There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

Luo Kai had caught an early flight to Sun City, and it was unclear where he had previously wandered off to; in any case, this guy fancied himself a Wanderer.

After picking him up from the airport and receiving a Points Card with a thousand-point limit, Xu Shuo hit the highway directly from the side, without ever asking Luo Kai what his purpose was.

"Hey, this..."

Luo Kai was briefly baffled before catching on.

Even though it hadn't been a month since his three-level script extract, many players had already gone through the evaluation, so it was common knowledge on the forums that "Green-skin Train" had broken down.

Therefore, this person must have guessed the purpose of his visit.

But still, where was he going?!

Xu Shuo tossed him a printed map.

There was a place on the map circled in red. After Luo Kai examined it carefully and thought about their last car journey, he immediately made the connection to the overpass bridge.

That was the very end of the script.

The black vortex beneath the overpass bridge still sent shivers down Luo Kai's spine; just one look was enough to rise an infinite fear in one's heart, a simplified version of the Abyss!

After returning, he had conducted some investigations, but still did not understand the origin of the vortex; he could only chalk it up to the challenges of a three-level assessment.

If you failed, you died!

"Have you gone back in to spectate since then?" Xu Shuo asked.

"Of course, I have."

Luo Kai frowned slightly. He wasn't puzzled that Xu Shuo knew the director could enter the script at will, but he said solemnly, "I didn't find anything wrong inside, though. I even tried to approach that vortex, but due to spatial limitations, couldn't probe its depths."

The director could enter their extracted script at any time, but only as a spectator, watching the script unfold according to the pre-set Script Space program.

When the train plunged into the vortex, the script ended.

As a mere spectator, he couldn't get closer to the vortex, but he could faintly sense the malice emanating from it.

That thing was real!

Hence, after hearing about several broken script incidents, Luo Kai thought it might be an invasion of Abyssal forces, causing that line of defense to be breached.

He planned to retrace that route to see if he could uncover anything else.

He hadn't expected his partner to be ready to go directly under the overpass bridge... wait, how come he was so well-prepared?

Luo Kai speculated, "Don't tell me you were also planning to investigate there?"

Was it just by chance that he took advantage of his Points?

The reason he had teamed up with this person was that this script was, after all, extracted by the two of them, and continuing with Xu Shuo might shed light on something else...

This guy seemed to be quite favored by that monster.

"No," Xu Shuo replied calmly, "I have been very busy with work these days. It's just that last night, I roughly guessed your purpose and did a quick investigation on the Yang Suburb Railway.

He wasn't lying, indeed he only investigated yesterday!

Upon hearing this, Luo Kai scrutinized him with a suspicious gaze for quite some time, but couldn't find any flaw in his demeanor.

Then, Xu Shuo said, "I do have a question for you, though. The revenue from that three-level script must have been quite substantial, right?"

Luo Kai: "..."

Damn! He was counterattacked so quickly!

Indeed, when he initially offered four hundred points, he had entertained the thought of scamming a newbie, and even the few thousand points he gave later were just a drop in the bucket, but now, he definitely wouldn't admit it!

Well, it's no big deal. He could let go of the fact that the other guy freeloaded off his script without compensation.

This big shot is really stingy.

Without a word, Luo Kai turned his head and pretended to admire the landscape outside.

After Xu Shuo blocked his thoughts, he naturally did not continue to bring up the old matter of freeloaded scripts, and so both of them sank into an eerie silence for the rest of the journey.

...

Yuhua Dam was in a remote location, and after two hours of driving, Xu Shuo finally took the nearest ramp off the high-speed highway.

He then switched from the national highway to a village road and drove directly to an uninhabited area with rugged terrain.

"Ah, I see the overpass bridge," Luo Kai suddenly spoke up.

In a distant place, the huge red overpass was faintly visible between the mountains, and further away, one could glimpse a white ribbon reflecting the sunlight.

That was a branch of the canal extending over, the same river scenery they had watched for a good half hour while sitting on the high-speed train.

