There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

Something's not right!

There's definitely something wrong with this game!

With a heavy head, Xu Shuo thought that ever since he entered the game, his mental state had seemed a bit off.

If this was the influence of the character itself, then what kind of game would this be?

Analyzing from the perspective of a Scripted Murder Game, unless it was a psychopathic killer, there would always be a reason for the murderer to kill.

Just as Zhang Shou sought revenge on Mr. Guo to avenge his sister, to fully restore the true story during the game, the murderer needed a reason to kill.

What was Chen Chu's reason for killing Luo Kun?

Because he hadn't triggered the Character Card task, Xu Shuo only got some basic information—Chen Chu's gender, age, and the fact that he was the chief physician at The Fifth Hospital, currently only in charge of Luo Kun, his murder target, and the medication was already prepared.

Even less than the initial information about Zhang Shou.

Just a little less, perhaps.

Xu Shuo recalled the time he went to administer the medication; it shouldn't have been ten minutes yet. Even if Luo Kun had died prematurely due to poor constitution, there was still a more pressing issue that he couldn't shake off—

He wasn't supposed to die in the stairwell!

And what the hell was with all the blood spilled there?

Who secretly did what he had been planning to do, dragging the target out and stabbing him to death?

The more he pondered these things, the more his head throbbed with pain. Xu Shuo held his forehead, breathing somewhat rapidly.

"Doctor Chen! Doctor Chen!"

The nurse's call rang out like thunder by his ear; he slightly came to his senses, turned his head, and saw that the nurse had the medication in her hand and leaned in with concern, "Doctor Chen, you don't seem to be doing very well right now, take this medication first."

So why did he also have to take medication?

Xu Shuo spread his thoughts, could it be that the plot of this Scripted Murder Game was a cliché story where the patients and doctors swapped identities, and he was actually the real patient?

And then, to avoid taking medication, he killed "Doctor" Luo Kun?

No, the identity on the Player's Handbook should be correct—if it wasn't intentionally setting up a text trap.

"Tsk..." Xu Shuo muttered irritably, bowing his head.

"Doctor Chen, you..." At this point, the nurse's concerned voice also began to hesitate, revealing a strange sense of eeriness as she again softly said, "Doctor Chen, please take your medication quickly."

Xu Shuo looked up at her, took the white pills and water from her hands, and said, "Wait a moment, what just happened outside?"

Upon hearing this, the nurse, looking worried, said, "The other doctors will handle it, Doctor Chen. You are not in good shape right now; you should quickly take your medication."

She repeated it again, speaking very slowly, as if coaxing him gently, yet her gaze remained fixed on Xu Shuo, as if she would wait right there until he swallowed the pills.

Xu Shuo, watching her, placed the two pills in his mouth, then took a sip of water and swallowed them down.

Seeing this, the nurse's expression immediately relaxed, and she said, "You might feel a bit drowsy after taking the medication, Doctor Chen. You should rest for a while, others will take care of what's happening outside."

Listening to these familiar words, Xu Shuo: "..."

If he remembered correctly, just now he had said the same thing to his patient, and now the patient was mysteriously dead outside.

With a gentle smile on her face, the nurse left the office and even helped him close the door.

After sitting and holding his head for a while, Xu Shuo suddenly stood up and went to the restroom on the balcony.

He shut the door, looked up to make sure there were no shockingly insane concealed cameras, then opened his mouth and spat out the pills hidden under his tongue, afterwards rinsing his mouth out with water.

After doing all this, Xu Shuo returned calmly to the office, sat on the chair, and closed his eyes, pretending to be drowsy from the medication.

Although in fact, his brain did feel rather foggy.

The noise outside had gradually ceased, and the urgent footsteps that had been running back and forth were now nowhere to be heard; the hospital fell back into silence.

...

Xu Shuo felt that he had once again drifted off into a groggy sleep. By the time he opened his eyes again, his mind wasn't as slow.

In front of him was still the white wall, an office of moderate size, with the air filled with the faint scent of disinfectant. He remained seated in the office chair.

After taking in his surroundings out of habit, Xu Shuo's gaze landed on the desk in front of him, and he picked up the unmarked medicine bottle.

Unscrewing the cap, inside were indeed those white pills the nurse had given him earlier.

Actually, since this bottle of pills was left so openly on his desk, it could very well be a medication frequently taken by Chen Chu, so it wasn't necessarily problematic. But Xu Shuo couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss.

It was probably because of the eerie sense of déjà vu from when the nurse fed him the medicine earlier.

After looking at the medication, Xu Shuo summoned the Player's Handbook, wanting to check if the end time for the storyline had refreshed.

However, the next moment, he was abruptly taken aback.

[Main Mission: Kill the patient Luo Kun in Room 13], unfinished status.

Unfinished?!

After a moment of stupor, Xu Shuo abruptly stood up. The chair scraped across the floor with a grating noise. He turned and walked out from behind the desk, pulling open the door to look outside.

The hospital corridor was slightly dim, eerily silent.

It wasn't because there were no people moving about. Instead, the nurses kept their movements very quiet. There were no sounds of children crying, nor the hurried footsteps of patients rushing to seek medical attention.

"Doctor Chen!"

Suddenly, a nurse appeared from around the left corner, her face marked with anxiousness as she jogged over to him.

Xu Shuo looked at her, recognizing her as the nurse who had come over at the start of the game to inform him that a patient's condition was unstable.

"What's wrong?" Xu Shuo asked calmly.

"It's time for medication, but the patient from Room 13 has gone missing. We can't find him. Look at this..." the nurse said, her voice laden with worry.

Xu Shuo: "..."

If he remembered correctly, he had already delivered the medicine to the patient in Room 13 earlier, and the man had inexplicably died in the stairwell.

So what was the situation now?

Time... started over?

Was that why his mission had changed to an unfinished status?

"Doctor Chen?" The nurse's tentative call once again rang in his ear, as she cautiously looked at the young doctor in front of her.

Xu Shuo snapped back from his thoughts, speaking indifferently, "I understand. I'll go take a look right now."

With that said, he closed the office door and turned to walk toward the far end of the corridor.

This time, Xu Shuo found Room 13 with practiced ease. Pushing open the door, he was confronted with an extremely dim room, lit only by the light from the corridor shining through the crack of the door.

The room was silent; there wasn't a soul in sight.

Where did he vanish to?

A peculiar irritation welled up within Xu Shuo, and the next moment he felt a dull ache in his brain. He rubbed his temples and turned to look towards the fire exit at the end of the hallway.

Recalling the conversation from the last round, Xu Shuo walked over and pulled open the heavy fire door, then saw a young man curled up in the corner of the stairwell.

The creaking noise from the door caused the young man to abruptly lift his head and look over.

Upon seeing the doctor at the door, Luo Kun's mouth broke into a broad smile, his pale face lit up brilliantly. "Doctor Chu, you're here..."

Xu Shuo did not respond, instead standing quietly, his gaze loftily fixed on the boy crouching on the ground, his expression dim and unreadable.

The other side, after greeting him, fell silent too, tilting his head in what seemed to be puzzlement.

They locked eyes for a long while until Xu Shuo reached into his pocket.

The medication was gone.