The blood dripping from the ceiling gradually gathered into a pool of bright red in the bathtub.
Magician: "What's that place up there?"
Bai Ye opened his backpack and checked the map, saying, "It's the auditorium."
"Let's go up and take a look." Su Yi said.
It's already past two in the morning, tonight is destined to be a sleepless night.
The three of them walked quickly out of B104, went up from the basement floor, and arrived at the first floor of the church.
It was quiet in the dark corridor, with only a faint light coming from the exit ahead.
"My dear, it's late at night. Put on some more clothes."
The magician made a swish sound and a long black windbreaker appeared in his hand. He put it on Su Yi and wrapped him completely. No one could see that he was wearing a bath towel, let alone what he was wearing under the towel.
Bai Ye glanced back and saw Su Yi's small face wrapped in a long black windbreaker, which made his face look so white, like a fluffy lamb, making people want to protect him.
He quietly moved closer to Su Yi, wanting to "walk" with him. The magician immediately stepped forward quickly to squeeze out his position, naturally lifted the sleeves of his windbreaker, and gently helped Su Yi put it on.
Bai Ye rolled his eyes in his heart.
The auditorium was right in front of me, the door was closed, and a cold wind blew through the hall, bringing gusts of coolness.
Bai Ye held the door handle: "Open?"
"Yeah." Su Yi held his breath.
Squeak——
The heavy door was pushed open, and the auditorium was dark. The white light from the lighting lamp shone in, and was refracted by the stained glass to create a colorful glow. Under that glow, a person was lying.
Bai Ye walked in first, and Su Yi followed behind. He gradually saw the man's appearance and clothes...
It’s the old pastor!
He lay on his back under the stained-glass window, his eyes wide open in horror, his eyeballs motionless.
Bai Ye stretched out his hand and sniffed his breath, then shook his head: "Dead."
The magician walked around the old priest's body and asked, "How did he die? There are no wounds on his body."
Su Yi squatted down and observed carefully for a while: "Neck? There are needle holes on the side."
The magician came over to take a look and said with a click of the tongue: "This old man is not sleeping at night and is walking around here. The needle hole is so deep, it must be very painful when he dies."
The wound looked very fresh. Su Yi thought that it was probably not long since the old pastor was killed. He said:
"Search him and see if you can find any clues."
"Watch, wallet, Bible..."
The magician laid out the things the three of them had collected and piled them in front of Su Yi for him to see.
Bai Ye was not interested in solving the case. He was patrolling the auditorium, looking for any suspicious signs.
"A girl."
Su Yi opened the old pocket watch and found an old black-and-white photo inside. The old pastor in the photo was still relatively young, smiling and holding a little girl, probably his daughter.
Su Yi suddenly thought of something, and he keenly opened his wallet again. Sure enough, he saw a small photo in the interlayer of the wallet. It was a photo of the girl when she grew up, probably around twenty years old.
In the copy plot, girls of this age are either the young wife that Mr. Bai finds later, or... the bride who was engaged to Mr. Bai before but was killed.
The magician also came over to look at the photos. Bai Ye saw Su Yi and the magician squatting together, head to head, looking very intimate. He felt unhappy, but unwilling to be left behind, so he pretended to be calm and joined in.
“…Looks familiar.”
Su Yi was holding the photo, and suddenly heard Bai Ye say, "I think I've seen it somewhere."
Bai Ye opened his light screen and found the Third Young Master's setting script, flipping through it:
"This." He set the light screen to [show to others], and Su Yi saw lines of words displayed on the screen in the air:
[…The first wedding of the eldest son of the Bai family, you as the third son were also present. As a result, the bride Jennifer was brutally murdered and the Bai family was forced to cancel the wedding. You are confused about this case, but it is ultimately your eldest brother’s business and has nothing to do with you…]
There are two photos under this line of text. In the photo, the bride is holding a bouquet of flowers and forcing a smile, as if she is unwilling to marry. In the second photo, the bride is tragically dead on the bed, with a sharp knife stuck in her chest and blood staining her white veil.
The bride's face looked exactly like the photo of Jennifer, the old pastor's daughter.
"That's very clear." The magician said, "The old pastor's motive for attending the wedding this time was to get closer to the Bai family and investigate the truth behind his daughter's death."
Su Yi thought that the reason why the old pastor came here alone in the middle of the night was that he might have encountered the same situation as Grace and received a note from the murderer, saying that he could provide clues about his daughter's death and asked him to go to the auditorium alone.
"The old priest's level is not low." The magician said, "It's so easy for him to be stabbed."
