Alice's towering figure, more than two meters tall, moved toward Ghost Faith with an imposing air. Ghost Faith looked surprised for a moment, then very naturally slipped behind Heng.
"Moved" seemed the right word, because Alice's shoes appeared to have wheels. Without even bending her knees, she glided over while remaining upright.
"I'm Alice, your very best friend, not an object." Alice's voice was mechanical too, hollow and stiff. She looked down at the couple from on high.
Heng wore a helpless expression as he shielded his troublemaking girlfriend. "Sorry, Alice. She didn't mean it."
Honestly, aside from the pressure her height exerted, Alice inspired a peculiar kind of fear.
This had to be... the Uncanny Valley effect.
Facing her, Heng felt uncomfortable in every possible way.
"Sorry, Alice. Mm-hmm, Alice is the prettiest." Ghost Faith showed no self-awareness whatsoever, grinning as she went along with an apology.
"Hmph. Be good and play with Alice." Alice blinked her crimson eyes, then glided back to where she'd started. She patted her skirt, knocking a tiny gemstone loose with her metal fingers without noticing. "Now, I'll explain the rules."
As her voice rang out, the deduction system also provided the players with a clearer explanation of the rules in their minds.
[The deceased knows only their own identity. Their victory condition is "not being killed by the culprit," and no more than three of the five players remaining at the end of the game may know the deceased's identity (including players who died along the way).]
[The culprit knows their own identity and the detective's. They may kill the detective. Their victory condition is "identify the deceased and kill them once again." If the culprit kills the detective, they will learn the deceased's identity immediately. No more than two of the five players remaining at the end of the game may know the culprit's identity (including players who died along the way).]
[The detective knows their own identity and the deceased's. Their victory condition is "identify the culprit," and they must obtain at least five clues.]
[The suspects know only their own identities. Their victory condition is to "identify any two of the culprit, the deceased, and the detective," and they must obtain at least four clues.]
Yu Xing rubbed his temples. He made no comment on the rules for now, instead listening to Alice and committing every word she said to memory.
"My amusement park has twelve attractions, and you're welcome to try them for free. Complete an attraction, and you'll receive one random clue pointing to the deceased, the culprit, or the detective." Alice's lips curled upward as she spun around in place. "You have four hours to play. Each attraction requires at least two people. I hope you have fun with your companions~"
Without waiting for anyone to respond, she bowed again and glided backward, vanishing into the tower. The door slammed shut.
At the same time, the clock started ticking again, making a rhythmic sound.
"So everyone with a different role needs to complete their task within four hours." Wang Jue stroked his chin and sighed. "Thank goodness this isn't the kind of supernatural deduction I fear most. I think I can handle it. By the way, one of you..."
He deliberately scanned the group. "Is a murderer."
"What's going on?" Yu Xing scratched his head in confusion, looking bewildered. "Um, did something happen in real life?"
Wang Jue was the only one there who seemed to know anything about the real-life murder. But if he wasn't the culprit, then someone else present must have visited the crime scene and was now pretending they hadn't.
There was no way to verify that just yet. To lower his own suspicion, he might as well put on an act.
Zhao Yijiu shot him a glance but said nothing.
No matter what kind of personality Yu Xing adopted to deceive people during a deduction, Zhao Yijiu wasn't surprised. In fact, he was oddly looking forward to seeing everyone else get completely taken in. He knew what Yu Xing was really like, so he had nothing to lose.
"My name's Wang Jue—Jue as in 'absolute.' I'm a student at Ruibo. It was our school anniversary today, and I heard someone had died. I followed the crowd to have a look, but couldn't get through, so I didn't learn much." Wang Jue recalled what had happened that morning, then recounted it.
It was a completely ordinary bystander's perspective. Yu Xing didn't hear anything suspicious. When he'd seen Wang Jue, Wang Jue had been doing a bartending demonstration, which matched what he'd said.
"But I know I'm not the culprit, so one of you must have been at the scene. Since we're all here, why don't we introduce ourselves and talk about what we were doing this morning?" Wang Jue's suspicious gaze landed on each of them without the slightest attempt to hide it.
"Sure, sure. My boyfriend and I were out shopping when the game suddenly popped up. We were bored anyway, so we came in together." Ghost Faith blew her bangs aside. "I'm Chen Jiu, and this is my boyfriend, Ling Heng. We didn't get up until after eight, then we went out. What about you?"
"I'm Xie Ze. As you can see..." The suited man whose Persona Mask was Ze gestured to his immaculate outfit. "I was preparing for a business reception. We've been organizing it for nearly a week, though, and this morning was just the final round of preparations, so I agreed to enter the game."
"Do you need to dress that formally for final preparations?" Ling Heng, who'd barely spoken until now, smiled as he posed a pointed question.
Xie Ze explained, "The company's been very busy. I was worried I wouldn't have time to change midway."
"I see." Ling Heng's expression was noncommittal, making Xie Ze frown.
