"Aaaaaah-!"
A shrill scream shattered the quiet morning, echoing through the entire corridor.
"Shut up! What the hell are you doing this early?!"
"Can't you let anyone get some rest?!"
The players opened their doors one after another.
In the corridor, a new player sat collapsed on the floor, her eyes wide as she stared in terror at the open door before her.
"What the hell happened?" The new players were still cursing, oblivious and fearless, while the Veteran Players exchanged knowing looks-
Someone had died on the very first night?
Ignoring the female player sitting on the floor, too terrified to move, they walked straight to the wide-open doorway. The room was pitch-black, and a heavy stench of blood hit them in the face.
"Wen Shan, bring a candle." Zhao Yi frowned and turned his head.
If he remembered correctly, a new player had been staying in this room.
Zhao Wen Shan answered and quickly brought over a candle.
With a scrape, the candle was lit. Its flickering flame illuminated the scene inside: a figure lay motionless in the center of the bed, dark red blood staining the sheets beneath her. Everything in the room was neatly arranged, with no sign of a struggle or an attempt to escape.
After surveying the room, Zhao Yi cautiously stepped inside with the candle raised. The other Veteran Players followed him.
The new players hesitated at the doorway for a moment. In the end, faced with the choice between staying outside alone without the Veteran Players and following them into a room that clearly spelled trouble, they chose the latter.
But once they entered and saw what lay on the bed, every last one of them regretted it.
"Urgh-"
"Urgh-"
Covering their mouths, they raced out of the room, no longer caring whether there were any Veteran Players in the corridor. The sounds of dry heaving rose one after another outside.
Their empty stomachs had nothing to bring up, but they could no longer control their bodies' reactions. Even as they retched until their vision darkened, the image they had glimpsed inside the room remained firmly seared into their minds:
The new player lay silently on the blood-soaked bed. Her face was contorted, frozen in the instant she had opened her mouth to scream in agony. Thick, reddish-black fluid had congealed around her empty eye sockets, leaving two broad trails of bloody "tears" down her cheeks. Those black, hollow sockets stared straight at the ceiling, as though she still had her eyes open, unable to rest in death.
"Urgh-" They clutched their painfully contracting stomachs, the hands braced against the wall trembling uncontrollably.
At that moment, they finally understood just what kind of game they were taking part in.
The Veteran Players still inside were clearly accustomed to both the horrifying condition of the dead player and the newcomers' reactions to the corpse. Enduring the nauseating stench of blood, they leaned closer and began examining the body.
"Her eyes were gouged out."
"No other wounds on her body."
"The edges of the wounds around her eyes are uneven. It wasn't a sharp weapon."
"So what exactly killed her?"
After examining the body, the Veteran Players also left the blood-reeking room and stood in the corridor, exchanging bewildered looks.
During the examination, they had already run through yesterday's events in their minds. But no matter how they recalled it, from entering the castle and meeting its master to going into their rooms, everyone had stayed together almost the entire time.
The only difference had been out in that corridor lined with paintings...
"It was you!"
"You got her killed!"
As the Veteran Players pondered, a shrill accusation interrupted their thoughts.
The bespectacled newcomer was pointing furiously at the loudmouth. "I saw everything yesterday!"
"You shoved her into a painting in the corridor! That's why she died!"
"Bullshit!" Seeing the other players turn toward him with suspicious looks, the loudmouth flushed red. He knocked aside the finger pointing at him and defiantly snapped, "What does that have to do with me?"
"What happened?" Zhao Yi pushed through the crowd and approached the bespectacled man. "What did you see yesterday?"
"Zhao Yi, don't listen to his bullshit..." Seeing Zhao Yi actually start asking questions, the loudmouth panicked and hastily interrupted, "I didn't do any-"
"Shh-" Zhao Yi raised a finger, cutting off his attempted excuses. "Let me finish asking him first." He turned to the bespectacled man and prompted, "Go on."
"I-it happened like this..." The bespectacled man swallowed nervously. "When we passed through the gallery last night..." He recounted everything he had seen, from beginning to end, about the loudmouth shoving her.
Zhao Yi thought for a moment, then checked again. "You're sure... she got some of the liquid from the painting on her hand too?"
The bespectacled man stole a glance at the loudmouth's expression and cautiously nodded. "I-I'm sure."
Zhao Yi turned to look at his younger sister. Zhao Wen Shan made an understanding OK gesture, then turned with the candle and went back into the room reeking of blood.
A little while later, she ran out with her nose covered.
"Phew... phew..." She took deep breaths of the slightly cleaner air in the corridor. Only after catching her breath did she speak. "He's right."
"There's still some liquid on her hand that wasn't wiped off properly. On her clothes too." Though the dead woman's clothes were almost soaked through with blood, whatever that liquid was made of, it had remained wet and greasy overnight.
With the facts confirmed, all the players turned toward the loudmouth. Some of the newcomers standing near him even took a few steps back to put distance between them.
The loudmouth was so nervous he was breaking into a cold sweat. "N-no... this has nothing to do with me..."
"She lost her balance! She bumped into it herself! It had nothing to do with me!"
"If you hadn't shoved her, how would she have bumped into it?!" With the Veteran Players apparently backing him up, the bespectacled man had grown much bolder. Abandoning his earlier timidity, he confronted the loudmouth. "If it wasn't because of the painting, then what killed her?"
"You got her killed! You murderer!"
The bespectacled man's shrill voice clearly struck a nerve. The loudmouth lunged at him, swinging a fist. "Shut up!"
"If you're so righteous, why didn't you help her yesterday?! If I'm a murderer, you're no better, acting all wise after the fact!"
The two immediately tumbled into a tangled heap in the corridor. Screams, the thuds of fists striking flesh, curses, and the Veteran Players' sporadic attempts to break up the fight all echoed through the already cramped space.
"Quite lively out here..."
Just as their fight grew fierce, the door behind them suddenly creaked open.
A beautiful yet aloof face appeared before the group.
Bo Yi leaned against the doorframe, his gaze sweeping over the players gathered in the corridor before finally settling on the two men sprawled on top of each other outside his room. "What's all this..."
The loudmouth, who was straddling the bespectacled man and punching him, froze as well. He jerked his head up, and the moment he saw Bo Yi, his eyes lit up. "See?!"
He scrambled unsteadily to his feet and pointed at Bo Yi as he addressed the other players. "Look!"
"He's still alive! He touched those paintings yesterday too! But he's still alive!"
"So that woman's death had nothing to do with those paintings!"
"It had nothing to do with me!"
Amid the loudmouth's yelling, Bo Yi tilted his head away from the pointing finger, then turned his gaze toward Zhao Yi, who happened to be standing nearby.
Zhao Yi obligingly recounted everything that had happened.
"So that's what happened..." Bo Yi gave a slight nod.
The loudmouth was still shouting. "If that woman died because of the paintings in the corridor, why didn't anything happen to him? Why is he still standing here in front of us, perfectly fine?!"
"Touching those paintings doesn't do anything! That woman's death had nothing to do with me!"
The other players looked at Bo Yi, then at the heavily panting loudmouth, and began to waver.
Even the bespectacled man climbed to his feet and stood quietly to one side with his head lowered, reverting to his former cowering manner.
Little by little, the corridor fell silent, and smugness returned to the loudmouth's face.
Just then, a cool, detached voice spoke. "Who told you-"
In the corridor's deathly silence, Bo Yi raised an eyebrow slightly at the loudmouth. "That nothing happened to me last night?"
Before you continue