There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

When Xu Shuo felt guilty, he suddenly remembered something that he had almost forgotten!

It was a title he had obtained in "Abyss Sigh," which he had once internally criticized for the system's outrageous operations—the "Abyss Caretaker."

"It seems that you have caught the attention of the Abyss, and the monsters that crawl out from the darkness have started to like you, but you might find this affection a bit overwhelming. Don't worry, we've considerately equipped you with the title."

The outrageous part was that the title could not be removed!

Moreover, because Xu Shuo had encountered quite a number of bizarre NPCs before, it led him to not have a very deep understanding of this title.

He'd even forgotten about it.

Now that he thought about it carefully, during the last moments in "Green-skin Train," the evil ghosts that climbed out of the Abyss were all rushing toward him. In addition to wanting to eat him, perhaps it was also because of this title…

But would Xu Shuo admit it at this moment?

He definitely wouldn't!

"So, should I just pick a direction and start walking now?" Xu Shuo asked with a calm expression, innocently.

"..."

How could that be possible, with tens of thousands of monsters surrounding them? It would be difficult not just for new players but also for high-rank players to face this.

Hong Rao sighed, grabbed his wrist, "Don't resist me."

As soon as she spoke, Xu Shuo felt a mysterious power rush into his body. His body instinctively wanted to resist this sensation, but he remembered Hong Rao's words.

In just a moment, only a blur of his vision, and the scenery before him had changed.

They were still in the desert wilderness, but now in front of them stood a massive black stone fortress, surrounded by a number of sturdy green plants.

The tall green plants, shaped like pillars, had branches and sharp-edged thorns, and were topped with red berries.

Such plant formations were known as Giant Pillars, the only vegetation growing in this desert, giving the Giant Fortress its name.

The place where the two stood was on the outskirts of the fortress, their figures hidden by the towering Giant Pillars; the patrolling guards on the city walls had not noticed them yet.

Different from Xu Shuo's previous location, the Giant Pillars were sparsely distributed here; one could see the irregular patterns of the plant pillars hundreds of meters into the distance, with even more further away.

And the plants closer to the fortress had all been stripped of fruits, leaving only bare thorn seats.

Hong Rao pointed in that direction and said, "Go ahead, this is where you'll live for the next three days. If you want to save performance points, you can choose to eat the berries from outside. They're actually quite sweet."

Xu Shuo pondered, "You seem very experienced with this."

"Cough." Hong Rao looked away, "I won't accompany you inside from now on. If you need anything, you can call me through the handbook."

After speaking, she turned and disappeared from sight.

Xu Shuo looked in the direction she vanished, saw no one else around, then lifted his staff and tapped it against the Giant Pillar next to him, knocking down some red berries.

Peeling back the barbed skin, he took a bite, and indeed, it tasted quite good.

So Xu Shuo knocked a few more down.

...

...

In the clear sky.

After sending her apprentice directly to the fortress, Hong Rao returned to the spot where they had first landed and carefully surveyed the area for several miles around.

In the end, she was sure there was nothing out of the ordinary.

"It's not a problem with this place, could it really be that kid's issue?"

Hong Rao frowned and murmured, feeling that she might have taken on an extraordinary apprentice, but couldn't pinpoint exactly what was strange.

She surveyed the desert situation again from a broad perspective and, sure enough, saw the darkness that had been heading this way now turning and relentlessly moving toward the direction of Giant Fortress. Experience exclusive tales on empire

However, those monsters at locations far too distant seemed oblivious and continued to linger in their original places.

Yet, at nightfall, the power of the Abyss would become extremely active, and the outer monsters might eventually be driven to approach the fortress.

This time, Giant Fortress was probably going to face difficulties.

Defending the fortress used to be dangerous only after nightfall, but it would basically be safe during daytime. But this time... a million beast tide right from the start turned it into a battle for survival!

The players here on their Punishment Task must be crying themselves to death.

Hong Rao took out a camera, snapped a photo of the dark waves of the tide, and then sent the data to the guild chat.

[Giant Fortress has mutated, you guys think there's still hope for this world?]

Xiao Yance: [No hope, just wait to die.]

Xiao Yance replied instantly, because he was still muted in "Plaza" privileges and could only seek some attention elsewhere.

Soon, someone else continued the conversation:

[So many monsters, is there a High Rank monster commanding them?]

[Giant Fortress is a third-level defense line, the Script Space should send more people there, and if it's serious, might even allow High Rank players in.]

[So why are you there?]

Hong Rao typed back: [My student failed the last script, and since we were going to go through a Punishment Task anyway, I thought I might as well bring him here to experience Abyss combat.]

Xiao Yance: [Didn't you say he was going to be finished before?]

Hong Rao: [Get lost!]

How dare he curse her hard-won student!

Xiao Yance: [Wasn't it you who said it?]

Hong Rao ignored him and continued to take photos and send them to the guild, live broadcasting the battle of Giant Fortress to her buddies.

As they watched, a perceptive buddy sensed something amiss.

[It's still daytime, why are so many monsters rushing towards Giant Fortress? Could it be that its defenses are about to collapse and the Abyss is trying to break through this world in one fell swoop?]

[The third-level defense line is very solid, right? These monsters shouldn't be able to breach the fortress.]

[There have been a lot of BUGs recently, could it have been affected, the second-level script that A Mian extracted also collapsed.]

[I'm not sure, I saw this situation as soon as I brought my student in.]

Hong Rao thought about it but still didn't betray the kid.

And indeed, there wasn't any proof yet.

Xiao Yance: [It's confirmed! I suspect Script Space is messing with our guild!]

Previously, after the upgrade of Script Space, it wiped out his trading market, thus cutting off a source of income. Then a BUG wiped out the script for "Five-star Hotel", and their buddies lost another source of income!

Now, one of their guild's mentors took a student on a Punishment Task and seemed to have triggered a Abyss Beast Tide!

However, no one paid attention to his venting.

This money-grubber was merely letting out his Resentment Energy.

Just then, a message popped up.

[Strange, but in the high-level scripts and worlds where the space barrier is weaker, there doesn't seem to be any BUG occurrences, right?]

[Moreover, the frequency of world collapses is no different from before and is even lower than in the low-level scripts.]

Hong Rao: "..."

She replied guiltily: [That's why I said it's a BUG!]

As various conjectures began to emerge in the guild chat, Hong Rao, looking at the black tide below and with an odd expression on her face, wondered—exactly what kind of student had she taken in?

Couldn't really be someone who ran out of the Abyss, could it?

After all, wherever this guy went, things collapsed.

But when he was in the Script Space, there were no anomalies. If there really was a problem, he would probably have been killed by "Judgement" by now; it's impossible for Abyss Qi to appear in the Script Space!

Should she just ask directly?

…