In Chapter 17, the murder weapon, which can be chosen from three options, might be an ice blade.

"Ah!! Someone's dead!!"

The cries were shrill and came in waves, suggesting that there were quite a few people present.

Interspersed among them was a very familiar male voice: "Everyone, don't panic! I've already called the police. Be careful not to push or move around, and protect the scene!"

It's Date Aircraft.

The five exchanged a glance, and the next moment they all rushed in that direction.

"This way!" Kitagawa Ryusei looked around, found the right direction, and pushed open a revolving door disguised as a mirror.

Fearing they might have encountered some danger, they momentarily forgot they could even call to inquire.

After running past two intersections, I finally saw a figure.

"What happened, squad leader?!"

When the five arrived, Date Wataru had already largely stabilized the situation.

Players huddled together, trying their best to avoid a corner of the one-way mirror room.

It also allows the entire scene of the escape room to be seen at a glance.

The mist created by the dry ice was gradually dissipating, leaving the blood flowing into the sealed room unobstructed, pooling into a crimson stain on the ground.

A woman in a white dress lay with her eyes closed in a pool of blood, her long hair cascading down the ground like algae, and a blood-red flower blooming on her chest.

Her face was covered in exaggerated makeup, and her white skirt was stained with blood. Like any ordinary NPC in a haunted house, she terrified the players.

Despite her bizarre and frightening makeup, her expression was remarkably serene.

His chest had stopped rising and falling, indicating that he had been murdered for some time.

There was a mirror above their heads with a row of strange characters drawn on it.

"Don't come any closer. We don't have gloves and it will disturb the scene." Seeing the group, Ida Kou breathed a sigh of relief. Without asking why they were there, he reminded them, "The police should be here soon."

No one left before the police arrived, and soon after, the staff of the haunted house also rushed over.

"Reiko!" a man in black shouted, covering his mouth and taking a step back. After realizing what was happening, he lunged forward.

Just then, Megure Juichi from the Metropolitan Police Department's First Investigation Division arrived. He first offered his condolences to the man and then asked, "May I ask what your relationship was with the deceased?"

The man's advance was stopped by the police officer who was conducting the inspection. His legs were weak, and he had to lean against the mirror next to him to keep his balance. Out of professional habit, he tried to force a smile, but his expression looked like he was about to cry: "My name is Asano Ema, and I am Reiko's boyfriend."

Aside from the six police academy students and Ida Hang's girlfriend Natalie, there were six other witnesses and related personnel present, all of whom need to give statements.

Due to the limited space in the maze, the police could only allow technical personnel to enter first, as they did not have enough manpower available at the moment.

Upon learning that Kitagawa Ryusei and the others were police academy students, Inspector Megure, in order to save time, had them split up to assist the officers.

The deceased's full name was Kido Reiko, 25 years old. She was an employee of the haunted house at Dorobiga Park and also played the role of the "Bloody Bride" NPC in the Mirror Maze.

According to the maze's storyline, she should appear suddenly when the players push open the door to the one-way mirror chamber.

"We had just solved the escape room puzzle and the lights had just come on when the revolving door to the room opened from the outside, and she suddenly collapsed inside. At first, we didn't know what had happened and thought it was part of the plot!"

One of the witnesses looked around in fear and said, "Officer, is the murderer still among us?!"

Looking down at the forensic team as they finished their initial examination of the body, Kitagawa Ryusei stood in the enclosed space that felt like a freezer, answering inwardly with a sense of unease: Yes.

"Inspector Megure, the deceased died from a penetrating heart wound. The murder weapon is not a common knife found on the market. Considering the temperature at the scene of the crime, the time of death is estimated to be around ten minutes."

"No one has entered or left the locked room in the past ten minutes, so the murderer should still be here."

"It was him! He must have killed Reiko!!" Asano Eima suddenly looked up, pointing at a male tourist who had come in with Date Wataru and the others, and shouted in despair, "He's Reiko's ex-boyfriend!"

All eyes turned to the direction he pointed.

The man being pointed at and called the "murderer" was slightly taken aback, seemingly not expecting him to say that.

Aside from the initial panic, he didn't react violently after the police arrived, and seemed relatively calm at this point.

The man glanced at the victim and then quickly looked away, his tone seemingly reluctant: "Asano, I understand how you feel, but you need evidence to make your accusation."

"I know you've been harassing Reiko! You came here today to see her too!" Asano Eima's eyes were bloodshot, and her voice was hoarse.

