The night was silent to the extreme, with only the occasional sound of water droplets coming from somewhere.
Xu Xi reviewed until around 10:30 pm, then went out to take a bath to prepare for sleep. When she returned to her room, however, she gave the room door across from hers a peculiar look.
Going to sleep so early today?
But why does it feel like they haven't slept yet?
Is it because of the heavy workload recently?
Xu Xi turned back to her own room, lying in bed without feeling sleepy at all. She stared blankly at the ceiling for a while, then decided that overthinking was useless, so she collected her thoughts and closed her eyes.
After this year's college entrance exams, things should be much easier, and then she'll have time to get a part-time job.
...
On the other hand, Xu Shuo browsed forums until midnight.
He was quite interested in their debate about Patient Six and Chen Chu's issues, then went out to look at other posts for information. When he finally felt too tired to continue, he checked the time...
Damn forum, messing with my rest!
Xu Shuo quickly exited the app, covered himself with the blanket, and turned over to sleep.
...
The next day, Xu Shuo got up early, energetically prepared two servings of breakfast, and also got ready the ingredients for lunch.
Xu Xi got up around nine and was somewhat surprised to see him bustling about in the kitchen.
"Eat breakfast first, and the lunch is here too. I'll drop you off at school later," Xu Shuo said while putting the prepared ribs into a pressure cooker to stew. If he started cooking now, it would be perfect by lunchtime.
After that, he stir-fried a simple dish and put it in the microwave to keep warm, ready to be heated up and eaten at noon.
Xu Xi, seeing his preparations, figured he was planning not to come back for lunch, most likely staying at the office for overtime.
"Didn't you say I would go to school on my own yesterday?" Xu Xi sat at the dining table, slowly eating her noodles without much emotion, and spoke indifferently.
"Dropping you off won't take long," Xu Shuo replied as he dried his hands and went to his room to change clothes, hurriedly getting ready for work.
With a soft click at the entrance, the small rental apartment fell quiet once again.
Xu Xi looked at the empty room and let out a barely perceptible sigh.
...
The morning work wasn't actually that tiring; it mainly involved building the game framework with everyone at the studio and also notifying relevant departments in advance, to ensure that everything wouldn't be held up at the launching stage after completion of the work.
As the team leader, Xu Shuo seemed to only need to give orders, not having much to do, but in fact, he had a little bit of everything to manage.
Busy and unaware of time, it wasn't until Li Ziwen had ordered fast food for everyone that he realized it was already twelve-thirty in the afternoon.
Twisted the neck back into place.
Xu Shuo stared at the ceiling, his pupils dilating into pitch darkness.
He heard the system's prompt just now, and in that instant, remembered that he seemed to have watched a video of this Scripted Murder Game before and thought, couldn't he just coast to victory?
But now, no matter how hard he tried to recall the plot, he couldn't remember any details.
"So that's how it is, no wonder..."
Xu Shuo spoke to himself, stopping mid-sentence because he found the sound of his voice to be truly strange.
Hoarse, gloomy, as if his throat had been slashed, the voice became jerky and sharp, akin to the wail of a fierce ghost, sending shivers down one's spine.
Xu Shuo lowered his head, lifting his hand to look at it.
A pair of pale and delicately soft hands, with some sticky substance clinging to them, indistinct in the darkness, but the scent of blood reached his nose.
He touched his mouth again, concluding that the blood probably flowed from his own body.
The darkness was icy and oppressive, in this utterly silent place, not even a breath could be heard.
Something viscous seemed to be flowing nearby, filled with a chilling malice; countless eyes seemed to open in the darkness, hiding in the sinister corners, greedily and expectantly watching the distorted figure.
Xu Shuo quietly sensed all of this for a while; having failed to think through the plot, he remembered that he seemed to have been driving and needed to end the game quickly to get back.
Thus, he reined in his thoughts and opened the Player's Handbook amid the eerie atmosphere, receiving the information for this mission.
The character's name was "Qiuzi," a ballet dancer about to participate in a competition, but today, while practicing in the studio, someone twisted her neck.
Dead.
[Mission: Find the murderer who killed Qiuzi.]
Xu Shuo: "..."
No wonder he felt his body was so strange—his character... was actually a dead person??
What kind of terrifying script was this?!
Would he really not scare everyone to death if he ran outside?
At that moment, the rigid and creepy sensation of his body gradually dissipated and he regained some sensation.
Xu Shuo tentatively stood up, staggering a bit before finding his balance. Then, step by step, he slowly walked toward the giant, reflective glass in the darkness.
The eerie glow cast a reflection of a narrowing figure, petite and thin, dressed in a dark red ballet skirt, her slender legs possessing an elegant curve, giving the illusion that everything below the waist was legs.
The girl wasn't tall, but she had a nice figure.
Xu Shuo: "..."
Not only was he dead, but he was also a woman.