Chapter Summaries

A boastful man who believed he had transmigrated into a book tried to get ahead of Zhen Liu, the story’s supposed protagonist. Zhen Liu hurried toward a holographic murder mystery game, while the man planned to meet him there.

• On a scorching afternoon, three elderly school guards discussed the heat and a recent death at the Gemini Towers.
• A fat man asked the guards where Zhen Liu, the student council vice president, was, and they told him Zhen Liu had just cycled away.
• The fat man pursued Zhen Liu by car but realized he could not follow him through the old town’s narrow alleys.
• Remembering the book’s opening, the fat man headed for the Twilight Mystery Club’s L049 Branch, where Zhen Liu was expected to fill a vacant player slot.
• The fat man identified Zhen Liu as the primary male lead of “Osmond.”

Pao Hui, a transmigrator who knew Zhen Liu’s story from the novel Osmond, tried to join Zhen Liu’s first murder mystery game but was repeatedly refused. Zhen Liu exposed Pao Hui’s fabricated identity and recognized that he had been lying from the start.

• Pao Hui arrived at Twilight Mystery Club before Zhen Liu, but Boss Qian refused to let him join the full game.
• Pao Hui waited outside and pretended to be Zhen Liu’s junior from the same university when Zhen Liu arrived.
• Zhen Liu declined Pao Hui’s request to join his group, saying the group was full.
• Pao Hui accidentally revealed that he knew which scenario Zhen Liu planned to play and claimed Senior Qian had told him.
• Zhen Liu said Pao Hui had lied from beginning to end and that he remembered never having met him.

Zhen Liu entered the beginner murder-mystery scenario "Class Reunion" and learned its rules, player roles, and scoring system. As the game prepared to begin, he understood that the murderer could win by completing the main quest, while the good guys needed to solve more objectives to earn enough points.

• Zhen Liu underwent the game’s examination and entered a starry virtual space as the AI 333 connected to his preferences.
• 333 learned that Zhen Liu had never played a murder-mystery game and activated a beginner’s guide.
• 333 explained that five players would each play a suspect in a case with exactly one murderer among them.
• Zhen Liu recognized that the players were divided into the murderer and the good guys, and questioned how the contest could be fair when only one player would win.
• 333 explained that victory depended on points: the murderer earned more for the main quest, while all players could gain points from side quests and reconstructing the story.

Zhen Liu began the character-selection stage of the Class Reunion game and learned that he had been invited to livestream. After confirming the pay and signing the contract, he agreed to livestream his games from now on.

• 333 explained the game rules and newcomer precautions to Zhen Liu before the Class Reunion script began.
• Zhen Liu saw five character profiles and learned that all players would choose their roles through psychological tests.
• The DM began character selection with Zhen Liu and four other players seated around a table.
• 333 told Zhen Liu that he had been invited to livestream, and Zhen Liu inferred that an experienced player had attracted the invitation.
• Zhen Liu asked about livestream pay, agreed to participate, and signed the electronic contract.

Zhen Liu signed the contract and presented a charming smile to the cameras, while Lucien's avatar asked the God of Love and Beauty to rein in its lovestruck followers. As the casting questions began, Zhen Liu stayed silent and tracked the answers and assigned roles.

• Zhen Liu signed the contract and smiled for the cameras, drawing adoring reactions from the livestream audience.
• Lucien's avatar asked the God of Love and Beauty to restrain its followers, but the god predicted that Lucien would fall in love.
• The casting game resumed, and the first player chose to spend life with the person he loved, earning the role of university professor.
• A player answered that he would not warn people about an approaching apocalypse, received no role, and lost some viewers.
• Xiao Zhao consulted his livestream audience about which answers to choose, while Zhen Liu memorized the questions, answers, and assigned roles.

Zhen Liu chose to read his doctor character’s biography and discovered a side quest to find the person he secretly had a crush on, which he decided to ignore. The reunion scenario began with Lawyer Jin arriving at the villa and encountering Doctor Zhen in the kitchen.

• Zhen Liu chose the text version of his character biography, reasoning that it would be the most efficient and reliable way to understand the role.
• Zhen Liu found that his first side quest was to find his secret crush, but decided he could do without the point and focus on detective work.
• On June 4, Lawyer Jin arrived at Villa No. 4 for the Chengnan No. 1 High School Class of '01 reunion despite the heavy rain and traffic.
• Lawyer Jin noticed an umbrella already in the entryway and expected Ying De to have arrived before him.
• Doctor Zhen appeared from the kitchen, and Lawyer Jin recognized the former school heartthrob, whose looks seemed almost unchanged.