However, "expectation is the root of all heartache" — here, the saying seemed to apply to the bridge as well. After twists and turns of the mountain road, that bridge was still far away!!

The road was steep, and Luo Kai was tired of sitting in the car, "We couldn't have entered some kind of Illusory Realm, could we..."

Like a mirage or hitting a ghost wall.

Xu Shuo didn't speak, slowing down the car while looking at the map.

After passing this mountain road, he turned from the path onto a village road, and then a small village nestled in the valley appeared ahead.

Seeing the houses, Luo Kai, who was slumped in his seat, suddenly perked up!

The satellite map didn't show the name of the village, only the three small characters for "Caotang Edge." That might be the name of the village...

In China, even the most remote places have villages!

In the fields, villagers were laboring. Seeing a silver sedan drive in, they all looked on in astonishment.

Xu Shuo had just stopped the car on the roadside when Luo Kai couldn't wait to get out, first stretching greatly, then jumping on the spot to loosen his muscles.

Curious villagers gathered around, warily sizing up the two unfamiliar faces without any hint of restraint.

"Who are you?"

"Sorry to trouble you, we want to go to the underpass of that overbridge, is there a shortcut here?" Xu Shuo got out with a bag of stuff, now casually handing over a bag of apples.

The villagers glanced at the fruit in the red plastic bag, still very wary of them, but their expressions eased slightly.

They were not targeting the village.

He didn't answer but continued to inquire, "What are you going over there for?"

Xu Shuo smiled warmly, "As you know, that bridge is usually for trains, its stability is very important. We are sent by the Municipal Bureau to inspect it, but the road that used to lead to the bridge was blocked by falling rocks from the mountain, so we had to take a longer route and ended up here."

He tried to use simple and easy-to-understand vocabulary, and the old man nodded as he listened, looking thoughtful.

After hearing this, instead of asking to see any ID, the elder pointed to the right and said, "That way, just go straight on this road, turn right when you see the river, then run towards the direction of the bridge."

The road the villagers pointed to was completely opposite to the barely visible bridge.

But village roads are intricately complex, with the hills rolling on. Sometimes, heading toward the destination, a turn can take you further away, and other times, going in the opposite direction and turning can actually lead you directly there.

The satellite map only marked the major roads; these kinds of village mountain roads could only be navigated by asking the locals.

After thanking the villager, seeing that he still hadn't taken the fruit, Xu Shuo placed the bag on the ground. He was about to get back in the car to leave when he heard the old man say:

"The mayor's speed is quite fast, isn't it? Did you come here for an inspection because of yesterday's incident?"

Xu Shuo paused mid-step, and Luo Kai, who was leaning against the car door, abruptly looked up.

"Yes, grandpa, did you see it from here as well?" Xu Shuo asked in surprise, going along with his words.

From here, the overbridge seemed to be separated by several mountains. Logically, unless something earth-shattering had happened, the village shouldn't have been able to notice anything unusual.

But if something truly earth-shattering had occurred, the satellite would not have missed it.

The villager waved his hand dismissively, "Well, how could we see anything? Just that at noon yesterday there came a huge noise from over there; it was thunderous, scared us all, we even thought a mountain had collapsed!"

Whether it was a mountain collapse was not certain.

Since it was far away, it was beyond the daily living range of the villagers, so no one had gone to check specifically.

They just checked to ensure that the nearby mountains were not causing problems, and they didn't pay much attention to it after that.

Xu Shuo proceeded to ask a few more questions, but the villagers didn't know anything about any other unusual events. After exchanging glances with Luo Kai, the two of them got in the car and left.

...

"My 'Script Space' collapsed yesterday noon."

"Maybe the train in your script really fell off the bridge," Xu Shuo joked calmly.

Luo Kai tugged at the corner of his mouth, feeling a chill from the joke.

With the villagers' directions, this time it took less than twenty minutes for the two of them to get really close to the overpass, but they could not drive any further ahead and had to proceed on foot.

The area was a huge valley, surrounded by mountains. The deeper they went, the narrower the valley became, with dense trees and underbrush.

Looking at the dense woods, Xu Shuo felt a sense of unease.