Chapter 6

Chapter 6

[Things are getting intense right from the first meeting.]

[Cherish these newbies while you can. By the time players reach the later stages, they either become flamboyant eccentrics assimilated by the Clown or total stoics.]

[That’s normal. No one wants others to figure out if they’re the Murderer or an Innocent.]

[Why? Shouldn’t you normally want people to believe you’re an Innocent?]

[That involves a Hidden Rule. The Danmu won’t let me post it. The person above must be a newbie; you’ll understand after playing a few more times.]

[Anyway, it’s pretty disgusting.]

Murong was clearly incensed. “You’re the Murderer, aren’t you! You didn’t try to meet up with anyone or look for clues, and the moment you show up, you start picking fights!”

She looked around. “Where is the Notary Office? I’m going to report you!”

Zhong Liang couldn’t have cared less. “Go ahead. I’m not the Murderer. If you report me, you’re the only one who’s going to die.”

Murong froze, clearly remembering the rules.

She cast a pleading look at the others, hoping they would take her side.

However, Jiang Jiang remained silent because of her earlier lack of trust, and Ming Yue was cold by nature.

She looked toward Ning Shuo. He comforted her, saying, “Don’t be too nervous. Maybe there’s a win-win solution.”

Ming Yue scoffed coldly. “You’re way too nice, still coddling this princess even when we’re in a horror game.”

Murong turned her gaze to her. “What do you mean by that? We’re both girls, why are you targeting me?”

Ming Yue crossed her arms. “I’m just stating facts. We’re in a horror game right now; we could die any second. If you dare to suspect people without evidence, you’re just throwing your own life away.”

Ming Yue had almost been sacrificed as an offering at the start of the game, so her experience with death was far more profound than that of the other players.

Ning Shuo said, “Let’s not dwell on this anymore. We should focus on finding the Murderer. We only have an hour for this meeting, and who knows when the next one will be.”

Zhong Liang pointed at the corpse. “There are only sword wounds. Who here can carry a sword?”

The group exchanged looks before slowly turning their eyes toward Jiang Jiang.

Jiang Jiang immediately spoke up. “It wasn’t me. As for a sword, anyone could just snatch one from a guard, right?”

Zhong Liang didn’t confirm or deny it. Instead, he pointed at Murong. “Idiot.”

Then he pointed at Ming Yue. “Prisoner.”

Finally, he pointed at Ning Shuo. “Invalid.”

“Which one of them do you think has the chance or the strength to overpower a Ghost/Monster?”

Jiang Jiang’s expression turned sour. “Then what about yourself?”

Zhong Liang spread his hands. “I told you, the Emperor is monitoring my progress. I can’t just escape easily.”

Ning Shuo spoke up at the right moment. “Could it be an item?”

“No,” Zhong Liang said. “I’ve only played one Script before, but I have a bit more experience than you pure newbies. A Novice Script like ‘Li Kingdom Cold Case’ doesn’t have items; it relies entirely on the players’ personal abilities. I only ended up in this one because I hadn’t encountered any information related to this Script before.”

“So, a sword capable of killing a Ghost/Monster can only be something that originally exists in this world.”

Zhong Liang pointed at Jiang Jiang’s sword. “For example, your sword.”

Jiang Jiang threw the sword onto the ground. “You can check if this sword has killed anyone!”

Zhong Liang scrutinized him. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be that sword. This is an immersive Murder Mystery Game. You’re a guard; you could have easily killed someone, tossed the murder weapon, and grabbed a new one.”

“If you put it that way, there’s actually a loophole,” Ning Shuo said. “Since this is an immersive Murder Mystery Game, if a guard loses his sword, he should logically have to report it. We should find an opportunity tomorrow to ask the NPCs at the Guard Camp and check the Register.”

Ming Yue suddenly spoke. “There’s one more question. Who is the victim?”
If he wasn’t a Player, then who was the deceased?

Zhong Liang looked puzzled. “That’s a problem. Usually, before the Players arrive, an NPC would shout something like ‘So-and-so is dead.’ At the very least, there wouldn’t be a total lack of information.”

Jiang Jiang spoke up immediately. “When we arrived, the NPC only shouted that someone was dead. There was no identifying information.”

Ming Yue studied the face for a moment, then suddenly began feeling around the edges of the skin.

When her fingers hit a certain spot, her eyes lit up. “Found it.”

As she peeled back the mask, however, her expression soured visibly.

She recognized this face.

He was one of the guards who had carried her to the altar earlier that day.

Ning Shuo stood quietly to the side, his finger tapping rhythmically against his elbow.

…

He wasn’t the only clever person in the world, and considering there might be other hidden Players, Ning Shuo had applied two layers of Disguise.

The first layer required water to be scrubbed off.

The second layer was a simple mask he could throw on.

He thought of Murong, whose intelligence was an unknown variable, and Jiang Jiang, who was currently the only one with a sword and thus the primary suspect.

In a Murder Mystery Game, when one cannot definitively prove someone’s identity, muddying the waters is a vital task for the Murderer.

That was why he had shifted suspicion onto Ming Yue, who remained calm even though she was about to be sacrificed.

As for Ning Shuo himself, he didn’t plan on clearing his name entirely.

After all, a mere pawn on the board is far less likely to be suspected as the mastermind behind the scenes.

…

Ming Yue didn’t hide the fact that she knew the deceased.

In her view, once the free exploration time ended, the NPCs would recognize the face anyway.

Hiding it now would only work against her.

With this revelation, the suspicion previously focused on Jiang Jiang was split. Among the Players, Ming Yue was the one most familiar with the deceased; the others might never have even seen him.

Zhong Liang frowned. “But in the introductions just now, you said you were the Jiang Family’s Legitimate Daughter. Because of your unlucky birth and your father’s blind loyalty, you were seized by imperial decree to be a sacrifice.”

He looked skeptical. “Logically, you shouldn’t know how to use a Disguise.”

“If we’re talking about Disguises…” Zhong Liang turned his gaze toward Ning Shuo. “A Priest who knows divination, physiognomy, and the Art of Qimen Dunjia seems like a better fit.”

Ning Shuo simply stood there, noncommittal.

Since Zhong Liang had managed to cast suspicion on all four of them without saying a word about himself, Ning Shuo didn’t need to speak.

Someone else would snap at Zhong Liang.

Sure enough, Murong was the first to sneer. “You’ve certainly done a thorough job of suspecting everyone else, but have you noticed something?”

“Whether it’s the method of the crime or the timeline, you’ve made yourself practically invisible.”

After a long silence, Jiang Jiang added, “Out of the five of us, Ming Yue is in the most danger because she doesn’t know when she’ll be sacrificed. Murong has the weakest physical stamina. My status is the lowest of the five. And Ning… the Half-Immortal is sickly.”

“What makes you different from everyone else? Is it just that you have the experience of completing one more Script than us?”

Ming Yue added another point: “The fatal wound is on his neck. It should have bled a lot, but there’s very little blood nearby.”

“This isn’t the primary crime scene.”

Ming Yue scrutinized Zhong Liang. “Compared to us, you’re a veteran, yet you haven’t said a word about such an obvious detail regarding the crime scene. We all know where each other’s quarters are, except for yours.”

“Is it really because the Emperor strictly forbade it, or are you just using that as an excuse to hide the fact that your place is the primary crime scene?”