There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

The sunlight at the edge of the sky gradually turned dusky as Xu Shuo strolled down the expansive campus avenue, dressed in a plain cyan shirt, he looked quite like a teacher belonging to this place.

At least some of the students who passed by, even if they didn't recognize him, would nod and greet him subconsciously because of his youthful appearance and temperament.

Xu Shuo, over the past three years, had visited the Normal University Affiliated High School numerous times, becoming familiar with its roads and academic buildings.

After wandering around seemingly without purpose, he finally arrived in front of the comprehensive building from which a student had once fallen. Looking up at the towering rooftop, Xu Shuo stepped inside.

He almost intuitively made his way to a certain open classroom.

But at this moment, there were quite a few students self-studying in the classroom, so Xu Shuo just took a glance from outside, then headed towards the rooftop.

He had been to this rooftop before, but not in the real world.

Now, revisiting it, everything from the degree of rust on the iron door of the rooftop to the accumulation of broken bricks and tiles in the corner was exactly the same as in the game, not even the details of the chain holes were spared.

It was as if a photocopier had replicated every detail of this space in its entirety.

Xu Shuo pondered.

After looking around, he greeted Xu Xi and then left the Normal University Affiliated High School.

After wandering around the campus, Xu Shuo hadn't found anything unusual for the moment, and the director's radar scan also didn't detect any extractable locations.

This proved that the school was quite safe for now.

After that, he planned to regularly visit until Xu Xi graduated and left, which should be around the time of the college entrance examination anyway.

By the time he drove back to the city, night had already fallen,

Xu Shuo returned to his dark little room with his laptop and didn't bother turning on the lights; instead, he went straight to the desk in his bedroom and turned on the computer to check the info he had investigated before entering the Punishment World.

The construction of the Yang Suburb Railway had taken place a long time ago. After an incident ten years prior, it was abandoned for a while due to safety hazards. Later, with the development of high-speed rail, the project was restarted and refurbished, and now it was in use again.

Those uninvolved in the industry or not relatives and friends of the victims of the incident back then probably wouldn't be aware of such matters.

Xu Shuo checked, and the location of the red viaduct was close to Pengcheng, with a place called Yuhua Dam nearby.

He planned to take some time to go see it.

Just as he made that decision, a message notification suddenly popped up in the upper right corner, signed "Luo Kai."

Xu Shuo raised an eyebrow slightly and clicked on the message.

Luo Kai: [BigCry.jpg]

The guy had only sent an emoticon, with no additional information.

Of course, the Player's Handbook didn't develop trivial features like emoticons, but players could import their own image data.

This image depicted a stick figure crying a river.

Without much thought, Xu Shuo roughly knew why he was crying and was about to disinterestedly close the chat box when the other party immediately sent another message.

Luo Kai: [Bro, I'm planning to go to Yang City for something tomorrow. Do you have time?]

Xu Shuo: [No.]

Luo Kai: [...]

Luo Kai: [500 points, accompany me on a trip outside.]

Xu Shuo: [I have money.]

Luo Kai: [1000, can't add more! It's just going out!]

Xu Shuo: [Okay.]

It turned out that directors really did have a lot of money.

Xu Shuo had merely taken a brief trip, and extracted one thousand points as a script reward, considering it was only a level one basic script. One could imagine how much could be earned from a level three assessment script, let alone the continuous stream of settlement rewards to come.

Therefore, after "Green-skin Train" crashed, Luo Kai didn't hesitate to take the time to investigate personally.

Could he extract a second time?

He probably couldn't. According to Hong Rao, most scripts that crashed were directly destroyed with all their core elements gone as well.

Never mind, since he was planning to visit the site anyway, and since Luo Kai was coming over to deliver money, why not enjoy it?

Pleased with the day's work, Xu Shuo closed his laptop and went straight to bed, but after dozing off for a while, he remembered he hadn't washed up and had to begrudgingly get up again.

Today's experiences with "Green-skin Train" and "Giant Fortress," such high-intensity scripts, had left Xu Shuo feeling genuinely fatigued; it was not even nine o'clock, and he wanted to rest already.

What made him even less pleased was the fact that because he had failed the "Green-skin Train" mission, he received no reward other than the acting points.

The trip to Giant Fortress also felt like working for nothing, the more he thought about it, the more he felt the loss.

He would see what he could squeeze out of Luo Kai during their meeting this time; speaking of which, it seemed someone still owed him two million...

With these thoughts, Xu Shuo quickly fell asleep after washing up.

...

The next day, early in the morning, Xu Shuo arrived at the studio at eight o'clock on the dot to clock in for work.

Since he was leaving in the afternoon, he had Li Ziwen, who was managing the offline Mystery City Store, come over to take over. It was also a good opportunity for the latter to get reacquainted with his role.

The game was ending its beta and going live this Sunday. After that, Li Ziwen would need to start managing operations, planning, development, technology... The more Xu Shuo thought about it, the guiltier he felt, so he decided to give him a raise this month!

Speaking of which, Radiance Studio currently only had him as a game designer, also wearing multiple hats.

He wondered when those two million would arrive.

Xu Shuo sighed to himself.

