There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

Xu Shuo raised his hand and crumpled the tissue into a ball, stuffing it into the gap of a billboard.

Then, he opened the Player's Handbook, looking at a few Character Cards and hesitated slightly.

The surveillance system of this world was incredibly robust; he feared that as soon as he stepped onto the street, the omnipresent cameras would scan and detect him instantly.

That's also why Xu Shuo hadn't brought his glasses and electronic tablet along, as they were issued by Huai'an Industrial University, and carrying them would probably leave a trace of his location.

Because anything he had on him would come along during Teleportation.

And now, he was dressed in a black suit and pants, still looking exactly like how Professor Li appeared before lecturing, with not even a thing to cover his face.

He had no choice but to use a Character Card to change his appearance.

However, using the two female cards here truly seemed a waste, and besides, cross-dressing wasn't strictly necessary for concealment.

So Xu Shuo chose the Village Chief Card.

This card, virtually useless under normal circumstances, now served as a quick costume change.

In an instant, he was clad in coarse linen clothes; his hair, previously combed to perfection, was now messy and thick, with a stubble shadowing his chin and his face marred by the semblance of middle-aged weathering.

The Acting Village Chief was in his thirties, and after merging with Xu Shuo, he looked older than both Yao and Professor Li.

To tell the truth, Yao was almost thirty as well, but his vital energy and maintenance were in good shape, while Professor Li was even older but still looked like a vigorous young man.

Well, in the end, the Village Chief Card even had the lowest attractiveness level.

With only ten minutes left, Xu Shuo glanced at the distance indicator on the top right corner and set his sights on a corner of an open-air plaza on a tall building not far away.

The next moment, a wave of dizziness hit him.

After shifting locations, Xu Shuo felt as if his head had become heavier.

It seemed that this ability could not be used frequently.

The building appeared to be a shopping mall, but the flow of people was sparse at the moment; Xu Shuo hid in a corner and used Teleportation twice in succession before he came down from the high altitude and stood in a pitch-dark alley.

Xu Shuo leaned against the wall to rest while checking the team list on the top right corner.

Team leader Pianning was still hundreds of kilometers away at the farthest point, and the distances to the other three were not much different from his. He wondered whether they had already come close to each other.

[Cheng Can]9km.

[Yin Banqian]7.6km.

[Wei Ya·Andre]11km.

During his earlier Teleportation, he had intentionally chosen different directions to probe. Now that he had ascertained Yin Banqian's location, he kept an eye on the distance and started running in that direction.

The alleyways here were extremely complex and interwoven.

Unlike the neon-glaring, dazzling skyscrapers above, the streets at the very bottom were as dark as a never-dissolving eternal night.

Looking up, one could only see the base of the plaza built in the air, with numerous buildings and highways connecting to the skyscrapers, completely blocking the streets below.

There was no sky to be seen here, not even a murky, foggy sky.

The area beneath the skyscrapers and above them were like two different worlds.

In the reflection of silver-grey walls, numerous shoddy scaffolding houses leant against the erect mansions, devoid of any aesthetic or design sense. The floors were oddly shaped, with overlapping stairs and interlacing corridors everywhere.

Fetid smells wafted through the complex alleyways, emanating from garbage that seemed to have been left to ferment for a long time, accompanied by the constant drip-drip sound of water, spreading an eerie sensation.

Xu Shuo tread on broken detritus, moving swiftly through the narrow alleys, and noticed indistinct human figures on the scaffolding buildings.

Even beneath the garbage heap-like skyscrapers lived people, perhaps those who couldn't move up to higher grounds.

The buildings that covered the entire sky overhead seemed like an insurmountable gulf, with those people looking up at the skyscrapers with eyes filled with envy and longing, but also with hate and resentment.

After leaving the alley, there were also wide streets below, with vibrant colorful signs hanging among the low buildings, twinkling with mesmerizing neon hues.

Xu Shuo didn't appear on the streets but instead directly Teleported to another alley across the way.

And then—

"Ugh..."

He almost threw up.

After several transfers, his brain was clearly overloaded; the dizziness had evolved into nausea.

I can't be reckless anymore.

Xu Shuo looked up at the shelves he was leaning against and locked eyes with a boy who was leaning on the railing.

…

In the darkness, they both remained silent, the neon lights on the street flickering, casting a faintly pink glow that outlined the edge of the shelves.

The boy's eyes were bright, lit by the overly dazzling light, sparkling.

"Mister, you're so cool, suddenly appearing out of nowhere!"

After a moment, as if he had just realized, the boy looked at him with envy and said, "Did Long Group release some high-tech product, like an invisibility device?"

"No."

Xu Shuo said calmly, "It's a Magic series of technology products from Hogwarts Group, an invisibility cloak."

The boy was stunned: "Hogwarts Group? I've never heard of it. Is it a new company? And they can still operate?"

Xu Shuo nodded earnestly, "Yes!"

After speaking, he didn't wait for the boy in front of him to react and turned to dash into the alley next to him, quickly disappearing from sight.

By the time the boy came to his senses, the figure of the man was no longer below.

He looked left and right, but the pitch-black alley was like an endless abyss, and nothing extra could be seen.

The boy reluctantly withdrew his gaze, still wanting to ask where he could buy such items on the black market. Considering the poor quality of the man's clothes, he must have gotten his gear from other slums, right?

Leaning on the railing, he casually took in the view outside until he saw the clock on the nearby bridge, which made him snap out of it.

"I almost forgot to log on."

The boy hurried back into the house, avoided the clutter, took out the carefully placed helmet from the cabinet, and put it on.

[Free Night client logging in…]

[Brave traveler, welcome back.]

From darkness, his vision brightened as three colorful characters were outlined.

Then, an expansive and stunning universe full of sparkling stars appeared before him, with countless cosmic battleships surrounding him, ugly and ferocious monsters roaring in the Wasteland, and distant constellations slowly revolving.

The backdrop of this grand holographic game was the future, and the future of this world, as imagined by people, was interstellar warfare.

The boy opened his friends list to check, and seeing that his companions were online, he immediately teleported to them.

His game character appeared in a wasteland.

In front of him stood another game character, dressed in red and black battle attire, tall and slim, with two katanas crossed on his back.

"Hey, Que'er, you logged on so early! What gear are we hitting today?"

The boy shouted excitedly as he ran up and laid his hand on the other's shoulder.

"Que'er" was the gaming username of this samurai character; in reality, it was just the single character "Que," but evidently, they were close enough to use this familiar nickname.

The touched person paused for a moment, then suddenly turned his head to stare at the character next to him, the eyes behind the mask burning red.

Gradually, as he was stared at intently, the boy felt uncomfortably transparent, as if something was lingering on his body, an unnerving feeling of being seen through as if his brain had been laid open for the other to see.

The boy awkwardly released his shoulder, "What's wrong with you, why aren't you talking? Am I late?"

"How could you be~"

Suddenly, the samurai spoke softly, his tone strangely rising.

He leaned closer to the boy, the lower half of his face not covered by the mask revealing a genuinely happy smile.

"Tell me, did you meet someone just now?"

…