Bai Ye said nothing, thinking to himself, over fifty? What a high level.
"His eyes were open." Su Yi looked at the old pastor's body, a look of horror frozen on his face as he died. "Maybe he saw something and was stabbed by the poison needle? Died..."
Su Yi paused as he spoke. The poison needle was inserted from the side of the neck, but the old pastor's head was facing forward. If the murderer was seen right in front of him, how could the needle be inserted from the side?
Unless the old pastor stood still and waited for the murderer to walk over from the front and stab him in the side of the neck.
This is less likely, what is more likely is that the old pastor walked into the hall and suddenly saw something that frightened him, and the murderer hid in the dark and took the opportunity to shoot a poison needle, killing the old pastor. Afterwards, the poison needle was recovered, leaving only a tiny needle hole.
The question is, besides the murderer, what did the old pastor see that frightened him?
"Could it be that you saw a ghost?"
The magician said:
"The bride we saw in the mirror just now is a ghost, right? Suppose, this ghost bride is the dead Jennifer, and the old pastor came here and saw the ghost and found out it was his dead daughter, so he was frightened and then stabbed by the murderer hiding in the dark. What do you think of this reasoning?"
Su Yi did not comment on this. Bai Ye, who was concentrating on killing ghosts, said:
"So the ghost is the first bride, Jennifer, who was killed and has been hiding in the church?"
"It's just a possibility." The magician said, "The video of the ghost bride in the mirror was recorded at 8 o'clock in the evening. Everyone was at the wedding venue at that time. Except for the extra [ghosts], no one had time to run into B104. And..."
He turned to Su Yi and said, "My dear, do you remember? Mr. Bai's first bride died in the secret room under the church. B104 is also on the underground floor, maybe it is the same room. The ghost bride appeared there again. It is reasonable to guess that this ghost may be the first bride Jennifer."
"If Jennifer is a ghost, then..." Su Yi was a little confused, "I was caught by a monster and taken to a secret passage at my wedding. What is that? Is it also a ghost?"
The magician shrugged, indicating that he was not sure: "Maybe it is the monster form of the female ghost."
Su Yi: "..."
Besides that monster, who is the ghost master who always comes to mess with him? Su Yi is a little puzzled. The copy rules say: There is only one ghost in this game. Among the thirteen players, there is a murderer. Together with the ghost, there are fourteen people in total. There can't be any extra people to be the ghost master/monster.
Unless... someone is "multi-tasking" and has been playing tricks through some means.
"Are ghosts usually system NPCs or, perhaps, played by players?" Su Yi suddenly thought of this question.
"It's possible." Bai Ye replied, "The ghosts played by players are more flexible and harder to kill."
Magician: "However, whether the [ghost] is assigned by the system or played by the player, its role is that of an NPC and does not participate in the plot. Its main task is to scare other ordinary players."
Su Yi nodded. He seemed to have a clue. There were still a few questions in his mind that he hadn't asked. He asked the life-saving system directly:
"Are you there? I feel like I'm about to find the murderer. Can you tell me about the rules of the game regarding [Ghost]? Is it possible that [Ghost] will be stabbed by the murderer?"
A yawn sounded in my mind, and the life-saving system woke up. There was still a hint of sleepy murmur in the mechanical voice, and the words it said were extremely intimate, as if it was a husband who woke up in the middle of the night:
"Wife, it's so late, why aren't you sleeping yet?"
"..."Su Yi: "Answer quickly."
"Well... generally speaking, ghosts won't be stabbed." The life-saving system replied, "Killing a ghost doesn't make much sense, and actively approaching a ghost to trigger a supernatural phenomenon can be dangerous. Apart from Bai Shen, almost no player likes to provoke ghosts."
Su Yi: "Then, can [ghosts] lie like murderers??"
Life-saving system: "There are no rules. Because the ghost is an NPC, if the dungeon setting requires the player to obtain clues from the NPC, then he must provide them truthfully and accurately. Other than that, he can lie or tell the truth, there are no restrictions."
It sounds like playing a ghost is really good. Su Yi said, "The main task of a ghost in a dungeon is to...scare people? That's too easy. Other players will die in the dungeon."
"So ghosts are usually NPCs assigned by the system. It is rare for real players to play the role of [ghosts]. The selection criteria are very strict." The life-saving system said:
"First, only players who have reached a high level in the horror script-killing game are eligible to be selected. Secondly, they must have never been punished by the light screen, and their words and deeds do not show any dissatisfaction with the horror script-killing game, and they may even prefer the world of the horror script-killing game to returning to reality.
