There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

"May I ask a question?"

The female journalist, with a stoic face, looked at the fragile blind girl who had just picked herself up from the ground and said, "What do we do now? I didn't have time to extract the truth from her, and I just risked my life to lure her out."

Xu Shuo picked up a cane that had fallen not far away, smiled at her words, and said, "You don't really think that Lily has never been defeated, do you?"

"Ah?"

The female journalist was taken aback at this statement.

Xu Shuo continued, "If there is no anomaly, the rules will not disappear, and Lily is the fifteenth rule of Qiming Orphanage."

The female journalist frowned slightly, "So what you're saying is that we haven't actually eliminated that girl, and if I break that rule again, she will reappear?"

Xu Shuo turned to look in her direction and tilted his head noncommittally.

Although this was as good as a clear indication.

However, after pondering for a moment, the female journalist suddenly thought of another serious problem!

She leaned in close to the girl and said in a shocked whisper, "So, the rules of the Black and White Dice have not disappeared either, right?"

Xu Shuo looked at the journalist who had finally learned to think independently, nodded, and said, "Right, the rules will not disappear. If it has disappeared in your cognition, then there are only two possibilities.

"One, it has been nullified by other rules.

"Two, it has, moved~"

As Xu Shuo whispered the last sentence, his tone was eerily drifting, coupled with the blind girl's hollow, lifeless eyes, the creepy atmosphere was maxed out!

The female journalist shivered and rubbed her arms.

She instinctively surveyed the surroundings, her eyes scanning the corners of the corridor, trying to find the Black and White Dice that was now hidden somewhere unknown.

The unknown is the most terrifying!

"When you mentioned earlier that the rules at the orphanage had changed, is this the kind of change you were talking about?" the journalist asked tentatively.

"Yes," Xu Shuo affirmed with a smile and a nod.

"Then... may I know which rules you have found to have specifically changed?" she continued to probe.

"Speaking of the children in the orphanage, so far it seems Lina has changed, Lily for sure has changed, and so has David," Xu Shuo disclosed without hiding anything.

"And their changes mean that the rules have also changed."

The female journalist listened and pondered—

Lina was the girl who lived in Room 306 on the right side of the upper corridor, also the twin sister mentioned in the Yueshu.

Earlier, she had merely glanced at the side window of the 306-room door, and directly managed to spot Lina, whereas the 'Qiming Charity Hall Visit Manual' did not say it was not allowed to peek at the rooms on the third floor; it even said photos could be taken of the rooms (which are available to be viewed).

As for Lily, she could be summoned by triggering the fifteenth rule of the orphanage.

So far, she could not see anything abnormal about the other party's behavior, but since the SOA Investigator said it definitely had changed, it must have.

And David was the Black and White Dice at the stairwell.

Funny, the dice had already changed when I first encountered it, completely blocking the way upstairs.

Thinking about these, as if struck by a sudden lightning, the journalist urgently asked, "Is the rule of the swing in the yard one of the orphanage's children?"

Xu Shuo looked toward the yard and said, "Yes."

"What's the name of that child?"

"Yanyan."

"Then, is the rule about 'the painting on the wall' on the second floor also one of the orphanage's children?"

"Yes, his name is Korshi."

"Have they not noticed any changes?"

"Not at the moment."

"..."

The female journalist was stunned.

She had a grave expression, with deep-set eyes lost in thought and her demeanor shifting uncertainly.

Xu Shuo looked at her and tilted his head, "What's next?"

The female reporter raised her hand and pushed her glasses up her nose with her middle finger, her eyes sparkling with a wise glow, as she confidently stated, "I think I already know how to distinguish which rules have changed." Continue your adventure with My Virtual Library Empire

The rules related to the corresponding side quests released by the system had not changed!

Aside from side quest two [The Swing in the Yard] which they still did not know about, side quest three [The Painting on the Wall] had even been completed by the female social worker!

And as they walked to the staircase on the second floor and saw the Black and White Dice, the system had not released any new side quests!

Then the male social worker just went up there, and his whereabouts are unknown to this day.

He might have already become dog food...

If he had stuck with the female social worker and not given up on her, he probably would have safely cleared the game by now.

The female reporter silently paid her respects in her heart.

In light of this, the system's side quests indeed provided information; the tidbits revealed might just be the strategy to conquer this script!

Stay away from mutations, and victory is in sight!

The female reporter got it, all of a sudden feeling very confident!

Xu Shuo, hearing her words, asked with pronounced interest, "Oh? And how did you determine that?"

The female reporter maintained a mysterious smile and said with a newly found sense of pride, "This method wouldn't work for you even if I told you; I'm here on a mission from the newspaper, so I have my own ways."

"Oh~" Xu Shuo immediately realized.

Isn't that just an indirect system prompt?

Based on the female social worker's previous reaction, it seemed that the tasks for these people were mutually visible, but perhaps because of differing camps, Xu Shuo did not know what their tasks were.

If he had known, he wouldn't have been inexplicably discovered by the female reporter in the archives.

Maybe it was because Xu Shuo's reaction was too confident, the female reporter looked at him and asked uneasily, "What's with that oh? Did you guess it?"

Mimicking her, Xu Shuo gave a mysterious smile, "Maybe."

Female reporter: "..."

Her heart was pounding, but she wasn't too worried.

Because the system had not thrown out any prompts about a deduction of performance points, this meant that even if the other party had guessed something, he definitely hadn't guessed as much as Script Space, so her behavior did not count as "breaking character."

Well, so the other party's enlightened expression was probably just an act.

This lunatic sure liked to pretend.

As for the suspicion of whether the director was a player... The female reporter silently observed the girl in front of her, feeling that it was highly unlikely.

After all, it was a rule-based mechanism; how could a player end up within the rules themselves?

Impossible! Absolutely impossible!

"I'm planning to bring out Lily again, is that okay?" The female reporter now just wanted to quickly finish the main quest.

"Go ahead and explode her," Xu Shuo nodded.

The female reporter took out a marble from her pocket, but this time, she stuffed one into Xu Shuo's hand.

She stared at the girl and said earnestly, "Let's explode it together."

After the first rule activation, this guy had not appeared for a long while, almost causing her to lose her cognition and change along with Lily's influence.

If it weren't for "Stars' Wisdom" guiding her, she probably would have had no reaction at all.

Thinking of this, the female reporter cautiously asked, "Earlier, when Lily spoke her lines and asked if it was me who set the fire, what would have happened if I had answered 'yes' at that time?"

Xu Shuo curled his lips into a smile, "Nothing would have happened."

"Really? I don't believe it."

"Since you would have been led by her to say 'yes,' what do you think would have happened next?"

"..."

Indeed, nothing would have happened.

Because with your very first response, you would have already lost your sense of judgment and rationality, so what happened next wouldn't need to be speculated.

Even though the one who started the fire was indeed you.

...