"Well then, I've seen the Ju-On movies too. In this horror movie, the chances of survival have absolutely nothing to do with how many people there are. Even if you fled overseas, you'd still be killed; even with dozens of guards by your side, you wouldn't live long... I'm quitting the team here. If we make it out alive and see each other again... Zhang Jie, the food Sister-in-law made, the colors were truly beautiful."

With that, Chu Xuan and Arno shouldered their military packs and walked downstairs. Everyone watched them disappear at the stairwell landing.

Zheng Zha quietly watched Chu Xuan vanish, then calmly withdrew his gaze. "If the six of you have any questions, feel free to ask us. Zhan Lan, did you receive that one hundred reward points?" Zhan Lan snapped out of her stupor and nodded quickly. For some reason, the scene of their first meeting flashed through her mind. Unconsciously, this man's demeanor had shifted significantly over the course of two horror movies; he was gradually beginning to exude the aura of a team leader.

"Then let's get out of here first."

Zheng Zha said with a wry smile, "This place is truly... extremely unsafe."

This suggestion met with unanimous agreement. The three ordinary youths scurried downstairs in a panic, closely followed by the sexy beauty. In contrast, the handsome youth calmly reading a book and the man in his late twenties who had inspected the room descended the stairs with composure.

Zhang Jie and Zero Point hurried to follow behind them. Both could tell that setting aside the other three ordinary youths, the handsome youth reading so calmly and the one who checked the room must possess some talent, or at least the potential to become capable. With Chu Xuan having departed the team, they most desperately needed a strategist capable of analyzing the situation. Although Zhan Lan had potential in this area, she still fell short compared to Chu Xuan.

Zheng Zha was scanning the area with his submachine gun when he noticed Zhan Lan staring blankly at him. He chuckled, "What is it? Let's go! I'll cover the rear for you."

Zhan Lan realized her distraction, a slight flush rising on her delicate face. She quickly touched her forehead. "You don't need to be so tense. This type of horror movie actually follows a pattern; we should be relatively safe for a day or two. Those 'dirty things' often attack when we least expect it... Did you discover something just now?" Zheng Zha replied with a bitter laugh, "If I told you that I can see... no, that I can feel these 'dirty things,' would you believe me? I feel a cold aura clinging to all of us, including me. This must be the Ju-On mark... it will use this mark to find us!" Zhan Lan paused, then immediately shrieked, frantically slapping at her body while asking, "Is it clean? Is it clean yet?" Because the sound was so intimate, Zhang Jie quickly rushed upstairs.

The moment Zhan Lan saw Zhang Jie, she instantly regained her composure, lightly slapping at herself with a rosy face before pushing Zhang Jie away and hurrying downstairs.

Zhang Jie, being a true brother, patted Zheng Zha sympathetically. "...Women are scary, huh?" "Yeah, incredibly scary."

Regardless, everyone fled the house as quickly as possible. Stepping outside the main door, Zheng Zha let out a huge sigh of relief. The house was filled with a strange oppressive feeling that made it almost impossible to breathe. This sense of danger far surpassed the pressure he felt facing the Xenomorphs in the previous movie. Most ridiculously, he had almost been forced to unlock his Genetic Lock without even seeing a single ghostly shadow, illustrating just how intense the danger felt.

It was then that Zheng Zha noticed the six newcomers standing outside the door. The other nine people, including the large man from Northeast China, were gone, and even Chu Xuan's whereabouts were unknown. In short, the twenty people had split into two factions: the ten whose whereabouts were unknown, and the remaining group consisting of the four veterans plus the six newcomers.

"It's 10:30 AM now. Let's find a place to talk and discuss how to spend these seven days in detail. If there are no objections..." Zheng Zha put his submachine gun back into his storage ring, about to outline his plan to the newcomers, when he saw everyone staring, dumbfounded, towards the second floor behind him. Unbelievable terror was etched in everyone's eyes.

Instinctively, Zheng Zha turned his head as well. Behind the large window on the second floor... a woman, bone-white all over, was flattened against it, her black eyes staring fixedly at him. What kind of eyes were those? Zheng Zha couldn't begin to describe his feeling—it was as if countless malicious grievances were locked within those eyes: coldness, death, horror... When Zheng Zha snapped back to reality, he was once again firing his submachine gun wildly towards the second-floor window. But behind the glass, there was no longer any bone-white woman; there were only shattered glass shards and walls pocked with bullet holes.

