0008 Chapter 1: Confessions of the Dead (Section 2)
The limousine behind him sped away, leaving behind only a petite figure in a long Hanfu dress that was blown left and right by the cold wind under the hazy sky. The surrounding courtyard was dotted with dead olive trees, and the dim shadows of the trees swayed and intertwined, invisibly weaving.
Great oppression.
Zhen Cheng did not put any energy into the departing Anbis, but concentrated on remembering the panoramic view of the game field in front of him in his mind, while his fingers picked out a card drawn at the dinner not long ago from the middle of his jacket.
The card feels as cold as metal, but as flexible as plastic. It feels like a strange material that has never been touched before. Golden lines are raised on it, outlining a corpse lying face down on the ground.
image of.
"There is no suspense. Sure enough, I will always be the unluckiest one."
Looking at the card in her hand, Zhen Cheng curled her lips slightly, but that was all. In an instant, she smiled and shook her waist-length black hair, putting her self-pity behind her mind, and then stepped forward confidently.
Stepping into the gloomy manor in front of you.
The so-called manor is a huge two-story mansion. Yes, it is the kind that is often used as the background of horror movies. In fact, according to the organizer, the Scarry family, the venue chosen for this game is really
Famous haunted houses in history.
Zhen Cheng is not sure whether the haunting is real or not, but at least this place has produced countless horror movies that can be easily found online.
Pushing open the door, the dead mansion exudes a musty smell that is not disgusting, but makes people feel depressing. This smell will make the spirit of the weak-willed become more fragile, and it is easy to start thinking wildly and become wary.
Will a certain existence with a terrifying appearance and tragic fate suddenly jump out from under the furniture covered with white cloth?
The mansion is divided into two floors, with dozens of rooms in total. The organizer, the Scarry family, claims that it has been almost perfectly restored to the original appearance of a murder that happened in history but has never been recorded in the police files.
Observing the surroundings, Zhen Cheng let the card dance nimbly between his fingers, and when it stopped, it had already turned over. The two short gilded words on the dark bottom of the card lingered with an ominous depression like the edict of death:
1-Victim
This identity looks scary, but the person involved, Zhen Cheng, has nothing to fear except that he feels bad luck. In the final analysis, this is just a game in the literal sense. To put it bluntly, the victim does not have to die.
However, if you only think of this as a scenario where you invite a dozen friends to go to a club board game bar to experience it during the holidays, then you would be underestimating this game.
First of all, all the players participating in the game have just met at the organizer's dinner. From Zhen Cheng, who is only sixteen years old, to Epilens, who is old and has inconvenient legs and feet, all six players participating in the game are detectives.
And five of them are even world-famous detectives.
Whether it is a real full-time detective, Zhen Cheng who is still in school, or a professional explorer, rich second generation, etc., it can be said that no matter in terms of recognized talents or performance resumes, no professional detective in the world dares to claim to be able to compete with others.
These guys are neck and neck.
From this perspective, these six players who have qualified to participate in the game happen to be the six people in the world who are recognized by the mysterious organizer as the best at tonight's game.
Obviously, this is a game about search, cover-up and deduction.
Secondly, although the game itself does not involve gambling on life and death, the prize prepared by the organizer for the winner is a peerless treasure worthy of countless powerful forces fighting for it and even starting a war.
It is a complete knowledge that has been circulated around the world for a long time but has never been widely confirmed on the bright side. Some people still believe and others doubt it. It is one of the several extraordinary paths that can allow mortals to transcend and become gods step by step.
According to Zhen Cheng's understanding from his prior investigation, the completeness of the prize that will appear tonight even exceeds the limits of the means mastered by the three major families who actually rule the world behind the scenes, and even surpasses the three-dimensional material world itself.
Finally, there is the most important point for Zhen Cheng herself. After she was involved in the [hidden space] just now, whether by an unfortunate accident or someone deliberately, and saw the unknown horror of the mysterious world; she realized that if she did not
If he wins this game, he will indeed face an unbearable life risk.
In other words, the reason why she came to participate in the competition was because she saw the extraordinary power that the prize would bring to protect herself.
As for how Miss Zhen, who had been in bad luck a few days ago, managed to survive and return from the [Secret Space], but still failed to start her extraordinary path, that is another legendary and tragic story, and we will not discuss it here for the time being.
No need to express, let’s get back to the topic.
The detectives participating in the game need to use the game props limited to their respective roles to recreate the murders according to their role identities, so as to discover or conceal the only truth.
In Zhen Cheng's eyes, the main entrance hall has gorgeous crystal chandeliers and exquisite marble stairs. There is also a baby grand piano in the corner. It is the kind of venue that can be used directly for a dance party.
This is the only place in the whole building that does not have a second floor. The two floors are connected together to form a towering space. After entering the door, you can look up and see the ends of the semi-curved steps on both sides and a life-size wooden door behind the middle walkway on the second floor.
Photo of elderly male aristocrat.
