The Dead Man... Who Killed Him?

"The dead man..."

"Who killed him?"

Over a thousand faceless spectators spoke at once.

Their voices overlapped.

It was like countless dead men whispering the question in their ears.

[Final act, second question: Who killed the second young master?]

[Time remaining to answer: 180 seconds]

The blood-red numbers began to tick down.

The ease vanished from Shen Niannian's face.

The answer to the first question could be confirmed directly from the character status.

But the second question was different.

From the start of the first act until now-

They hadn't seen how the second young master died at all!

Zhang Yu himself looked utterly baffled.

"When I entered the side courtyard in the first act, the script told me to lie in the coffin and play dead. I have no idea what happened to the second young master before that."

Ye Qinglan spoke immediately. "Everyone, check your theater tickets. Since the second question concerns the plot of the play, the relevant characters must have received the corresponding memories."

Everyone looked down.

Sure enough.

Several theater tickets grew warm at once.

The first to change

belonged to the player playing the [Master].

[Character memory]

[The second young master died on the night before Delivering the Sacrifice.]

[When his body was found, there was a sharp wound on his chest.]

The second

was Cao Yong's [Butler].

[Character memory]

[On the night of the incident, the second young master went to the west wing, where the youngest daughter lived.]

[Half an hour later, the butler found a large pool of blood outside the west wing.]

The entire stage fell silent.

One by one,

everyone slowly turned to look at Shen Niannian.

Shen Niannian: "..."

(°ー°〃)

Wait.

Why are you looking at me?

The Chen Family's youngest daughter did it.

What does that have to do with Shen Niannian?!

The livestream chat was already flooding with messages.

"Holy crap, don't tell me the killer was the youngest daughter?"

"The second young master went to her room, and then he died!"

"A sharp wound to the chest. Could it have been a hairpin?"

"Hold on! Someone just died for jumping to answer!"

Clearly,

the players onstage had learned their lesson too.

No one answered immediately.

Ye Qinglan continued checking her theater ticket.

Soon,

[Eldest daughter · Character memory]

[After the second young master's death, the youngest daughter gave the eldest daughter a bloodstained silver hairpin.]

[The youngest daughter said only one thing at the time-]

["Sister, I didn't mean to."]

The evidence was growing clearer.

Even Shen Niannian herself was beginning to think-

Her character probably really was the killer.

But just then,

a player playing a [Guest] suddenly gritted his teeth.

"The answer's obvious enough already. It's the youngest daughter!"

He clearly didn't want to waste any more time.

After all, if no one answered correctly,

they would all die!

[Time remaining: 91 seconds]

The man looked up.

"The one who killed the second young master was-the youngest daughter!"

The whole place fell abruptly silent.

Shen Niannian's eyelid twitched.

The next second,

[Evaluating answer...]

[Answer incorrect.]

The man's face went deathly pale.

"How is that possible?!"

Smack!

A faceless spectator below the stage sprang to his feet.

His head split open.

A scarlet tongue shot across more than ten meters.

It wrapped around the man's neck in an instant.

"No! All the clues pointed to her!"

Splurt!

His head was ripped clean off.

Blood splattered across the floor.

[Player Guo Ming has died.]

[Players currently alive: 9]

Soon,

another paper effigy walked out from backstage

and took his character's place.

[Character replaced.]

The entire stage fell utterly silent.

The livestream chat erupted at once.

"It wasn't the youngest daughter?!"

"Then how do you explain the silver hairpin?"

"She even said herself that she didn't mean to!"

"That's vicious! Those clues were obviously meant to make the players confuse 'wounding someone' with 'killing someone'!"

Ye Qinglan's expression suddenly changed.

"Wait."

"The question was-who killed the second young master."

"The character memories only prove that the youngest daughter stabbed him. That doesn't mean the hairpin wound killed him!"

Shen Niannian understood too.

Right!

They had subconsciously treated:

[The youngest daughter stabbed the second young master]

as equivalent to:

[The youngest daughter killed the second young master]

But the Dead Men's Theater had worded its question very precisely.

The cause of death!

"Zhang Yu, is there anything new on your theater ticket?"

Shen Niannian asked at once.

