Chapter 24

“Ding—”

The heavy chime struck; it was the top of the hour.

Jiang Xiao’s head was full of various clues, some true, some false. But no matter how hard he tried, an irresistible drowsiness washed over him.

Bo Xiting left for a moment, and when he returned, he had something extra in his hand.

“If you…”

His voice stopped abruptly.

Jiang Xiao’s head was drooping. His slightly long bangs fell down, covering his brows and eyes. He was propping his head up with one hand, seemingly trying very hard to stay awake, but he had fallen asleep nonetheless.

The creamy white lamplight fell softly on the tip of his nose and the corner of his lips, like a layer of hazy, beautiful filter.

It was already three in the morning.

In other words, Bo Xiting had been wandering in the pitch-black, ice-cold corridor for at least over two hours.

No one knew what he had been thinking during that time.

Bo Xiting pursed his lips. His footsteps lightened. He put the thin paper in his hand onto the table, then looked at Jiang Xiao.

His gaze was calm, yet profound, like a dangerous and mysterious green forest shrouded in thick fog, distantly enveloping the sleeping Jiang Xiao.

After an unknown amount of time, just as Bo Xiting was about to pick Jiang Xiao up and carry him to the bedroom, the doorbell suddenly rang.

In the dead silence of the late night, that single sound was exceptionally shrill. The visitor had no sense of guilt about disturbing someone’s dreams, pressing the button several times in a row.

Bo Xiting frowned. Just as he was about to turn and open the door to check the situation, Jiang Xiao jolted awake with a start. “Huh? What’s wrong? Is there a fire?”

“Someone’s ringing the doorbell,” Bo Xiting said expressionlessly, his voice a bit gloomy. “Ignore it.”

Jiang Xiao looked utterly tired. He shook his head, trying to shake off the drowsiness. “This late? Who is it?”

He was about to get up to check the situation when Bo Xiting pressed down on his shoulder, making him sit back down. Jiang Xiao: “Outside is—”

His lips were suddenly blocked by something. Jiang Xiao’s mind was still a bit fuzzy, and he subconsciously licked it.

What is this thing?

“Don’t make a sound.” Bo Xiting frowned slightly, withdrew his finger, and brought his lips close to Jiang Xiao’s ear, warning him in a lowered voice, “I’ll go see.”

His voice was originally deep and pleasant, and up close, it sounded like it had been run through a sound enhancer, full of a bass-like magnetism.

Jiang Xiao’s expression flickered unpredictably. He pushed Bo Xiting’s face away with one hand, then nodded, meaning “got it, don’t get so close to me.”

Bo Xiting’s presence gradually moved away. Jiang Xiao huddled on the sofa. He didn’t know if it was because the night was deep, but the fire in the fireplace didn’t seem to be burning as brightly as before. He felt his skin grow thoroughly, bone-chillingly cold.

But when Bo Xiting had been close to him earlier, Jiang Xiao had felt as if he were a furnace. Just being near him brought warmth, making one want to lean a little closer.

Jiang Xiao thought about it again. No, it was better to keep his distance.

When he was straight, he could shamelessly put his arm around a buddy’s shoulder. Now that he was playing gay, he had to watch his boundaries.

The system, who knows if it had been watching Jiang Xiao the whole time, suddenly spoke up while Jiang Xiao was deep in thought. “Do you already have an answer in mind?”

“I can only say I have a vague suspect,” Jiang Xiao said. “After all, I haven’t gotten any substantial evidence, and I don’t know how much of the plot has really progressed. Although I know who the likely murderer is, I don’t feel confident.”

If this were just an ordinary full-dive game, maybe he wouldn’t have needed to stay up this late. Jiang Xiao would have filled in the murderer’s name without a second thought. But getting it wrong meant death, so he had to be cautious to the utmost.

But… should he give it a try?

Jiang Xiao had already thought it over repeatedly. That person’s suspicion was the greatest among these few.

System: “Do you need me to give you a hint?”

Jiang Xiao: “What?”

System: “Up to this point, the clearance rate for this instance is 0%.”

“How is that possible? How many people have played this instance?” Jiang Xiao said, astonished. “Even if someone just guessed blindly, there’s bound to be someone who guesses right, isn’t there?”

“In this world, apart from you, everyone else got the [Spectator] role,” the system said. “That is, roles other than the six of you. But they played the easy version, which doesn’t have a death crisis.”

“They only need to pass the main mission to clear, but no one has.”

“I hope you won’t become another sacrifice for this instance.”

The system’s words were packed with information. Jiang Xiao even suspected that the system knew he was considering submitting an answer and was implicitly stopping him from acting rashly.

His exploration level of this instance was indeed still insufficient… the things normal players could do, he couldn’t do any of them.

“I told you, he’s not here.”

At the doorway, Bo Xiting seemed to be arguing with someone, his tone capable of freezing a person solid.

So Bo Xiting didn’t just use that tone with him; it was the same with everyone.

Ying Weizhu stood at the door wearing a dark red coat, like a ferocious ghost in red. He smiled eerily, “He’s not at Jiang Mu’s place, and he didn’t go back. Then tell me, where else could he be?”

“It couldn’t be—”

“Dead?”

Bo Xiting’s gaze turned instantly icy.

“Watch your mouth.”

