There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

[The Qiming Star sheds light on the darkness, Qiming Orphanage is not just a shelter from the storm, but a lighthouse illuminating their path ahead.]

[I believe these children can all walk out of those painful memories and embrace their new lives and brightness.]

[August 15, 2010, to my dear little angels.]

The female reporter stared at the words, somewhat dazed.

This kind of writing and anticipation must have been left behind by Director Zheng before his death.

The paper was loose-leaf, probably taken from somewhere else and inserted here, similar to the pages in the folder that recorded the children's admission information.

Suddenly, the reporter noticed some faint red marks underneath the handwriting and curiously turned over the page.

Her spirit was jolted by what she found!

[Chaotic red writing] "Haha, these little brats, what bright future do they have? All of you, just die!"

The female reporter: "..."

Well, perhaps she had already guessed who had taken this piece of paper out, probably that lunatic who, after reading it, just found a random folder to shove it into.

Looking somewhat speechless at the blind girl beside her, the reporter then clipped the page back into the book and continued reviewing the materials.

Then, it was just after the New Year of 2012.

The incorporated Qiming Orphanage caught fire.

The fire broke out in the middle of the night, while all the children and caretakers were asleep. By the time they detected the fire, it was already too late for anyone to get out.

Not a single survivor remained of Qiming Orphanage!

The records about the orphanage ended there, and the loose-leaf papers after that in the folder were written on different paper, all in hand-written script.

The writing was in black ink.

[February 4, 2012.]

[At 3:30 in the morning, the fire started on the third floor, with multiple points of ignition.]

[I wasn't able to appear outside the rooms. When I tried to run out of the office, I found the door had been locked from outside.]

[Cries for help came from the next room, and from the noise, I deduced that the neighboring room must be another point of ignition.]

[The situation is bad. I am unable to break through the building's structures. Perhaps even before the fire, Qiming Orphanage was already under the gaze of those things, my powers were restricted.]

[I can only continue to measure things in other ways.]

[The archive room was also an ignition point, as were room 309 for caregivers and the director's office. There were three ignition points down the left corridor—and there's more on the right.]

[The nursery was also an ignition point. There must be more ahead because I heard more than one explosion, but I couldn't go any further.]

[The perpetrator had prepared explosives in the freely accessible public areas in advance. The caretaker of room 309 might have been an accomplice, and the mastermind must be among a few children who lived on the other side. The right corridor was destroyed more severely.]

[Qiming Orphanage had indeed been watched by the Abyss long ago. Those creatures and flames poured out together.]

[That child named Yueshu was not quite right.]

...

There was no more record after that.

The paper was well-preserved.

But the writing on it seemed to be by someone who had witnessed the disaster. Could it be that a later visitor transcribed the records of the original observer?

This folder had reached its end.

Yet she had not received a system prompt that the mission was complete—apparently, it was necessary to identify the instigator of the arson.

Strange, the recorder clearly said that child named Yueshu was odd.

But wasn't the instigator Yueshu?

The female reporter frowned slightly, turning to the blind girl beside her, saying, "I haven't found the information I'm looking for in here yet, but what's the deal with this Yueshu?"

Hearing this, Xu Shuo, who was scrutinizing elsewhere, came back to his senses and frankly said, "Yueshu is SOA-09."

The female reporter was stunned, "Do you mean, the orphanage became like this because of him?"

Xu Shuo nodded his head.

This directly confused the reporter. She unfolded the hand-written page and brought it close to the eyes of the blinded girl, asking, "Is everything recorded here true?"

Xu Shuo glanced at it, "Yes."

"How was it recorded?"

"There's more than one Investigator in SOA, there's always someone with exceptional gifts who dreams their way back to the crime scene."

"If that's the case, he last mentioned there was something wrong with Yueshu."

"What he said was Yueshu was off."

"Alright, so he's off, and then the orphanage ended up like this because of this Yueshu, but in the end, he isn't the instigator of that disaster?"

Upon hearing this, Xu Shuo turned his head, his dark, empty pupils staring intently at her.

