Chapter 4

(In front of a man, you can casually take off your clothes?)

As he was being hauled away by the men in black, Gu Liang tried to resist with the taekwondo and boxing skills he had learnt before.

But who would have thought that the men in black would possess frightening strength, to the extent where they did not seem human at all.

Gu Liang could only accept his fate and allow them to take him away.

In the dining room.

All alone, Son Bai could not help but cry.

Lawyer Zhang had been taken away by the men in black.

Boss Bai was in his bedroom and his life and death was uncertain.

Girlfriend Huang was lying on the ground, and he appeared to have gone cold.

Brother Bai’s mental state seemed to be compromised after he accepted his punishment in the small black room.

The only person who looked normal was Maid Liu, but she was a NPC.

Instantaneously, Son Bai felt like he was in a desolate plight.

Furthermore, despite being extremely famished, Son Bai did not even dare to pick up his chopsticks to consume the table of food in front of him.

His circumstances resembled a person who was floating at sea but had no water to drink.

It was like being parched in a desert; his eyes could not find water, but the thirst for water could not be suppressed.

Looking at the sea water but unable to drink it, looking at the food but unable to eat it, this sort of feeling was far more painful.

Son Bai was both scared and aggrieved. His tears flowed ceaselessly.

Once he started weeping, he cried for ten full minutes.

Ten minutes later, Gu Liang was dragged back to the room by the men in black.

Gu Liang’s complexion was mortifying pale and sweat was dripping down his forehead. Some of the sweat drops hung on his black eyelashes, making his eyes damp and foggy.

Apart from his sweat-soaked appearance, however, there were no other injuries on his person, and his general attitude gave the impression that he was significantly better off than Brother Bai.

“You… Are you alright? What exactly is the punishment?” Son Bai mustered his courage to ask.

Gu Liang only deigned him a response after three full seconds, wherein he turned his head to give Son Bai a look.

His gaze was apathetic and ice-cold, simply but exceedingly dreadful. Son Bai shivered unconsciously.

Gu Liang said nothing, only picking up a paper napkin to wipe his sweat before he leaned back against his chair and closed his eyes to recover his spirit.

After what felt like the passing of a century, the broadcast that Son Bai was waiting for finally descended. “Ding dong, the following message is a general plot narration. The time now is 1:30, and it is time for the happy lunch to end. Having eaten and drunk their fill, everyone left the dining room satisfied, and returned back to their rooms for an afternoon nap. Please enact the script accordingly!”

Fuck happy lunches, screw eating and drinking their fill.

Once the broadcast ended, two men in black materialised and brought Yang Ye, who was still in the state of feigned death, up to the second floor.

Without uttering a single word, Gu Liang rose to his feet right away and strode back to his room on the second floor.

Similarly, Son Bai blinked a few times before he returned to his room feebly.

Upon entering his room, Gu Liang took a shower first before he lay down on his bed to actually sleep, like he was performing the script assiduously. But in reality, the reason why Gu Liang was sleeping was because the punishment had exhausted his energy greatly.

When he was locked in the pitch-black room, two iron-like pieces had been pasted on his ears, causing him to hear the sounds of his own body.

In a dark environment, each and every sound that his body made was particularly distinct.

The flowing of his blood, the churning of his stomach, the relaxing and contracting of the pores all over his body, he could hear them all.

But what was most terrifying was the sound of his own heartbeat.

Those metal pieces had amplified the sound. In Gu Liang’s perception, the beating of his cardiovascular organ was exceptionally loud, deafeningly so, and it made him want to slam himself against the wall or stab himself with a knife.

— Perhaps if he died, this appalling discordant would stop.

“Thump! Thump! Thump!”

He did not know if the system heard the shout in his mind in the midst of the terrifying noise— but a dagger made a sudden appearance on the table.

Pick it up, pick it and stab it into his own chest, and all this would be over…

In that instant, Gu Liang had seen himself pick up the dagger and plunge it in the direction of his own chest.

However, the one who fell to the ground in the end was not him, but a woman.