“I’m not like you all, treating Jiang Xiao like a precious treasure to be spoiled. Someone like him, I’d rather he were dead.”

“But, he can only be killed by me.”

The upward curve of Ying Weizhu’s lips remained unchanged, which instead made him look incredibly terrifying. Coupled with those abnormal golden pupils that seemed to faintly gleam coldly in the darkness, his aura in that moment was overwhelmingly powerful.

“Get lost if you don’t want to die.”

Bo Xiting raised a hand to block the doorway, staring at him indifferently. The meaning was very clear: impossible.

Ying Weizhu narrowed his eyes slightly.

Like a cold-blooded snake preparing to strike.

The two were at a standoff, on the verge of a brawl, when Jiang Xiao’s voice sounded from behind Bo Xiting. “Did you need me for something?”

Bo Xiting’s temple seemed to throb.

He knew Jiang Xiao could never listen.

Ying Weizhu’s gaze fell directly on Jiang Xiao.

His golden eyes darkened.

“You slept at his place tonight?”

Truly a death question.

Jiang Xiao didn’t doubt for a moment that if he said “yes,” his mortality rate would probably rise again. Of course, he wouldn’t say that—

“And what if he did?” Bo Xiting said flatly. “Where he sleeps at night, is that any of your business?”

The smile on Ying Weizhu’s lips widened. “So it’s like that, I just knew it…”

Just as expected, a flash of red mist flickered before Jiang Xiao’s eyes again. But the color was already a darker, more terrifying shade than before, and the area was larger, exuding an ominous aura. The footsteps of death were drawing near.

【Death Probability ↑】

The progress bar slowly advanced again from the halfway point. The crimson area had already taken up most of the progress bar. Just seeing it caused discomfort.

Friendly Reminder:

Your moment of death is getting closer and closer. If you have any last words, please submit them through the system. We will certainly carve them onto your epitaph.

The arc of the smiley face had surpassed the angle of a normal smile, almost stretching to the corners of its eyes. The expression that originally looked somewhat cute had become ferocious and terrifying, as if it had already concluded that Jiang Xiao was certain to die in this remote, quiet, snowbound mountain hotel.

Jiang Xiao closed the notification panel.

It seemed this game’s Main System really wanted him dead. Although he didn’t know the reason, it just sparked a rebellious spirit in Jiang Xiao.

He wouldn’t die.

Once he left this instance, he’d piss off that Main System to death.

“How do you know I wasn’t in Jiang Mu’s room?” Jiang Xiao spoke up. “Did you just go look for him?”

“Yeah, that’s what he told me.” Ying Weizhu said, “I went and checked his room.”

Jiang Xiao: “Jiang Mu opened the door for you?”

“Otherwise?”

Jiang Xiao: “…”

He had tried multiple times at the time; those handcuffs were incredibly sturdy, absolutely unbreakable, unless the bedpost was chopped off. But surely Jiang Mu wasn’t so demented as to bring an electric saw?

How on earth did he unlock the handcuffs?!

Jiang Xiao had offended Jiang Mu and planned to offend him thoroughly. He figured cuffing him wouldn’t cause much trouble. Who knew this massive unpredictable factor had actually unlocked the handcuffs himself!

At that moment, Jiang Xiao suddenly felt his death omen might be real.

Jiang Mu really might secretly come to kill him.

In that instant, Jiang Xiao suddenly remembered the documents he had knocked over in Jiang Mu’s room.

In the chaos, he seemed to have touched one of them. It didn’t feel like ordinary paper; it was somewhat stiff. The texture was more like…

A photograph.

Jiang Mu and Bo Xiting were biological brothers.

Bo Xiting was studying in the Photography Department.

That strange software and the unopenable folder on Jiang Mu’s computer…

Everything he had just experienced flashed back like a rapidly rewinding videotape, seeming to point him towards the correct path.

In a flash, a very terrifying thought occurred to Jiang Xiao.

“Where’s Wen Xu? Is he sleeping?” Jiang Xiao’s voice was urgent.

“He’s not in his room,” Ying Weizhu said, frowning. “That room is empty now. I just went to check. What’s wrong? Is Wen Xu your mom? You can’t go half a day without asking about him. Or do you have some ‘special relationship’ with him too?”

Wen Xu was actually not in his room!

In the middle of the night, these people were each more absurd than the last. Bo Xiting wandering the corridor in the dead of night, Ying Weizhu searching everywhere like a ferocious ghost, Wen Xu missing, and Jiang Mu…

What was Jiang Mu doing right now?

Although the clues weren’t fully clear yet, and matters hadn’t been completely strung together, Jiang Xiao realized something very terrifying.

The original room, the crime scene, had no one there right now. That meant the murderer had the perfect opportunity to sneak in and thoroughly destroy the criminal evidence!

“Take me back.” Jiang Xiao immediately said, his expression extremely grave. “We must have missed something important. We have to go find it now.”

If his guess was right, he might already know why Jiang Mu went into their room during the power outage.

Because he needed to retrieve something—

A surveillance camera.

However, he hadn’t expected Ying Weizhu to chuckle, a rather peculiar note in his laughter.

“Go back? Where do you think you’re running off to now?”

He drew slightly closer to Jiang Xiao and murmured softly, at a volume only the two of them could hear:

“Jiang Xiao, I haven’t settled the score with you yet for secretly rummaging through my luggage.”