Part 48
Julian Grant's hair fell down, hanging at the sides, making him very uncomfortable. He went to ask someone for a hair tie and skillfully tied his hair up.
The Vault was holding an apple, peeling it in her hand. Seeing this, she asked, “Did your girlfriend teach you that?”
“What?” Julian Grant said, “Sorry, I don’t have a girlfriend.”
The Vault felt a bit guilty: “You don’t have to apologize to me just because you don’t have a girlfriend. After all, I’m not your elder.”
Julian Grant tasted the words carefully and felt something was off. He said, “I’m apologizing only because I can’t tell you the details, not for the reason you mentioned.”
The Vault: “I didn’t intend to pry into the details.”
“Heh.” Julian Grant, “You’re really interesting.”
The blade in The Vault’s hand suddenly slipped, the long strip of apple peel broke and fell to the ground.
She said meaningfully, “You might regret saying that to me one day.”
Julian Grant: “Why?”
The Vault replied, “Because everyone who’s ever called me interesting turned out not to be a good person.”
Julian Grant thought it was nothing, and smiled confidently: “Don’t worry about that. I have a solid background and my greatest virtue is patriotism. Someone like me could never be a bad person.”
The Vault smiled back at him and handed him the peeled apple.
Julian Grant squinted his eyes and reluctantly took the apple.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that the apple was poisoned.
The Vault wiped her hands clean, took a book out of her suitcase, laid it flat on her knees, and said with a gentlemanly smile, “Let me read to you for a while. You should get some rest.”
Julian Grant felt a tingling all over: ...Damn! This is freaking terrifying!
·
Since there was no important plot triggered in the hospital, game time passed quickly.
The next afternoon, Julia Campbell’s medical report finally came out.
Julia Campbell, mid-stage stomach cancer.
Julian Grant held the report in silence for a long time, unable to describe this bizarre fate.
And at this moment, there was less than half a day left before the start of the 28th’s [Murder Night]. Yet the two key characters were still sitting idly in the hospital, not sensing any hint of danger.
As time grew short, both began to sense something was wrong. This peaceful atmosphere clearly didn’t match the style of the [Crime Analysis] scenario.
“I’m going to die tomorrow,” The Vault said calmly, as if giving her last words, “Why is the last day before the storm so uneventful?”
Julian Grant was calm as well, since his character was also doomed.
The two soon-to-be-dead people looked at each other in the hospital room.
“Aren’t you very familiar with Trident?” The Vault said, “I’m just a newbie. Trident’s rules are explained very roughly, I didn’t understand them. What happens when no further plot appears?”
Julian Grant muttered in a low voice, “Could there be another player?”
The Vault blinked.
Julian Grant thought about it and found it quite possible: “We hid in the hospital, and he didn’t trigger the plot, so nothing happened on our end either. That’s why there was a complete blank in progress from the 26th to the 27th.”
A sense of foreboding rose in The Vault’s heart.
As if to confirm it, Trident’s system popped up a red box notification.
—Because one player failed to explore the main plot, and one main player was seriously OOC, the plot deviated from the script, and the [Murder Night] scenario failed to start. Game time has been advanced to 8:00 a.m. on March 1st. [Victim: Michael Wood] is dead. Abnormal data has been corrected.
The Vault: “...??”
The Vault rarely showed a confused expression: “So... I just died like that?”
Julian Grant: “Oh?”
The Vault: “You’re grinning.”
Julian Grant reached up to wipe his face, trying hard to restrain himself: “No, I’m not.”
The Vault was indignant: “Who was that person anyway? Why did I die when he failed to explore the plot?”
Julian Grant had to remind her: “Mainly because there was also a serious OOC.”
Given the relationship between Michael Wood and Julia Campbell, he would never have stayed in the hospital with Julia Campbell, and would probably have sided with Lucy Sanders. The plot had deviated significantly from here, and they couldn’t predict what the three would do in extreme circumstances.
The Vault thought that keeping an eye on the three suspects would confirm the culprit, but interfering with the characters’ actions also led to missing evidence. And now, she still couldn’t clearly identify the real murderer.