"Then you must be positive in every past copy. When you are an ordinary player, you must solve the case well. When you are a murderer, you must kill people hard. The data of intelligence and physical strength are also excellent. Such people may be selected by the light screen system..."
Su Yi: "Go be a ghost?"
Life-saving system: "Take part in the [system NPC qualification test]. After passing, you don't have to be a ghost. You can play as any NPC in the dungeon, such as ghosts, monsters, elders, guides, etc. However, the reward for playing as an NPC is very low.
"The player who clears this dungeon the fastest will be rewarded with 2,000 gold coins, and the reward will decrease by 100 gold coins each time. This is just the novice dungeon. The higher the level of the dungeon, the greater the reward.
"But if you play as an NPC, the maximum reward for any dungeon is 500 gold coins, and there is no lower limit. Sometimes, if the system thinks that you are not playing seriously enough and are lazy in the dungeon, it will deduct money from you."
Su Yi: "Then...will there still be players going?"
The biggest advantage of playing as an NPC like a ghost is that you don't have to die, but the system's screening qualifications only select high-level players. These people have a lot of savings. Even if they die in a dungeon, they can only pay 1,000 gold coins to redeem themselves. If they successfully pass the level, they can earn more gold coins. Who would be willing to be a hard labor NPC?
Life-saving system: "Yes, there are many players vying to be the NPC. Scarcity makes things valuable. Most people can't play as an NPC, but you are qualified to play as one. Isn't that another way out? However, the passing rate of the [system NPC qualification test] is only 1%."
Su Yi was a little surprised that it was so low. The screening conditions were already so strict, but the pass rate was still limited so low, and it seemed that there was no practical benefit in playing an NPC.
…There’s something wrong here.
Su Yi felt that the reason why the restriction was so strict might be that the light screen system needed to ensure that only a very small number of selected players could play the role of NPC. In other words, it was afraid of selecting the wrong person to play the role of NPC.
"Will the person who becomes an NPC be closer to the light screen system? This is equivalent to..." Su Yi said, "inserting into the enemy."
"Bingo~" The life-saving system issued a joyful prompt sound:
"Wife, you are so smart. The selection criteria of the light screen system are loyalty to it and absolute recognition of the world of thriller script-killing. The system will treat those players who are qualified to play NPCs as its own people.
"For players who pass the screening, they can get something more valuable than gold coins, upgrades, and the realization of wishes: the opportunity to get close to the core of the system, explore the essence of this world, and even potentially destroy it.
"However, if the system only attracts players who are absolutely loyal to it, then this problem will not exist."
"What if not?" Su Yi thought of a possibility. With so many players in this world, it is impossible for everyone to accept their fate and be controlled by the system.
Players of ordinary levels may have the will but not the ability. Even if they have the desire to resist, they don’t know what to do. It is even difficult for them to survive in the dungeon.
But high-level players have gold coins and abilities, and rather than being controlled, they may yearn for freedom. If they can deceive the system in the [NPC test] and hide their inner resistance...
"That's just like being an undercover agent." The life-saving system said:
"Those who are qualified to become NPCs are one step closer to manipulating our system. Relatively speaking, they are supervised and controlled several times more than ordinary players. They must be very careful to hide their true thoughts."
... After all, such people are rare. Su Yi thought that most of the players who were chosen to play NPCs were those who agreed with the world of horror script-killing, and they were like fish in water in this world. They belonged to the system, or were the running dogs of the system.
From this perspective, Bai Ye doesn’t care about any reasoning plot, he just wants to kill ghosts. Does he want to kill these running dogs of the system?
"Don't think about it." The life-saving system said:
"That guy can't be so far-sighted. Besides, he is so bad at hiding his thoughts. If he wanted to kill the system and its lackeys every day, he would have been tortured on the light screen long ago. Most of the ghosts killed by Bai Shen were NPCs issued by the system itself."
"How do you know?" Su Yi felt strange: "Can you even see his data?"
The life-saving system belongs to his personal system. Logically, it is impossible for it to know other players' private data. However, although Mr. Bai has never revealed his wealth since the beginning of the copy, the life-saving system knows that he is very rich.
When he was taking a shower before, he deliberately asked the young master to come in and help him put on his clothes. Later, the system determined that the shower time had exceeded the limit and detected that the young master was interfering with him. The system automatically asked the young master for compensation, and this operation directly helped him earn tens of thousands of dollars.
Now, he even knows clearly whether the ghosts Bai Ye killed before were system NPCs or NPCs played by players.
