The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 645: Curse: Moth’s Knot

“Something is not quite right.” Suuankou narrowed his eyes slightly.

Suuankou vaguely sensed something was wrong. He was a fast-growing transcender, and he had more or less reached the Silver Rank, thus his Perception attribute was not poor.

The current issue was more than just someone tailing him.

After Suuankou left the team, he had a vague sense of strange malice. He hadn’t gone far when he began to feel a growing discomfort in his body.

To put it into perspective, it felt like coming down with a strong fever. But this discomfort was so intense… In less than a minute, he felt his body becoming unsteady and his head spinning.

He even felt a growing heaviness in his chest, making his breathing increasingly difficult and sluggish. His limbs became increasingly heavy, and his skin tingled with intensifying nerve pain.

…This is bad.

Suuankou reacted and glanced at his status bar.

Health: 85%

After about three or four seconds, the number dropped by 1%.

When Suuankou realized he was losing health, Suuankou immediately became vigilant.

He stood there and counted quietly.

After ten seconds, he lost 1% of his blood; after another ten seconds, he lost another 1%.

Does the damager over time follow the strict rule of every 10 seconds?

Since it’s related to 10 seconds, this should be the curse of the realm the Motherly Moth belongs to.

But what is the medium?

Why are they cursing me? No, let’s not worry about that question for now.

Suuankou calmed down quickly and began to look around, searching for something related to the number ten.

Meanwhile, a train of thought came to his mind. He began to calculate.

—Based on the current rate of health depletion, after tracing it back, it would have started approximately five minutes after I left the team.

At this realization, he immediately halted his steps and braved the intensifying sense of illness as he retraced his path.

He made every effort to maintain his pace, matching it with the speed he had walked here.

Suuankou noticed the abnormality when his health points dropped to 67%. There was a soaked hemp rope in a fish tank.

There were ten knots tied on the rope.

“Knot?” Suuankou murmured.

Suuankou managed to recall it. The “knots” could serve as a medium for curses, too.

After Delicious Wind Goose shared various theories about rituals, Suuankou noticed bizarre similarities with some ancient ethnic customs on Earth. So he bought some books on folklore some time ago to research and gather information.

In the East Indies, the indigenous people believed that “tying knots” could bind the fetus inside the mother’s body. This meant it could prevent her from giving birth easily or cause slow postpartum recovery. Therefore, they believed that during pregnancy, both the husband and wife should refrain from “tying knots.”

In some parts of Southeast Asia, during childbirth, everything that could be untied was untied inside and outside the house. This includes braids, shoelaces, ropes, and even removing gunpowder from gun barrels and setting aside arrows from bows. They even avoided sitting cross-legged because it was also considered a form of “tying knots.”

There was also the culture of veils with knotted patterns to ward off wizards. That was why the brides wore veils with numerous knots during weddings. Those veils were believed to resist spells.

Although this witchcraft was quite common, none of the rituals taught by Delicious Wind Goose in this world involved any “knotting” ceremony.

Suuankou didn’t care about such things at the time.

However, Suuankou noticed the strange knots in the fish tank. Worse still, there were still living fish in this fish tank. Such a thick knot might pollute the water.

However, the owner did not mind it, paying no heed to it.

Either the shopkeeper was an accomplice, or he was under mind control.

Suuankou ignored the shopkeeper and removed the hemp rope from the fish tank.

How do I deal with it?

Should I untie the knot or cut it off with a sword like what Alexander did?

Let’s just be on the safe side.

“Hey, what are you doing?” At this moment, while wiping his hands with a towel, the shopkeeper reprimanded aggressively, “Don’t touch that rope. Put that thing back!”

It was a burly man with dark skin and a robust physique.

His eyes shimmered with a bright brown glow — a testament to his pure-blood status as an underground dweller.

“Oh?“

Suuankou felt rest assured after hearing that.

I thought I could be wrong, but I’m more certain after hearing your words.

Without hesitation, he reached out and untied each knot one by one. With each knot untied, he felt a sense of relief wash over his body.

“Hey!” Seeing this, the shopkeeper rushed over to stop him.

Before the shopkeeper got closer, the ground before him exploded, and viscous orange flames spewed upwards in clusters.

Amidst the miserable wailing, the man was burned to ashes by the raging fire within four to five seconds. Then, the flames on the floor gradually dissipated.

—It was the skill, [Flame Trap].

Once it turned completely black, it spewed out a scorching flame equivalent to the Bronze Rank Destruction spell “Jet Flame”. It was hot enough to char a person. Deactivating this trap requires soaking the card in hot blood, then tearing it apart before it dried up.

Otherwise, even slicing the card in half would trigger the trap.

Suuankou tossed the trap in front of him before the shopkeeper could charge over. The moment the shopkeeper stepped on it, the shopkeeper immediately triggered the trap.

At this time, Suuankou had already untied all the knots.

He suddenly felt his body becoming lighter. All the sudden discomfort disappeared.

What a hassle!

Suuankou breathed a sigh of relief. He threw the knot into the fire on the corpse without thinking.

Suddenly, Suuankou’s eyes were confronted with a row of blood-red, hastily written large characters. It startled him, causing a shudder to run through his body.

[You have nullified the curse — The Moth’s Knot]

The next moment, the burning rope disintegrated into countless gray moths. They flapped their flaming wings and flew to the sky. However, they didn’t get far before each one plummeted to the ground, turning into piles of ashes.

As for the burnt hemp rope, there seemed to be something in it.

Suuankou ignored the passers-by who fled in panic because the shopkeeper was killed. Instead, he squatted on the ground and took out the hemp rope after the flames extinguished.

He peeled off the layer of black ash covering the hemp rope, revealing the golden thread underneath.

The golden thread seemed to be hair but resembled a thin copper wire.

When Suuankou touched it, a new system prompt appeared in front of his eyes:

[Elderly Youth Hair (Residual)]

[Type: Material / miscellaneous (Blue)]

[Description: Strands of hair from an elderly yet youthful individual, treated with a special potion. It has been damaged but still retains usable enchantment.]

[Effect: The bearer will be afflicted with the “Accelerated Aging” curse.]

[Accelerated Aging: The bearer’s aging process doubles in speed.]

It will still drop a Blue grade curse material even after being damaged. What a surprise!

Suuankou’s first reaction was, “Shouldn’t I fucking set it on fire”, but it felt quite wasted. However, he quickly realized that the flame’s temperature was already low, so it was unlikely to burn it down.

Probably because the “Moth’s Knot” was nullified, the curse was gone.

But I’m just a player.

I don’t know anyone here, so there couldn’t be any grudges or animosity.

“Who would go to such lengths to kill me?”

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