Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Ming Yue looked at the slip of paper in her hand.
[A letter from the Murderer, Ning Shuo (Apologies, I am indeed the Murderer): After I leave, someone will come to untie your ropes. If it is convenient for you then, please pass the word to the other Players as well (mostly because I was too lazy to write more notes).
Afterward, go to the Notary Office across from the Dali Temple (it looks like a tea stall, so don’t miss it; it’s the one hidden by a curtain with a Clown standing inside) and make an Accusation against me. At that time, the NPCs will be too preoccupied with their own affairs to notice you, as long as you are careful.]
Ming Yue looked up at the person in front of her. “Didn’t you already leave?”
Ning Wang, clutching his sword and preparing to depart, spared her a glance. His face bore a playful smirk that was entirely absent from the serious, chuunibyou-like persona Ning Shuo usually wore. “You’ve got the wrong person. Go make the Accusation.”
…
Ever since that Attendant failed to notice Ning Shuo blatantly checking his pulse under the guise of palm reading, Ning Shuo knew that while the NPCs in these Scripts possessed intelligence, it wasn’t much.
Or rather, all their intelligence was focused on racking their brains to devour Players or finding OOC moments to kill them.
As long as a Player didn’t go OOC, the NPCs’ intelligence was no different from that of a normal child.
It was roughly at the level of a fill-in-the-blanks vocabulary test.
Not to mention, this was a Newbie Script; the intellectual capacity of the NPCs here was even harder to evaluate compared to other Scripts.
That was why the Emperor only realized something was wrong with the paper after he had finished reading the blanks aloud.
To avoid letting the NPCs sense they were OOC, other Players rarely even interacted with them.
Let alone directly manipulating an NPC to make an Accusation.
Every rule had a target it restricted. Rule 2 restricted the Murderer, and Rule 3 restricted the Innocents.
So, if the Murderer needed to escape during an Accusation, who said that Accusation had to come from an Innocent?
Not a single rule stated that the Accusation the Murderer had to escape from must be initiated by an Innocent.
After the Clown killed the Emperor, Ning Shuo hid nearby, watching the Virtual Screen flicker wildly between “success” and “failure” like a glitching bug. Finally, it begrudgingly displayed a “success” loading bar.
[Congratulations, Player Ning Banxian, for completing the Murderer’s mission! Next, please choose whether to leave the Script “Li Kingdom Cold Case”.]
Ning Shuo didn’t hesitate. “Leave.”
Everything that followed could be left to take its natural course.
…
[Player Ning Banxian has completed the Murderer’s mission. Now calculating mission rewards and live stream tips.]
[Player Ning Banxian, you have deceived the other Players with your outstanding acting and flexible mind, and successfully discovered three Hidden Rules. Based on mission completion and additional Hidden Rule bonuses, you have earned 43,671 Heat. Among Players completing their first Script, you have surpassed 98.64% of participants. Currently, your ranking on the Zone F Heat Ranking List is: 67,892.]
[You are like a high-level player who accidentally wandered into a newbie village. Simultaneously, you are deeply loved by the audience.]
[Your Live Stream Room, “Ning Shuo – Ning Banxian,” has accumulated 134,753 likes. A total of 6,539 people tipped you, with a cumulative tip amount of 4,391 Heat Points. Congratulations; when it comes to playing the audience, you have clearly found the secret to traffic.]
[Your total Heat has been deposited into your Backpack balance. Your current Heat Points balance: 48,062.]
[Friendly Reminder: Heat Points are the universal currency for exchanging items in the Rest Area and Scripts. Additionally, the overall Ranking List will be based on Heat Points. We wish you a pleasant life within the System. Until next time.]
The friendly reminder was only visible to Ning Shuo.
Because the mission had ended and the live stream was closed, someone on the Forum quickly started a thread about Ning Shuo.
[Nobody ever said we could let NPCs accuse the Murderer!]
[Even if someone did say it, would you dare talk to those Ghosts/Monsters with bits of bloody meat stuck in their teeth?]
[To be honest, with those two rules linked together, almost everyone defaulted to the idea that the Murderer had to escape an Accusation from an Innocent. Who could have thought of this…]
[+1. I even feel like the System itself didn’t expect it.]
[Upstairs, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.]
[Looking at it this way, when we play Multi-player Mode, we don’t have to worry about killing each other anymore?]
[Easier said than done. Would a Murderer dare to challenge an NPC? One slip-up and you’re eaten. And if an Innocent calls out to the Murderer, the Murderer might not trust them.]
[From that perspective, the primitive way is still the simplest and easiest to win.]
[Three Hidden Rules… This is the first Player ever to discover three Hidden Rules during their very first Script, right?]
[So, making an NPC perform the Accusation is also a Hidden Rule?]
[Definitely not. Hidden Rules aren’t allowed to be posted on public platforms. Even private notifications require a transaction of Heat Points.]
[So, when did he find the third one? When the live stream went black?]
[Maybe he found it at the same time as the second one…]
[This is the first time I’ve seen a Multi-player Novice Script where there’s an All Survive outcome.]
[Didn’t someone almost die? Remember that Murong girl?]
[I didn’t expect that even when they were almost at the Notary Office, she actually harbored the intent to kill everyone else. Luckily Ming Yue noticed. Those people even brought Murong out with them in the end.]
[Ultimately, that’s just the normal psychology of a newcomer. It’s hard to trust everyone.]
[By the way, those NPCs really didn’t notice them. Why?]
[NPCs have to follow their own personas. The Emperor’s death is a massive event; everyone is busy running around, so who has time to worry about a few people?]
[First time seeing an NPC die-and two at once. One of them even had a pivotal identity in the Script.]