Su Yi keenly sensed a faint clue from this:
"Can you sneak a peek at the data of every player, or... can you only see the data of Bai Dashao, Bai Ye, or some specific players because there is some kind of connection between them?"
The life-saving system fell silent for a moment, as if it was surprised by Su Yi's extraordinary intelligence.
Su Yi: "If you can't say so much, just tell me whether it's the former or the latter?"
The life-saving system paused for a moment and answered honestly: "The latter."
Su Yi seemed to be thinking about something. He knew Bai Ye, although he didn't have the impression that they were very familiar with each other, but it seemed that Bai Ye's relationship with him was more than that. He had no impression of Young Master Bai at all, but Young Master had admitted to him that he knew him, otherwise he would not have been so intimate with him.
Su Yi was talking to the life-saving system in his mind while thinking alone, and at the same time checking the old pastor's personal belongings, multitasking to improve efficiency.
According to the current plot development, the murderer has already stabbed five people. As the number of people decreases, the difficulty of hiding perfectly increases greatly.
As long as we can figure out which one is the real ghost who is not involved in the plot, then the other person who is pretending to be a ghost is most likely the murderer.
There were no more clues in the old pastor's pocket watch and wallet except for the photo of his daughter Jennifer. Su Yi picked up the Bible that the pastor carried with him and flipped through it.
The book is a pocket edition, very small, filled with densely packed English letters, the pages are very thin and normal, without any interlayers.
I turned to the end, but didn't find anything unusual. Maybe the props are useless.
Su Yi was just about to close the book when suddenly, his fingers felt that the cover on the back of the book was a little... slightly bumpy!
He carefully spread out the last page of the Bible. He could not see anything on the cover on the back of the book with his eyes, but he could feel dark patterns printed on it by touching it with his hands.
Su Yi carefully felt the patterns with his fingertips, and soon he felt that it was a hexagram.
...exactly the same as the six-pointed star engraved on the lid of Grace's box.
Su Yi used his other hand to open his light screen to check whether the hexagram was counted into the exploration degree. As soon as he opened it, several festive prompts popped up:
[Ding! Congratulations on unlocking the [Mirror Mechanism], successfully witnessing the ghost bride's true story, a big breakthrough in the plot, and gaining ?Exploration Degree +9%! ]
[Congratulations on collecting [Photo of the Old Pastor's Daughter], exploration degree +2%]
[Your exploration level is currently 54% (hidden), and you are only 8% away from the global record of 62% for horror script-killing games! Please keep up the good work, we are counting on you! ]
[If you are lucky enough to break the record, even if you set it to hidden, the script killing hall will update your data in real time, although your name will not be displayed. But you will be given a special reward after the end! It is a rare treasure that cannot be bought with gold coins~]
Su Yi didn't care about the reward from the light screen system. He was full of doubts and a little unhappy:
The hexagram found was not taken into account.
Su Yi frowned. The hexagram in one place could be just a decoration, but it couldn't be a coincidence that both Grace and the old pastor had hexagrams in their places.
If it is just explained as a decoration, then there is something wrong with the design of this instance. There must be a story behind it...
Suddenly, Su Yi thought that this copy of the Cursed Bride seemed to have problems.
The eldest master had told him before that the Cursed Bride had been modified by the system and was drastically downgraded to a novice copy.
The plots of the games nowadays have been modified. Many players can pass the game by simply guessing the murderer. Many questions in the dungeon have not been solved, and because some settings have been abolished, it may be very difficult to explore.
The highest record among all players is only 62%. Could the remaining 38% that no one knows about be the plot setting concealed by the system?
...Could it be related to this hexagram? Su Yi guessed in his heart.
The six-pointed star on the cover of Grace's box was very shallow, and it looked obviously worn off. The six-pointed star on the old pastor's Bible was also dark, and it could not be felt at all without touching it with your hands.
The more it is concealed, the more curious it arouses. Su Yi really wants to know, what is the original plot of this copy that is worth the system covering up like this?
Since everything has to be covered up, why not just delete the entire hexagram, or just delete the copy of Cursed Bride directly, wouldn't that be easier?
At present, the understanding of [Thriller Script Murder] is still too little, and Su Yi cannot make any effective inferences. The possible ones are:
The system thought that it had deleted everything and that the copy of Cursed Bride no longer posed any threat, and that the last 38% of the exploration level was impossible to complete. However, the system did not notice that there were still some clues left in the copy.
At the same time, the copy of Cursed Bride may have some special features for the system, and there is no way to directly delete the entire copy.
