Script Murder Experience Hall

"Ding-ling!"

He pushed open the glass door before him. Inside was furnished much like a café.

The walls were hung with eerie, bizarre murals.

"Welcome!"

A woman stood up from behind the front desk. Xu Tong took out the invitation card in his hand while sweeping his gaze over her. She had an oval face, arched brows, and delicate features that made her seem pleasant and approachable.

Yet perhaps because of the lighting, her skin looked exceptionally pale—pale enough to feel cloying, like a low-quality milk candy. It might be sweet, but the taste would never be likable.

"You're very lucky. A round is about to begin, so you can rest in the lounge first."

The woman smiled sweetly, but Xu Tong saw something entirely different.

He stared at her, the friendly expression on his face gradually turning serious, then slowly shifting from seriousness into disappointment.

Unnatural!

Whether it was her stiff movements, the smile on her face, or even the sound of her voice, none of it resembled a front desk receptionist. It had nothing to do with professionalism, nor with her identity or mood. Everything about her carried two words: deliberate.

Yet it was precisely this terrible acting that made Xu Tong find her even more interesting.

Perhaps Xu Tong's scrutinizing gaze made the woman uncomfortable. The smile on her face gradually faded. "Sir, is there anything else?"

"Hehe!!"

Xu Tong grinned, revealing his white teeth, and gave the woman a mysterious smile. Before she could ask anything else, he turned and headed toward the lounge.

Watching his departing back, the woman's expression suddenly darkened. She quickly took out a mirror and examined herself from side to side for a moment before lowering it with a puzzled look. "It's not cracked?"

Then she recalled Xu Tong's strange grin, and the anger in her heart grew stronger. She cast a sidelong glance toward the lounge, and her eyes actually turned blood-red.

"You finally showed up. Do you have any sense of punctuality?? You're almost ten minutes late!!"

There were three men and one woman in the lounge. When Xu Tong entered, the fat man sitting on the sofa slapped his thigh, looking as though he had been waiting specifically for him.

Faced with the fat man's impatient expression, the bespectacled youth dressed like a student instead looked embarrassed. He lowered his head apologetically. "Um... he isn't my classmate."

"If he isn't, then he isn't. He can fill the empty spot. We won't wait for him anymore."

The fat man looked at the youth with disdain. "If this Script Murder game didn't need five people, would we have waited for him this long??"

Knowing he was in the wrong, the youth naturally had no excuse to offer. He could only lower his head and remain silent.

Xu Tong looked the student-like youth over. After some thought, he decided not to tell him that his classmate had already lived a life longer than his and died young.

Seeing this, another young man hurriedly stood up to smooth things over. "Alright, alright. We're here to have fun, so don't get upset over such a trivial matter."

Then he turned to Xu Tong and introduced himself. "My name is Zhang Hao. I'm a content creator, and I came specifically to gather material."

"Xu Tong." He nodded and gave a simple introduction.

At the same time, he looked toward the woman nearby. She appeared to be around thirty, dressed in a black business suit and wearing black-rimmed glasses. She was sitting on the sofa reading a magazine.

In response to Xu Tong's gaze, the woman merely smiled, nodded, and said softly, "Zhou Yu."

"My name is Li Bo. Just call me Brother Bo. You could say I'm an old hand at Script Murder."

The fat man put down his phone and stroked the thick gold chain around his neck. "This place sent me an invitation card ages ago. If it's fun, I'll get a membership here. If you all play often in the future, you can come find me."

"I'm Wang Shaohui, a student at our University of Science and Technology. I happened to have some free time, so I came to try it out," the youth said shyly.

"Hey, if you haven't played before, ask if you have any questions. Don't go messing around on your own."

Li Bo had already been annoyed with Wang Shaohui. When he heard that he apparently had never played Script Murder before, he crossed one leg over the other even more impatiently.

Zhang Hao patted Wang Shaohui on the shoulder reassuringly. "There's nothing difficult about it. Script Murder only became popular recently. Put simply, everyone has their own identity and script within one big scenario. We just follow the progression of our scripts."

The earliest prototype for Script Murder had actually been game venues like haunted houses. Later, someone had the sudden idea to add scripts into the mix. Everyone gained their own settings and storylines, and as time passed, it evolved into the wildly popular Script Murder Experience Halls of today.

Moreover, in recent years, Script Murder was no longer limited to its original mind-bending mystery style. Many top-tier scripts were often lighter ones, such as Onion.

But no matter how popular it was, it remained a niche game.

After all, even a small script took at least two hours, while large scripts required three or four hours.

Besides, good scripts were becoming increasingly rare. Other than the few currently popular ones, it was already difficult to come across a truly good script.

For a content creator focused on Script Murder, that was also a devastating blow.

