There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

Xu Shuo currently only has a few skills.

All things considered, after four scripts, he had only obtained two special skills, and the rest were all Character Cards—and another special skill even required the aid of a Character Card to activate.

Within the Character Cards, there were only one and a half with offensive capabilities.

Zhang Shou could only be counted as half, after all, nobody knew whether his poison could kill a person or even what kind of poison it was.

The 'One-Click Kill' ability that came with the Chen Chu Character Card seemed impressive, but it could result in a "MISS" feedback. Last time, it couldn't even kill the Little Ghost on the train.

It would probably be even more useless against the dancer.

The game also imposed restrictions on the players' items and abilities. Using 'Dark Stealth' alone wasn't possible, but if he transformed into Qiuzi, he could possess that skill naturally, yet using the Character Card in the game was again subject to time and frequency limitations.

Moreover, Xu Shuo had not yet found a way to upgrade his special skills.

Ah, speaking of which, he seemed to have forgotten to ask.

Hidden in the thick darkness, Xu Shuo propped his chin and let out a somewhat melancholic sigh.

Blending into the dark world was not without consequences. At the very least, now he felt as if something ghostly was constantly chattering in his head, vaguely trying to erode his thoughts.

Xu Shuo could only watch the players on the first floor desperately solving puzzles to distract himself.

Hopefully, they could quicken their pace.

...

Pat tap pat tap…

One by one, creatures oozing black liquid fell from the second floor. They crawled and clambered, with disproportionally large heads and slender bodies, but they would suddenly open up their foul and rotting maws and pounce like lightning!

The female writer exclaimed, grabbing a table stand from the table and forcefully smacking it towards the creature. It backed off, but the splattering black liquid sprayed out.

The white chiffon shirt was stained with black, and that stuff began to wriggle and spread.

"Damn it! These Abyss Creatures..."

The female writer cursed, conjuring a Jade Pendant out of thin air and pressing it against the corrupted part of her shirt. Instantly a hissing black smoke arose, and then the Jade Pendant turned to flying ash and crumbled away.

Xu Shuo lay on the second floor watching, and upon seeing this, he peeked his head further in her direction, "They sure have a lot of these items."

Not just the female writer, when the pitch-black creatures lunged at them with bared teeth and flashing claws, all five of them had their own Purification items, like the Talisman Paper Luo Kai pulled out that Xu Shuo had also seen.

However, countless creatures seeped out of the walls or suddenly dropped from the ceiling into their midst, catching the players off guard.

Even if they had numerous items, they could not withstand the gradual erosion of darkness. The liquid spreading across the floor began to spawn black creatures that wildly pounced and tore at them!

Bang! Bang!

Suddenly, the door that had been broken open with a hole began to thump again, and the golden door panels started to wobble as if they were about to fall.

Through the broken hole, one could faintly see a massive, majestic figure slamming against the door, and the monsters' howls and shrill screams, along with the clanging chaos, filled the entire villa!

"Ah—!"

The female writer suddenly screamed as she clutched her head, her face twisted with exertion as she gasped, "I can't take it anymore! I can't take it anymore!"

The pianist looked over at her with intensity, "No! Hang on a little longer!"

He punched the creature entwining him, sending it flying. His gaze swept over the blackened living room and the five players present, piecing together the clues they'd gathered, and his thoughts raced.

"Forget everything else! Listen to me, submit your tasks now!" the pianist shouted.

[Your Deduction Points are reduced by 100.]

"The writer was pushed down the stairs by the lawyer, hit the stair railing and died accidentally!

"The lawyer got his head smashed by the maid's vase, and then was dragged into the master bedroom's bathroom to drown!

"After the maid avenged the writer, she found a revolver in the master bedroom, then… committed suicide on the sofa with a gun!"

"What? I commit suicide?" Hearing this, the male maid looked at him in disbelief.

"Forget it! Submit it now!" the pianist roared, glaring fiercely, his eyes radiating a bloodthirsty, sinister red.

[Your Deduction Value has been reduced by 10 points.]

The butler was frightened by him, but looking at the crisis in the living room, he hesitated for a moment before gritting his teeth and choosing to submit the task.

If he failed, he would have to face the punishment script at most, which wasn't an easy experience either, but at least there was another chance!

The lawyer's thoughts were similar, and shortly after they submitted their tasks, the system's prompt quickly appeared.

[Congratulations to the players for completing over 50% of the main mission. This theater will end in one hour; please prepare yourselves.]

One hour!

The pianist's eyes turned even redder in an instant.

The countdown for a secondary script is one hour. Normally, this hour is for the players who haven't completed their tasks to make a final sprint, but irregularly, it is for them to struggle in despair a little longer.

At this moment, the chef shouted, "Hey, how did I even die?!"

The pianist looked at him but was unable to utter a word after a long struggle.

How did the chef die?

There were no clues whatsoever to indicate the manner of his death!

The trail of blood in the kitchen led all the way to the dining room door, but that blood might not have been his; it could have belonged to the person dismembered in the kitchen.

The pianist's face turned pale as he stared at the chef, his gaze gradually acquiring a suspicious tinge.

The chef, picking up on this, clenched a bloodstained knife in his hand. He was not only on guard against the pianist but wary of everyone present!

"How about you just pick one?" the pianist suddenly suggested.

"..."

Bang!

A violent crashing sound at the main door broke the chef's hesitation, and he angrily chose to submit the task.

[We're sorry, but your task has failed.]

Damn it! The chef cursed.

Observing the chef's expression, the pianist also realized that his task had definitely failed, but at least they were saved...

Wait, why hasn't it ended yet?!

The pianist's complexion darkened, "Whose task hasn't been submitted?"

[Your Deduction Value has been reduced by 10 points.]

"The writer!"

The lawyer cried out and quickly moved away from the female writer beside him.

The female writer, previously clutching her head in agony and screaming, now had black fluid seeping from her eye sockets, and her skin turned a ghastly pale as her fingers became thin and sharp.

She had been contaminated!

If one's psyche could not withstand the Abyss's corruption, it would gradually be assimilated and decayed.

From the female writer's throat came ghastly shrieks, while black, viscous liquid oozed from her body. She was not dead yet, but her consciousness was clearly about to be overtaken by those creatures. Experience tales at empire

On the second floor's balustrade.

Xu Shuo watched the writer's transformation in astonishment; unlike the cultists he had seen before, the female writer was a player who had been contaminated by the darkness.

The surrounding players were even more defensive; they were evidently more wary of the contamination of a player than of the twisted creatures that kept lunging at them!

Was there something particularly special about it?

At that moment, the dancer who had been wandering on the second floor in search of someone seemed to be drawn by the strange changes in the living room, and her fiery red figure ghostly drifted over.

Xu Shuo reacted first and swiftly vanished into the wall.