[“I’ve seen this Script quite a few times. Almost everyone’s grudge can be traced back to the Emperor, but in the end, the Emperor bit the dust. It’s hilarious! This really has the flavor of a modern Murder Mystery Game-the person with the most enemies died, and the Murderer killed him, hahaha.”]
[“But if the PvP Script world resets, can the dead NPCs be resurrected? That was the Clown who killed him, after all.”]
[“Elementary, my dear Watson. You’ve spotted the key point.”]
Comments flooded in layer by layer. In the next second, a System-exclusive Virtual Screen appeared in front of everyone.
[???]
[System Notification: Due to the death of the important character ‘Emperor of Li,’ the Script ‘Li Kingdom Cold Case’ has ceased operation and is about to be shredded.]
[“Holy crap??”]
[“He directly and indirectly shredded a Script??”]
[“Half-Immortal!! For real!! He’s the real deal!!!”]
[“I thought he was just a Hidden Rule Excavator, but it turns out he’s a Script Smasher too!”]
[“I have a feeling he’ll definitely make it into the top ten of the Ranking List in the future.”]
[“Can’t we just close the System Notification once it’s done? Why is there another progress bar at the bottom?”]
[“It’s not over yet?”]
After the progress bar finished loading, another System notification popped up.
[After System calculation, a serious bug interfering with player gameplay has occurred within the Script. All Players in the Script will be forcibly pulled into a Rest Area. Once in the Rest Area, the System will undergo an update. The System will compensate Players for any losses incurred.]
[“Ah…”]
[“Haha, which Script glitched? It couldn’t be the Li Kingdom one, could it? Hahaha.”]
[“No way, isn’t that just a Novice Script? Hahaha.”]
[“But with these two notifications coming one after another, it’s hard not to wonder, hahaha.”]
[“Stop with the ‘hahas’ already. It’s getting awkward and overwhelming, hahaha.”]
[“Who did the System pull in? Could it be a Big Shot?”]
[“This seems to be the first NPC killed by the Clown in PvP Mode, right? Could the bug fix be for that?”]
[“Don’t overthink it. There are thousands upon thousands of Scripts in the System. Aren’t there other Big Shots in Scripts right now? Maybe they’re the ones who caused the bug.”]
[“Exactly. Hasn’t Lolita been in a Script for a while now?”]
[“Luo Li? The one who loves wearing Lolita fashion and uses the code name Lolita?”]
[“There’s also Rao Lin and Song Zhu. Unfortunately, it seems they’ve all turned off their livestreams, so no one knows what’s going on.”]
[“So, which Rest Area did Ning Shuo go to?”]
***
Ning Shuo didn’t know which Rest Area he had been dumped into either.
Regardless, once the light before his eyes faded, the clothes on his body had changed back into the white shirt and black trousers he wore before.
The pushing sensation on his back vanished, and Ning Shuo habitually adjusted his glasses.
Then, he felt a wave of hunger that he hadn’t noticed at all while inside the Script.
He looked at the dining area just a few steps away from the logout point, realizing he had felt almost no hunger while in the Script.
*Oh, the System’s handiwork.*
He reached into his pocket and felt a card.
It was a pure Black Card with a golden Clown head drawn on it. Next to it was written: Ning Shuo, Code Name: Ning Banxian.
…He reasonably suspected this was a sarcastic way of calling all Players “Jokers.”
Ning Shuo walked into the dining area and ordered a meal.
Sure enough, the Black Card functioned like a bank card.
Presumably, it was used for transactions everywhere else too.
With a “beep” from the NPC lady, a Virtual Screen-shrunk to the size of a palm-popped up in front of Ning Shuo’s eyes, displaying his balance: 47,562.
Ning Shuo stared silently at the bowl of scallion oil chicken soup noodles in front of him.
One bowl of noodles cost five hundred credits.
Ning Shuo had been too hungry to check the prices beforehand.
As he ate his noodles, he glanced at the price list.
…A single steamed bun cost twenty credits.
Good grief.
Were people who entered Scripts really that good at earning money?
“Hey, is that him?”
“Banxian, it’s him. That face is too memorable.”
“He really is handsome!”
“Being handsome doesn’t put food on the table. Who knows if he’ll even be able to afford a steamed bun tomorrow.”
Ning Shuo focused on eating while listening quietly.
From the conversations of the people nearby, Ning Shuo learned one thing: in reality, most people didn’t earn much in the Scripts.
They all worked part-time jobs in the Rest Areas to earn Heat Points.
The Murder Mystery Game System was mainly divided into two parts: the Scripts and the Rest Areas.
A Rest Area wasn’t just a room, but an entire district. There were many such districts of various types.
Casinos, amusement parks, ancient-themed areas, manors, residential complexes, and so on.
The entire area where Players rested was called a Rest Area.
After finishing his noodles, Ning Shuo walked to the edge of the Rest Area he was in, which was reportedly called “Overworked and Overrun.”
The Rest Area was suspended in the sky.
Ning Shuo tried reaching out, only to feel a barrier in the air at the edge.
*Oh, a transparent wall, just like in a game.*
The transparent wall wasn’t aggressive; it seemed to exist purely to prevent Players from falling off, which fit the “absolute safety” philosophy of the Rest Areas.
Once he had his fill of food and drink, Ning Shuo pulled up the Virtual Screen and found the section for searching and adding friends.
The row below was filled with System recommendations, most of whom were famous people on the Ranking List.
The System was quite good at promotion; whether those Big Shots would actually accept the requests after everyone added them was another matter entirely.
Ning Shuo slowly pondered his old way of thinking, his fingers unconsciously tapping lightly.
He hesitated for a moment over the search bar before typing in a code name that barely fit within the System’s character limit-
Number One Swordsman in the World.
The status on the other end showed as online during his search.
Two seconds later, the request was accepted.