Megure Juzo, on high alert, asked the bewildered man pointing at him, "Do you have anything to explain?"

The man composed himself: "My name is Matsuo Akira. I used to be a prop master at the haunted house, but I resigned this Wednesday. I'm here today to return the spare key to the prop room and to hand over some work-related matters."

"Lizi is indeed my ex-girlfriend, but we broke up last week. There were no conflicts, and it was an amicable breakup."

As Asano Eimaru continued to accuse and berate him, Kitagawa Ryusei bypassed the corpse on the ground and came to the other side of the mirror revolving door with strange red characters written on it.

The characters are revealed in their original form.

"Eternal Lover".

It looks like the same color as the victim's lip gloss.

Kitagawa Ryusei turned to the trembling staff member and asked, "Was this door fixed from the beginning?"

"Yes, yes, officer. This door is a sensor door. Once the player inside solves the puzzle and presses the correct button, the lock will automatically open."

Without correcting her form of address, Kitagawa Ryusei lowered her eyes and nodded to indicate that she understood, then began to observe the environment behind the revolving door.

The walkway outside the revolving door is narrow, barely wider than an adult male's shoulder.

Judging from the way the body fell, the victim was likely positioned as if he were sitting against the edge of a revolving door.

Following him out of the secret room, Furuya Rei stood beside him, looking in another direction. He pointed to a door at the far left of the corridor, its style completely out of place with the rest of the maze, and asked, "Excuse me, where does that door lead?"

"Oh, that's the door to the backstage corridor. The prop room and dry ice storage room both require passing through the backstage corridor."

Upon hearing this, Kitagawa Ryusei pressed further, "Is there only this one door? Or are there doors throughout the maze?"

"They are available in various locations and can also be used as emergency evacuation routes in case of emergencies," the staff member replied truthfully.

After understanding the situation, Kitagawa Ryusei nodded and thanked the staff, then turned to Furuya Rei, who had somehow appeared behind him, and asked, "What do you think?"

"I haven't seen the body yet, and the murder weapon hasn't been identified. I'm not a genius either..." Furuya Rei replied with a hint of helplessness.

"Has there been any discovery, Ryusei?"

No, Kitagawa Ryusei shook his head: "I was just thinking about how to leave quickly after killing someone and destroy the murder weapon at the same time."

Ideally, you should also be able to change your clothes and shoes, and perhaps bump into one or two people who can provide an alibi.

The more he thought about it, the more engrossed he became, and in no time he had already come up with at least two solutions in his mind.

This guy always solves cases using the killer's mindset. Furuya Rei had already experienced this in class before, so he wasn't surprised this time. He simply suggested, "Shall we go take a look at the autopsy report?"

Forensic officers are taking pictures of the fatal wounds on the body.

"The wound is likely caused by an irregular cone-shaped object, with a width of three centimeters and a depth of five centimeters."

"Still can't determine the murder weapon?" Inspector Megure frowned and asked the officer next to him.

If the range of possible murder weapons cannot be narrowed down, more police resources will have to be spent searching for suspicious items throughout the entire maze area.

Time is of the essence, and the police cannot detain so many witnesses indefinitely.

Crouching down to examine the wounds on the body, Kitagawa Ryusei borrowed a pair of gloves from the police, put them on, and then touched the wounds on the body with one hand.

“Excuse me,” he said softly to the victim who was no longer responding.

Rei Furuya waited quietly to the side, and learned the identity of the suspect identified by the police from Kenji Hagiwara, who had efficiently calmed all the women present.

Because the person in charge of the haunted house was only transferred this week, there were only three people present who knew the deceased.

The deceased's boyfriend, Mr. Eimasa Asano, the lighting technician for the haunted house; Mr. Akira Matsuo, the former prop maker and ex-boyfriend of the deceased; and Ms. Toshimi Koyanagi, the makeup artist for the haunted house, a friend of the deceased, and also the staff member who just answered Ryusei Kitagawa's question.

"The emotional entanglements between the two men and the deceased were relatively simple. They had both pursued the deceased at the same time, with the ex-boyfriend winning her heart first. However, after dating for a while, the ex-boyfriend proposed to resign and find a more stable and higher-paying job. Ms. Lizi could not accept this, and after an unsuccessful argument, the two chose to separate."

Kenji Hagiwara stroked his chin and continued, "So Mr. Asano seized the opportunity, comforted the heartbroken Ms. Reiko, and won her heart."

"At the time of the incident, Asano said he was backstage, while Matsuo was in the escape room with the players."