"Zhao Yijiu. I was at home when the game pulled me in." The human air conditioner, Zhao Yijiu, had returned to his usual terse, cold demeanor. He pressed his lips together as if he had no intention of saying anything else.
"I can vouch for him! I'm Yu Xing, and I was at his place too." Yu Xing shamelessly dragged Zhao Yijiu into a false alibi, then added with a straight face, "I just started an internship at the company, and I don't know how to fill out the work reports, so I asked my senior to teach me. We live close to each other, and I was on the afternoon shift today, so I went to his place in the morning."
Zhao Yijiu: "..."
What a ham. He came up with a backstory without even having to think.
But what had this guy been doing that morning, to make him need to lie like that and use me as a shield?
Realizing this, Zhao Yijiu said coldly, "You're too stupid to teach. You might as well quit as soon as possible."
Yu Xing's eyes widened in dismay, his long, narrow eyes going round. "Ah~ You can't bully an intern just because you're good at computers, senior! Look, before this, neither of us knew the other was a player. You could be mean to me then, sure, but now that we know, we're colleagues of a sort, right? Can't you be a little friendlier?"
"No."
Seeing Yu Xing look a little aggrieved, Chen Jiu laughed. "You guys are so funny. What company is it? Everyone's so good-looking. I want to work there too."
Zhao Yijiu glanced at her.
The girl seemed like a sweet, airheaded type, grinning like a fool, but her questions were as pointed as her boyfriend's.
He answered succinctly. "Yu Feng Media."
Yu Feng Media was a well-known company in Mijin City. Given the nature of its work, it did have certain requirements regarding employees' appearance.
Chen Jiu shrugged. "Wow, your company's hiring standards are so high. I'm a total loser. I'm not good enough to get in."
After she finished speaking, no one tried to start another conversation.
All six had briefly described their whereabouts. Aside from Wang Jue, none of them had been at Ruibo. That left only two possibilities.
First, someone was lying. Xie Ze was the only one without someone corroborating his story; the other four backed each other up in pairs. In other words, if anyone was lying, there was a good chance they had an accomplice. That was much harder to deal with than a lone liar.
Second, the incident at Ruibo hadn't happened that morning. The body had been there earlier, but someone only discovered it today, when the school anniversary began and they happened to open the sports equipment room door. If that was the case, then even if everyone was telling the truth, none of them could clear themselves of suspicion.
After another moment of silence, Zhao Yijiu turned to Yu Xing. "We're wasting time. Let's go."
The game lasted four hours. Those with different roles not only needed to collect different numbers of clues, they also had to consider how to fulfill their deduction objectives.
The culprit, the deceased, and the detective had to think about how to kill someone without being discovered, and how to protect themselves.
Time was tight.
Since Zhao Yijiu had made it clear that he didn't want everyone traveling together, Yu Xing good-naturedly gave the others an apologetic gesture, then followed him away.
The other four thought it over and agreed there was no need to team up with strangers right from the start. They didn't know what dangers lurked in the attractions. What if someone tripped them up and got them into trouble?
They could only stick with someone they trusted for now, gather a few clues, then gradually narrow down their targets and approach the others.
The couple—one grinning, the other composed and casual—left the two single men behind and headed toward the Ferris wheel.
Yu Xing took a moment to orient himself, then followed Zhao Yijiu past the children's park and the haunted house toward the drop tower.
"Starting with something this intense?" Yu Xing exclaimed, hands in his pockets, as he watched Zhao Yijiu head straight for the ticket booth.
"Afraid of heights?"
"No."
"Good." Zhao Yijiu stopped in front of the sign at the unmanned ticket booth. "I have a feeling that attractions exposed to view and involving some danger will be easier than the Ghost Mirror House or the carousel."
He looked at the instructions on the sign.
[This attraction requires at least two people and allows a maximum of four. Visitors with heart conditions should choose another attraction.]
"What about your heart?"
It took Yu Xing a second to realize Zhao Yijiu was asking how his heart was, not asking for his heart. He leaned over to look at the sign, then understood. "It's in excellent condition."
They pushed open the white metal gate and looked toward the drop tower itself.
The drop tower seemed even taller than the central tower in Alice Plaza. It was second only to the roller coaster and Ferris wheel in height.
Its cylindrical surface was pitted and uneven, crafted to resemble an ancient tree. Countless eyes of various sizes were embedded among its twisted, winding branches. Their eyeballs moved freely within their whites; anyone with trypophobia would probably drop dead on the spot.
The seats around the outside had a branch-like design, and the safety belts looked like blood vessels. They felt springy to the touch. Yu Xing thought they'd probably be satisfyingly chewy.
He licked his lips, then obediently sat beside Zhao Yijiu.
"By the way, where were you this morning?"
Once they'd taken their seats and fastened their safety belts, Zhao Yijiu suddenly remembered to ask.
Yu Xing inspected the U-shaped safety bar that held passengers in place and replied as if it were obvious, "Ruibo University."
Zhao Yijiu: ?
Say that again?
Before you continue