Zhang Jie and Zero Point pulled him back simultaneously, one on each side. Zhang Jie roared, "Zheng Zha! Calm down, we're safe right now! Let's go, hurry! The Japanese police might arrive any second!" Saying this, the two dragged the suddenly weak-kneed Zheng Zha along the path. As the mansion receded behind them, Zheng Zha took one last glance back; the pale figure had reappeared in the second-floor window once more...

"Are you calmer now?" Zheng Zha took the chilled canned cola handed to him by Zero Point and managed a weak smile. "Thank you both for what you did... It seems I've become a burden to the team."

The group was currently gathered in the shade of a tree in a small park. After Zero Point and Zhang Jie escorted Zheng Zha here, Zero Point disappeared on his own. When he returned, he had somehow brought back a large quantity of chilled canned cola and packaged food, thus saving everyone from having to eat the compressed rations they had exchanged for—even though those rations hadn't cost many exchange points, saving what they could was the consensus among the four veterans.

Zheng Zha took a sip of the cola; the icy sensation jolted him, making him feel considerably refreshed. Zhan Lan spoke next, "Zheng Zha, are you really okay? I've told everyone that you can sense the curse. You are the only one among us with this ability. We are all depending on your intuition to survive."

Zheng Zha laughed bitterly. "It's precisely because my senses are so acute that I get scared more easily by those things. If this continues, I might be scared insane before a ghost even kills me."

The handsome youth who had been reading suddenly spoke up coldly, "You are too undisciplined. When encountering something you don't understand, the first thing you should do is not panic, but attempt to understand it... For someone with your strength, you turn out to be such a fool."

The handsome youth spoke without looking up, but his voice was strangely alluring and soft, sounding distinctly feminine. His skin was soft and pale, perhaps even finer than Zhan Lan's complexion. His hair was dark and glossy. Because he kept his head down reading, the others couldn't quite make out his features, only inferring from his profile that the boy was exceptionally handsome.

Zheng Zha paused, then continued with a strained smile, "Yes, I am too undisciplined... Then perhaps we should all introduce ourselves. You all saw that entity just now, so I assume you no longer doubt what we've been saying? Though it sounds incredible, we have indeed entered a strange cycle of reincarnation... I'll introduce myself first. My name is Zheng Zha, the acting captain of this squad."

This was the result of discussions among the four veterans. Over the past nine days, due to their collective dissatisfaction with Chu Xuan, Zero Point had joined Zheng Zha's team. The consensus was that Zheng Zha would take command, although he insisted on calling himself the acting captain, as no one knew when they might die, and the chance to remain captain for long was slim.

Zhang Jie pulled out a pack of cigarettes, offering one each to Zheng Zha and Zero Point. "My name is Zhang Jie, a member of the team, probably functioning as a semi-firepower specialist."

Zhan Lan smiled, "I'm Zhan Lan. I suppose I'm logistics support. My combat ability is quite poor, but I've learned some bandaging techniques and can help analyze situations."

Zero Point took the cigarette and stated coldly, "Zero Point, sniper..." The three ordinary youths exchanged glances. One of them spoke up, "Lu Renjia, currently a university student."

"Xiao Bingyi, unemployed."

"Qun Zhongting, uh, I'm in my final year of university, so also effectively unemployed."

The strikingly beautiful woman stretched languidly. "Ming Yanwei. My profession is a Corporate PR Manager. I've always wanted to travel around Japan; I never thought I'd fulfill that wish just before dying."

This beauty was still wearing sexy lingerie, and her stretching motion was intensely alluring, causing the three young men to widen their eyes once more.

Two people remained. The youth who had previously checked the room smiled. "Qi Tengyi, from Shandong. I guess you could call me an otaku... Haha, just kidding. My profession is the kind where I might not get a job for half a year, but when I do, it sustains me for the other half. I am an appraiser... an appraiser of stolen tomb artifacts. Of course, I can also appraise certain items from the real world. I hope to join your team of four."

Zheng Zha and the other three veterans exchanged knowing smiles. An appraiser—that was indeed a highly necessary profession, useful in many horror movies. They hadn't expected to find talent among the newcomers this time.

The last person, the handsome youth, lowered his book, and only then did everyone clearly see him—no