Her laugh lines were quite deep and crow’s feet branched out from the corner of her eyes, making it obvious that she was not young anymore. Both her hands were holding onto the dagger in her chest and they were stained with blood. A moment later, she lurched up in an abrupt manner, and stared at Gu Liang with wide eyes.

“You were the one who killed me! You were the one who killed me!”

“Gu Liang, very good, you haven’t forgotten me!”

When he saw the woman before him, Gu Liang’s head ached so much it was threatening to crack.

Like a volcano spouting and seething magma, like he was a huge wave on the sea surface, curling and rising up to the skies.

For one minute, it felt like Doomsday was descending upon him.

At the very end, Gu Liang had pinched his own thighs viciously. Desperately told himself that this was a hallucination, and barely succeeded in forcing himself into sobriety.

In that instant, it was like he had woken up at midnight, perspiring profusely.

It was just ten, short minutes. But to him, it certainly felt like it was far too long.

By the time Gu Liang was allowed to leave, his palms were drenched.

And in that short moment, he did not know if it was lingering delusion but Gu Liang heard a sentence— “New Hell first layer, isolation. Pain assessment, one star. End of punishment.”

Hence, after he returned to his room, he took a shower and lied down to sleep in an attempt to force himself to forget everything.

He was then awoken by the sound of knocking.

“Who?” He voiced his question as he trudged towards the door sleepily.

“Me. Yang Ye.”

Furrowing his brows, Gu Liang opened the door in a rude manner. He glared coldly at Yang Ye who was outside the door.

Yang Ye noticed that his eyes were still fogged with sleep at a glance. “You actually obeyed the plot developments and took an afternoon nap?”

Yang Ye did not disturb his afternoon nap on purpose; after all, he was not aware of the fact that Gu Liang had been sent to the small black room for punishment.

Hence, the notion that Gu Liang might actually be resting in the afternoon was not within his considerations.

Logically speaking, if a person were to enter an enigmatic game like this, their hearts would be fearful and unsettled from the very beginning. Although the script instructed them to return to their respective rooms to sleep, the reality was that as long as the players stayed in the rooms and did not wander around randomly, or witness something they should not see, they were still in compliance with the script.

Unless they had an indomitable mentality, or that they were completely unconcerned with the outcome of the game, an average person should not be capable of falling asleep at such a juncture.

Gu Liang did not reply.

As Yang Ye entered the room, he said: “I just woke up and I wanted to ask what you thought about the game.”

“Although you questioned the system at the start, about whether the settings were equitable, there’s still a great deal of uncertainties present.”

“For instance, the feigned death medicine can induce a state of feigned death for the deceased, but whether it has an effect on the other players is something we are unsure of. After all, the feigned death medicine doesn’t exist in our reality.”

“Initially, I guessed that Brother Bai had drugged the dishes with the feigned death medication, which is why I decided I might as well give it a try to verify it. I didn’t think it would affect all the players. What kind of world did we come to exactly?”

Gu Liang yawned. He made a beeline for his bed, and it seemed like he wanted to continue sleeping.

Yang Ye asked another question. “When I faked my death, did the system issue any message?”

Gu Liang continued to ignore him. He took off the T-shirt he was wearing.

That made Yang Ye shut up.

Probably because that lean and strong, yet exceedingly white and tender waist and abdomen packed an extraordinary impact when it entered his eyes.

It was a pity that he only caught a glimpse of that sleek body before it disappeared.

— Because Gu Liang tucked himself under his blankets again.

Yang Ye became dull. “Huh, huh? There’s a man inside the room, and you can take off her clothes casually and climb into bed to sleep?”

Disregarding how Gu Liang was implicated and dragged to the black room first, the fact that he was being incessantly pestered when he was trying to rest, made the grumpiness he had from poor sleep flare up exponentially and instantaneously. With an unkind tone, he snapped, “I’m not a woman. Am I supposed to be afraid of you seeing something?”

Still unaware of what Gu Liang experienced, Yang Ye faltered briefly. But he had to ask, “What’s the matter with you? Did you encounter something?”

When Gu Liang finally opened his eyes, he unveiled a frigid gaze. “When you were playing possum, the system made a report.”

“Oh? What did the system say?” Yang Ye was quite curious.

