There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

Chapter 103: Chapter 99 Who Would Pay Attention to a Plain Newbie?

Xu Shuo's eyes dimmed slightly, but his expression remained unchanged as he calmly asked, "What do you mean?"

"Don't be nervous." Hong Rao curved her lips into a smile that was captivating in a unique way, "Just listen to my speculation first—but why is there nothing here? It's a bit too clean, isn't it?"

As she spoke, she took a couple of steps forward, looking around as if searching for something to sit on, but all there was to see was a glaringly white, light-emitting, barren space.

Xu Shuo noticed a hint of disdain in her eyes.

"Isn't it like this for every newcomer's Script Space?" Xu Shuo said.

"It is indeed," Hong Rao walked up to him and waved her hand, summoning a semi-transparent system frame.

It was the shopping interface. She tapped on the page skip button, scrolling to over two hundred pages.

She then said, "Actually, newcomers' personal spaces are all self-decorated. You can think of it as playing... The Sims?"

While speaking, Hong Rao purchased a sofa from the shop, then, as if playing a decorating game, dragged the small icon outside. Once she released it, the icon automatically enlarged and turned into a real sofa.

Xu Shuo watched silently and said, "The shop has nine hundred and ninety-nine pages, I just couldn't be bothered to flip through them."

"Pfft." Hong Rao laughed and sat down on the sofa, "The shop really is troublesome without a categorization feature. But, is that all? You seem to invest very little effort in this game."

"You can't make money here anyway," Xu Shuo said, and naturally took a seat on the sofa someone else had purchased.

Skills and items from the game were utterly useless in reality.

"You can't make money, but you can save your life," Hong Rao said meaningfully as she looked at him.

Xu Shuo didn't respond, and Hong Rao shifted her gaze away, waving her hand to bring up another system screen that displayed Xu Shuo's personal panel from an observer's perspective.

Between players, one could only see the other's level, Performed Scripts, fan count, and other basic information that was not privacy-sensitive.

Hong Rao opened his Performed Scripts tab, but it only showed "Rainy Night Villa," with nothing else underneath the long empty list.

"Let me start from the beginning," Hong Rao crossed her right leg, leaning lazily on the sofa as she spoke leisurely, "After newcomers enter the Script Space, they're harvested by the space for a period of time. After finishing the tutorial script, the interval until the next game is only one day.

"The usual script performances end with a production time of at most one hour. The start time for 'Rainy Night Villa,' which you participated in, was three days ago at noon.

"I've seen that script, and with your performance, you should have met the requirements for a Level One player's assessment.

"This means that the assessment script for you as a newcomer should have come online at the latest by the next day's afternoon.

"Of course, even if my guess is wrong and you didn't meet the assessment conditions, the second script would still come online the next afternoon. That's the inevitable process for newcomers."

Hong Rao's voice was slow, soft, and comforting to listen to. She didn't look at the person beside her and stretched her hand out to open the system forum.

Xu Shuo showed little reaction, his face bearing the same faint, calm smile as if he were listening to something that didn't concern him.

The open forum displayed posts about "The Fifth Hospital" being taken down.

Hong Rao pushed the system panel in front of him and continued, "This script was an assessment script, but for advancing to Level Two. Although you shouldn't have received it by rights, the time it was taken down matches almost exactly with when you would have done your second script."

"And at this time—"

Suddenly, she turned her head, leaning in close to Xu Shuo, her amethyst-colored eyes bearing a mysterious smile, "I didn't see your second script come online, but you've advanced to a Level One player."

Xu Shuo looked down at her slightly, a wisp of a delicate fragrance wafting over from the woman, reminiscent of jasmine, as calming and relaxing as her voice.

He chuckled, "What if the system had a bug? I did not participate in the second script as you said the day before yesterday."

Hong Rao's lips curled subtly, she straightened her posture, then shrugged her shoulders, "Maybe it was a bug."

She didn't specifically say what kind of bug it was.

"Once a rookie passes the assessment script and becomes a first-level player, they gain the authority to autonomously enter the game, though their rest time is still only one day, it is much more relaxed," Hong Rao continued, turning her head to look around as if she was uncomfortable with the stark blankness of the place.

"What do you mean by 'harvest' time?" Xu Shuo suddenly interrupted her conjecture to ask.

"It's that period just after you join the game, when they squeeze you like crazy. It's only after advancing to higher ranks that the rest time intervals start to increase," she explained.

Hong Rao then opened her own system and took out two cups of tea from her store's backpack, offering one to Xu Shuo beside her.

"Don't change the subject," she sipped her tea and continued, "Yesterday was the third day, and with the intensity of a newbie's games, you would have to enter a script again.

"And if you entered at the very last second of your relaxed time, considering the production time after the script ends, your third script should have gone live yesterday evening.

"Surprisingly, 'Dancer in the Dark' also crashed at that time. Explore stories on m,v l'-NovelBin.net

"And yet, no new performed scripts appeared for you."

Hong Rao raised her eyes, looking at him with a half-smile.

"Are you done speaking?" Xu Shuo asked.

"Mhm," recalling her own words about not interrupting, the smile in Hong Rao's eyes deepened, and she responded with a sound.

Xu Shuo placed the untouched tea on the sofa, propped his chin with his hand, and looked at her, saying, "I have a question, why have you been paying attention to me since the very first moment I joined this Script Space?"

The premise of all these conjectures could only be that she had been watching him from the beginning to notice the bug that arose due to a timing issue.

After a player's performed scripts are posted to the list, there's no detailed onset time, preventing others from guessing how long a player has stayed in the Script Space or when exactly they joined.

It was even impossible to deduce just how long the Script Space had existed!

For Xu Shuo, without a specific onset time for his performed scripts and without others paying much attention to him — perhaps others might just think he was a newcomer who had entered the Script Space yesterday.

After this, as long as Xu Shuo acted quickly, successfully producing a script that wouldn't crash, the problem would naturally be solved!

After all, who would watch a plain and unremarkable new player every minute and second?

So, for what purpose was this woman here?

"That question..."

Hong Rao took another sip of tea, her gaze drifting to Xu Shuo's personal panel, then she suddenly said, "I suppose I'm your first fan. Haven't you ever checked me out?"

Xu Shuo glanced at her, "What's there to see?"

"Those words truly hurt..." she murmured, but her face quickly lit up with a bright smile once more, her eyes sparkling as she looked at him and said,

"Because I want to take you on as my student~"