A girl around fifteen or sixteen years old, blind, with a pale complexion and a frail figure, was mingled among these people, looking truly weak, pitiable, helpless, and innocent.
However, her identity almost cried out in everyone's minds—the blind girl who had "seen" everything!
When the game began, the introduction to the script was not just for show; the core secret of the entire script was basically hidden within it!
The cook making food, the master of the house having a candlelit dinner, the housekeeper cleaning up, the pianist playing the piano, the dancer dancing, and finally the blind girl.
The identities of those present mostly corresponded to those described in the introduction to the script.
The only thing that left the group guessing was that eating a romantic candlelit dinner alone isn't romantic, so perhaps the female writer who wasn't mentioned in the introduction was the lady of the house?
"Are you husband and wife?" the dancer asked, tilting her head.
"This... I can't remember either," the female writer said, holding her chin in thought, and hesitated.
"It seems we'll have to find some clues here on our own and hope we can recall something when the time comes," the pianist said with a wry smile and shook his head.
"I'll go out and take a look."
The male servant who came last said as he stood up, his palm hanging down to his side, striding toward the door and pulling it open.
The place they were in appeared to be a dining room, lavishly decorated, with a beautiful and delicate chandelier overhead, but the vast room was empty save for a long table.
The male servant opened the door, and the darkness outside was pitch black.
Using the light spilling from the dining room, he cautiously avoided obstacles, moving along the wall; as he passed the cabinet, his right hand raised and placed something on top of it.
Following that, he found the light switch and pressed it.
The light blazed on, and what met his eyes was a chaotically disarrayed mansion's hall.
The entire mansion was practically a crime scene!
The glaring blood was scattered everywhere, the manuscript papers that had been on the table were now fluttering and scattered everywhere, a stack askew by the edge of the coffee table, and several bloodstained sheets lay around the living room.
By the mansion's main door was a large pool of blood, the scattered pattern indicating the copious amount of blood shed at the time, with a sliding bloody handprint on the golden door panel.
"Hiss... what on earth happened here?!"
Those who followed after him and stepped outside gasped in shock at the sight before them.
There was also a pool of blood underneath the spiral staircase leading to the second floor of the mansion, and on the ground leading from the dining room to the kitchen, blood trailed all the way to the door, dragging out sharp stains on the floor.
It was said that the rewards for submission-style tasks were distributed based on the players' rankings in completing the tasks.
...
The dancer casually described the villa's situation beside him and then excused herself to look for her own memories, turning to leave.
Xu Shuo quietly sat on the sofa, picking up his cane and letting the tip fall to the ground, lightly tapping it intermittently.
Tap—
The sound waves spread out, breaking when they hit obstacles, the rippling echoes outlining the approximate contours of the obstacles.
Xu Shuo took note of the positions of the obstacles and gradually completed the mapping of the living room in his mind.
Beyond that, he couldn't get any more information—the position of the bloodstains on the ground were all relayed by the dancer, and he didn't even know if they were correct.
So, after sitting for a while, Xu Shuo got up, leaning on his cane and leaving the range of the sofa, groping his way forward.
"With so much blood in the kitchen, and those stains in the living room, there must have been more than one person, right?"
"At least three people are dead."
"Hiss... Was this kitchen knife used to kill someone?"
"That's strawberry jam."
Clear voices came from the direction of the kitchen.
But in fact, Xu Shuo was standing some distance from there, beneath the spiral staircase, listening intently.
The diffuse voices even sketched out the outlines of the two people.
The speakers were the chef and the pianist—as the blood trail leading to the dining room was too shocking, the chef decided to check his own territory first, with the curious pianist following close behind.
The chaos in the kitchen was no less than that in the living room, with undried blood on both the sink and countertop, emitting a pungent stench.
"We have no idea what happened here, should we just call the police?" suddenly, the anxious pianist suggested.
"..."
No sound came from the other side; presumably, there was silence, but as to the nature of that silence, Xu Shuo couldn't tell.
He smiled silently to himself and began to walk up the staircase, holding onto the handrail.