I Got My Cheat Skill by Acting My Way into a Horror Protagonist Role Chapter 10

[Cursed Child]

Usually, the first time a player enters a horror game world, they face the lowest-tier E-level dungeon.

Generally speaking, as long as you stay calm enough and follow the rules inside the game, and nothing unexpected happens, you can still make it back to the real world.

But among the vast variety of humans, a small group appeared who were completely different.

They were called "Cursed Children."

They were people least bound by rules, who could both create miracles and bring catastrophe.

Rumors circulated that there were seven Cursed Children in the world.

But the others were only incomplete ones; only the final Cursed Child could truly end everything and bring about the ultimate doom.

The first so-called "Cursed Child" appeared in the first year the horror adventure game showed up.

Those who had seen him spoke of his strangeness: a black crescent bloomed on his wrist. That dense, absolute blackness was like an abyss.

The appearance of the first Cursed Child brought his country great benefits in the game's geopolitical games.

But that was only a small island nation at sea. In the years after, besieged by many superpowers, something unknown happened and it ultimately became an uncharted territory in the real world.

It disappeared directly from satellite detection.

Seven days later, when the offshore nation reappeared, the entire massive island was shrouded in black-red mist.

Like a forbidden death zone.

Governments reported that it was impossible to enter and explore, but whether they actually sent people in, ordinary civilians had no way of knowing.

None of that had anything to do with Xu Zisheng, an ordinary person.

So when fate descended on him, Xu Zisheng was a little confused.

There are so many people in the world—why pick him?

He did not think his modestly competent brain or his slightly stronger empathy were worth anything.

When Xu Zisheng was eighteen, nothing happened. Many classmates had entered the horror game world during high school, and quite a few were never seen again.

He passed the summer peacefully and then went to university.

Just when he thought he would live out a plain, uneventful life, a change occurred.

A few days before his twentieth birthday, he received an email: due to an experimental accident, his parents—who had long been away doing unknown research—would never return.

It seemed like an expected development.

After all, his parents had never cared for him; their lives and deaths always felt distant from him.

Still, he felt hurt and cried. He was, after all, still human, right?

They said they would give him a gift to open a different life, yet never asked him what he wanted…

And what was this newly founded Tianji mentioned in the letter?

They told him to seek help there if he encountered an unsolvable, thorny problem, but not to trust them completely…

Alone, Xu Zisheng blew out the candle, quietly watched the clock hands pass midnight, and prepared to go back to bed and start a mundane tomorrow.

Zzz—

Sss—

A sound like electric current, accompanied by hissing murmurs, reached his ears.

The second the hand crossed twelve, a sharp pain stabbed his wrist, and a single black crescent slowly drew itself.

It was the mark of a Cursed Child.

Xu Zisheng: ??!!

But it did not stop there. During the following sequence, the pain from the mark on his wrist made Xu Zisheng writhe.

One crescent, two crescents, three crescents, until four crescents appeared and the black runes finally halted.

Cursed Child?

The fourth one or what?!

When Absolutely Healing Horror Adventure had first arrived, news of the "Cursed Children" hadn't yet been fully suppressed, so Xu Zisheng had some vague understanding of the rumors.

The crescent on the wrist was very likely the symbol of a Cursed Child.

Was he going to enter the horror game?

Because of the black crescent, Xu Zisheng lay awake the whole night in fear.

But the thing he feared did not happen, and for a long time afterward, he adjusted his mindset quickly.

He was steady and introverted, gentle and polite. Even without his parents, he tried to live on—live on—

hungrier for life than anyone else.

Although he did not know whether the "gift" his parents mentioned in that last letter was related to the mark on his wrist, Xu Zisheng did not want to investigate.

Even if he wanted to, how could an ordinary college student have the power?

He had never heard of Tianji.

He also never thought to dial the number and invite trouble.

A whole year passed as Xu Zisheng smoothly got through university with no signs of entering the horror world.

The mark could not be captured by cameras and others could not see it.

Naturally, he did not blatantly show it to anyone.

He used makeup to conceal part of it, leaving a dark streak—no one else seemed able to see it.

As for reporting it to the state, he had considered it.

But he always felt his parents’ deaths were suspicious, possibly linked to Tianji.

Now he knew what Tianji was: an immensely powerful state apparatus…

Who knew whether they would drag him off for dissection.

Better not to expose himself.

He did not idle during that year of part-time work; he tried many new things and obtained various miscellaneous certificates.

Just as everything was proceeding smoothly, on a night when he was twenty-one, Xu Zisheng again writhed in agony.

Then four crescents became five.

"Sss—does this thing even grow?"

He sighed helplessly.

"Does it just keep increasing? How cheap and mass-produced does this feel?"

Comforting himself like that, he soon regretted the flag he had raised for himself.

He sighed, "It won't really keep going like this, will it?"

As expected, on his twenty-second birthday.

Having just earned a sign-language certificate, Xu Zisheng was in so much pain that he used sign language to perform a rap.

Six crescent rings—

If it continued to grow next year, maybe he would finally know whether he was the so-called final Cursed Child.

At twenty-three, Xu Zisheng set his newly obtained Psychological Counselor Certificate and the giant axe he had modified to the side.

He calmly lay inside the game-protection pod provided by Tianji, a horror movie playing before his eyes.

In this final moment, he had completely adapted.

He could even critique how modern horror films, after the baptism of the horror-healing game, had become more flavorful than before.

When the clock finally pointed to 0:00, Xu Zisheng's expression was both fierce and calm.

Seven and a half crescents at last circled and formed a ring on his wrist.

The scene before Xu Zisheng slowly shifted; blood-red and darkness began to cloak and devour him.

The blood-colored screen he had waited years for finally appeared.

He reached for the axe he had carefully modified to face entry into the horror world, but the lingering pain from the crescents prevented him from steadying his grip; his hand slipped and could only catch the Psychological Counselor Certificate beside him.

Xu Zisheng: ???

[Welcome, final Cursed Child—]

[The companion initial equipment you chose to bind is—Level-2 Psychological Counselor Certificate]

Xu Zisheng: !!!

How am I supposed to survive with this? Fight ghosts with a pamphlet?

[File Supplemental Data–002–Birth of the Cursed Child]