It wasn't until the reporter felt utterly uneasy that Xu Shuo finally said faintly, "I had you put on the orphanage staff's uniform, but who is the instigator that made you need to wear clothes? Answer me."

The female reporter: "...that cat?"

Xu Shuo: "No, it's your brain."

Female Reporter: "..."

After swallowing the pent-up frustration, the female reporter pursed her lips, turned her back on Xu Shuo, and continued to ponder while flipping through the documents.

The cause of the orphanage disaster was a fire.

And after inspecting the situation in the left corridor, the Investigator encountered resistance when moving on to the right corridor and only managed to inspect the nursery near the staircase.

Then, Yueshu could be first ruled out as the arsonist.

Wait, arson?

Could this be the reason why no open flames or anything over four hundred degrees Celsius were allowed on the third floor of the orphanage?

It seemed like she had obtained some information that was both useful and useless.

Considering this, the female reporter paused to think.

Hey, wait a minute!

Since their entry into the orphanage, the system had issued two side tasks that required them to actively break rules. Could this mean—they wanted her to start a fire on the third floor and then lure out the original arsonist?!

At this thought, the female reporter's gaze turned blank as she stared into the void, lost in confusion.

She had previously detonated a marble on the third floor.

At that time, after breaking the rule, the voice that emerged seemed to be that of a girl.

With her expression difficult to read, the female reporter retrieved the same document folder from the bookshelf and began flipping through it, but there were too many girls listed as culprits, making it challenging to filter through.

Could it really be that she would have only to break a rule?

She was still wearing her staff uniform, which meant she would end up trapped between two rules!

To do it, or not to do it?

The female reporter couldn't help but hesitate when suddenly, she glanced at the blind girl leaning against the wall, not knowing if she was daydreaming or meditating.

"Ahem, that..."

Xu Shuo looked toward her as he heard the noise.

"Do you know the specific cause of the orphanage disaster?" the female reporter asked expectantly first.

"I don't know."

"You've been here for so long and you don't know?"

"You have a problem with that?" Xu Shuo narrowed his eyes.

"No, it's just, the task the newspaper gave me is this, and my sole purpose in coming to the orphanage is this, if you could..." the female reporter implied.

"And then?"

Xu Shuo did not pick up on the implication.

With no other option, the female reporter gritted her teeth and said, "If you don't tell me, then I can only break the rules on the third floor and bring that thing out all by myself! And if I accidentally die while testing it, there won't be anyone to cover up your identity!"

"Oh?" Xu Shuo raised an eyebrow, "So, you're threatening me, huh?"
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"Not a threat, it's a trade. I help you hide your identity and divert that someone's attention, and you help me complete my task. I think it's fair!" the female reporter claimed righteously.

"So the solution you found is to break the fifteenth rule of the orphanage?" Xu Shuo asked noncommittally.

After confirming in the "Qiming Charity Hall Visit Manual" that the rule preventing the use of fire was indeed the fifteenth one, the female reporter solemnly nodded at him.

Xu Shuo's lips curled into a smile: "Alright, the deal is indeed fair. Go ahead."

However, his straightforward agreement made the female reporter suspicious: "Will you really help me?"

"Yes, go ahead."

"So I'm really going to trigger it, okay?"

"Hmm, go ahead."

"Really, you're not tricking me?"

"One more word, and I'll burn you."

Xu Shuo lifted a gentle smile.

The female reporter turned and left the vicinity of the bookshelf.

Watching her cautiously open the door to the archive room, Xu Shuo snorted mockingly and impatiently took out his cane.

Xu Shuo truly didn't know who the disaster's initiator was.

After all, he had not even activated his Character Card at this point and all the information he had was from the Investigator's notebook.

Perhaps knowing his sanity was slipping away, the Investigator had taken the trouble to write a diary recording his own actions.

The black writing was from when his thoughts were coherent, while the red writing was from when his thoughts were chaotic. Even when he was not in his right mind, the Investigator still had the presence of mind to separate the writings with two different colors of ink.

Such a Character Card, he suddenly found himself wanting.

...