180: Chapter 180 The Consequences of Stealing Business

That brat who popped out of nowhere, how dare she run onto her turf and start some Death Call? What do you call that? That's a total lack of respect for her elders! She's trying to steal a patent from the grandmaster herself!

Little Sadako didn't even give Qin Ming a glance. Her body suddenly transformed into a mass of extremely dense black resentment. In an unimaginably concentrated way, she squeezed directly into that small flip phone.

The phone screen's backlight flickered violently twice. Qin Ming raised an eyebrow, took the phone directly from Sadako's hand, and casually pressed the speakerphone button before placing it on the coffee table.

At first, there was only rapid static coming from the speaker.

Three seconds later.

*Slap!*

The sound of an extremely crisp slap exploded from the other end of the phone.

Then came the dull thud of something heavy being slammed hard against a wall.

"Ah—! What are you! Get out!" A young girl's shrill scream came through the speaker.

It was none other than Mimeko, the culprit behind "one missed call."

"Ugh... ugh...!" Little Sadako's vocal fry carried an irrepressible brutality.

Immediately after, the sound of a dense, one-sided beating came from the phone.

This cross-border sanction through the phone line lasted for a full minute.

Mimeko's screams on the other end of the speaker had completely weakened, leaving only the sound of sobbing in extreme terror.

She probably wouldn't understand even if she died again; she had just sent out a random death notification according to the usual process. How did she end up provoking a monster a hundred times more terrifying than herself to show up in person?

"Stealing... business..." A few clunky yet murderous syllables came from the speaker, spoken by Little Sadako.

Finally, there was a dull "boom," and the sound from the other end was completely cut off.

Sadako stared blankly at the phone on the coffee table, her brain having completely stopped thinking.

"Qin Ming-kun... just now, in my phone..."

"Oh, it's nothing." Qin Ming pressed the end call button and pushed the phone back to her. "Didn't I just say? This is a standard procedure."

Sadako held the still-hot flip phone in a daze, the CPU of her brain nearly smoking from processing the information.

She suddenly felt that the waters of this big city, Tokyo, were truly deep enough to be terrifying.

"We'll find her in the next couple of days and then perform a rite to move her on." Qin Ming took another sip from his water glass, his tone relaxed. "Then we'll go see the sights at Tokyo Tower."

"Yay!" Emma raised both hands and cheered.

Sadako looked at the excited Emma, then pointed at her own nose. "Huh? Us?"

"Yes, us." Qin Ming nodded as if it were a matter of course, continuing his serious-faced bluffing. "You're considered external personnel now. Participating in field assignments comes with a bonus. Do it a few more times, and maybe we can even get you a formal work visa."

Sadako swallowed hard; she had no idea how to respond to that.

The next morning.

A rare thin mist rose over Tokyo, and the air held a damp chill.

Robert sat at the dining table, tidying his tie while eating the Tamagoyaki Sadako had prepared.

"I'll be back early tonight to take you all to Shibuya for the best Wagyu BBQ! Miss Sadako, you should come too. Think of it as a celebration for successfully finding a job at the theater troupe!"

Just as Sadako was about to bow and thank him, the phone in her apron pocket suddenly vibrated.

She glanced at the caller ID; it was an unfamiliar landline number.

"Excuse me, I'll take this call." Sadako walked to the entrance hall and pressed the answer button.

A few minutes later.

Sadako walked back to the dining room with an extremely complex expression, her steps a bit unsteady.

"What's wrong?" Robert keenly noticed her abnormality. "Is the theater troupe changing the rehearsal time?"

"The troupe... has disbanded." Sadako lowered her head, her voice a bit strained.

"What?!" The fork in Robert's hand clattered onto the plate. "Weren't you just hired yesterday?"

"This morning, the police went to the rehearsal building and set up a cordon. Director Shigemori... and several core actors like Senior Hazuki have all disappeared." Sadako repeated what the stagehand had said on the phone. "The stagehand said they can't find anyone anywhere, and the surveillance cameras in the troupe's office all exploded. All that's left on the floor is... glass shards from TV and computer screens."

Qin Ming stuffed the last bite of toast into his mouth without changing his expression. "Tokyo's public security is really poor. It seems the economic downturn is so bad that people are even stealing manhole covers from the sewers. Robert, be careful on your way back from work."

"Oh! God bless us!" Robert crossed himself, his face full of disbelief. "How could such a bizarre disappearance happen! But Miss Sadako, don't be sad. A theater troupe with such poor security isn't worth going to anyway. At worst, I'll just add another thirty thousand yen to your monthly salary!"

After finishing breakfast, Robert hurriedly grabbed his briefcase and left for work.

As the door closed, the house became quiet.

Sadako stood where she was.

There was certainly a sense of loss; after all, it was the first time she had been so close to the spotlight on a stage.

But strangely, when she recalled the fat director trying to reach out his wandering hands toward her yesterday and his nauseatingly greedy eyes, a hidden sense of pleasure irrepressibly welled up from the depths of her heart.

"Since you don't have to go to rehearsal today..." Qin Ming stood up from the sofa and jerked his chin at Sadako. "Let's go, external personnel."

Ten o'clock in the morning.

The taxi stopped at the foot of a desolate mountain on the outskirts of Tokyo.

The driver took the fare, floored the gas pedal, and drove away from the dirt road overgrown with weeds.

Appearing before the three of them was an abandoned building surrounded by a high wire fence.

Mizunuma Abandoned Hospital.

The building's exterior walls had peeled away into a mottled mess, and dead creepers clung to the wall like shriveled blood vessels.

Even though the sun was shining brightly overhead at this moment, the building still felt like a black hole, emitting a dense, unshakeable chill.

This was the birthplace of Mimeko, the girl from "one missed call" who was chronically abused by her biological mother and eventually suffocated to death during an asthma attack.

It was also the "server hub" she used to create death notifications all across Japan.

Sadako stood outside the rusty iron gate. She could clearly feel that something extremely malicious and full of hatred was lurking inside that building.

"Qin Ming-kun... are we really going in?" Sadako gripped the hem of her dark long skirt tightly. "Since we know that... that thing is inside, can't we just call the police?"

"The Japanese police won't handle this kind of thing." The iron gate's hinges let out a tooth-gritting screech.

"Wasps will attack when they feel threatened; it's their nature." Emma was chewing bubble gum, her hands behind her back as she skipped along next to Qin Ming. She turned and gave Sadako an incredibly sweet smile. "Don't be afraid, Sister Sadako."

Sadako swallowed hard as she listened, but seeing the two ten-year-old children already walking boldly into the yard, she could only grit her teeth and follow them.

They pushed open the door to the hospital's first floor.