Gu Liang replied: “I didn’t know what happened to you when you faked your death. Hence, I went to the kitchen and found the medicine box for feigned death. The script’s general plot dictated that everyone should be eating in the dining hall during that period. Therefore, my departure from the dining hall was considered a violation of the rules, and I was locked up for ten minutes.”

Yang Ye: “……???”

With a frown, Yang Ye walked towards his bed with the intention to apologise to Gu Liang.

But Gu Liang interrupted him before he had the chance to speak. “It’s just being locked in a small black room. It’s nothing. Shut your mouth, keep quiet and let me sleep for a while. With regards to the game settings and everything else, we can discuss it after I wake up.”

Yang Ye: “……”

However, that did not detract the fact that Yang Ye felt apologetic. Thus, he settled himself on the sofa with light movements to ensure that he did not make a sound.

He gazed at the back figure who was lying on his side. Behind his glasses, some severity seeped into his eyes.

It was undoubtedly true that he was clueless regarding what terrors had occurred to Gu Liang’s person in those ten minutes.

The objective behind what Yang Ye attempted was to ascertain if the feigned death medicine – something which rightfully should not exist in their reality – could be used against all the players.

Yang Ye believed that the verification was extremely beneficial, and if he were to encounter some abstruse or fantastical scenario in the future, he would know how to play it.

However, he did not calculate that his actions would implicate Gu Liang, and he would suffer from the consequences.

And yet, this was what Yang Ye thought at the turn of the head— Gu Liang appeared to be the sort of person who was incredibly intelligent. The fact that he chose to disregard the rules and run into the kitchen to search for clues proved that he was genuine in wanting to help him.

Which meant that he was not as indifferent as he projected himself to be.

On the surface, he was prone to getting angry and throwing snide, and had a sarcastic mouth that spared no one. In actuality, however, he had a soft heart and he would never proactively speak about the grievances he had suffered…

Gu “sharp-tongued but soft-hearted” Liang.

Tsundere and reserved on the surface, but thoughtful, meticulous and warm at heart in truth.

This was the final verdict that Yang Ye gave.

* * *

Half an hour later, Gu Liang finally woke up.

After waking up, he was greeted with the unexpected sight of Yang Ye sitting on his sofa. He asked: “Why are you still here? Didn’t the script tell us to return to our rooms to sleep? You can casually stay in my room, and it isn’t counted as a violation?”

Yang Ye replied, “My card specifically stated that I’m allowed to move around freely in the afternoon, this might be a detective’s privilege.”

Not bothering to acknowledge him, Gu Liang ambled into the bathroom to wash his face again.

Afterwards, the broadcast, which had kept its silence for a long time, rang out once more.

“The time now is 3:10 in the afternoon. The maid, upon discovering that Boss Bai had not appeared since the early afternoon, started feeling suspicious in her heart and went to knock on Boss Bai’s room door. Boss Bai did not answer the door, thus the maid could only push open the door and enter. Soon after, she noticed that Boss Bai was lying down in a pool of blood. Everyone present on the premise, apart from the detective, are all suspects.”

“The script enactment segment has ended. Following, we will be entering the investigation segment. Please listen carefully as the investigative procedures are being read.”

“Number one, may all the players make their way to the scene of the crime, you have twenty minutes to investigate the corpse and the surroundings of the crime scene.”

“Number two, after the crime scene has been investigated, time will be given to search for clues freely. Concurrently, the scene of the crime will become off-limits, but you can search all the other rooms in the villa for useful clues. The time limit is one hour.”

“Number three, once the exploration segment concludes, everyone should gather in the centralised discussion room on the first floor. Through a process of in-depth communication in the discussion room, each character’s motive for killing and modus operandi can be grasped, and the real murderer can be deduced. This segment has a time limit of two hours. Please manage your time well. Friendly reminder, everyone is capable of lying.”

“Number four, voting will commence at 6:30 in the evening. After the voting concludes, the broadcast will announce the final verdict and implement the rewards and punishment accordingly. Subsequently after, the current scripted murder mystery will be brought to a successful close. Everyone can enjoy their dinner and relax. Hope you enjoy the game!”