Capítulo 969: Chapter 967: Targeted
This video store looks perfectly normal on the surface,
With a heavy metal-styled shopkeeper sitting at the entrance, headphones fully stuffed into his ears, fingers grazing back and forth across multiple nose rings, it almost seemed like those nose rings could be yanked off at any moment.
A variety of CDs and VHS tapes are neatly arranged on the display shelves, a dazzling array,
Since this place is near the film crew’s base, naturally, the majority of movies are published by them, and the walls are mostly covered with classic Murderer posters of Michael Myers.
At the instant Yi Chen stepped into the store, whispers rang by his ears, whispers that sprang from every CD or VHS tape, urging him mentally to rent them.
Whoosh~ The tide of the Dead Sea, dispelled the demonic sounds in his mind.
As Yi Chen walked a circle around the store, his gaze skimming over each CD, he quickly found the issue.
Every official disc published by the crew would have a fairly noticeable mask emblem on the cover.
In the most obvious place in the store, the visible ones with the crew’s emblem, indeed all were related to Halloween murderer Michael Myers DVDs.
However, Yi Chen in some not-so-conspicuous, lower places, even in some closed storage cabinets, also found early DVDs published by the crew.
The themes of these movies weren’t Halloween, nor was the protagonist the murderer with the white skin mask, and they came in quite a variety.
Not limited to “Crystal Lake”, “Fake Face”, “Masked Head”, “The Collector”…
These movies have a common feature: they are all murderer movies, and the protagonists inside each have their own masks with different designs.
As long as it’s a crew-published disc, Yi Chen would rent a copy, after all, the filming was expected to take a month, with ample viewing time each night.
To find as many crew-published non-Halloween movies as possible, Yi Chen didn’t miss any corner of the video store,
so far, he has already found a total of seventeen non-Halloween type movie discs.
When Yi Chen squatted, preparing to search the last wall-standing cabinet in the video store, he unexpectedly found the cabinet itself was locked.
Moreover, the cabinet appeared older and more gloomy, with even a number of scratch marks from fingers on it.
Just when Yi Chen was about to call the shopkeeper over to unlock it,
click!
The cabinet’s lock suddenly opened itself, and in the slightly opened gap of the cabinet door, it seemed something was watching Yi Chen’s back, staring at him making his whole body feel cold, even causing the temperature of the Dead Sea to drop.
He turned around swiftly but saw nothing,
When Yi Chen, filled with curiosity, prepared to open the cabinet, snap!
A strong and powerful arm suddenly stretched over and firmly grasped him.
There were even metal studs piercing through Yi Chen’s arm, pulling his attention back from the cabinet gap.
Looking back,
the person stopping him from opening the cabinet was the shopkeeper himself, who seemingly was still lounging with legs propped up at the table, listening to music, now suddenly here, with blood and noise seeping out between his headphones, tensed and serious.
Withstanding the mental pressure, he forced the cabinet door shut with a kick, slash!
He tore off ten nose rings consecutively, wedged them tight as the cabinet lock, sealing it securely.
Yi Chen did not feel any fear after being spied upon; instead, he asked normally, “It seems like there are old VHS tapes inside that cabinet? If these things are so dangerous, why sell them?”
The shopkeeper grew a new line of metal nose rings onto his palm and donned them again, looking quite surprised at the young man before him.
He had thought it was the ‘Fu Jiang’ on his shoulder that was the main entity, yet now it seemed the young man was indeed the leader.
“You must be new… All stores that sell videos have to bear this special risk, and inevitably a kind of mysterious and old VHS tapes will appear in the shop.”
“Can’t you just fill all the shelves with other movies?”
“No, if there are no spaces left for these tapes, it would invite the most direct curses, even a hundred of me wouldn’t be enough to die.
If I hadn’t seen you’re wearing the crew’s badge, dying here would lead to the crew’s accountability, I wouldn’t bother with you otherwise.”
“VHS tapes? Related to smiles or clowns?”
“Smiles? No… no one really knows what specific content, those who have watched it would die. But it wouldn’t be smiles; it’d be something else.”
“A certain [Disaster]?”
When Yi Chen threw out this question, the shopkeeper directly pierced another nose ring through his lip, indicating such topics shouldn’t be discussed much.
On his shoulder, Liu Xinzhi extended that thin, long tongue creeping in the air, “Mr. Yi, do you want me to make him tell? I have ways.”
“No need… best to avoid trouble.”
“Oh~”
Feeling the unease, Yi Chen didn’t linger longer; as a member of the crew, renting CDs didn’t require any fee.
However, as he carried the rented CDs and reached across the street, that sense of being watched from the video store, from the old storage cabinet corner, resurfaced suddenly.
Looking back again,
Though the old standing cabinet was shut, beside it stood a mysterious person carrying a large video camera, covering the entire face, seemingly recording Yi Chen, capturing everything here.
At that moment.
Ding!
The hotel key in his pocket somehow fell to the ground, the metallic clash distracted Yi Chen, leaving no one when he glanced again, the video store running like usual.
Picking up the key, Yi Chen no longer planned to continue wandering outside,
even with Liu Xinzhi as Fu Jiang’s symbiotic, even with the badge given by the crew, he, as a non-evil being, was still too conspicuous, too easy to be targeted.
And shortly after Yi Chen quickly disappeared from the current street,
the shopkeeper listening to heavy metal music removed his headphones for the first time, and made a special phone call using the store’s landline.
Informing the other party that a young man had rented all the old films previously shot by the crew, and confirmed the appearance details.
…
“Welcome back.”
As the hotel door opened, Yi Chen carrying a large bag of CDs heard the welcome from the manager right as he stepped in.
Knowing he couldn’t extract useful information from the manager, Yi Chen walked straight towards the elevator, but the hotel manager unexpectedly spoke,
“Indeed, even a malicious disguise couldn’t mask your brilliance as a non-evil being, only half an hour out, and already drawn attention from two troubles.”
In Yi Chen’s mind flashed two most memorable instances, once was a barbershop, once was the video store’s corner.
“Who are they?”
“I can’t say, otherwise it’d be a violation.
All I can reveal is one of them is extremely deadly, henceforth be extra cautious, stick to the hotel and crew’s path, don’t go out without reason.”
“Thanks.”
Returning to the room,
Both Lorrian, who previously was meditating, and Lene, studying the script, were asleep, deeply and completely relaxed.
They seemed to be completely free from the hotel’s discomfort, free from the anxiety of the future.
Yi Chen saw the real threat of the hotel reflected through them.
Perhaps it was the absence of a [home] concept, or because Yi Chen’s [home] had long been destroyed by himself, he didn’t perceive the hotel as a haven, and felt no drowsiness.
He sat alone before the television, playing the crew’s early non-Halloween cult films,
Unconsciously a few hours passed, Yi Chen not only didn’t become sleepy, but his eyeballs got bloodshot, his body seeping with intense killing intent.