"As for Miss Lime, she stayed in the dressing room after finishing the victim's makeup. She looked very sad, and Miss Natalie was comforting her."

"Natalie?" Furuya Rei didn't immediately recognize the new name.

"She's the class president's girlfriend! Miss Natalie is a very gentle and shy lady," Kenji Hagiwara had clearly gotten ahead of everyone else in knowing the situation: "They met because she was robbed on the street and was helped by the class president, who is currently in university. It was love at first sight!"

Others: ...As expected of you.

They were able to gossip while questioning the suspect.

So they asked in unison, "Where are they from?"

...

Despite the commotion, no one would actually be distracted at the crime scene.

Several people volunteered to help the police find out more about the situation.

"The darkness during the decryption and the lights coming on after the secret room door is opened were both part of the script. The darkness lasted about ten minutes and required the lighting technician to control it, so I was backstage when I heard the screams." Asano Eimako finally calmed down, but she still glared at Matsuo Akira, who was cooperating with her answer not far away, from time to time.

Matsuo Akira remained unmoved and stopped paying attention to the other party after realizing that they were being unreasonable.

"The haunted house does have two surveillance cameras, but neither of them is pointing at the entrance to the secret room." The person in charge of the haunted house looked like he was about to cry.

Kido Reiko had been preparing to appear for half an hour, and had appeared on the surveillance footage once twenty minutes earlier.

There were too many people at the time, and Matsuo Akira was a tourist visiting the haunted house alone. No one could guarantee that no one would sneak in or out during the nearly ten minutes that the room was dark, so we cannot rule out suspicion for now.

The two staff members backstage also had ample time to commit the crime.

So, should we still look for clues on the murder weapon?

After going around in circles, things have come full circle.

Date, who had been in charge of taking notes, has spontaneously started helping to search for suspicious items that match the requirements within the maze.

The temperature here was still a bit low. Before leaving, he took off his coat and draped it over his girlfriend, telling her not to catch a cold.

"Don't worry," the blonde girl replied with a gentle smile, her face still a little pale, pulling her coat collar tighter so the other wouldn't worry.

After she finished speaking, she turned her head and saw the five young men of the same age who had just popped up like gophers staring at her, their eyes gleaming with gossip.

Unaccustomed to being stared at, Natalie's cheeks instantly flushed red.

"Ahem," Morofushi Kagemitsu was the first to look away, and whispered a reminder to the others, "Tolerate this a bit, it doesn't seem very polite."

Kenji Hagiwara looked at him like he was looking at a panda: "I know, but this is the first romantic opportunity among us. Once it happens, it'll happen again. I'll be lucky enough to find a girlfriend soon by riding on the class monitor's coattails!"

Kitagawa Ryusei and Furuya Rei don't need to attract romantic attention, but they can't hide their curiosity.

This is the class monitor's girlfriend!

However, it is indeed very impolite to make a lady uncomfortable, so everyone restrained themselves considerably.

The group exchanged friendly greetings and introduced themselves one by one.

Knowing that these people meant no harm, Natalie blinked and tried to strike up a conversation. She first introduced herself, then quietly reminded Kitagawa Ryusei, who was once again pondering the case: "There's something on your collar."

Kitagawa Ryusei looked down and saw that there were indeed stains on his collar.

It's freshly melted chocolate ice cream.

As if remembering something, he slowly opened his eyes wide, tugged at Furuya Rei's sleeve, and murmured to himself:

"I've been living in comfort for too long; I didn't even recognize the source of the wound immediately..."

Rei Furuya didn't hear clearly: "What?"

He turned and met a pair of bright, light-colored eyes that seemed to hold the shimmering light reflected from a mirror. He heard the other person say, "I know what the murder weapon is!"

The others and Natalie exchanged bewildered glances, unable to quite keep up with his overly erratic train of thought.

When the valley drops to zero, he seems to be deep in thought.

Before he could wipe the ice cream stains off his collar, Kitagawa Ryusei solemnly thanked the bewildered Natalie.

Several police officers have already heard what he just said.

They all looked over, their eyes filled with confusion: "What was the murder weapon?"

"Have you tried testing for residual substances and the proportion of water-soluble hemoglobin around the wound and on the victim's clothing?" Kitagawa Ryusei did not answer, but instead asked the examiners, "And what about frostbite contraction at the wound edges?"

These directions were too specific, and the others still couldn't keep up with the pace.

Kitagawa Ryusei stated his guess firmly and clearly:

"The murder weapon was likely an ice skate."