Chewy Roller Coaster

Alice's over two-meter-tall figure exuded an oppressive aura as she moved toward Ghost Xin. Ghost Xin's expression flickered with surprise for a moment before she naturally hid behind Heng.

The word "moved" was used because Alice's soles seemed to have wheels. Without bending her knees, she glided forward in a standing position.

"I am Alice, your best friend, not an object." Alice's voice also had a mechanical quality, hollow and stiff, as she looked down at the couple from above.

Heng looked helpless and shielded his troublemaking girlfriend behind him. "Sorry, Alice, she didn't mean to."

Honestly, besides the oppressive height, Alice also evoked a unique sense of fear.

This should be called... the Uncanny Valley effect.

Facing her, Heng felt uncomfortable in every way.

"Sorry, Alice, mhm, Alice is the prettiest." Ghost Xin showed no self-awareness, apologizing with a grin.

"Hmph, play nicely with Alice." Alice blinked her crimson eyes and glided back to her original position. She patted her skirt, and a small jewel fell from it, unnoticed by her metal fingers. "Next, I will explain the game rules."

As her voice sounded, the deducers' minds received clearer and more understandable rules from the deduction system.

[The deceased only knows their own identity. The win condition is "not being killed by the murderer" and that by the end of the game, no more than three people among the remaining five know the deceased's identity (including players who died mid-game).]

[The murderer knows their own identity and the detective's identity. They can kill the detective. The win condition is "find the deceased and kill them again." The murderer will directly obtain the deceased's information upon killing the detective. By the end of the game, no more than two people among the remaining five know the murderer's identity (including players who died mid-game).]

[The detective knows their own identity and the deceased's identity. The win condition is "find the murderer" and they must obtain more than five clues.]

[The suspect only knows their own identity. The win condition is "confirm the identity of any two among the murderer, deceased, and detective" and they must obtain more than four clues.]

Yu Xing rubbed his temples, not commenting on the rules for the time being. Instead, he listened to Alice's voice, memorizing her every word.

"There are twelve amusement attractions in my park, and they are now freely available for you to play. Upon completing an attraction, you will receive a random clue pointing to the deceased, the murderer, or the detective." Alice smiled and spun around in place. "The game duration is four hours. The minimum number of players for all attractions is two. I hope you have fun with your companions~"

After speaking, without waiting for anyone else's reaction, she bowed again and glided backward, disappearing into the tower. The door slammed shut with a bang.

At the same time, the clock began to tick again, its rhythmic ticking a soft sound.

"So, within four hours, people with different roles must complete their respective tasks." Wang Jue stroked his chin and mused, "Fortunately, fortunately, this isn't a supernatural deduction, which I fear the most. I think I can handle this. By the way, among you..."

He deliberately scanned everyone slowly. "There is a murderer."

"What's going on?" Yu Xing scratched his head in confusion. "Um, did something happen in reality?"

Among them, only Wang Jue seemed to have knowledge of the real-life murder case. However, if Wang Jue wasn't the murderer, then someone else must have been at the crime scene and was now pretending not to have been.

There was no way to verify this now. To reduce his own suspicion, he would act as much as possible.

Zhao Yijiu glanced at him but said nothing.

No matter what persona Yu Xing used to deceive people in the deduction, Zhao Yijiu wasn't surprised. Moreover, he was inexplicably looking forward to seeing others being completely fooled—he knew Yu Xing's true nature, so he had nothing to lose.

"My name is Wang Jue, the 'Jue' from 'absolute.' I'm a student of Rui Bo. Today was our school anniversary, and I heard someone had died. I followed the crowd to take a look but couldn't get in. I don't know much." Wang Jue recalled and then recounted his morning's experience.

It was completely from a bystander's perspective. Yu Xing found no major issues with it. When he saw Wang Jue, he was performing a bartending act, which matched his account.

"However, I know I'm not the murderer, so someone among you must have been at the scene. Since we're all here now, let's introduce ourselves and talk about what we did this morning?" Wang Jue's suspicious gaze fell on everyone without concealment.

"Sure, sure. My boyfriend and I were shopping when suddenly a game notification appeared. Since we were bored, we entered together." Ghost Xin blew her bangs. "My name is Chen Jiu, and this is my boyfriend, Ling Heng. We only got up after eight and then went shopping. What about you guys?"

"My name is Xie Ze. As you can see..." The man in the suit, whose persona was Ze, pointed to his meticulous attire. "I was preparing for a business reception. However, the preparation had been going on for nearly a week, and today was just the final wrap-up, so I agreed to enter the game."

"Does wrap-up work require such formal attire?" Ling Heng, who hadn't spoken much, posed a sharp question with a smile.

Xie Ze explained, "Company matters are too busy. I was afraid I wouldn't have time to change later."

"Is that so." Ling Heng was noncommittal, his expression making Xie Ze frown.