That was why, after receiving this Script Murder invitation card and being told there was a new script, Zhang Hao had traveled two hours by high-speed train from a neighboring city, followed by an hour-long Didi ride to get here.

If this place had not only accepted players holding invitation cards, he would definitely have chosen a few familiar veteran players to join him rather than this group of strangers assembled at the last minute.

In order to gather enough material smoothly, Zhang Hao had no choice but to enthusiastically play peacemaker.

Xu Tong sat on the sofa and casually picked up a magazine. After sweeping his gaze over everyone, he finally focused on the magazine in his hand.

The magazines here seemed to have been custom-made by the shop. Inside were all kinds of stills featuring ghosts and monsters.

He flipped through two pages. Although they were stills, they had an intensely realistic style. The backgrounds were eerie and strange, and some of the photos had even been taken in graveyards.

Then Xu Tong suddenly raised his brows and stared unblinkingly at a face hanging from a beam in the magazine. It was a black-and-white photo. The features on the face were twisted together in agony, creating an overwhelmingly powerful impact.

The fat man, Li Bo, was sitting beside Xu Tong. Seeing him silently staring at the magazine, he leaned over for a look. When he saw the photo, he grinned. "Not bad, but the expression is too exaggerated. If I were doing it, I guarantee I'd be better than him."

Hearing Li Bo's words, Xu Tong held the magazine up beside Li Bo's face and compared the two. He smiled and shook his head. "You're not suited for this role."

Li Bo froze. Though he knew the other man was joking, he could not shake the feeling that something about it was strange.

So instead of asking what kind of role suited him, he checked the time and shouted impatiently, "Are we ready or not? Everyone's here, so why haven't we started yet!"

The moment he finished speaking, everyone heard the humming sound of a door opening.

"Buzz~~"

A red light shone in from the entrance to the lounge. Everyone looked over to see a woman in a cheongsam standing in the doorway, smiling at them.

"Hello, everyone. I'm the host for this Script Murder game. The game can begin now. Please come in and prepare."

The woman's voice was soft and gentle, carrying the feel of a Jiangnan water town. Her vivid red cheongsam and swallowtail updo made her utterly eye-catching, as though a woman from a film set on The Bund had stepped out of the screen.

The fat man turned to look at the host, and his eyes immediately became glued to her. His gaze was fixed on her round, full breasts, and he nearly started drooling.

"Alright, alright, alright, let's begin!"

The fat man eagerly got up and headed inside, with the others following close behind.

Xu Tong walked more slowly, his hands in his pockets as he strolled along behind everyone else. One foot stepped through the small doorway.

"Wow!"

A long corridor stretched ahead, with carefully framed stills hanging on both sides.

Looking at the stills on the walls, Zhang Hao could not help taking a deep breath. As an experienced Script Murder player, this was the first time he had felt so uneasy from looking at such pictures.

When his gaze landed on a black-background still, his steps abruptly halted.

There was only a knotted length of rope in it, yet Zhang Hao instinctively felt his throat tighten, as though the rope had already been looped around his neck. A chill ran through his entire body, and he subconsciously turned away, not daring to look any longer.

The group passed through the corridor and found five separate doors ahead.

"Each of you may choose one. Inside are the character you will be playing and your script for this round."

The host's voice remained gentle and melodious. Listening to it, Li Bo felt his whole body go numb. He walked up beside the host and smiled. "Do we need to change clothes? I mean, do you have sizes as large as mine??"

As he spoke, he tugged at his collar, trying to make his thick gold chain stand out more.

The host waved the paper fan in her hand and raised her brows slightly. Her peach-blossom eyes nearly stole the fat man's soul away. "Don't worry. There will definitely be clothes that fit you."

"Good, good, good."

The fat man nodded happily, then turned and headed straight into the room on the left.

Zhou Yu followed next. Without looking back, she directly opened a door and walked inside. Watching her close the door behind her, Xu Tong narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.

Wang Shaohui and Zhang Hao chose the third and second doors on the left.

Looking at the only remaining door, Xu Tong's gaze gradually turned heated. He stepped forward and gave it a gentle push. Once the door opened, he saw a room of roughly ten square meters containing a table and chair.

Looking at the simple furnishings in the room, Xu Tong gradually frowned.

He walked to the table and slowly placed his hand on the box. As he gradually opened it, before he could see what was inside, the lights in the room suddenly flickered several times before going out.

Power outage?

Amid his confusion, a grayish-white beam of light suddenly shone down from overhead.

Xu Tong tilted his head and looked toward the light...

"Yo!!"

Behind him, a black coffin had appeared at some point. One end of the coffin faced directly toward him, with the character [Longevity] written on it.

Some details were adjusted, including the protagonist's name, which was changed from Xu Feng to Xu Tong.