Schrödinger's Deduction

The red light flickered, illuminating half of Yu Xing's arm in a crimson glow. His gaze shifted, and by the candlelight, he saw a large gash across the abdomen of the corpse on the iron bed.

The long, rectangular wound was sloppily stitched with needle and thread, the scar looking gruesome.

"This one too..." Yu Xing moved to the other corpses, glancing at them. He ignored their eerie gazes that followed his movements, "This one too... So, 'Corpse Carnival' means they're all here to commit ritual suicide by disembowelment."

Fortunately, the corpses couldn't move, otherwise, they would have beaten this annoying person to death.

Recalling the words on the note, Yu Xing understood. The bedroom Key was likely sewn into the belly of one of the corpses.

A one in twenty-three chance?

With this thought, Yu Xing began observing the corpses for any special markings.

If there were none, it meant he could likely open up each corpse's wound and search slowly. If there were markings, he would need to be careful and not choose wrongly, as it could lead to serious trouble.

The note didn't explicitly state this; Yu Xing needed to pay attention himself.

He had heard some people say that the death rate in the persona mask evaluation game wasn't that high, only around 30%. Many puzzles had more than one solution. The system primarily determined a player's personality tendencies through their choices.

For example, at the water tank, if he hadn't gotten the Key from the microwave... smashing it open with brute force would have also yielded subsequent clues.

As Yu Xing was focused on his observations, a set of footsteps ambled past behind him.

Yu Xing looked up, only catching a glimpse of a red candle flashing by.

"It can move?" He turned back and counted the number of red candles in the hall. There were still twenty-three, and their positions were correct.

"So the extra one just now... was the killer."

This was truly rare.

Was the killer, whom he had only encountered through notes, finally showing himself?

"Knock knock."

Suddenly, the iron bed in front of him made two sounds.

"Knock knock knock."

The sounds were rhythmic, as if someone was tapping. Yu Xing followed the bed frame with his gaze, looking underneath...

There was no one there.

Only a small, extinguished candle lay quietly.

"Another tactic to induce psychological fear..." Yu Xing calmly stared at the candle for a while before narrowing his eyes.

Something felt strange... His stomach felt itchy.

And it felt like something was pressing inside him, making him uncomfortable.

"Oh ho." He lifted the hem of his shirt. As expected, a wound, stitched with extremely unprofessional technique, had appeared on his abdomen.

It hadn't been there a moment ago... It didn't hurt.

He reached out to touch it. The completely different texture of the thread against his skin made his eyes flash with thought.

"He didn't kill the Doctor directly, but made him play this game. The killer's motive must be more than just revenge."

"He always wanted to make the Doctor afraid."

"For example, the Key is sewn into a human body, but the killer didn't specify if it was a corpse or a living person. My abdomen showing stitches now is a clear hint that the Key is inside me."

"Wants me to mutilate myself?" Yu Xing sneered. "Too naive."

From his senses, he could confirm there was indeed a Key inside him right now, and he could retrieve it at any time if he wished.

Moreover, he didn't shy away from getting injured.

But... he simply didn't want to do as the killer intended.

In deduction games, players were inherently at a disadvantage. Forced "plot kills" causing injury were nonexistent. This puzzle must also have a way to be solved without getting hurt.

He ignored the prominent sensation of the wound on his abdomen and used his scalpel to cut open the stitches on the corpse in front of him. Before he could reach inside, the corpse suddenly sat up.

"A zombie?" Yu Xing took a step back, watching the corpse's movements with interest.

The corpse trembled, shaking off candles that dripped hot red wax onto the floor.

Immediately after, the corpse flipped over, landing on the floor with a dull thud. It began crawling towards Yu Xing in a posture reminiscent of Kayako from Japanese horror films.

"Oh dear... Don't be angry. How about you lie down and I'll stitch you back up? I'm probably better at it than that person," Yu Xing asked tentatively.

The corpse, of course, didn't respond.

Due to rigor mortis, its limbs were very difficult to bend. While this created a terrifying effect, it also made its crawling speed agonizingly slow. Yu Xing felt he could walk backward faster.

"Tsk... Looks like the Key isn't on this corpse. Well, is this the penalty for choosing wrong?"

Looking at the thing crawling towards him, Yu Xing pondered as he moved: "Then I can't test them one by one. One is fine, but if I'm unlucky and make twenty-two wrong choices, this place will turn into a scene from the walking dead."

He wondered about the corpses' attack power and if he could "physically exorcise" them. Yu Xing considered whether to try scratching it.

"Tap tap tap..."

Another set of footsteps passed by him again, vanishing without a trace in the blink of an eye. As they passed, it felt as if a cold breath was blown towards Yu Xing's neck.

Yu Xing raised an eyebrow: "Is the killer provoking me?"

He gave up on the idea of toying with the corpse and glanced elsewhere.

He remembered, there was another place with "human bodies."

This was a gift question.