Doctor Zhen attended the early preparations for Ying De’s class reunion and met Lawyer Jin and Professor Lu. After recognizing the classmates through their character profiles, he went downstairs with Professor Lu as more guests arrived.

• Lawyer Jin greeted Zhen Liu at the villa, and the two discussed whether other classmates had arrived.
• Ying De came downstairs while boasting on the phone about an impending windfall and greeted Lawyer Jin and Zhen Liu.
• Ying De deliberately made Zhen Liu shake his hand, after which Zhen Liu went upstairs to change and avoid the others.
• An hour later, Zhen Liu nearly collided with Professor Lu in the hallway and learned that Lu taught at a university.
• Professor Lu told Zhen Liu that Basketball Qiao and Second-generation Zhao had arrived, bringing milk tea, ingredients, a butler, and bodyguards.

After Ying De hosted a dinner with the five classmates, he was found dead in the villa the next morning, leaving them all suspected of murder. The third phase began with the players trapped in the villa and facing a forty-eight-hour deadline to identify the killer, while Zhen Liu learned that the murderer might not know they were responsible.

• Lawyer Jin joined Doctor Zhen and Professor Lu as they went downstairs, where Ying De provoked Basketball Qiao in the villa hall.
• Ying De opened Doctor Zhen's wine and insisted that the five classmates toast to friendship at dinner.
• Before dawn, Doctor Zhen discovered Ying De dead in a second-floor room, and the DM named the five players as suspects.
• The DM announced that no one could leave the villa and that Brother Hao would burn them alive unless they identified the murderer within forty-eight hours.
• 333 explained that the players would give brief introductions and timelines, and Zhen Liu learned that this original scenario did not necessarily tell the murderer they were guilty.

Zhen Liu considered how the players’ conflicting quests might make the truth difficult to uncover, then joined the others at the dining table to discuss the case. Second-generation Zhao began the introductions and recounted his movements on the night Ying De died.

• Zhen Liu deduced that players might have conflicting objectives to protect someone and catch the killer, though he knew he needed more evidence.
• Second-generation Zhao suggested the players sit in the same places as at the previous night’s banquet, and they did so.
• Second-generation Zhao recognized Basketball Qiao from a previous round and proposed that everyone introduce themselves, while Zhen Liu suspected Zhao and Lawyer Jin already knew each other.
• Lawyer Jin urged the group to hurry, and Basketball Qiao joked that the killer should confess before Brother Hao burned them all.
• Second-generation Zhao introduced himself as a wealthy heir and said he had played games in his room after the banquet before being woken by noise; he said he had only been a middle school classmate of Ying De.

The suspects introduced themselves and described their timelines after the deceased’s murder. Basketball Qiao recounted arriving with Second-generation Zhao and staying behind to clean up after the banquet, but the group still lacked a clear account of what everyone did afterward.

• Xiao Zhao gave a vague self-introduction, while Professor Lu stated that he hated the deceased and described his movements from nine until he went to sleep.
• Basketball Qiao introduced himself at length, explaining his failed basketball career and his desire to support his mother, before Xiao Zhao redirected him to the timeline.
• Basketball Qiao said he arrived at the villa around eight-thirty with Second-generation Zhao, where Ying De and Lawyer Jin were already present.
• Basketball Qiao recalled that the banquet began around nine, ended at eleven, and involved everyone interacting with the deceased.
• Basketball Qiao said Doctor Zhen went upstairs first, Professor Lu followed, and the deceased kept him behind to clean up while Lawyer Jin stayed with him; he could not remember where Second-generation Zhao went.

Zhen Liu considered Professor Lu’s testimony and the other players’ morning timelines while deciding whether to trust Professor Lu. Lawyer Jin began giving his account, leaving his timeline unfinished.

• Zhen Liu viewed Professor Lu’s testimony supporting his account as a move to conceal Professor Lu’s own actions.
• Zhen Liu decided he would not seek an alliance but would accept support from someone who approached him.
• Basketball Qiao confirmed that he had seen Professor Lu in the kitchen before entering the victim’s room and screaming.
• Lawyer Jin introduced himself as a successful lawyer with good relationships with the victim and the other classmates, then began recounting his timeline.

