aura of a team leader.

"Then let's leave here first," Zheng Zha said with a wry smile. "This place is really... very unsafe."

The suggestion was immediately accepted by everyone. The three ordinary young men fled downstairs in a panic, followed closely by the sexy beauty. By contrast, the handsome youth who had remained composed while reading, and the man in his twenties who had examined the room, walked downstairs with calm ease.

Zhang Jie and Ling Dian hurried after them. Both could see that, leaving aside the other three ordinary young men, this handsome youth who had remained composed while reading, and the one who had carefully examined the room, both seemed to possess some real ability. At the very least, they had the potential to become capable people.

Zheng Zha was holding the assault rifle and looking around when he saw Zhan Lan staring at him blankly. He smiled and said, "What is it? Hurry up and go. I'll cover the rear."

Only then did Zhan Lan realize how absentminded she had been. Her pretty face reddened slightly, and she quickly touched her forehead. "You don't need to be this tense. Horror films like this all follow a pattern. For the first day or two, we should all be safe. Those filthy things usually attack us when we're not paying attention. Besides, don't we still have them?" Zhan Lan gestured toward Xiust and the others.

Zheng Zha shook his head. Although he could sense that Xiust and the others could hit Kayako, killing her seemed to take a great deal of effort.

In any case, everyone still fled out of the house as fast as they could.

P.S. I really have no motivation left. I truly don't want to keep writing. No inspiration!