There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

As expected, the question from the always-online Hong Rao soon came flying over.

[Apprentice, did you enter the "Five-star Hotel" script this time?]

[...]

What could Xu Shuo say.

He didn't know where to start with the gripes filling his belly.

This was almost immediately after they had left the script, the script had collapsed without even the usual delay.

Xu Shuo went into the forum to take a look, and perhaps because the collapse happened so swiftly, nobody seemed to have reacted yet, so there were no discussion topics; he then searched for related posts about the "Five-star Hotel."

For a quality script like this, there were many essence posts, and Xu Shuo clicked on one with the most favorites to start reading.

The "Five-star Hotel" stayed true to its name. In this script, there were five factions vying for power.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

There were six players in total, five of whom each represented a different force.

The Capital Commandant represented the Thirteenth District military area, the adjutant represented the Radiant Corps of the First District, the Special Envoy represented the Ninth District, Manager Zhang represented the Alien Army, and the lady represented the Green Mist Corps of District 10.

As for the Male Waiter, this was a very special character.

Behind him was a mysterious force that had never appeared in plain sight, seemingly the mastermind behind the disturbances in the Thirteenth District, yet not entirely belonging to that mysterious power.

The Male Waiter seemed more like a character with free identity, with triggering conditions for branch tasks that could vary widely.

In other words, anyone could attract him.

By now, Xu Shuo vaguely understood something...

The Radiant Corps had messed up this time.

The chaos at the beginning of the "Five-star Hotel" started with the death of a defector from the Radiant Corps in the hotel bathroom, and the plot point began from that moment. Continue your journey on empire

Almost every adjutant who had just entered the script would choose to kill the person in their hands because, at that moment—the person in your hands should die, there were footsteps approaching outside the restroom, and you were committing the murder.

The plot point was set at this crucial moment, where it was easiest for the adjutant to leave a loophole, and no player could truly leave unscathed!

And this loophole would be the clue for the Capital Commandant to identify the spy.

Different players could leave different clues, even the foolish players who got caught on the spot were present, as well as the awesome ones who didn't bother to hide and just triggered a slaughterfest, all of which greatly enriched the ways to play out the script!

The different opening plot also determined the direction the script would take.

In comparison, the opening scene of Xu Shuo's script had been quite normal.

Except for the fact that he ran into the wrong role...

[Shuo, open the door.]

Suddenly, a message popped up in the corner, followed immediately by Hong Rao's visit request.

Xu Shuo closed the forum and clicked agree.

Soon, a seductively dressed woman in a black-and-white embroidered cheongsam walked through the Light Gate, but this time her expression seemed a bit strange.

"Was your last script really 'Five-star Hotel'?"

Hong Rao straightened herself and sat on the sofa, her dark purple pupils fixed on him. This time there were no pleasantries; she went straight to the point.

Seeing her attitude, Xu Shuo raised an eyebrow slightly, "What's wrong?"

It seemed that from the very moment she sent the message to ask him, the tone that came out from the text was already somewhat off.

Hong Rao had come this time without even bringing her teacup.

Moreover, Hong Rao got the news too quickly; there weren't even any related posts on the forum yet, which meant that the just-collapsed script hadn't been discovered by many people.

After all, the system wouldn't broadcast a bug has occurred across all channels.

Hong Rao sighed worriedly and said, "If that's the case, you really need to keep your script-breaking physique a secret, or that guy will definitely come to settle the scores with you since you collapsed his script. To tell the truth, he's not easy to deal with."

Xu Shuo paused, "Who?"

From the sound of it, did Hong Rao know the player who extracted this script?

Hong Rao sighed again with a look of concern, her fingers brushing the corner of her lips before she seemed to realize she had nothing to drink, returning her hand to her waist.

"You must have encountered the 'Thirteenth District Commandant' character in the script this time, didn't you?" she asked seriously.

"Uh..." Xu Shuo's look was subtly complex.

"Although the 'Capital Commandant' is a player-controllable character, he is actually also a player within the Script Space," Hong Rao continued. "Moreover, the 'Five-Star Hotel' script was extracted by him."

"..."

Xu Shuo was slightly surprised.

Seeing his expression, Hong Rao explained, "Don't be surprised, players can indeed extract controllable characters within the script."

Xu Shuo raised his hand, "Wait a minute, I have a question. If that's the case, then what's this 'NPC awakening' all about? Aren't you afraid that two identical people might suddenly awaken?"

Hong Rao looked at him with a peculiar expression, "A controllable character will not be an NPC."

Xu Shuo: "..."

Oh, it's his fault again.

Blaming him for ending up in the wrong body, right.

"Let me explain this to you in detail."

Hong Rao licked her lips and said, "The 'NPC awakening' mentioned on the forums will only occur with characters that have died. Only when an NPC dies in the real world can its 'consciousness' possibly be extracted along with it into the script, turning it into a high-level NPC. Only then do they have the chance to awaken.

"Moreover, unless it's a bizarre Mutant Script, like those with all sorts of ghosts, monsters, time and space travel, and supernatural abilities flying everywhere, controllable characters will have to be a bit special.

"But in a standard script, the player's controllable characters are just empty shells, props, models—they absolutely do not have self-consciousness!

"So, if they're not under a player's control, what do you think they would become?"

Hong Rao, like a diligent teacher in the middle of a lecture, posed a question.

Xu Shuo answered, "Like a dancer."

Hong Rao snapped her fingers, satisfied, "Right, they would become like that dancer in 'Abyss Sigh.' Once the script starts and the character's shell isn't inhabited by a player, it's as if a crack has appeared in the world that hasn't been filled, and it will be directly eroded by the Abyss!"

"But..." Xu Shuo raised his hand, "The empty shells in the script seem to still act according to the NPC's trajectory, right? If they really were eroded by Abyss Creatures, shouldn't they have just swallowed us all by then?"

"Regarding that question..."

Hong Rao's expression grew more meaningful, and she suddenly glanced at the vast expanse of the white ceiling, her dark purple eyes shimmering.

She remarked with a sigh, "This has to do with the 'Order' of the script. Puppets that have their programs set will continue to follow the instructions, running until the program finishes before completely collapsing."

If there's no player to suppress the character, then one can only rely on the world's remaining order to do so, like the last firewall of a computer.

Should the firewall also fail, the computer infected by viruses would naturally become useless, and the collapse of the world would ensue from there.

'Five-Star Hotel' is after all a high-level script with a quite sophisticated world order, and standard scripts are generally more stable than Mutant Scripts.

Otherwise, it might indeed turn out as Xiao Yance speculated—by that time, the players inside would likely be completely dead, and the hard-won student she awaited might also meet a grim fate…

Hong Rao suddenly felt a heart-wrenching sense of urgency.

Xu Shuo's expression remained calm; he always felt that Hong Rao hadn't told the whole story in her last remark, and that last glance of hers seemed particularly strange.

It was as if she was looking up in admiration, yet also with a fear and caution of something.

And that something might be related to the Script Space.

"In any case, the situation of NPC awakening will not be repeated, and the only repetitions of awakening would be that of a monster!" Hong Rao snapped out of her urgency, and as she remembered she was teaching a student, she spoke earnestly.

"Okay," Xu Shuo nodded thoughtfully.

He suddenly thought of a question.

The message that had yet to be responded to—the system notification inviting him to become a 'Director.'

The role of the Capital Commandant had proved that a 'Director' could participate in the script and create a script that the system could extract.

...