Live Action Murder Mystery

Chapter 99.2

(The Punishment Begins)

Gu Liang paused before speaking again: “Let’s go back to Proprietress Ling. If Proprietress Ling wasn’t forced to stand in front of the window, then she must have done it willingly, and she was not guarded in the slightest. She thought that Tourist Jia had feelings for her.

“Lastly, before she was shot to death… Maybe Tourist Jia was embracing her as she stood by the window, whispering flirtatious words into her ears, like asking her to look at the scenery outside the window.”

Waitress Jing could not refrain herself from asking: “It sounds reasonable, but where’s the evidence? Chef Huang could have completely fabricated his timeline, Tourist Jia could have hidden inside his room for the entire day… But in reality, the reason to suspect them is similar to Recluse Wang and Girlfriend Jia, wherein the two ladies can fabricate the entirety of their timeline.”

“The wounds on Tourist Jia’s body and face are the evidence. He created them by falling on purpose. And the place he wounded himself wasn’t some mountain precipice, but the foot of the mountain that was close to the lake. Look at these photographs.”

As Gu Liang was speaking, he showed Waitress Jing and Li Xiao Yu the photographs that he and Yang Ye just took.

Both of them had cooperated to take these photographs: Yang Ye had illuminated the area with his torch, and Gu Liang had snapped the pictures.

Among these photographs, there were images of small stones with bloodstains, and a torn shirt fabric hanging on a tree branch.

Furthermore, there were also photographs which featured extremely obvious signs of someone using their back to scrape against the fragmented stones and soil repeatedly, and the area covered was not small, such that it required Gu Liang to take a wider shot, with a diameter of one metre approximately. Gu Liang also took another photo at a closer distance and made some markings, and obvious bloodstains could be discerned on those rocks.

Li Xiao Yu pointed at one of the fabric pieces, saying: “The colour of that fabric is the same as the shirt that Tourist Jia was wearing, by which I mean the shirt that has a large hole in the back. These marks… Why did they appear there?”

“This is related to Tourist Jia’s action timeline.”

Gu Liang said, “We deduced that, when Chef Huang fired his shot from the opposite bank, it was between 3 to 3:40.

“And the time that Proprietress Ling jumped out of the window from Recluse Wang’s room was 2:20. I theorise that before she went to see the man she loved, she probably went back to her room first to tidy herself. After all, she was first stabbed by Zhao Meili, then suffered under the blood talisman, and had to jump out of the window. She was bound to look wretched.

“Thus, Proprietress Ling appearing in Tourist Jia’s room at 3 o’ clock, is tenable.

“They proceeded to talk for a while, Tourist Jia pretended to accept her, and brought her to the window to look at the scenery and flirt. Subsequently, Proprietress Ling was shot to death.

“I’m still inclined towards Tourist Jia looking for something similar to a weaved sack to stuff Proprietress Ling inside before he threw her off the third floor from the window. Either that, or he carried Proprietress Ling and to fool the others, he went through the sundries on the first level to get to the back of the stilted building. Granted, I didn’t find any weaved sacks, but he probably tied it to a rock and threw it into the lake.

“Regardless of what method he used to bring Proprietress Ling away, he brought Proprietress Ling towards the forest.

“When he reached the forest, it shouldn’t be later than 4 o’ clock.

“While they were chatting prior to Proprietress Ling’s fatal gunshot wound, he would definitely ask if President Gao actually acted against him as they were mountain climbing in the morning. Then, Proprietress Ling would tell him about how President Gao pushed her down the mountain precipice.

“Which means that this incident was perfectly serviceable as Tourist Jia’s alibi. For the same reason, he had to think of a way to create some injuries for himself.

“Since it was around 4 o’ clock by then, he couldn’t run very far. If he could only return to the inn at around 5 o’ clock, then fainting for a few hours, in addition to getting lost, is understand. But if he ran too far just for the sake of creating injuries, only to return absurdly late, it would arouse the doubts of others.

“Therefore, it’s understandable if he looked for a suitable place nearby to purposefully inflict some injuries like he had fallen off the mountain precipice after he had abandoned the corpse.

“After he abandoned Proprietress Ling, he kept going down towards the foot of the mountain, looking for a slope which could allow him to roll around and create injuries, while ensuring that he wouldn’t pose any danger to his own life.

“This includes finding a branch to pierce the back of his shirt to pretend that it had been hooked onto by a tree branch as he was falling off the mountain precipice. This was also deliberately created by him.

“He felt that his own head couldn’t remain uninjured, so he gritted his teeth, picked up a rock and caused some injuries on his head. This is why there are bloodstains on the small rocks.”

Once Gu Liang spoke to this point, Yang Ye gave him a bottle of mineral water.

Gu Liang took the water and drank it, before he uttered, “The train of thought that Yang Ye and I had were quite similar. After the possibility of Chef Huang and Tourist Jia colluding was realised, we naturally forged ahead and started to organise the real timeline of Tourist Jia’s actor. Of course, before we reopened the crime scene for investigation again, everything was indeed just a brain hole. Although this brain hole was relatively reasonable, it’s true that we didn’t have any evidence.

“While we were following the path down the mountain, we were searching it carefully, and we finally found a suitable and fitting slope for creating injuries, and the crucial pieces of evidence that Tourist Jia had left behind.”

* * *

6 o’ clock in the morning.

The centralised discussion that had been extended for an hour finally came to an end, and the players ushered in the vote casting segment.

System: “The case of《 Rhinoceros Shown 》has come to a full close. The first item is a side task. The side task is very simple, it truly is a segment where the friendly system is giving away reward cards!