The tables and chairs around the hall were covered with white cloth, and scattered with suitcases, gardening shears, plastic gloves and even golf equipment and other random items. Even if you are not a professional detective, you can easily deduce from their inappropriate positions that these items are
The organizer specially arranged it for the game process.
There were a total of three stairs going up and down the main entrance hall in the middle of the mansion and at the east and west ends of the building. Zhen Cheng didn't think much and climbed directly to the second floor from the gorgeous stairs in the main entrance hall.
In order to "try to restore the real environment at the time of the crime", the organizer restricted each player's actions with additional conditions that were not notified but were determined to be unequal time.
It can be imagined that they deliberately arranged the corresponding props in conspicuous places because the time is so short that even the top detectives may not be able to complete the necessary exploration in time.
Obviously, such a rule setting makes the game far away from the basic fairness. But I don’t know whether it is the excessive desire for prizes or the pride of the top detective; all six players participating in the game, including Zhen Cheng, recognized this
A level of unfairness.
As for why he would rather change the scene layout than accurately limit the time and claim to be "authentic restoration", Zhen Cheng has his own conjecture about this.
It is impossible for the Scarry family to dedicate an extraordinary path that is enough to become a god that they have never shown just for the sake of volunteering. There must be an intention of the organizer hidden in the game itself, and it involves rituals in the extraordinary realm.
There are often some weird restrictions on time, materials, participants, etc.
It's just that she doesn't care about that right now, and she has every reason to believe that the organizer won't be disadvantageous to her at this time.
Walking leisurely along the corridor on the second floor, Zhen Cheng tried his best to write down the structure and content of each room. The messy guest room, the blood-stained linen room, the nursery, the locked master bedroom...the walls here
The above are all old photos that look simple and ordinary, but if you look closely, you always feel that there is something unnatural about the expressions of the characters.
Faced with these strange scenes that would make many people's hair stand on end, Zhen Cheng, who is only sixteen years old, looks very... professional.
She neither suppresses her inner panic nor is she so careless that she is indifferent to the atmosphere of the environment. She always examines every detail that comes into view with a careful observation that is not appropriate for her age but is absolutely necessary. She strolls leisurely.
, as quiet as a Persian cat.
Zhen Cheng is looking for an opportunity to reverse her unfavorable start and gain an advantage.
When he reached the small concert hall by the stairs at the end, Zhen Cheng suddenly stopped, then turned around and trotted back to the nursery he had just passed.
There is dust deposited on the floor, which is a deliberate arrangement left by the organizers after renovating the mansion. They were very careful to avoid leaving any footprints, but they ignored the influence of natural airflow on the shape of dust.
The dust traces at the door of the nursery have a faint trace of radioactivity spreading outside the door. This either means that the decorator did not close the windows of the room tightly, or it means that there is a ventilation hole in the room that is difficult to detect with the naked eye.
This may be the only advantage for Zhen Cheng, who is unfortunate enough to be the first to step into the game venue. The players behind him will completely lose the ability to reason based on the original state of the environment due to more and more chaotic footprints.
Unlike many detectives who have the talent of being able to remember things instantly, Zhen Cheng is the type who likes to spend more time thinking deeply. Through the reminder of the tiny details on the floor, she just thought of the problem with the photo just now.
The photo hanging on the wall shows several children surrounding an old man. They have adult-like insincere smiles on their faces, and they look very awkward. However, among a group of children with strange faces, one who caught Zhen Cheng's attention
Instead, it was the old man's face.
The old man and the portrait in the center of the second floor of the main entrance hall are obviously the same person. He has to praise the painter's powerful skills a hundred years ago. However, what attracts Zhen Cheng is not the photo of the owner of the house he saw here, but... he has a very long hair.
A three-dimensional nose.
The nose in the photo was so three-dimensional that Zhen Cheng instinctively felt that it was slightly different from the oil painting in the foyer... In fact, the nose really protruded from the photo!
After moving the multiple seats and multiple children's toys of the same style in front of the portrait, Zhen Cheng rubbed the sticky and slippery feeling unique to old photos in a cold and humid environment, and pressed the raised position on the photo. She spent a lot of effort
, just now I felt the vibration of the mechanical device in the wall.
The seemingly tight-fitting wall slid open slightly, revealing a gap that could be flipped. Only then did Zhen Cheng realize that all the movable parts were seamlessly covered up by the seams of the wallpaper.
"It's a pity that this is only perfect for ordinary people. Although I have not been able to directly discover the mystery with my observation skills, I am afraid that the same situation cannot be hidden from the eyes of Mr. Epilens No. 2. He has the strongest ability among the contestants.
With rich experience, he has cracked numerous secret chambers in ancient tombs.
If it were Detective Impas No. 4, I'm afraid he would have discovered a lot of the manor's secrets as early as the first floor foyer. He is the guy who is world-famous for his observation skills."
Zhen Cheng thought like this, and ruled out the option of hiding in the secret passage and praying to "survive" until the end of the game, and then pushed the flipped wall completely open to let the indoor light shine into the secret room.
The dim light flickered in the secret room that had been closed for who knows how long, and Zhen Cheng was shocked.