Two minutes later, the power supply system returned to normal. The lights in the hall, kitchen, toilet, and dissection room flickered back on, bathing the entire building in a "peaceful" atmosphere.

Yu Xing looked at the frozen heart, cut in half in his hand, and the golden key at its center. He felt a moment of melancholy, "Forgive me, forgive me, I didn't mean to break your heart..."

The refrigerator door was wide open, and the freezer had been pulled out. On the chopping board lay the pitiful large intestine, chopped into several pieces by the kitchen knife. Yu Xing rolled up his sleeves and put the heart back into the freezer, keeping only the golden key in his hand.

He had just thought that there were also "human bodies" in the dissection room and refrigerator, where the key could be placed.

There were too many jars in the dissection room, and a corpse was crawling after him, making it inconvenient, so he came to the kitchen first.

Since the corpses outside all had wounds on their abdomens, he first damaged the large intestine. When he didn't find the key, he cut open the heart.

As expected...

He could pass without taking damage, without being chased by over twenty corpses, and without performing a "disembowelment" skill, if only the player could figure it out.

The moment he saw the golden key, the power supply system recovered. At the same time, the wounds on his body and the feeling of something strange in his stomach vanished, as if they had never existed.

This was a trick that could be used in some deduction games. Someone had mentioned it to him, saying the inspiration for this trick came from "Schrödinger's Cat."

--If he took the key from his own stomach, then the key would definitely not be in the heart.

If he knew there was a key in his stomach but didn't take it, then it was just a "possibility." It could be covered up with illusions or other explanations, and there would be a chance the key was in the heart.

By leaving room for the system to operate, the system would, with a certain probability, help the player survive according to the deduction's objective. This probability was infinitely amplified in the persona mask evaluation game, as the focus of this deduction was evaluation rather than survival.

Yu Xing left the kitchen with the key. The hall outside was no different from when he first arrived after the lights came on. There were no corpses, no candles, and even the little one crawling on the floor was gone.

He walked towards the locked door, passing by the dissection room on the way. He even went in to check the time.

The countdown time was ample.

The bedroom was located to the left of the hall. The door was embedded in the wall, secured by a big lock.

Yu Xing examined it carefully. The dark brown wooden door was heavy and deep, exuding a subtle, resistant coldness.

He used the key to open the door and pushed it open a crack--

Through the gap, a figure about his height was pressed against the corner, staring at him with wide, unblinking eyes!

"Yo, you're the--" Yu Xing hadn't finished his polite greeting before the figure vanished silently. Yu Xing found it difficult to recall the figure's appearance, thinking the other person's face was blurry and lacking any specific features.

"Aiya~ How annoying, you tied me up and brought me home, yet you're still so shy." Yu Xing feigned shyness playfully, but in reality, he used his leg to subtly prop the door open, gripping the scalpel tightly in his right hand.

Just in case of an "opening kill"--

Hmm, there was no opening kill.

Unexpectedly, the scene inside the bedroom had a completely different decoration style from the other areas. The walls were white, the decorations were in a simple metallic color, and there were tasteful small objects everywhere. In a corner, there was even a potted plant.

The most outrageous thing was that there was a large window in the room, covered by a light green curtain, through which the light of the sun faintly shone.

The figure was nowhere to be seen.

Yu Xing turned back and closed the door before walking towards the window. He pulled open the curtain and immediately examined the window frame.

He pushed it, but it didn't move. The window seemed to be welded shut.

Confirming that the figure hadn't left through here, Yu Xing looked out the window.

There was actually a view outside.

It looked like it was just before noon. On the street outside the window, pedestrians in various attire walked hurriedly. The shops on both sides of the street sold all sorts of things, including clothing stores and gift shops. It was actually a rather upscale area.

However, this window blocked out all the sounds from the outside world, and the room remained silent.

Yu Xing immediately noticed something was wrong. As he stood by the window looking out, he saw the scene from a bird's-eye view.

He estimated internally... the killer's location was at least five stories up!

"The logic doesn't add up. This kind of place could be acceptable if it were in the suburbs or underground, but it's unlikely on a high floor." Yu Xing lowered his head in thought. The existence of this bedroom and this window provided a passage in the originally enclosed environment. Combined with his previous guesses about the killer's personality and psychological state, an idea emerged.

"If that's the case, it's a bit interesting." Yu Xing curled his lips, moved away from the window, and began to seriously examine the bedroom layout.

The bed was neat, the wardrobe was against the wall, and next to it was a bookshelf with hundreds of books with blurred covers.

Yu Xing opened the wardrobe and took a look. It was empty.

"It seems they won't leave me clues that are too obvious... but that's okay. No clues is also a form of proof. I must be right."

He wasn't disappointed at all. He walked over to the desk. On the desk lay a thick notebook with a textured cover that felt very comfortable to the touch.

Upon opening it, Yu Xing discovered it was a diary, a diary without any dates written from beginning to end.

[Today I just finished building this place, my morgue! My secret garden! No one can disturb me. The thought of the days to come makes me tremble with excitement.]