Lawyer Jin recounted the evening before Ying De’s death and suggested Ying De may have visited someone upstairs. Basketball Qiao then revealed that Ying De had threatened everyone and fought with Lawyer Jin, exposing a hidden side quest and a possible clue in the villa’s TV records.

• Lawyer Jin described arriving at the villa, seeing Ying De come downstairs while Doctor Zhen was in the kitchen, and later encountering Ying De on the stairs.
• Zhen Liu reconsidered whether someone else might have been upstairs and resolved to inspect the stormy yard for a possible escape route.
• Lawyer Jin watched the others’ reactions to see whether they had also received private meeting notes from Ying De.
• Basketball Qiao bluntly revealed that Ying De had dirt on everyone and had threatened them into doing things for him.
• Basketball Qiao recalled that Ying De and Lawyer Jin had argued and that Ying De threw the first punch, prompting Zhen Liu to suspect the TV footage could reveal what triggered the fight.
• Lawyer Jin admitted to the altercation, said he had gone upstairs to treat his wound, and argued that Ying De’s greater strength made him unlikely to have killed him.

During the first evidence-gathering round, the players agreed not to investigate one another’s side quests and split up to search the villa. Zhen Liu examined Ying De’s corpse while mistaking Professor Lu’s offer of help for a request to form an alliance, leaving Professor Lu’s feelings and the murder investigation unresolved.

• Second-generation Zhao proposed that the players stop prying into one another’s side quests, and Zhen Liu and Professor Lu agreed; Second-generation Zhao then privately explained the arrangement to Basketball Qiao.
• The six-hour evidence-gathering round began, and the five players split into three teams to search the villa.
• Professor Lu offered to share more clues with Zhen Liu, who asked whether he wanted to form an alliance; Professor Lu hinted that Zhen Liu was special to him.
• Zhen Liu deduced that Professor Lu had a secret crush on Doctor Zhen and might be under blackmail, then promised not to reveal the secret as long as Professor Lu did not betray him.
• Zhen Liu examined Ying De’s corpse and recorded photos and videos, while the game’s evidence rules and available forensic tools were explained.

Zhen Liu examined the victim and the crime scene, concluding that several suspects had likely tried to kill him and that his room might not be where he died. While searching Basketball Qiao's room, Zhen Liu found a blackmail note and asked Professor Lu whether he had received a similar one.

• Zhen Liu found signs that the victim had been attacked with multiple methods, including knife wounds, blunt force, smothering, and possible poison.
• Zhen Liu and Professor Lu reasoned that they needed to identify the fatal wound and establish the timing of each suspect's actions to find the murderer.
• Zhen Liu and Professor Lu judged that the victim's room was probably not the primary crime scene because the large pool of blood had no spatter.
• Zhen Liu noticed that someone had searched the victim's room and accidentally rearranged items for a right-handed person, though the victim was left-handed.
• Zhen Liu and Professor Lu searched Basketball Qiao's cluttered room, where Zhen Liu found a note threatening him over match-fixing.
• Zhen Liu asked Professor Lu whether his own blackmail note had carried a similar message.

Zhen Liu and Professor Lu searched the rooms while investigating the victim’s notes and meeting timelines, and Lawyer Jin tried to keep them under watch. Basketball Qiao and Second-generation Zhao unsettled Lawyer Jin with their openness, while Professor Lu’s amusement left Lawyer Jin enduring one awkward moment after another.

• Zhen Liu and Professor Lu realized the notes gave no meeting times, leaving no clear proof of anyone’s timeline.
• Lawyer Jin joined Zhen Liu and Professor Lu on their search, while Basketball Qiao came downstairs and asked to search the living room.
• Lawyer Jin caught Second-generation Zhao hiding clues and made him wait while the group searched Lawyer Jin’s room.
• Second-generation Zhao later invited everyone to search his room, and Professor Lu laughed as Lawyer Jin struggled to keep his composure.

Zhen Liu and the others searched the villa for evidence, finding signs that the entertainment room’s golf club may have been used to kill Ying De. After Lawyer Jin split off to search the attic, Zhen Liu and Professor Lu examined a ransacked guest room, where Professor Lu offered to help him clean up.

