“Missing soul?” Jiang Xiao asked suspiciously. “I don’t feel any reaction at all.”
As he spoke, he suddenly realized: “The memory I lost in the Novice Dungeon… could it be that losing my soul caused the amnesia?”
System: “Unclear.”
“…” Jiang Xiao was speechless. “I remember at the Customer Service Dept., selling 1% of my soul was only 1000 points. But redeeming it back is double? Buy low, sell high—are you some kind of reseller?!”
System: “For souls voluntarily sold to the Customer Service Dept., redeeming them requires 10,000 points per 1%.”
A full ten times the price!
Jiang Xiao: “It’s literally selling your soul to the devil…”
Well, now Jiang Xiao had accidentally stumbled upon the reason for his amnesia and the method to recover his memories. But now he was faced with a very classic dilemma—
If the System and his memory fell into a river together, which one should he save first?
Logically, the two were mutually exclusive. He’d searched for the System precisely to find his memories. It would be more efficient to just go straight to the source and retrieve his memories directly.
Jiang Xiao: “Will the System in the Black Room eventually return to its original player?”
System: “No. It will be reassigned to a new player without a system.”
Jiang Xiao: “Are there any restrictions on redeeming memories?”
The System seemed to pause for a moment before answering mechanically, “No.”
What was with that suspicious pause? Jiang Xiao was very doubtful. He found that this System always seemed to be hiding things from him. If he didn’t ask, it wouldn’t tell. Could it be deceiving him?
But if he redeemed his memories first, he’d have to give up his current system… Jiang Xiao truly found it hard to decide. The lost soul was clearly very important as well. He only had three weeks to make his decision.
Jiang Xiao returned to reality and looked back at Si Lin.
Si Lin was sitting in the second seat from the left. Jiang Xiao remembered he’d been sitting here yesterday. The dart had already been removed. Si Lin’s head was half-lowered; if one ignored the bloodstains on his body, he seemed to be merely deep in thought.
Jiang Xiao knelt on one knee on the ground and looked up at Si Lin. A strong, complex emotion surged through his heart, preventing him from calming his thoughts.
Even though he knew Si Lin was just an NPC in a game, this scene was rendered far too realistically, making it completely impossible for him to treat him as merely a line of erasable code.
“I will find the killer,” Jiang Xiao said earnestly to Si Lin. “And I’ll protect myself well.”
As Jiang Xiao spoke, he noticed there were also a few rose petals on Si Lin’s clothing. He had a slight stress reaction and very carefully brushed the petals away. Out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed what seemed like a glint of light flashing through the bloodstains on Si Lin’s body.
Jiang Xiao: “?”
Puzzled, Jiang Xiao looked closer and realized it was the collarbone chain he had given to Si Lin. Due to his leaning-forward posture, it had slipped slightly from the collar, catching the light from the large screen and reflecting a faint, bluish-silver glow.
This necklace… Si Lin seemed to have been wearing it the whole time.
Jiang Xiao, in turn, was also wearing the necklace Si Lin had given him. But he felt the one Si Lin gave him wasn’t pure silver; it was heavier, and the patterns on the chain were more refined and delicate.
Jiang Xiao sighed, not knowing what he felt inside. He picked up the remote control and turned off the large screen—at least he wouldn’t be assaulted by the light now. Then, he looked forward from the spot where the dart had hit Si Lin and discovered a square box.
This must be the delay mechanism.
Jiang Xiao walked over. One side of the box had no partition; the inside was empty but perfectly sized to hold a single dart. Inside the box was a spring, connected to a wire. The wire extended all the way up to the ceiling.
Jiang Xiao thought for a moment and confirmed that this box hadn’t been here yesterday.
And such a small box placed here wasn’t conspicuous at all; no one would pay attention to what was inside.
“Where does this wire lead?” Jiang Xiao looked up, examining it, and murmured, “If this is a delay mechanism, there must be a switch to trigger the device.”
From this perspective, the mechanism of the device was easy to understand. Some method was used to connect the spring to a switch. Then, when someone triggered the switch, the spring would stretch and then whoosh—propel the dart out, piercing into the target’s body.
Without moving the box from its position, Jiang Xiao did a rough visual estimate. This location could indeed directly hit the person sitting opposite, right near the heart—though hitting exactly there might not be strictly necessary.
The killer had implemented a second layer of insurance: the dart was coated with poison.
As long as it hit, the target would certainly die.
But how exactly did the killer trigger the switch? And how did they ensure the dart would hit Jiang Xiao, and not the three people scheduled before him?
The order they entered the media room was decided spontaneously just before, and everyone rolled dice. The killer couldn’t have manipulated it to fix the order. So, for the killer, if they wanted to kill Jiang Xiao, there were several approaches.
The first plan was to make Jiang Xiao do something different from the other four, an action that only he would take to trigger the switch.
The second plan was to create a makeshift delay device, setting the dart to fire after the fourth person entered—specifically, between fifteen and twenty minutes later.
The third plan would be that the device wasn’t a delay mechanism at all, but a device allowing the killer to freely choose the firing time. That way, the killer could leave the scene first.
But the third plan had a major problem: the killer couldn’t guarantee that Jiang Xiao would be scheduled after them.
Jiang Xiao stood in place, deep in thought.
Which method did the killer use to activate the switch? This had now become the problem before him.
