In the dining room, the ghost servant had already retrieved white porcelain plates and was slowly arranging the food.
Xun Yi glanced up at the E-rank player diagonally across from him, then continued answering Wen Shichun's earlier question in the chat channel.
[A dungeon upgrades to A-rank when new scenarios, new tasks, or new difficulties appear, and these newly added elements are rated as A-rank. However, the original difficulty of the dungeon is preserved, so the boss remains rated as B-rank. That difficulty does not change.]
This was the reason they had been discussing how to avoid the A-rank ghosts and catch the murderer.
An ongoing dungeon leveling up isn't necessarily a complete death sentence for the players inside it.
...
I see.
Reading the message from Xun Yi in the chat box, Wen Shichun's fingers twitched slightly.
Just then, the ghost butler at the far end of the room twitched his elongated, upward-curving mouth. A strange voice sounded in the pin-drop silent dining hall.
"Guests."
As he spoke, the ghost servant began carrying plates of food, step by step, toward the players.
The ghost butler smiled and said:
"Tonight, I will be staying on the second floor."
"The master dislikes noise."
"Guests must remain quiet between 7 PM and 5 AM."
"Now, everyone may begin enjoying your breakfast."
"Do not waste food."
...
While the ghost butler was speaking, several people seated at the table looked tense and stiff.
Unexpectedly, after the voice fell silent, the speaking ghost actually left the dining room together with the ghost servant. Before exiting, 'he' turned around and closed the two large doors for those inside.
Players who dared to lift their heads at the end caught a final glimpse of the ghost's pitch-black eyes and its wide, smiling, blood-red maw.
After the dining room doors closed, complete silence lingered inside for a full two minutes.
Finally, Chang Zhao, who was sitting next to Wen Shichun, stood up and quickly walked over to the window, shutting it firmly.
It was through this window that the ghost creature had escaped.
When Chang Zhao returned to the dining table, he had also picked up the landline phone that had fallen on the floor. Just as he was about to speak, the person next to him, Xiao E, stopped him with a hand gesture.
Wen Shichun quietly opened his panel.
Shi: [It's still at the restaurant entrance.]
This message appeared in the team channel just as Xun Yi was about to walk towards the restaurant door. Seeing Shi's message, his steps faltered, and he sat back down with a complicated expression.
Chang Zhao also sat back down in his seat, a delayed fear hitting him. He took the opportunity to check the extent of the damage to the landline phone; it looked like it should still work.
Shen Jing didn't doubt Wen Shichun's words, nor did she ask how he knew. She added instead: [I've checked the food with an item. There's no problem. Eat. Finish it.]
He Yi typed leisurely: [That just means yours is fine. Who knows if everyone else's is okay?]
Wen Shichun silently looked at the plate of food in front of him. It had been nearly fourteen hours since he entered the instance yesterday without eating.
It was completely within his body's tolerance.
But the feeling of hunger was also very real.
The ghost had just said, 'Don't waste food.'
Judging by the expressions of the others, even He Yi's current expression told him that even if eating would lead to something bad, they had to close their eyes and eat it.
The person across from him, Yue Cheng, was hard to read.
But he had already started eating some time ago.
Wen Shichun picked up the utensils placed on either side of his plate by the ghost servant.
The ghost outside the door was still standing in place.
If not for the restaurant door blocking the view.
The players would see those pitch-black eyes, still fixed unblinkingly on them.
After sitting down, Xun Yi also noticed the ghost lingering at the entrance.
His face grew even paler.
It was a good thing he hadn't walked over earlier, or he would have ended up right in front of the ghost.
But what was it doing just standing out there?
Chang Zhao had just gotten up and left his seat without any issue.
Shi: [Lin Zhe's phone log noted that the killer's control over him had extended to every aspect, including his meals.]
[No speaking during meals, no talking in bed.]
Once they finished eating, the ghost outside would probably leave.
There was no other way.
Wen Shichun's eyelids flickered.
He raised his knife and fork and began to eat.
For the first time in his life, he tasted something prepared by a ghost.
And it was... surprisingly.
Delicious?
...
After all the players had finished eating, the ghost indeed left.
However, many around the table looked as pale as wilted vegetables.
It was as if they had just eaten grain stored away for years.
The exceptions were Wen Shichun and Yue Cheng.
After wiping the corners of his mouth, Yue Cheng looked up at Wen Shichun, his eyes bright and smiling.
"Brother, how was it?"
Wen Shichun glanced up at him.
Finally able to speak, Chang Zhao slumped back in his chair and let out a heavy sigh.
He looked at Xun Yi, his voice tinged with anxiety, and asked, "We have to stay quiet from 7 PM until 5 AM the next day. That restricts nearly half of our active time."
Chang Zhao paused here, his gaze flickering toward the plate in front of him.
The churning discomfort in his stomach almost made him want to vomit.
"And who knows if there are other rules."
Also, he really hoped they wouldn't have to eat all three meals here every day.
He'd rather spend points to get food from the game system than eat this awful stuff.