• Zhen Liu had Lawyer Jin check Second-generation Zhao’s game console records, which showed it had been used around dawn, and found Zhao’s locked phone with a family portrait on its screen.
• Zhen Liu found dark bloodstains on a golf club in the shared entertainment room, which could have caused Ying De’s head injury.
• Lawyer Jin searched Zhen Liu’s and Professor Lu’s rooms while they watched, then proposed that everyone split up.
• Lawyer Jin went to the attic while Zhen Liu and Professor Lu entered an empty guest room, which had been thoroughly ransacked.
• Professor Lu asked whether Zhen Liu wanted help tidying the room before they searched it.

Zhen Liu investigated the villa and noticed that the attic lacked basic safety equipment and that the building’s layout was wrong. At the first group discussion, the players still had questions about Second-generation Zhao’s whereabouts and the kitchen’s significance.

• Zhen Liu and Professor Lu searched the attic, where Zhen Liu noticed there were no railings, safety nets, padding, or fire extinguisher.
• Zhen Liu circled the villa with Professor Lu, considered whether someone could have climbed between balconies, and sketched the rooms, realizing the layout was wrong.
• At the next gathering, Lawyer Jin and Zhen Liu noticed Second-generation Zhao was missing, then suspected his claim that he had stayed in his room was a lie.
• Zhen Liu, Professor Lu, and Lawyer Jin cooked lunch and checked the kitchen; Lawyer Jin confirmed every knife was in place, and Second-generation Zhao said none had human blood on it.
• After lunch, the five players sat down for their first group discussion with a shared light screen.

Before the first group discussion, DM revealed that a player had guessed another player’s secret, throwing the group into suspicion. Zhen Liu calmed Lawyer Jin by suggesting the killer had deliberately stirred up conflict, though the players still did not know who had made the guess.

• DM announced that a player had guessed a secret and could submit evidence to cost its owner a side-quest bonus privilege.
• Lawyer Jin accused Professor Lu of exposing his secret, and the players began forming opposing sides.
• Professor Lu suggested that someone with a recording device could have evidence of Lawyer Jin’s clash with the deceased.
• Zhen Liu pointed out that an early answer would expose the guesser to suspicion and retaliation.
• Zhen Liu proposed that the killer had answered to provoke distrust, and Lawyer Jin accepted the explanation.

Zhen Liu guessed that the quiz was a fixed segment, then watched Lawyer Jin use recorded statements and collected clues to argue that Basketball Qiao lived at the villa and was connected to Second-generation Zhao. The discussion left Zhen Liu reflecting on Doctor Zhen’s past and his uncertain secret love for the irretrievable year 2001.

• Zhen Liu privately told the viewers that he had guessed the quiz was a fixed segment.
• Lawyer Jin began the group discussion by presenting clues about everyone’s motives for murder.
• Lawyer Jin argued that Basketball Qiao’s exposed match-fixing was unlikely to be his current weakness and replayed Basketball Qiao’s earlier statement about an abducted brother.
• Lawyer Jin connected Second-generation Zhao to Basketball Qiao through a news article about a recovered missing son and evidence that Basketball Qiao had been living at the villa.
• Second-generation Zhao claimed Basketball Qiao might be staying there because of their friendship, and Lawyer Jin treated the answer as confirmation.
• Zhen Liu reflected that Doctor Zhen might secretly love Lawyer Jin, then recalled how Doctor Zhen had been bullied in 2001 while Lawyer Jin watched from the sidelines.

Doctor Zhen’s memories revealed that an anonymous classmate’s messages had helped him endure middle school, and Zhen Liu suspected Lawyer Jin was the person he had secretly loved. At the reunion, Lawyer Jin questioned Basketball Qiao and Second-generation Zhao, then began probing Doctor Zhen and Professor Lu.

• Doctor Zhen recalled exchanging hidden messages with someone at school and explained why he had hoped the reunion would help him find that person.
• Zhen Liu reasoned that Lawyer Jin was the likeliest candidate for Doctor Zhen’s secret crush, since the other suspects seemed less plausible or were already connected to other characters.
• Basketball Qiao admitted he lived at the villa, saying the victim had provided it in exchange for errands, not Second-generation Zhao.
• Second-generation Zhao said Ying De had blackmailed him into providing a place to stay, and he had concealed Basketball Qiao’s involvement to avoid drawing attention to the threat.
• Lawyer Jin told Zhen Liu that Doctor Zhen’s weakness might involve a failed operation or his relationship with patients.