Zhang Yu looked down.

The black theater ticket, which had shown no changes before,

finally began to seep blood.

[Second young master · Memory of death]

[My chest hurts.]

[My younger sister ran away.]

[I'm still alive.]

When he saw the third line,

Zhang Yu snapped his head up.

"I didn't die when the youngest daughter stabbed me!"

Everyone's spirits lifted.

More words continued to appear.

[Father came.]

[He said that if I lived, the Chen Family would be finished.]

[Then...]

The text abruptly broke off.

But the answer was already beginning to emerge.

Shen Niannian whipped around to look at the player playing the Master.

The man's expression had changed too.

A second set of memories appeared on his theater ticket at the same time.

[Master · Hidden character memory]

[The second young master broke into the west wing late at night and attempted to force himself on the youngest daughter. She stabbed him with a silver hairpin.]

[If word of this got out, the Chen Family would lose all face.]

[The ancestral spirit sacrifice also required someone who had died a violent death.]

[And so-]

The final words

were a glaring crimson.

[Silence him.]

The entire stage

was silent as the grave.

There was no need to guess now.

The second young master hadn't been killed by his younger sister.

The one who had really killed him

was the Chen Family's master!

Shen Niannian looked at this part of the plot.

Her little face slowly grew cold.

(｡ŏ_ŏ)

No wonder.

In the first act, the Chen Family had also been in a hurry to use the youngest daughter as a sacrifice.

The second young master had barged into his younger sister's room.

His sister had fought back and stabbed him.

Yet their father's first reaction hadn't been to save his daughter.

It had been to-

kill his son to silence him.

Send their daughter off to the ancestral sacrifice too?

What a hellish family.

Even the Dead Men's Theater wasn't as hellish as this family!

[Countdown: 42 seconds]

Ye Qinglan looked at Shen Niannian.

"This time, we're pretty sure."

Shen Niannian didn't answer immediately.

She cautiously activated the Identity Archive again.

Target-

The master character.

[Target: Master of the Chen Family]

[Current actor: human player]

[Character identity: head of the Chen Family]

[Hidden plot identity: the one responsible for the Second Young Master's true cause of death]

Got it!

Shen Niannian was just about to speak.

Suddenly, Su Wangyin's languid voice came from below the stage.

"At least you weren't dumb enough to think stabbing someone and killing them were the same thing."

Shen Niannian turned her head.

Su Wangyin held a red umbrella.

She was smiling with great delight.

"You knew all along?"

"I've been watching since the first act."

Shen Niannian narrowed her eyes.

"Then why didn't you warn me just now?"

Su Wangyin said matter-of-factly, "If I have to tell you everything, what's the point of me watching the show?"

"..."

(￣ー￣)

Great.

She really was here for the entertainment.

But at least her words indirectly confirmed the answer.

Shen Niannian hesitated no longer.

She raised her head to face all the faceless spectators.

"The person who really killed the Second Young Master-"

"Was the master of the Chen Family."

In an instant.

The whole theater fell silent.

[Judging...]

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Clap!

In the front row.

Su Wangyin was the first to clap.

Then.

Clap, clap, clap!

The entire Dead Men's Theater was once again engulfed in applause.

[Correct answer!]

[The Second Young Master's true cause of death: the master of the Chen Family killed him to silence him.]

[Final act, second question passed.]

The player playing the master let out a long breath of relief.

Although having it announced in front of everyone that his character had killed his own son.

Felt very strange.

At least his life was safe.

But the next second.

The stage lights suddenly turned blood red.

Beneath the feet of the fifteen characters.

A ring of pitch-black shadow appeared around each of them at the same time.

The faceless spectators below the stage stopped clapping.

Instead, they all rose to their feet in unison.

The third question.

Slowly appeared.

"Then..."

"In this play-"

"The person who truly deserves to die..."

"Who is it?"

[Final act, third question.]

[Please select the character who truly deserves to die from among the fifteen characters.]

[Attention.]

[The character selected-]

[Will truly die.]

Everyone's expression.

Changed in an instant.

This time.

They weren't answering a question about the past.

They had to decide with their own hands-

Who on the stage would die.