Steampunk Alice's Park

Yes, only when the real murderer is also among the players does this deduction game make sense when it starts on-site.

Yu Xing's eyes flickered, the madness in them suppressed by extreme calmness. He felt the scenery before him tremble, the view shattering like glass.

[Deduction Game Information Below]

The deduction prompt this time was deep crimson, like congealed blood.

[Medium Deduction: Alice's Park]

[Type: Mapping Deduction Game]

[Analysis: This type of deduction is based on real cases. After distorting rules and order, it forms an absurd space. The degree of connection between the game content and reality varies. It ultimately points to some real-world truths.]

[This deduction game is for six players]

[This deduction game does not consume real-world time]

The world shattered into fragments, then reassembled in a chaotic, disordered arrangement, forming a completely different space from before.

The entire process took only two to three seconds. Yu Xing was unable to move during these few seconds, like a spectator watching a movie.

"Great, at least this time it's not the usual 'black out and lose consciousness' routine," he muttered under his breath. Stepping out of the confinement as the world formed, he scanned his surroundings.

School, students, security guards, tourists... all of them were gone.

In their place was an amusement park. In his field of vision, there were staple attractions like a carousel, bumper cars, and a towering Ferris wheel in the distance, along with broadcast speakers everywhere.

What was peculiar was that there was no sky here.

Or rather, the original sky was completely covered by a semicircular dome. The dome was pieced together from metal plates, with intricate and beautiful gears visible at the seams, constantly turning.

Many large rings extended from the metal surface, suspending enormous ornaments, at least thirty stories high.

In the very center of the dome was a giant sphere, emitting warm, bright light from within, similar to the sun but much softer.

"What kind of bizarre steampunk style is this..." Yu Xing looked up, his eyes filled with amazement.

He had never personally experienced an environment of this style before, only seeing it in some games and movies. He felt a sense of novelty at the moment.

Just looking at it, there wasn't the slightest connection to the murder scene. It truly lived up to its name, [absurdity]. The distorted deduction space made no sense at all.

After a few seconds of admiration, Yu Xing's interest in the place remained undiminished, and his interest in the murder case grew in tandem.

He looked down at himself. His clothes were the same as in reality, but items like his phone, keys, and ID card in his pockets had vanished. Not even a tissue was left for him.

All he had left was a handsome face... and a kind, good, and pure soul—Yu Xing couldn't help but exclaim.

Perhaps something in the unseen world heard his thoughts and couldn't stand the shameless exclamation, choosing to interrupt him via broadcast.

A hollow female voice came from numerous speakers simultaneously: "Attention, dear tourists. Please proceed to Alice's Square within ten minutes following the arrows to draw your identity tags. The beautiful Miss Alice is eager to play with you~"

Following the announcement, a dark red arrow appeared on the ground beneath Yu Xing's feet, pointing directly towards the Ferris wheel.

Yu Xing glanced at it with curiosity, then walked forward cheerfully.

He passed the bumper cars and the carousel, and several exaggeratedly avant-garde metal plants. These plants were dark brown, with gears spinning rapidly on their branches. Occasionally, two transparent glass spheres revealed the mechanical structure within the plants.

"Interesting..." After observing for a few moments, Yu Xing increasingly wanted to hug one of these two-meter-tall trees home as a decoration.

However, he only had ten minutes, and he didn't know how far Alice's Square was from here. He reluctantly let go of the plants and continued following the arrows appearing on the walls and tree trunks.

Not long after, he saw the mirror house and the spinning teacups. These facilities had incorporated steampunk elements into their real-world counterparts, looking very attractive.

And Alice's Square finally appeared in his sight.

It was a small, circular plaza, enclosed by knee-high brickwork. The bricks were red and black, with entrances on all four sides.

Inside the brick enclosure stood a towering model tower. Yu Xing could see a large heart symbol from afar, a Gothic clock face about two meters in diameter below the heart, and small red and black checkered flags all over the tower.

When he entered the square, three people were already there.

Two of them seemed to be a couple. The man was well-built, with a gentle expression, around twenty-five or twenty-six.

The woman was very beautiful, with delicate features. She had a lollipop in her mouth and a bright smile on her face, though her blunt bangs were a bit long and poked her eyes, requiring her to adjust them from time to time.

The woman affectionately linked arms with her boyfriend, constantly looking for topics to talk about. The man, on the other hand, didn't say much, merely nodding and smiling along with her.

The other person was a young man with the familiar gloomy expression Yu Xing recognized. He had a cold, solitary look on his face, radiating a "don't mess with me, leave me alone" vibe, and glanced at Yu Xing.

Oh wow.

Yu Xing stopped and observed. There seemed to be an invisible barrier between the couple and Zhao Yijiu, a clear separation.

Zhao Yijiu: "..." Why aren't they coming over? I really don't want to stand next to a couple.

Seeing Yu Xing's amused expression, he couldn't be bothered to waste words and walked towards Yu Xing.

"I knew it was you, Xing."

"So, are you very happy?" Yu Xing raised an eyebrow at him.

