Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 101 Night Shift Employee Handbook
Jiang Jin kept staring at the shopkeeper's back. He noticed that the shopkeeper's walking posture was extremely strange, looking quite stiff and mechanical. After each step, he would pause slightly before taking the next step.

It was only six o'clock, but the night had become very dark. Jiang Jin looked at a street sign in front of the convenience store, which clearly read "Mingquan Road". Not far away, the word "Happiness" on the sign of Happiness Community had also become dim.

Next, Jiang Jin also arrived at the wall where the night shift employee rules were posted and looked at the contents:
[Yimin Convenience Store Ghost Festival Night Shift Employee Handbook]

1. During the night shift, the incense placed on the checkout counter must be lit. When it is almost burned out, a new one should be lit. There should be enough incense to last until the daytime, and the incense must not go out during this period.

2. Today is the Ghost Festival. Night shift employees need to wear Nuo opera masks provided by the boss and cannot take them off before handing over to the day shift employees.

3. This store does not accept cash, only mobile payments and membership recharge cards issued by this store.

4. Staff must communicate with customers using sign language. If they must speak, they must ensure that customers cannot hear them.

5. You can see the street sign outside the convenience store. Please remember that the road is called Mingquan Road, not Yimin Road. If you see a street sign that says Yimin Road, please be extremely vigilant and never mention Mingquan Road to customers who come in to shop, including using sign language.

6. If any item appears on any shelf that was not originally there, please do not touch or move it.

7. Yimin Private Academy has been abandoned, so no students or teachers from Yimin Private Academy will come to the convenience store. If you see people from Yimin Private Academy shopping, remember not to mention to them in any way that Yimin Private Academy has been abandoned.

8. Customers are welcome to purchase any item, except for the lime juice displayed on the third shelf of the freezer. Please try your best to persuade customers not to buy it (it should always be placed in a visible position on the third shelf). If a customer insists on buying the lime juice, please try to persuade them not to drink it in the store during checkout.

9. If you encounter customers who are not wearing masks and are behaving very strangely, please ignore them and treat them the same as everyone else.

10. Around 6-7 AM after daybreak, the day shift staff will come to hand over their duties. Before the handover begins, no one is allowed to leave the convenience store, regardless of what happens.

As always, it is full of bizarre rules.

Upon seeing this, young Wu Ge immediately went to the cashier to confirm the location of the incense.

Dr. Lin glanced at the road sign outside and confirmed that it still read "Mingquan Road".

"Sign language?" Azi was stunned. How could she possibly know sign language?
"Don't worry," Dr. Lin said calmly. "Even when you go to foreign horror movies, you can still easily master foreign languages, right? Sign language is the same. Also, everyone, please keep your voices down."

"Huh? Really? I'm relieved to hear that, Master. I'll give it a try... It really is! We can use sign language now!" Azi easily gestured a fluent sentence with her fingers: 【Hello, do you need help?】

Murong Yan stared at her hands and tried to gesture as well: "[The goods are on the third shelf]" - her gestures were precise, as if she had practiced them a thousand times.

Then, she lowered her voice and said, "When we asked the residents about Yimin Convenience Store and Mingquan Road before, someone said that this road used to be called Yimin Road, and it was only later called Mingquan Road."

“Yes, it seems that after the Yimin Private School over there was abandoned, it was renamed Mingquan Road.” Old Chen said, “At that time, I felt a little uneasy, afraid that there might be some traps. I even checked on the map app for a long time to see if there was a second Mingquan Road nearby.”

"Light the incense first!" Wu Ge's voice came from the cashier. "That's the most important thing right now."

The incense was kept in a faded paulownia wood box on the cashier's counter.

Jiang Jin opened it and looked at it. The incense stick was twice as thick as ordinary incense sticks, and its surface was covered with fine spiral patterns, like the dried blood vessels of some kind of creature.

Inside, there was also a rather eerie-looking bronze incense burner. On the three-legged toad-shaped burner, where the eyes should have been, were two teeth.

"Hurry, hurry up." Azi's voice trembled slightly. She was completely different from the carefree person she was on the subway. Her Kui Xing mask looked bluish-white under the light, and the half-smile on her lips now seemed particularly sinister.

Dr. Lin picked up the incense stick and examined it against the light. Several dark crystals were embedded in the incense core, shimmering with an eerie iridescence under the light.

"Could it be a crystallization of resentment?" Qiu Feng leaned over to take a look.

"I don't know." Dr. Lin suddenly scraped off a small pinch of incense ash with his fingernail, and the ash actually wriggled on his fingertip like a living thing.

Next, the moment the incense was lit, a wisp of indigo smoke meandered upwards.

The smoke was incredibly thick, twisting and swirling in the air. The aroma was extremely strange, initially resembling the scent of sandalwood accumulated on an old temple altar, but then suddenly surging with a rusty smell.

Jiang Jin frowned. Ever since he learned that his meme contamination originated from Jin Lanlan's photos, he had become wary of anything related to rusty iron.

When the incense ash accumulates to a certain thickness, the toad's mouth on the incense burner opens and closes automatically with a "click," swallowing the ash into its hollow abdomen. Then, dark red patterns gradually appear on the bottom of the burner, which looks quite eerie.