"Zhao Yijiu. I was at home when the game pulled people in." Comrade Zhao Yijiu, the ice-maker, returned to his usual state of being ruthless and taciturn. After speaking, he pursed his lips, looking unwilling to say more.

"I can vouch for him! My name is Yu Xing. I was also at his place then." Yu Xing shamelessly pulled Zhao Yijiu into a false alibi. He added earnestly, "I just started interning at the company and don't know how to do work reports, so I asked my senior to teach me. We live close by, and my shift is in the afternoon, so I went to my senior's place early this morning."

Zhao Yijiu: "..."

As expected of a drama king, his background story was effortlessly fabricated.

But what was this guy doing this morning that required such a lie, and using me as a shield?

Realizing this, Zhao Yijiu said coldly, "You're too stupid to teach. You should resign as soon as possible."

Yu Xing was greatly dismayed, his narrow phoenix eyes widening. "Ah~ Senior, you can't bully an intern just because you're good at computers! Look, we didn't know each other were deducers before, so it was understandable you were harsh with me. But now that we know, we're colleagues in a way, aren't we? Can't you be a bit more enthusiastic?"

"No."

Seeing Yu Xing's slightly wronged expression, Chen Jiu chuckled. "You guys are so funny. What kind of company is this where the employees are all so good-looking? I want to join too."

Zhao Yijiu glanced at her.

This girl seemed naive and sweet, happy like an idiot, but her questions were as sharp as her boyfriend's.

He said concisely, "Yu Feng Media."

Yu Feng Media was a well-known company in Mijin City. Due to the nature of the work, it did have certain requirements for its employees' appearance.

Chen Jiu shrugged. "Wow, your company's hiring requirements are really high. I'm useless, I don't deserve to join."

As her words fell, no one else initiated a conversation.

Because all six had briefly explained their whereabouts, and except for Wang Jue, none of them had been at Rui Bo. This left only two possibilities.

First, one of them was lying. Excluding Xie Ze, the remaining four had corroborated each other in pairs. This meant that if someone was lying, a large portion of them might be colluding, which was much harder to deal with than one person lying.

The second possibility is that the Ruibo University case didn't happen in the morning, but much earlier. It was just that with the school anniversary starting today, someone happened to push open the door to the sports equipment room, and only then was the deceased discovered. If this were the case, even if no one lied, no one could be cleared of suspicion.

After another moment of silence, Zhao Yijiu turned to Yu Xing and said, "This is a waste of time, let's go."

The game duration was four hours. Besides obtaining a different number of clues, people in different roles also had to consider how to complete their deduction tasks.

The murderer, the deceased, and the detective had to consider how to kill without being noticed and how to protect themselves.

Time was quite tight.

Since Zhao Yijiu had indicated he didn't want everyone to act together, Yu Xing, in his good-natured way, gestured an apology to the others and followed him away.

The remaining four thought about it and agreed that there was no need to travel with strangers right at the beginning. They didn't know what dangers lay within the amusement facilities, and what if someone tripped them up and put them in danger?

They could only travel with people they trusted first, obtain some clues, and then gradually narrow down the scope of their targets before interacting with others.

One of the couples was all smiles, the other calm and casual. Two single men were left behind, heading in the direction of the Ferris wheel.

Yu Xing identified their location and followed Zhao Yijiu past the children's playground and haunted house, heading towards the drop tower.

"Playing something this thrilling right off the bat?" Yu Xing put his hands in his pockets and exclaimed, watching Zhao Yijiu walk towards the ticket booth without hesitation.

"Are you afraid of heights?"

"No."

"That's good." Zhao Yijiu walked up to the sign for the unmanned ticket booth. "I have a feeling that attractions with a certain level of danger visible to the eye will be a bit better than facilities like the Ghostly Creatures House or the Merry-Go-Round."

He looked at the instructions on the sign.

[This attraction requires a minimum of two people to start, and a maximum of four. Visitors with heart conditions should voluntarily choose other attractions.]

"Your heart?"

Yu Xing took a second to react before realizing Zhao Yijiu was asking about his heart condition, not asking for his heart. He leaned in to look at the sign and immediately understood. "My heart is especially good."

They pushed open the white and metal fence and looked towards the drop tower itself.

The drop tower seemed to be a little taller than the central tower in Alice Square, second only to the roller coaster and the Ferris wheel in height.

The surface of the cylindrical body was pitted, designed to look like a primitive giant tree. Countless eyes of varying sizes were embedded within the twisted branches, their pupils moving nimbly within the whites of their eyes. Visitors with trypophobia would likely die on the spot.

The seats on the outside were also in a tree-branch style, and the safety belts looked like blood vessels. Yu Xing felt they would be quite chewy to the touch.

Licking his lips, he obediently sat next to Zhao Yijiu.

"By the way, where were you this morning?"

After sitting down and fastening his seatbelt, Zhao Yijiu suddenly remembered and asked.

Yu Xing checked the U-shaped armrest used to secure visitors and replied as a matter of course, "Ruibo University."

Zhao Yijiu:?

Say that again?