Chapter 41

When Lei Xuan received the notification from the Main God, his brows furrowed tightly. A temporary team member? After all, he was a responsible Main God squad leader, and he inherently disliked unmasked, undiscerning strangers who were new to the cycle world.

'To be a troublemaker in one’s own Main God squad and be excluded, then to come out and try to solo but fail, and end up forming a random team.' This was Lei Xuan's immediate impression of solo cycle worlders. As for the solo strong ones listed on the charts of all-heavenly strong ones, Lei Xuan felt that these two types were not the same. At least, solo strong ones wouldn’t be judged by the Main God to need a random team to enter the cycle world.

With this thought, Lei Xuan could only hope that the next cycle world would be a competitive one, where they wouldn’t need to follow too much of the plot, just straightforward grinding. Otherwise, letting an undiscerning cycle worlder stir things up could lead to a team wipe. Damn it, if that random team guy doesn’t know his place, I’ll have to spend 1000 reward points to take him down! Lei Xuan thought viciously.

...

The dizziness and discomfort from the teleportation quickly disappeared. Almost as soon as the teleportation ended, Chu Ci regained consciousness and opened his eyes. The higher the enhancement, the stronger the resistance to teleportation discomfort, so there was basically no more than ten seconds of unconsciousness. Therefore, Chu Ci stood during the teleportation and woke up standing, straightening his body as soon as it wobbled slightly.

A quick glance revealed a very old and narrow house, a standard Japanese residence. Everything looked like it was from the 1990s, with low tables, cushions, and Japanese text everywhere.

Before Chu Ci could look more closely, a voice laced with disgust came from behind: "You’re here? You’re the one who hitched a ride?"

Chu Ci turned at the sound. Behind him was a fully equipped team with a cohesive aura, four men and three women, none of them slackers. The one who spoke must be the captain. Chu Ci sized up Lei Xuan.

Seeing that Chu Ci didn’t speak, Lei Xuan frowned and asked again, "Why did you choose to go solo?"

"The original team was too bad, the old members were scheming, and the new ones were all wimps," Chu Ci replied casually, continuing to observe the hidden information in the text and objects in the room, analyzing the era background.

In the 1990s, Japan's economy was in a slump, even experiencing deflation and economic decline. Many people committed suicide due to overwhelming pressure, but it was also because of the government's efforts to reform the economy that the later generation of宽松一族 (lax generation) emerged.

From the room's layout, it appeared to be a middle-class Japanese family, seemingly in a good financial situation. However, the note on the fridge revealed that the male and female owners of the house had to work late, leaving their daughter, Chizuko, to rest alone at night.

At night? Chu Ci glanced at the door, indeed, no light was coming in.

Chu Ci took out his computer without hesitation, using an external camera to photograph the room, then searched with software. A match appeared in seconds—*The Ring* (first part).

Turning his head, the wall calendar clearly showed September 5, 1990, Sunday, the first day of the *The Ring* incident!

"Hey... Hey! Did you hear that? How rude are you?" Zhou Yue shouted at Chu Ci, clearly annoyed.

"Do you like horror movies?" Chu Ci suddenly turned and glanced at Zhou Yue, a striking female cycle worlder. If she hadn’t had plastic surgery from the Main God, she could score 85.

"What do you mean?" Lei Xuan picked up on the implications in Chu Ci’s words and looked at him with newfound respect.

"Ringu, how much do you know about it?" Chu Ci glanced at the old TV in the room, different from the LCD TVs of his time, this one used CRT electron beam technology, so the back was quite thick.

Based on the movie reviews Chu Ci had read before, Sadako should come out of this TV.

"Ringu!" Lei Xuan and the others immediately changed color, each quickly taking out talismans from their pockets and putting them on, then putting away their weapons and taking out new guns.

Chu Ci noticed that the gun barrels were engraved with runes. On the side facing him, he could see '镇' (suppress), '降' (subdue), and '祛' (ward off). The other side was likely similar, indicating that these were enchanted weapons that dealt both physical and magical damage.

"Why aren’t you preparing?" Lei Xuan didn’t use an enchanted pistol but took out a one-handed round shield, which seemed to be his standard equipment. Seeing that Chu Ci didn’t move at all, he kindly reminded him. A few minutes ago, Lei Xuan wouldn’t have cared about Chu Ci’s life, but he was impressed that Chu Ci had quickly grasped the essence of the cycle world.

"Prepare? Why? It hasn’t officially started yet," Chu Ci asked Lei Xuan in return.

"Hehe, you don’t know, this is the Main God’s protection time to help us adapt to the cycle world, so we can prepare. It looks calm now, but once the protection is lifted, Sadako might come and curse you," Lei Xuan said, seeing that Chu Ci had nothing in his hands and no visible spatial items, assuming he was a pauper. He took out some talismans and an enchanted pistol from his spatial backpack and handed them over.

"Here, a small token, don’t be shy."

"Thanks, there’s no immediate danger, everyone doesn’t need to be too tense," Chu Ci fast-forwarded the video, using his Truth Body’s dynamic vision to scan through *The Ring* parts one to three in a few minutes. He closed his computer and smiled at the others.

At first, they were somewhat hostile, but at least they showed some goodwill. Chu Ci felt that since the Main God had let him join the team halfway, it must have considered his weakness, so he was more peaceful with this Main God squad.

"Oh, any discoveries? I’m Lei Xuan, these are my teammates," Lei Xuan walked up to Chu Ci, switched his gun to his left hand, and extended his right.

"I’m Chu Ci, a cycle worlder who just left my team," Chu Ci extended his right hand to shake, showing his goodwill.

"I just watched *The Ring* and found a piece of good news. Only those who have watched the tape containing Sadako’s grudge will be targeted by her. Even if you accidentally see Sadako herself, you won’t be harmed. Of course, this is my first time in a supernatural cycle world, so I don’t have much experience. Take my words as a reference, don’t believe them blindly."

"That’s good news," Lei Xuan nodded, recalling the plot, agreeing, and gesturing for Chu Ci to continue.

"Another thing, don’t you think the protection time is too long?" Chu Ci stretched out his finger to try to touch the phone hanging on the wall, but it was over half a meter away, and he couldn’t reach it. "Have you had this experience before?"

"Not really," Lei Xuan was also stunned. The other teammates also realized that the Main God usually only provided five to ten minutes of protection, but it had been almost twenty minutes now.

"What do you think?" Lei Xuan gave a look behind him, not sure who it was for, then turned to ask Chu Ci’s opinion.

"I think this is a cutscene, possibly showing us Sadako’s first live crime," Chu Ci continued to stretch his hand, futilely trying to touch the phone.

"Possible," Jia Tengying thought to himself. Lei Xuan’s look was for him. As the strategist and logistics of the team, he naturally noticed the various anomalies.

"According to the plot, it’s about time!" Chu Ci gave up on touching the phone, looked at the wall clock, and then checked the time on his laptop, suddenly shouting.

22:40.

"Yame!"

Thump thump thump~~~

The sound of someone quickly coming down the stairs, everyone’s eyes turned to the corridor.

"Click!"

The door opened, and a high school girl in casual clothes rushed out, grabbing the phone and pressing it to her ear.

[End of Page]