Vol 3: Chapter 4-2.

Screams followed the gunshot from both upstairs and downstairs. The newbies downstairs immediately ran out to the streets screaming. The six newbies upstairs froze in place. Then Xuan stood up.

“I’ve seen the movie. The number of people doesn’t help the probability of surviving. Even if you escape to another country, even if there are dozens of people guarding you, you will still get killed… I will leave this team, if we can live to see each other… Jie, Nana’s cooking looked delicious.”

Xuan and Arnold took their backpacks then went downstairs.

Zheng watched as he left in silence. “You can ask us if you have any questions. Lan, have you gotten the 100 points bonus?”

Lan nodded, she suddenly remembered when she first saw Zheng. This man changed so much in two movies, he had gotten the characteristics of a leader.

“Then we will leave this place.” Zheng smiled bitterly. “This place is… not safe.”

Everyone agreed to the suggestion. The three young men rushed downstairs in panic. That woman followed them. Though the boy and the other man took the stairs calmly.

Jie and Zero followed after. They could see that these two probably had some talent, or at least potential. After Xuan left, they desperately needed someone with the wisdom. Even though Lan could fill the position, she was incomparable to Xuan.

Zheng checked the surroundings while holding the gun. Then he noticed Lan staring at him. “What are you waiting for? Hurry, I’ll cover the retreat.”

Lan blushed a little. “You don’t have to be so nervous. There’s usually a pattern in this type of movie. We should be safe within one or two days. Those things usually attack us when we are not paying attention… Did you find out anything?”

“If I tell you I can see… no, I can sense those things, would you believe? I sense an air of darkness stuck to our bodies, including me. This is probably the mark of Ju-On… It will find us using this mark!”

Lan immediately started patting herself while screaming, “Is it clean?! Is it clean?!” Which led Jie to run back.

When she saw Jie, she stopped, pushed Jie away and went downstair.

“Women are scary huh?”

“Yea, really.”

All of them left the house as soon as possible. Zheng let out a sigh of relief once outside. That house stressed him so much he almost couldn’t breathe. This sense of danger was way beyond anything he experienced in Alien. The worst part was he didn’t even see the ghost.

Zheng found the six newbies outside, the red faced man and those who followed him were gone. Even Xuan was gone.

“It is 10am, so we will first find a place to discuss how to survive these seven days. If there aren’t any problems then…”

As Zheng put the gun back in the ring, he suddenly noticed everyone staring at the house behind him in shock. He could see the fear in their eyes.

Zheng turned around unconsciously and he saw a woman in white leaning on the window on the second floor staring at him with a pair of black eyes. Zheng couldn’t fathom how he felt as if coldness, death, horror, and grudge were hidden behind those eyes.

When he recovered from the shock, he took out the gun once again and sprayed at the window. Yet, the bullets only shattered the glass, the woman was nowhere to be seen.

Jie and Zero grabbed ahold of him and shouted, “Zheng! Calm down, we are safe now! Hurry, otherwise the Japanese police will come!”

They dragged Zheng away. He felt feeble and couldn’t even stand by himself. As the house was going out of sight, Zheng took one last look at it and that woman was there again…

“You calmed down yet?”

Zero handed him a can of coke and Zheng forced a smile. “Thanks for that… It seems like I have become deadweight.”

They were sitting in a small park. Zero went away after he dragged Zheng here and brought back soda and packaged food. Even though the rations they exchanged didn’t cost much, they wanted to save the rations until necessary.

Zheng took a cold drink and felt much better. Lan said, “Are you alright? I’ve told them that you can sense the curse. You’re the only one among us that can sense it, so we will have to depend on you.”

“This feeling is too sensitive. If it continues, I will probably go crazy from the fright before the ghosts get me.”

The boy suddenly said in a cold voice, “You are not calm enough. When you encounter unexplainable things, the first thing is not to panic but try to understand them… Even though you have such power, you’re just a weakling.”

He said it without raising his head. His voice sounded like a girl, and his skin was even fairer than Lan’s. But he had been reading the book this whole time so no one got a clear look of his face.

Zheng was surprised. “Yeah, I am not calm enough… then let’s get to know each other. You have seen that thing back there, so you will believe us now, right? Even though it sounds unbelievable, we are in another world… I’ll go first. My name is Zheng Zha, the temporary leader of this team.”

This was the conclusion the four of them came up with. They couldn’t agree with Xuan during those nine days, so even Zero joined their team. Though Zheng only thought of himself as a temporary leader since no one knew if they were going to die.

Jie took out a pack of cigarettes and handed one to Zheng and Zero. “My name is Zhang Jie, I can count as a gunner.”

Lan laughed. “I am Zhan Lan, support, not good in combat but I can bandage and help analyze some situations.”

“Zero, sniper.”

The three young men looked at each other. “Lu Renjia, I’m still a college student.”

“Xiao Binyi, unemployed.”

“Qun Zhongding (Ding), senior college student.”

The woman yawned. “Ming Yanwei, HR manager, but Japan huh, I’ve always wanted to travel around Japan. Didn’t expect to fulfill this wish before I die.”

Of the two people left, the man that checked the house said, “Qi Tengyi, I’m an otaku… just kidding, I’m an appraiser… for grave robbers. I wish to join your team.”

Zheng smiled, an appraiser would be someone they’d need. He could be useful in many movies.

The boy put down his book and when they took a look at his face, they realized she was a girl! She was about fifteen, and had a pair of eyes similar to Xuan’s.

“Zhao Yinkong, assassin…” Her voice was cold. She went back to her book. Zheng, Jie, and Lan turned to Zero.

“Zheng, you’re the leader so we’ll have you explain our plans. Assassins are good, this team needs all kinds of talent.”

Zheng nodded, he was worried if there were any conflicts between Zero and Yinkong, but it seemed like they didn’t know each other. Even assassins wouldn’t necessarily know each other.

“I think we need Japanese Yen the most. We have to live here for seven days after all, unless you all want to stay in the streets.”

Zheng laughed then took out two gold bars from the ring. He handed them to Zero and said, “Luckily I exchanged these gold bars from God. Zero, you’re probably more familiar with the underworld than us. Exchange these gold bars for Japanese Yen, it should be enough for us. And buy a few copies of the local map. Including hotel locations and any temples which are here… Oh and can any of you speak Japanese?”

Yanwei and Tengyi both said, “I know a little.”

As Zheng was going to continue, Yinkong also said, “I know Japanese… why do you want the location of temples?”

Zheng smiled at her. “Since there are curses in this world, why can’t there be temples that can remove the curse? If logic from the real world doesn’t apply here, then we will think using the logic of this world.”

She put down her book. “You’re quite interesting, even though you’re a weakling with power, but you seem like a leader… Okay, I will join the team.”

As Zheng smiled at her, Lan suddenly said in a low voice, “There’s still a minor at home…”

Zheng coughed. “Then this is decided. Zero, try to get some guns also, we have a lot of magical bullets. Try to arm everyone with a gun.”

Zero put the gold bars in his pocket and walked away. The weather was sunny, kids were playing, and old people rested in the park. It all looked so peaceful.

But who could say with certainty? This was the world of a horror movie, especially one that couldn’t be explained with science, a world with ghosts and curses!

Zheng looked up to the sky, sunlight felt cold to him, then he remembered that woman in white… Who knew how many of them could go back this time.