Zhao Yijiu's expression didn't change: "It's alright. Having someone familiar is better than going it alone. I'd be happier with any deducer I knew."

"Okay~ Okay~"

The rules for this deduction game hadn't been announced yet, but Yu Xing was sure Zhao Yijiu wasn't from Single Prism. Therefore, no matter how the game played out, he had almost eliminated one wrong option, putting him in a good mood.

The clock on the tower chimed crisply. Yu Xing looked up. The hour hand was at 12, the minute hand was just under 2, and the second hand was just past 6.

It's likely that time here only started counting from when they entered the game, and nine minutes and thirty seconds have already passed.

"The last two are here!" The girl from the couple, whose attention had been scattered everywhere, immediately noticed the newcomers and spoke a little louder.

At the same moment, one person walked from each direction. Yu Xing swept his gaze over them, his eyes lingering a moment longer on the person on the left.

It was no other than Wang Jue, the nephew of Wang Cheng, whom Zhu Yan had introduced to him. He was dressed in designer brands with chiseled features.

It seemed it wasn't a coincidence; Wang Jue on the list was him.

Interesting.

Zhu Yan had investigated Wang Cheng and found suspicious points. Coincidentally, his nephew Wang Jue was a deducer, and the murderer in this case was also identified as a deducer by the system. The deceased's time of death was uncertain, but Wang Jue was at Ruibo University at the time.

Yu Xing's thoughts turned in his mind, and he hid them, not revealing any abnormality.

"Do you know him?" Zhao Yijiu keenly noticed the pause in his gaze.

"No," Yu Xing replied casually, then looked at the person on the right. This was also a young man under thirty, dressed in a well-tailored suit, seemingly having come from a very formal event.

All six had completed their tasks within the allotted ten minutes.

As the last person's foot stepped into the plaza, the clock on the model tower suddenly chimed with a loud echo.

At that moment, all the hands on the clock face spun back, turning counter-clockwise to their origin and stopping.

"Ding dong, ding dong~"

The door on the first floor of the model tower suddenly opened, and the small red and black bells decorating it rang out with a clear, pleasant sound. A woman emerged from the tower, which could only accommodate about nine adults.

She was a size larger than a normal human, standing at a full 2.3 meters, but her proportions were perfect.

She had long black hair and wore a red and black Lolita dress, complete with headdress, necklace, and lace gloves. The delicate bow on her corset was elegant and cute, and her skirt was puffy. Her fair legs were covered in black stockings from the calf down, and below that were a pair of dark red, round-toed leather shoes adorned with dazzling gems.

However... it was obvious to everyone present, besides her size, that she was not human.

Beneath her perfect facial contours, the pleasant sound of gears whirred incessantly. Her crimson jewel eyes were lifeless. A few subtle metallic seams, discernible upon closer inspection, were symmetrically distributed on both sides of her face. Additionally, her joints, such as elbows and wrists, were articulated with ball joints.

She was like a mechanical doll, 1.5 times the normal size.

"Welcome to Alice Plaza, I am your best friend Alice, and I will be hosting today's game for you all. Are you happy?" The large doll, calling herself Alice, curved her lips upwards, revealing an extremely stiff smile.

Looking at her, it seemed she herself wasn't very happy.

"Happy! How could we not be happy!" The girl from the couple applauded enthusiastically, only to be lightly tapped on the head by her boyfriend.

"Next, we will first draw identity cards, and then I will announce the game content and rules." Alice's crimson gaze swept over everyone present. The next moment, she took out a thick stack of cards from the exquisite, gem-adorned small bag hanging from her waist.

The cards were face up, black on the back with intricate patterns engraved on them. Alice shuffled the cards with her nimble mechanical fingers and fanned them out in a semicircle towards the deducers: "Please draw in the order I call. The faces of the cards must not be seen by others, or I will execute a penalty. First, Heng."

She called out the persona mask name of the first person on the list who agreed to the game. The man from the couple stepped forward, didn't hesitate, and casually drew a card.

"Second, Ghost Faith."

The only human girl smiled brightly and walked over. After carefully picking and choosing, she drew the bottom card.

Hmm, such a strange name. Yu Xing thought it would be a man...

Next, Zhao Yijiu, he, Wang Jue, and the last man in the suit claimed the names Cold Wine, Xing, King Jue, and Ze respectively, completing the card draw.

"The card draw is complete, and you all now have your own identities. Please look at your cards." Alice elegantly lifted her skirt and performed a noble bow.

Yu Xing held his card and glanced at it. Three words were written on it in pure white Gothic font: Suspect.

Alice continued her explanation: "Among the six cards, there is one murderer card, one detective card, three suspect cards, and one deceased card... The murderer card will inevitably be drawn by the real murderer."

"What, what?" Wang Jue also appeared to be the cheerful type. He asked curiously, "Is it about that case at my school?"

Yu Xing glanced at him.

The girl whose persona mask was Ghost Faith also raised her hand: "Excuse me, this... object, what do you mean by 'real murderer'? What case?"

Alice's crimson gaze locked onto her.

This object?