To be honest, the aroma was quite strong, and many people started coughing violently.

"Remember to keep an eye on the incense," Dr. Lin said. "Light a new one when it's almost out. Okay, everyone take turns going in to change into your work clothes, and then check the store for anything amiss, such as the items mentioned in the rules... items that weren't originally there."

The incandescent lights in the convenience store hummed, illuminating the shelves, and the interplay of light and shadow gave the impression that something unknown was hidden there.

Jiang Jin stood beside the cashier, his fingers stroking the plastic casing of the barcode scanner.

He had never used this device before, but the moment he picked it up, his fingers seemed to be guided by some instinct, naturally pressing the power button. "Beep—"

The machine lights up, and the screen displays "Yimin Convenience Store: Night Shift Mode".

"Everyone, take a look at the specific checkout steps first, so that you won't be flustered when customers come." Dr. Lin calmly observed the surroundings, "Including inventory checks, barcode scanning for payment, checking for abnormalities on the shelves... Let's not talk to each other for a while, unless it's an emergency or the content is complicated, we should try to communicate with each other using sign language."

"it is good."

Next, everyone went to the changing room in the back office area to change into their employee uniforms. After coming out, they started working, while Murong Yan and Jiang Jin went to check the shelves.

Jiang Jin looked at the food section shelves and saw a dining area with three tables and four chairs each, meaning customers could eat there after shopping and stay for a long time.

He knew very well that in such a small convenience store, if the ghost attacked them, they would surely die without being able to use any of their professional skills, items, or summoned creatures, and without being able to leave the store. Clearly, the only way to survive was to manipulate the rules.

However, Jiang Jin's rule-altering ability is currently within the cooldown period. He needs to wait until around tomorrow, closer to the day shift, before he can use the rule-altering ability again.

Each merchandise area was well-stocked, and the shelves were basically full, so it seemed that there was no need to restock for the time being.

Then he checked the freezers in the food section, specifically the lime juice drinks mentioned in the guidelines.

The canned lime juice displayed in the third row was quite eye-catching, and there was plenty of it. Jiang Jin opened the freezer and carefully looked at the ingredient list on the back of the canned lime juice, but he couldn't see anything unusual.

At that moment, a customer walked in.

The customer was also wearing a Guichi Nuo opera mask; the entire mask was blindingly white and looked rather frightening. After entering the store, the customer went to the food section shelves, gently fiddling with the packaging bags, and finally chose a bag of potato chips.

Next, the customer went to the cashier, took out a Yimin Convenience Store prepaid card, and simultaneously used sign language to say: "Could you please check how much balance is left on my card?"

The customers also used sign language. There must be something strange hidden in this.

They then processed the payment for the customer, which went smoothly. The customer took the potato chips and left.

Jiang Jin watched the departing customer walk into the Happiness Residential Area across the street, thinking: Although it's dinner time, who eats potato chips for dinner? Should I go out for a late-night snack after dinner? Or...?

Following Rule Six, Azi and Murong Yan continued to check the shelves for any items that were not originally there.

A moment later, the sound of the automatic door opening came from the entrance again.

A hunchbacked customer pushed open the door and entered. The paint on his mask was faded and peeling, as if it had been soaked by rain. He moved slowly, picked up a bucket of Master Kong braised beef noodles, and then went to the cashier. He asked in sign language if he could have hot water.

Jiang Jin immediately responded in sign language: "There's hot water, I'll help you soak."

There was no other way, and I couldn't lie, otherwise I didn't know what would happen if I angered the other party.

The customer nodded and gestured in response: "Thank you."

Jiang Jin tore open the packaging paper on the instant noodles, poured in the seasoning packet, added hot water, served it to the customer, and then went to a corner of the dining area to eat.

Although the customers' masks are frightening, so far, the overall situation is "normal".

People's fear of having all their professional skills sealed away is gradually recovering.

Afterwards, customers gradually entered the convenience store.

A woman wearing a five-ghost mask took a toothbrush and toothpaste, and then bought a bucket of instant noodles for dinner.

A tall, unpredictable customer bought several bottles of beer and silently scanned the code to pay throughout the entire process.

Azi continued tidying the shelves, occasionally stealing glances at the "customers" dining in the food section—they lifted the lower half of their masks, revealing their lips, and chewed slowly, not spilling a drop of soup.

"Are they human or ghosts?" she asked Murong Yan in sign language.

Murong Yan shook her head and gestured: 【Don't ask, don't think, just follow the rules.】

The cash register machine beeps intermittently. Jiang Jin is already adept at scanning barcodes and checking inventory—sometimes there are occasional instances where the inventory shows as 0 even though the item is still available, in which case he can only collect payment for the same priced item.

Afterwards, some customers finished their meals and started playing cards in the dining area. This made Jiang Jin even more vigilant. Were these people human or ghosts? Could they suddenly transform into vengeful spirits and attack at any moment?

Without the death knell and the shotgun, what should we do? Jiang Jin also noticed that as time went on, the SAN value continued to drop, and now it had fallen to 97.63%!

(End of this chapter)