[Side Quest: Find the cause of your own death.]
...
The system's voice suddenly rang within their minds.
Everyone: ???
The brightly lit villa suddenly darkened a shade, as if a mist had enveloped it, and from all directions, a spine-chilling malice assaulted them!
After the blind girl unhesitatingly voiced that "assumption," it was as though the seal of the Abyss had been broken, and the air inside the villa turned abruptly cold and oppressive.
This cognition seemed to be a concept in itself, as the reality of "death" loomed over them, the world as seen through their eyes seemed to have changed as well.
At this moment, all the players realized that if they didn't end the game quickly, they might encounter great terror!
Xu Shuo's expression remained unaltered, and without pausing, he continued, "Then, who will be found dead at those places?"
There was silence in the villa, no one answered him.
This fact made everyone's expression somewhat strange—if—
How is that possible?
If everyone is dead, then is everyone a ghost?
I put forward myself?
But the side quest given by the system can't be wrong, perhaps, after they each discover the cause of their own death, the answer will be revealed?
"What's wrong?"
The girl's voice, crisp and timid, broke the silence.
The dancer's voice followed shortly, speaking with a soft laugh, "Little sister has a good idea, we are pondering how exactly we died."
Xu Shuo glanced at the progress on the Character Card and continued, seemingly troubled, "Actually, although I was groggy when I woke up, I have the impression that there seemed to be only six people in the villa..."
The pianist's gaze flashed, and he was the first to snap back to reality and asked, "Six people? Why do you feel that way?"
The female writer crossed her arms and nodded, "But in fact, it was proven before the pianist arrived at the villa that I could also play the piano. Why couldn't I have bought the brooch simply because I liked it? And if I really had an affair with him, wouldn't I have been too generous to wear the evidence right on my chest?"
The lawyer suddenly froze upon hearing this, subtly shifting his head and glancing out of the corner of his eye towards the second-floor study.
Although the female writer could claim she hadn't had an affair, the original lawyer had definitely been suspicious of his wife's infidelity, otherwise, he wouldn't have secretly taken those photos and drawn a thick red line between the female writer and the pianist.
However, in those photos, he seemed not to have seen a brooch on the clothes of the female writer.
The other party's word was right, it made no sense to display the evidence of one's own infidelity so conspicuously, let alone that recently the two seemed to have also shared a romantic candlelit dinner.
He must have missed some clue...
"So, even if we all have our conjectures, they're still of no use, are they?" the butler said at this moment.
"Isn't that obvious?" the female writer shook her head.
"Since that's the case, let's split up and look for clues on our own again~" the pianist said with a shrug, looking at the female writer who had just confronted everyone.
The two who might have been involved exchanged glances and quickly looked away.
Seeing that no agreement could be reached, the others could only reluctantly end the meeting.
They had gathered to find out who the "deceased" was, and now they were separating again to sift through the clues for the cause of their own deaths.
Was it death from a severed carotid artery? Or a gunshot? Or dismemberment?
Cooperation and sharing clues would certainly be the best way, but now no one trusted anyone else, and nobody was willing to tell the truth, so there was naturally no point in talking.
After all, there might still be a "murderer" among them who killed everyone.
The people in the hall scattered once more, each scrambling to find the cause of their own death.
After the veil of the group's demise had been lifted, a dark malice was closing in on the entire villa, as if a pair of cold eyes were watching them from somewhere, sending chills down their spines.
They all knew time was running out—although the rewards for the side quests were said to be quite nice, they still needed to escape from the Abyss first.
Xu Shuo had been quietly listening to their arguments and witnessing their rift from the beginning, obediently nestling on the sofa the whole time.
The progress of the Character Card moved forward once again.
The blind girl seemed to be playing the role of guiding them?