“That being said, please vote and select, among the characters in this case, which characters are ghosts?

“Please note, NPC Chef Huang does not have the right to vote.

“The voting time is limited to one minute, oh!”

Gu Liang picked up his card. The surface automatically jumped to the voting interface.

Swiftly, Gu Liang chose the four characters [Chef Huang], [Proprietress Ling], [Recluse Wang], and [Waitress Jing].

One minute later, the system declared: “Woah, all of the players were correct, therefore, everyone can obtain four reward cards! May everyone check and receive oh!”

Two men in black holding a large box appeared this time around.

The players nearest to them drew first, and once they went a full circle, the system spoke up again: “The voting for the side task has ended, the main task will be commencing next. In that case, who are the real murderers that killed Proprietress Ling? Players, please make your choices. The voting time is limited to one minute oh! Please note, NPC Chef Huang does not have the right to vote.”

Gu Liang looked at the card in his hand again.

The card screen had been refreshed; this time around, Proprietress Ling’s portrait and name was no longer present.

Simultaneously, a line of words appeared above the portraits of every character: “Please choose the characters whom you believe to be the murderer.”

Gu Liang did not hesitate as he tapped on [Chef Huang] and [Tourist Jia].

One minute later, the system continued to broadcast, “Woah, all the players have made their choices, let us see the voting results then.

“Which two characters have been given one vote? Who are they, they are Recluse Wang and Girlfriend Jia!

“Therefore, which characters obtained the most number of votes?”

“Chef Huang has 6 votes, Tourist Jia also has 6 votes!

“Are the real murderers of this case Chef Huang and Tourist Jia?

“Congratulations everyone, you have voted correctly!

“Following, the rewards settlement segment will commence. Apart from the murderers, each player will receive a reward of 6 gold coins, the detective will be awarded 7 gold coins.

“But owing to the unexpected death of Chef Huang’s original actor during the script enactment segment, where everyone did not save him in spite of being teammates in this script, the system had no choice but to dispatch a NPC to portray Chef Huang. This is behaviour that wastes the system’s resources! To this end, everyone has to pay the price! Each player will have 2 gold coins deducted!”

Gu Liang raised his eyebrow slightly.

All in all, he technically earned 5 gold coins this time around.

The rewards settlement ended.

As per usual, they reached the punishment segment.

* * *

Gu Liang glanced at Ming Yue first. Ming Yue raised his head, giving Gu Liang a faint smile.

Then, Gu Liang looked towards Tourist Jia.

Tourist Jia’s complexion was slightly pale, but he was in a better condition than Gu Liang had expected, since he was not revealing a particularly fearful demeanour.

Very quickly, the broadcast rang out: “Alright, we have arrived at the familiar death penalty segment again. Since Chef Huang’s actor is an NPC, he is not classified as a player, and he is not within the ranks that can be punished. Following, may the system conduct a judgement on Tourist Jia’s actor.”

One of the wall faces in the dining hall lit up with a bright screen.

It wrote on top: “Tourist Jia, real name Huang De Wei, 31 years old, data analyst. Crime Coefficient Score: 400, does not meet the criteria for death penalty; corresponding mandatory years of service: 280 years.”

As they watched the Tourist Jia’s actor, Huang De Wei, get taken away by the men in black, Gu Liang walked up to Yang Ye’s side and he could not help but ask: “Is it possible the players that truly deserve the death penalty, have basically all died out in the novice and intermediate scripts?”

“It’s possible, the probability of such players drawing the deceased card is very high, as is their probability to draw the murderer card. The novice and intermediate scripts are very simple at the start, which also means that it’s very difficult for the murderers to play.”

Gu Liang nodded his head, “When I met Perennial Wang’s actor at the very start, he told me that he was constantly muddling around the lower star scripts… and he never moved upwards.”

After Tourist Jia left, the darkened light screen opened up from the middle.

This time around, the person walking towards the door was Ming Yue.

Ming Yue stood up, walking towards that door in an unhurried manner. As he was walking past Li Xiao Yu, Li Xiao Yu jumped up, retreating a few steps away as quickly as possible before she used a frightened and cautious gaze to stare at him.

Ming Yue laughed, “Little girl, scared of me?”

Li Xiao Yu did not speak.

Ming Yue merely said: “I’m just giving you a lesson on how the murderer should be played. What if you’re the murderer next time?”

Needless to say, his words did not comfort Li Xiao Yu at all. Rather, she looked more frightened than ever.

The corners of Ming Yue’s eyes curved, and he walked towards the door without turning his head back once.

Subsequently, that door closed.

The dining hall went back to normal, as if nothing had transpired.

The broadcast sounded out again: “Alright, the case of《 Rhinoceros Shown 》has been brought to a full close. The scenery at our inn is beautiful, the players are not required to head towards the public resting area. Please rest here for the next 15 days. Let us meet in the next scenario!

“Players Yang Ye and Gu Liang, please accept your punishment!”

* * *

Gu Liang was accustomed to the small black room punishment, and he already felt nonchalant about it.

He believed that the psychological punishment was already over, and now it was the punishment on a physical level, which meant that he had even less to fear.

Even though the process was exceedingly terrifying, he only had to think about enduring past it; as long as he endured through it, all of the hurts and pains will go away. This was the reason why he could confront it while trying to be as calm as possible.

What Gu Liang did not expect was that, once he entered the small black room this time around, he would see a lake.

— It was a lake that he was absurdly familiar with.

He had jumped into that lake once, watching with wide eyes as that middle-aged woman slipped out from his hands, and then she sank to the bottom ceaselessly…

T/N: Get ready for pain :’)