Fantasy Game: Infinite City

"Crack."

Xerxes was walking in front. He looked at the phonograph and found nothing unusual, so he raised the pointer of the phonograph and stopped playing the vinyl record.

After taking the vinyl record out of the phonograph and observing it carefully, Xerxes discovered something strange. There were no grooves on the vinyl record, but it was very smooth. It was an unprocessed record blank, so it should not have been possible for any sound to come out of it.

The five people looked at each other, and the uncomfortable feeling deepened again.

Su Wen took the record, put it back into the phonograph, and pressed the needle of the phonograph, but this time no sound came out. Moreover, the phonograph stopped automatically soon after that.

"There seems to be a groove behind this."

Jerome picked up the phonograph gently and turned it, trying to find out if there was anything unnatural. Although there was nothing wrong with the phonograph itself, Jerome saw a small groove covered with paper on the wall where the phonograph was originally placed, which had been blocked before.

"Open it and take a look. Maybe there is something important inside."

Liu Qiuning's position was closest to the wall, so he gently tore off the paper covering the groove, revealing the groove and the things inside it.

Meng Rou moved the lantern closer to make it easier for Liu Qiuning to take out the things in the groove, a small wooden box about the same size as a Rubik's Cube. The small wooden box looked very old, but the workmanship was very delicate.

However, for some unknown reason, this small wooden box was extremely strong and Liu Qiuning couldn't open it no matter what he did. So the five of them worked together to study how to open the small wooden box, because from the sound of shaking the small wooden box, they could tell that there should be something inside the box.

However, the five people studied it for a long time but had no clue. However, they found a mark on the side of the box. The outer circle was a triangle, and inside the triangle was a not very smooth circle. In the middle of the circle, "eight" was written in Fuso.

Jerome took the small wooden box, played with it, and carefully observed the surroundings. Su Wen and Liu Qiuning on the side suddenly felt an extremely strong discomfort and began to dry heave.

Liu Qiuning suddenly formed seals with his hands, and the golden light of runes emanated from his hands. Without any warning, Liu Qiuning slapped Jerome's back heavily with his hands in the seals. Su Wen on the side also picked up the voodoo doll in his hand, summoned out a twisted soul from it, and slapped it into Jerome's crown.

"help!!"

Liu Qiuning and Su Wen suddenly shouted loudly. Fortunately, Xerxes and Meng Rou reacted quickly. Although they didn’t know what happened exactly, they knew that there must be a serious problem.

Xerxes threw the Persian scimitar in his hand to the ground, grabbed Jerome's hands tightly and controlled his movements. Meng Rou recited scriptures, and a light shone from her right hand, which slapped Jerome's abdomen. She also pulled out a ball of black mist and threw it on the ground beside her.

Jerome suddenly began to dry heave, and Xerxes let him go. Jerome held onto the wall and vomited. His vomit was not normal, it looked like a bunch of densely packed tiny hands, repeating the grasping motion over and over again.

While vomiting, Jerome took out a box of magic matches, lit one and put it in his mouth. Suddenly, a colorful fireball appeared in his mouth, and he sprayed the fireball out, burning those strange things.

"Thank you all... Ugh... Hiccup..."

Jerome took a moment to recover.

"How did you two find out? Jerome got caught?"

"When Jerome took the small wooden box, I saw a black ghost thing entering Jerome's body. Liu Qiuning should have seen it too. It may look different."

Su Wen shook the voodoo doll in his hand and summoned several slow-moving corpses, which surrounded the black fog thrown on the ground. He was talking to others at the same time.

"Yeah, I saw it too. The situation was urgent and I didn't have time to explain in detail. Fortunately, you guys reacted quickly, otherwise Jerome might be in big trouble."

Liu Qiuning formed seals with his hands again, golden light protected his body, and he lightly stepped on the ground with his left foot. A magic circle appeared around the black fog, and lightning flashed in the magic circle from time to time.

"It should be a curse on the soul. Liu Qiuning and Su Wen's professions contact souls more often than ours, so their reactions are much faster than ours."

Meng Rou inserted the two-handed sword into the ground, forming a sacred area. In this circular area, the speed of the black fog was visibly slowed down several times.

"Jerome, you have to treat us to a good meal after the dungeon is over. Otherwise, you'll be fooled at the beginning!"

Xerxes teased Jerome, picked up the scimitar and put it on his shoulder. A group of heavy infantrymen of the Immortal Army suddenly appeared around the five people, separating them from the black fog, and quickly prepared to charge towards the black fog.

"I was careless. I didn't expect this thing to be a curse. I guess I need to find some more equipment and items to defend against souls and curses."

Jerome threw out a few tarot cards, and three spirits dressed like nuns appeared around the black fog and quietly surrounded the black fog.

The black fog became very slow due to Meng Rou's sacred area, and it took a full minute to reorganize and reveal its original appearance.

A strange creature with a baby's head, an adult's upper body, two eyeless pythons as arms, and a strong reptile tail starting from the waist.

The baby's head just opened its mouth, as if it was about to roar, but it might not have the chance.