Seeing the message notification pop up in the top right corner, Xu Shuo handed over his work to Li Ziwen and then picked up his car keys and left.

At the office entrance, Pei Sheng stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe and watching the young man's departing figure with a suspicious gaze that seemed to question if someone was having an affair.

"Do you know what he's doing?" Pei Sheng asked Li Ziwen inside the office.

"He didn't go into detail," Li Ziwen pushed up his glasses and looked at the file.

"He left early from work yesterday afternoon too," Pei Sheng rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes.

"Hmm?"

"Although he said yesterday it was to see Xi, what about today? It can't be that he's going to see her two days in a row, could it be that this guy..."

Li Ziwen glanced at the door where the young master was seriously theorizing and was not expecting anything good to come from his mouth.

As expected, Pei Sheng clapped his hands together, "It must be that the game is about to launch, and he's feeling the strain financially, so he's planning to sacrifice his own charm to pull in investment! Otherwise, why wouldn't he take me with him?!"

Li Ziwen: "..."

It's just that someone's usual workaholic image was so ingrained in their hearts that beside it, Pei Sheng really couldn't think of any other reason for him to set aside work like this and not tell them.

The more he thought about it, the more convinced Pei Sheng became and was already about to take out his phone in a mournful effort to persuade him.

Just then, the studio's door was suddenly knocked on.

The studio wasn't large, standing at the entrance one could take in the approximately fifty square meters of interior at a glance. Xu Shuo's office partition used one-way glass walls, making it easy to see the outside scene.

And that person at the door immediately captured all the employees' attention.

The dazzling golden hair seemed to glow, his features were exceptionally handsome, and his bright eyes were deep and captivating. Yet his figure was tall and slender, his demeanor grand and imposing, not at all diminished by his outstanding appearance.

The staff were all stunned, their gazes involuntarily sticking to him, with admiration in their eyes followed by a strange reverence.

Who was this person? What did he want with their studio?

The studio's large logo was right by the entrance, so it couldn't be a mistake, could it?

So handsome - could he be the boss's relative?

That's not right though, how could the boss's relative be a foreigner?

While he didn't have the typical features of a traditional foreigner, he also didn't seem like a local. So, who exactly was he...

For a moment, their thoughts were a bit jumbled.

Seeing that the employees outside were about to become distracted from their work, Li Ziwen quickly stood up and went out to greet him, politely saying, "Hello, this is Radiance Game Studio. May I ask what brings you here?"

The golden-haired man stared at him, his sentence perfectly pronounced, "I'm looking for 'Xu Shuo'."

Behind him, Pei Sheng spoke up with confusion, "Looking for the boss... boss? Are you here to discuss business?"

That wasn't right either. If it were really about business, how come Li Ziwen also looked clueless? The two had just finished handing over work, and Xu Shuo would not have forgotten to tell them about something so important.

"Let's talk inside."

Seeing that the employees were still sneakily looking at the man, Li Ziwen said this while gesturing toward the office.

After closing the door to block the view, Li Ziwen reached out his hand and said, "Hello, my name is Li Ziwen, the management director of Radiance Game Studio."

The man looked at the hand extended towards him, and politely shook it, replying, "Hello, my name is 'Shi'." Enjoy exclusive chapters from empire

In an instant, Pei Sheng quickly raised his hand to cover his own mouth, frowning tightly with an expression that appeared to be tolerantly uncomfortable.

Li Ziwen nudged him with the tip of his foot.

Shi paused for a moment, then added, "Shi as in beginning and end, it can also be pronounced 'Themis'."

Pei Sheng seemed to have contained his laughter and, with pursed lips and a stern face, stretched out his hand to say, "Hello, my name is Pei Sheng."

Pei Sheng...

When shaking hands, Shi took an extra moment to look at him.

Was that the name he used? This person couldn't be more ordinary.

"I'm sorry, our boss just left to handle some matters. If it's about business, if you don't mind, you can discuss it with me first, and I will convey it to him," Li Ziwen quickly said.

Shi was taken aback for a moment and then said, "It has nothing to do with you. I have a private transaction with him, and I've come here to fulfill a promise. But since he's not here, I'll come back another time."

Since the other party said so, Li Ziwen did not insist or ask further and politely saw the visitor out of the studio.

Once the person was far away, Pei Sheng finally couldn't hold back his laughter; after laughing, he was full of confusion, "A private transaction? What kind of private transaction that makes someone come directly to his workplace?"

More importantly, they had never heard of Xu Shuo knowing such a person!

So distinctive looking - if there had really been any mention of him, they couldn't have possibly forgotten!

Li Ziwen, with a calm demeanor, ignored Pei Sheng's muttering and went back to his office to record today's outside visitor.

...

Elsewhere.

Shi stood at the entrance of the office building, looking around and seeming momentarily lost.

There were too many traces of the other person's presence in this city, and with so many people, different kinds of energy were interwoven, which could be somewhat patchy.

He had just visited the place with the strongest remnants of that person's presence, but no one was there, and then he came here, but still found no one.

Hmm, there was one more place.

Shi estimated the location, then took out his phone to call a car, heading for the Normal University Affiliated High School.

...