[A small, dark room, a large mirror, and the fourth body. You are only one pair of hands away from the truth.]
This sentence flashed through Su Yi's mind again. This sentence contained something he cared about very much: [the truth].
In his opinion, this was more valuable than any number of gold coins. People rarely see the truth, so what concerned him more was the third sentence:
[Put forth the fourth body]
He has successfully unlocked the [mechanism in the mirror] and seen the "truth" that [the ghost is the ghost of the bride]. This sentence seems to have completed its plot hint.
But Su Yi still couldn't understand: Why could the silver skull in Grace's box be counted as the [fourth corpse]?
Su Yi went through the current plot carefully. No matter whether it was the skeleton or Grace, there was no place that could reflect the fourth.
Or...is it possible that there is a second way to interpret this sentence?
Su Yi recalled the six-pointed star he found on the lid of the black sheepskin suitcase. It looked like some kind of formation, and it was facing the silver skull at the bottom of the suitcase. The priest, the Bible, and the religious implications, plus the "corpse" and "a pair of hands" in that sentence...
He thought of his initial guess about the mirror: it was a religious ritual or sacrifice.
If we superimpose a hexagram array, will we be able to see a different scene in the mirror?
Swish.
At this moment, Bai Ye suddenly turned around and looked towards the door of the auditorium like a vigilant dog.
Su Yi: "What's wrong?"
"There are footsteps." Bai Ye walked towards the door with a knife in hand, "I'll go take a look."
Halfway through, creaking——
The door of the auditorium was pushed open, and two girls in pajamas poked their heads out. They were Peng the planner and Lin the maid.
"It's already half past two. What are you doing here? Aren't you going to sleep?"
Bai Ye responded coldly: "What are you doing? Why haven't you slept yet?"
"I was sleeping..." Planner Peng looked unhappy, "I woke up to go to the bathroom and found that the bathroom floor drain was blocked by hair."
Her room was next to Maid Lin's, and they had a good personal relationship outside of the dungeon, so she immediately knocked on Maid Lin's door and told her about the situation.
"I fell asleep, and after Xiao Peng told me about it, I went to check my bathroom, and it was also blocked by hair!" Maid Lin said:
"I felt like something was wrong, so I left the room and went out to see where I could lie down and rest. When I got to the auditorium, I heard some noises and wanted to come in to check it out. I didn't expect you to be here."
Peng Planner: "Have you ever looked in your bathroom? Is there any hair?"
The magician snorted and said casually, "The bathroom is in a terrible state. Not only is there hair on it, but it's also leaking."
This is a good question, Su Yi thought secretly. It sounded like a very casual sentence, but in fact it was quietly testing whether Lin Peng and the others were troubled by the water drop bomb.
Su Yi carefully observed the reactions of planner Peng and maid Lin after they heard what happened, and found that they looked normal, without any unusual micro-expressions, and had no reaction at all to the detail of "bathroom leaking".
...No "dripping" sound was heard in their room. In other words, no water drop bombs were installed.
--Why?
Su Yi looked at the two of them. Bai Ye's tall figure blocked the door. Peng the planner and Lin the maid did not enter the auditorium to find the old pastor. They were still discussing the hair issue. Peng the planner said firmly:
"I think it's haunted! I played this dungeon before when I was a rookie. It was also a female ghost with long hair. She was a bride who was killed before. She was very resentful and would come out to cause trouble at night. At that time, several players who were entangled by her hair were strangled to death by her."
Maid Lin: "So, you three also found hair slipping out of the bathroom? Weird, where's the young master?"
Bai Ye didn't say anything, but just quietly moved aside to let them come in and see for themselves.
Planner Peng and maid Lin had just walked in a few steps when they saw a corpse lying next to Su Yi and the magician, wearing a loose white robe. This costume...
"…The old pastor?!" Maid Lin asked in surprise, "Is he…dead?"
"This murderer?...Is he crazy?" Planner Peng was shocked. "Five people were killed in less than one day?"
To be honest, she hadn't felt this kind of shock in a dungeon for a long time.
She came to re-brush the bride copy in order to improve her exploration degree. Her exploration degree in this copy was only about 30% back then. She thought that she could definitely improve it by brushing it casually, and she would also have more face in the live broadcast room.
But at this moment, she suddenly felt that she had underestimated the enemy. Everything seemed to have returned to the starting point. The experience and level accumulated over the years seemed to have been reduced to their original state. A seemingly simple novice copy... could it be so difficult just because of a new murderer?
...Who is the player who plays the murderer this time?
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