“Ah ...

The three nuns summoned by Jerome suddenly let out a shrill scream. The monster with the baby's head had its skin peeled off instantly by the scream. It let out a painful wail, and its body kept twitching on the ground. However, due to the influence of the sacred area, its movements were slowed down several times, making it look as funny as a fish that had been caught ashore.

"Crack!"

A large amount of golden lightning shot out from Liu Qiuning's magic circle, binding the monster tightly like a rope, making it unable to move. Xerxes' Immortal Army team also launched a silent charge at this time. They pierced the monster with the spears in their hands and nailed it to the ground.

“Woooa ...

The unusually slow-moving corpses summoned by Su Wen suddenly screamed and became incredibly fast. They almost threw themselves onto the monster and began to bite it frantically, inserting their hands and feet into the monster's body.

"boom!"

The corpses exploded without any warning, but there was no fire. Instead, there was a cloud of blood mist with a strong curse, which completely killed the monster.

This monster looked like a regional boss at least, but it died before it could even let out a battle cry.

"Phew! It's better to be safe. That thing won't come back to life. How about your consumption?"

"It's not a big consumption. I can use the same attack a hundred or eighty times without any problem. But I may have to wait a minute or two because it needs to cool down."

"How are you, Jerome?"

"My energy recovers quickly, I was just tricked, it's not a big deal."

"The box is open."

Su Wen picked up the small wooden box that Jerome dropped on the ground. The lid on one side of the small wooden box automatically opened a small gap, and some sticky liquid flowed out.

Su Wen shook the voodoo doll in his hand, and the small wooden box automatically floated in the air. Liu Qiuning used magic to open the small wooden box through the air.

"There should be some blood in here, and... let me see, a few small pieces of snake skin, half a lizard's tail, eight fingers up to the first knuckle, and a few small pieces... What is this?"

Liu Qiuning took out the contents of the small wooden box, floated it in the air, and said what he knew.

"It should be... part of the placenta and umbilical cord. Judging from the size of those fingers, they should belong to different babies. They should not be more than one year old."

Su Wen seemed to know more about these. After careful observation, he accurately said what they were.

"How do you know so well?"

"I'm a forensic doctor. Didn't I tell you that?"

"Neither can the medical examiner..."

"She is the medical examiner of Q City."

"The ones from Q City too... Oh, Q City, my apologies..."

Jerome, who was somewhat skeptical, immediately dispelled his doubts after hearing about Q City.

(Off topic: Although Q City also belongs to Longguo, it is not located in Longguo, but somewhere else. Because there are many Longguo people there, and various strange murders happen there all the year round, the high-level officials of Longguo used a more "direct" way to obtain the ownership of Q City and designated it as part of Longguo. All Longguo troops, police officers and medical staff working in Q City have to deal with a large number of strange corpses and body parts almost every day, especially military doctors, forensic doctors, and doctors in the emergency department. Although Q City is called a "city", its actual size is about the same as a small country. It is an important place that will appear in the future.)

"Liu Qiuning, you should know the most about these curses. Do you know what this thing is?"

Liu Qiuning carefully examined the small wooden box and its contents, and after a brief thought, gave his answer.

"If I remember correctly, this thing should be called a 'bird box'. It is an ancient weapon in Fuso that kills people with curses, but it seems that it is not entirely true."

"Bird box? There's nothing about birds in this thing, right?"

Seeing that everyone was a little confused, Liu Qiuning gave his own explanation.

"In fact, this thing should be called a 'sonori box'. Since the pronunciations of the two words in Fuso are very similar, and the word 'sonori' is not a common word in Fuso, even Fuso people who have not learned about it will probably think it is called a 'bird box'."

"So what does this "Zi Qu" mean?"

"Zi, you can understand it as a baby, child, etc. The word "Zi" in this word specifically refers to killing someone with a curse, or to torturing someone to death with a curse."

Xerxes stroked his chin and asked a question.

"Qiu Ning, you just said "not completely", why is that?"

With the cooperation of Su Wen and Meng Rou, Liu Qiuning established a defensive magic circle that did not require continuous supply of energy. After the magic circle was completed, he answered Xerxes' question.

"This 'bird box' or 'child-taking box', to put it simply, is a vicious method of destroying the enemy's internal structure by quickly killing women and children through a curse, and by making the enemy's lineage extinct. In ancient times, even now, this disguised method of severing family inheritance is extremely vicious and terrible."

Liu Qiuning pointed to the mark engraved next to the small wooden box and the number "eight" written in Fuso inside, and continued.

"The bird box is made of many materials, but one thing is necessary, which is the body parts of children under the age of ten. However, in order to save space, it is usually a section of a finger or a tooth. You see, the "eight" here means that there are eight different children's body parts inside."

"So what impact does this amount have?"

"According to the records I've read, a maximum of eight different children's body parts can be placed in the Bird Box. It will be useless if there are more than that. Within this rule, the greater the number, the stronger and longer-lasting the curse. One body part is called a "seal", and so on."