Beginner Edition · Class Reunion (Twenty

After all, the coroner would examine the fatal wounds. They merely wanted to throw the investigation off course, so the police would not realize they had been fanning the flames and planning everything behind the scenes.

Basketball Qiao said, "The killer is either Professor Lu or Lawyer Jin. I swear, what Second-generation Zhao and I encountered were definitely corpses."

"And you think we'd still believe you after you say that now?" Lawyer Jin sneered.

Zhen Liu... actually did believe him. Only that could truly explain Basketball Qiao and Second-generation Zhao's series of rather baffling actions.

The standard trope in murder-mystery games was that every character was on their way to kill someone. But a trope was called a trope because most people wrote it that way, not because everyone did. There could be exceptions too—for example, a character pretending to be on their way to kill someone in order to complete their own scheme.

Second-generation Zhao raised his hand and requested a pause from his personal AI. "I want a one-to-many private chat."

Only then did Zhen Liu, who was not very familiar with the game's procedures, realize that private chats were possible. Since there was one-to-many, there should also be one-to-one.

[Okay, please select your private chat participants~] Second-generation Zhao's AI sounded rather lively. Though its voice was different, its tone gave people an oddly familiar feeling.

Second-generation Zhao said, "Me, Basketball Qiao, Doctor Zhen, and Professor Lu."

Lawyer Jin: "???" You call that a private chat? Didn't you just fucking block me out? Pah!

But whether Lawyer Jin liked it or not, the one-to-many private chat began.

The four appeared in the Black Room specially created by the game. Only the four of them could hear and see one another—though, of course, the gods' devotees in the livestream could as well.

Second-generation Zhao once again tried to persuade Zhen Liu and Lucien to take their side. He was confident that he would succeed this time, because he had found something Lucien could not refuse. Last time, he had been careless, assuming Lucien would care about evidence unfavorable to himself. But the facts had proven that Lucien was love-struck; he simply did not care what happened to him. So this time, Second-generation Zhao brought out evidence unfavorable to Doctor Zhen.

"We suspect Doctor Zhen has a split personality."

In fact, Zhen Liu had suspected the same. The handwriting that had suddenly appeared, the person he had secretly loved in his youth but could never find... all of it pointed to one possibility—Doctor Zhen was narcissistic. The person he loved was actually himself.

There appeared to be five suspects, but there were actually six.

As for why none of this was in Zhen Liu's character background, the answer was simple. Zhen Liu was playing the second personality—the personality that knew nothing and had formed its own system and memories.

This was both Doctor Zhen's secret and the truth Zhen Liu had to uncover in his side quest.

It was also the secret Professor Lu had discovered and wanted to hide.

Lucien's expression finally turned unpleasant for once. Second-generation Zhao and the others had guessed correctly.

"Let's make a deal." Second-generation Zhao's meaning was already obvious. He believed Doctor Zhen's primary personality was the killer. The primary personality knew everything and had even considered that Class A Poison and Class B Poison would accelerate each other's fusion. To evade police interrogation, Doctor Zhen's primary personality had released the secondary personality, who knew nothing, after finishing everything. "If you don't vote with us for Lawyer Jin, then we'll vote for Doctor Zhen together with Lawyer Jin."

Second-generation Zhao and Basketball Qiao were practically invincible, because from the very beginning, they had naturally been bound to the same camp. Whoever they leaned toward voting for had a very high chance of being voted out.

And that was indeed the case.

Basketball Qiao joined the persuasion effort. "We don't really care that much about winning."

Second-generation Zhao continued, "If Lawyer Jin really is the killer and we vote for him, he won't get the eight points. Everyone will start from the same line, but we can guarantee that Doctor Zhen's secret won't be exposed, so Doctor Zhen will have one more point than all of us. If Doctor Zhen is the killer and we vote for Lawyer Jin, then Doctor Zhen will receive the eight-point bonus for escaping. Either way, it's a guaranteed win."

Second-generation Zhao and Basketball Qiao looked at Zhen Liu together, certain that he could not refuse such temptation.

Chapter 23: Newbie Scenario · Class Reunion (20)

[Ah, we've reached this point again.]

[So boring. Why is it this again...]

[Because this is a dead end. No matter how many times Second-generation Zhao and Basketball Qiao choose, once they forget this experience and start over, they'll always return to the same old path. And ordinary players can't resist the temptation of winning either. Sigh.]

[Our Zhen Liu is different!!!]

[How different can Zhen Liu be? I'm dying. Don't forget that everyone who can participate in the game is a suspect from another world. I've already seen who knows how many settings where everyone is evil. You devotees of the God of Love should give it a rest. And even if Zhen Liu really is a good person, why would he refuse something that benefits him without any downside? To them, this is just a game. Enough, stop waiting and disperse. There won't be any other ending.]

[But I... just feel that this time might be different.]

"Class Reunion," as a newbie scenario, had been listed for sale at Twilight Mystery Club for many years. The killer was not actually hard to deduce. There were only five suspects in the entire case, and even including the doctor with split personalities, there were only six possible suspects. Of those five, two were parties directly involved in the case. Even picking at random gave one a considerable chance of finding the real killer.

What truly made solving the case difficult was the human heart.

It was also why the scenario had still never truly been cleared after all these years.

Second-generation Zhao and Basketball Qiao forgot again and again, participated again and again, and somehow turned a truth that should have long been laid bare into something bewilderingly murky. Because they truly did not want to win, nor did they want the truth. They only wanted to avenge their mother. No matter what kind of player entered, they would eventually be dragged by the two brothers into

revenge

the vortex, handing Lawyer Jin over to Brother Hao as they wished.

But...