“I died,” The Vault said blandly, “because I cared about you.”
Julian Grant reproached her: “Don’t talk nonsense.”
The Vault’s interface had already turned completely gray, and Julian Grant’s face in her view became hazy.
She raised her hand, ready to click exit in regret, when Trident popped up another prompt.
[Because player ID: QC1361 has explored over 80% of personal clues, do you wish to be reinserted into the scenario after clearing relevant memory data?]
[New scenario identity: Detective]
[Scenario time: 8:00 a.m., March 1st]
[You receive a report from your jurisdiction and quickly lead investigators to the crime scene... Click to view identity details.]
The Vault slowly turned her head to look at Julian Grant.
Julian Grant said uneasily, “What?”
The Vault: “Oh ho.”
That “oh ho” was truly soulful.
Author’s note:
Julian Grant: Why are you asking all these questions?
The Vault: End-of-life care. Last moments of glory. Psychological compensation. Multiple choice.
Chapter 31: Rebirth
The viewers in the livestream room jumped out of bed in excitement the moment they saw the Trident panel change. The late-night setting kept them from making noise, so they could only howl wildly in the comment section. The tipping and like icons flooded the entire chat.
“I thought she was dead, but then—bam!—a sudden Edo Tensei.”
“So it’s basically logging in again, starting from scratch? I guess they won’t catch up to the progress in the other scenario, what a pity.”
“No, to be precise, this should be called ‘returning the soul to another body.’ [Serious]”
“Huh? I just looked away for a moment, how did the whole world change?”
“The boss pinned down all three suspects, sent two to the station, and personally watched over one in the hospital, so the murder plot couldn’t proceed. The Trident system forcibly corrected the data, and the game jumped straight to phase two, starting over.”
“Boss: Can’t handle it? I’m just a newbie.”
“Sorry, my bad, but from Q-ge’s perspective, what kind of plot is this? ‘You can’t escape my grasp, not even if I die.’”
·
The Vault stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, her gaze fixed on the meticulously manicured garden. The dazzling sunlight stung her eyes, bringing a slight soreness. Only when a cool breeze slipped through the window gap and brushed her face did she move her arm a little.
The tech investigator behind her saw her standing there in a daze and came over to ask, “Boss, what’s wrong?”
The Vault raised her hand to press her temples, feeling a faint throbbing in her head. She closed her eyes, exhaled, and said, “So tired. The game’s just started, but it feels like I pulled an all-nighter.”
“You stayed up late again yesterday, didn’t you? You told us to get some rest, but you don’t take care of yourself.” The young man pinched the evidence bag in his hand, regretful. “Today’s another big case. Looks like we won’t be getting any rest for a while.”
The Vault turned around and looked at the male corpse lying face-up not far away.
The man was wearing a white shirt, which had been cut open to reveal dense wounds underneath. Despite the gruesome knife injuries, there was only a small amount of dark blood on the ground, but quite a bit of minced flesh splattered around.
His body had already been pixelated; The Vault could only see a white mannequin and a string of descriptive text, so the visual impact wasn’t as strong. The Trident system would never let players face overly gory scenes directly. In the livestream, viewers couldn’t even see the white mannequin—just a bland stick figure.
The system used auxiliary lines to mark the locations and widths of the wounds on the mannequin. A line of small text floated nearby, then quickly disappeared.
[Deceased: Michael Wood. Time of death: between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m.]
The Vault walked over to Michael Wood’s body and squatted beside the forensic doctor. The middle-aged man tilted his head slightly to make room and explained to her.
“The exact cause of death will have to wait for the autopsy. But these wounds were all inflicted after death. I haven’t counted exactly how many yet.” The forensic doctor pointed to several spots, indicating for her to look. “The knife wounds on the victim are messy and scattered, mostly concentrated on the abdomen and arms. The cuts aren’t clean, and the blade wasn’t sharp. Like here at the elbow, from the cross-section, the killer chopped repeatedly at a similar angle, then sawed forcefully, leaving a very deep wound.”
Table of Contents