"We'll have to see how it defines 'quiet'," Xun Yi said, taking out the phone and diary he had kept earlier. The information the E-grade mentioned earlier came from this phone.
The diary had some damage in the middle from where the slicer knife had pierced it, but it didn't affect the overall readability.
Shen Jing still felt a chill seeing it again.
She had been too careless.
The murderer didn't necessarily need to pull players into a separate space to kill.
He could appear beside a player at any time.
Hidden by that invisible protection.
To torture and kill players.
"Give it to me," Wen Shichun said.
He took the diary handed over by Xun Yi.
His pale, distinct-knuckled fingers slowly opened the old diary.
...
"My dad is insisting I go to the place he works at after the holiday. That family's estate is so remote, there probably isn't a single person for miles around. I don't want to go."
...
"This place is like a haunted house, I really don't know why my dad works here. So few living people in such a big estate, just some helpers and gardeners. Luckily the owners aren't here. The helper aunt's cooking is really good."
...
"The owner of the estate came back today. I didn't expect him to be so young."
...
"After everyone else fell asleep. He took me to the pond behind the woods to play. Tonight was so thrilling."
...
"Summer break is about to end. He said he wants me to stay and keep him company forever. It's not that I'm unwilling. But I have to go back to school to finish my studies first. And then he got angry.
"Besides, doesn't he have to go back to work? My dad mentioned before that the master's studio is in the city. After we got together, I asked him about his work too. He doesn't like talking about it. All I know is he's involved in something related to biochemistry. Sounds so boring.
"I hope he cools off by tomorrow morning. The way he looks when he's angry is a bit scary."
...
"Lately, he's been getting more and more harsh. He has to control every little thing I do. It's so annoying. I want to go back to school."
...
"Last night I woke up and he was just squatting by my bed, staring at me!!! He almost scared me to death!!!!
"I was terrified, and he just kept staring at me without moving, didn't even try to comfort me. He was like that during the day too, just goes silent when he's angry.
"I've decided. Tomorrow I'm telling my dad I'm going back to school."
...
"Now I understand. When he said he wanted me to stay, he truly meant he wouldn't let me leave."
...
The diary ends abruptly here.
Wen Shichun's brow furrowed slightly, his gaze falling on the victim's name.
'Lin You'
The personality of this diary's owner was completely different from the victim portrayed in the chat logs.
"You think the killer is the master of the house."
Wen Shichun looked at Shen Jing, who nodded in response.
The diary was taken by Chang Zhao.
Xun Yi had just finished reading the logs on Lin Zhe's phone. When Wen Shichun's gaze shifted to him, for some reason, his body stiffened, and he instinctively handed over the phone and charger he was holding.
Wen Shichun took the items and thanked him.
"Lin You died twenty years ago..."
Shen Jing spoke again.
"You mentioned earlier that the owner of the estate also died in the explosion."
"He worked in biology."
"Could it be…"
"You think the lab explosion turned him into an invisible man?" Wen Shichun replied.
Shen Jing nodded again.
She glanced at the progress of the main quest.
It was very close to completion.
This meant their speculation wasn't wrong, but the case hadn't been fully restored to 100%. What had they missed?
As Shen Jing fell into thought, Yue Cheng looked at Wen Shichun and spoke again. "Brother, the target is still you. It's very dangerous."
"But that also means those two ghosts won't do anything to him for now." He Yi also looked toward the white-haired beauty sitting diagonally across from him, his expression unreadable. "I suspect you have no restrictions on your movements."
"And you don't need to follow the ghosts' rules either."
"Because you've caught the eye of their master."
The implication in He Yi's words was strong.
The players around the table all understood—this guy wanted the E-rank to take the risk.
He Yi shrugged.
Ignoring the disapproving looks.
His teammates had become utterly irrational when it came to this E-rank player.
Wen Shichun glanced at him, but Yue Cheng, sitting across from him, was the first to pull out a silver card, carefully offering it to Wen Shichun.
"Brother, this is my flour."
Yue Cheng said.
"Take it for self-defense."
Wen Shichun shifted his gaze and looked at the card for a couple of seconds. Prompted by the system, he reached out and took it. At the same time, a notification sounded in his ear: [Player Yue Cheng has gifted you ten bags of flour.]
He took another look; the 3D image of flour engraved on the silver card in his hand looked vivid and lifelike.
"Thank you."
After putting the card away, Wen Shichun looked up to meet the concerned gaze of Shen Jing beside him.
He turned slightly toward her.
Speaking calmly, he said:
"The killer is someone with a strong need for control."
"This type of person is highly methodical."
"They rarely allow for accidents to happen."
"After the owner of this mansion died, the place has still been meticulously maintained."
"That means he had already made all the arrangements before his death."
Therefore.
"His studio probably didn't explode by accident."
Wen Shichun looked at the group of high-level players.
"He only created the illusion of an explosion after he had successfully tested the experiment on himself."
As his words faded, the system prompt sounded in the players' ears: [Case Resolution: 100%].
T/N: Sorry for the late update. I've been very busy last month and didn't really have the time to translate anything. (,,>﹏<,,)