As he pondered, Jiang Xiao suddenly thought of another possibility.
What if the killer didn’t specifically want to kill him, but didn’t care who died? The fourth person was simply unlucky.
Jiang Xiao: “…”
“That’s probably impossible.” Jiang Xiao dismissed his own guess. The reason was also simple—
This box was placed exactly where Jiang Xiao had sat yesterday. Anyone else could have sat somewhere else and wouldn’t have been hit.
But how could the killer guarantee he would sit in this spot?
And why did Si Lin sit here?
And how did the roses on the floor fall? Jiang Xiao remembered that Si Lin also had roses on him, so they must have fallen from above.
Jiang Xiao looked up, gazing at the ceiling. There was a projector up there. He looked left and right, planning to find a chair to stand on.
Just as Jiang Xiao was about to stand on a chair, he heard a “knock knock knock” at the door. He Chen stood at the doorway: “Can I come in?”
Jiang Xiao said casually, “Of course.”
He Chen entered and saw Jiang Xiao with one hand on the chair back, one foot on the chair, looking ready to climb up. He immediately walked over and said, “You need to go up? That’s too dangerous. Let me do it.”
Jiang Xiao stepped onto the chair. However, he hadn’t expected even this simple motion to make his vision go dark, nearly causing him to fall off. He Chen was startled and quickly caught Jiang Xiao, one arm wrapping around his waist and gently lowering him onto the chair. “You’re still very weak. Don’t move around carelessly.”
Jiang Xiao panted a few times, the spots before his eyes gradually fading. In front of him was He Chen’s worried face.
He Chen looked like a gentle, bookish scholar, but surprisingly had a lot of strength. His arms supporting Jiang Xiao were very steady, not trembling at all, and carried a very warm aura.
Holding Jiang Xiao’s hand in one of his, He Chen reached out his other hand to feel Jiang Xiao’s forehead. “Ji Yanli said the antidote is still in clinical trials and might have side effects, like fever, dizziness, physical weakness. It should gradually improve as the drug metabolizes.”
Jiang Xiao obediently made an “Oh” sound.
A minute passed.
Jiang Xiao coughed lightly and prompted, “Your hand…”
Only then did He Chen seem to suddenly realize he was still holding Jiang Xiao’s hand. He immediately withdrew it. “S-Sorry.”
Even so, his ears had turned red.
“What did you want to see?” He Chen seemed very bad at handling this kind of ambiguous atmosphere. He changed the subject. “The projector up there has already been checked. There are some rose petals still stuck on it that weren’t cleaned off. They must have been scattered from up there.”
“Why would they scatter?” Jiang Xiao asked, puzzled. “Was there a mechanism?”
“The projector’s angle can be adjusted with the remote,” He Chen said, pointing to the remote control placed nearby. “I think the other party used the remote.”
“The remote was just left here? No one took it?” Jiang Xiao was a bit surprised. “When you entered the room, did you see the roses?”
He Chen shook his head. “No.”
“Then the third person to enter the media room is the most suspicious.” Jiang Xiao mulled it over. “That person is…”
“…Lu Moxing.”
Why was it him again? Lu Moxing’s behavior regarding the coffee poisoning was also very strange. Jiang Xiao was truly baffled. It seemed like all suspicion now pointed to Lu Moxing. But were all these coincidences really just coincidences? The whole event was full of randomness; the killer definitely couldn’t have predicted that the person scheduled right before Jiang Xiao would be Lu Moxing.
There was only one possibility:
It was Lu Moxing all along.
He hadn’t expected to be scheduled right before Jiang Xiao, so he used the remote to scatter the rose petals on the floor. When Si Lin entered the room, although he might have been puzzled, he wouldn’t have paid attention.
Then, seated in position, the poison inside him took effect, making him weak. At that moment, the dart shot out, striking him in the chest.
…It seemed very logical, except for the question regarding the dart that was still unresolved.
And Lu Moxing really seemed like the type of person who could kill someone and then act like nothing had happened, continuing calmly with his own business. His mental fortitude was superb. He might even glance at the dumbfounded others, sneering internally with contempt and disdain, evaluating with one phrase:
A bunch of idiots.
Jiang Xiao: “…”
The more he thought about it, the more Lu Moxing seemed like the killer.
“Speaking of which, why do you all think this box is a delay device?” Jiang Xiao asked. “Did you find the trigger switch?”
He Chen walked over to the box and showed Jiang Xiao. He felt along the side, then pressed somewhere lightly. Suddenly, the top surface of the box lit up.
Jiang Xiao: “!”
No wonder the box was electrified. How had he not found this button just now?
“This box is essentially a timer.” He Chen showed Jiang Xiao. “This is a countdown button. I think when the countdown ends, it triggers the spring switch.”
He Chen tapped the screen, which showed that a seventeen-minute countdown had been completed.
“But before this, no one had entered the media room,” Jiang Xiao thought of another problem. “So how did the person start the timer? Could it be… remote controlled?”
“Exactly,” He Chen nodded. “If we search everyone and find the switch that controls this timer, that would be enough to prove they are the killer.”
He Chen: “So, the next step is…”
Jiang Xiao finished the sentence: “A body search?”
He Chen: “Correct. To be fair, we decided that you, the only one without any suspicion, should do it. Is that okay?”
