Chapter 19

**Chapter 18: Changming Town 18**

Wang Zhien shot to his feet in an instant, glaring fiercely at Shi Zong.

“Fuck! What the hell are you talking about?! Do you even know what happens to good people who get wrongly accused…!”

After shouting this in extreme anger, he suddenly seemed to remember something and swallowed the latter half of the sentence, his expression briefly turning ferocious and awkward.

After a long moment, Wang Zhi’en barely composed himself and argued, “I’m not the killer, really! There’s no evidence at all. Just because I can use a bow and arrow, you pin it on me? Isn’t that ridiculous?

“Even if this is a newbie scenario, it shouldn’t be that simple, right? You all know I can use a bow, so why would I use it to kill someone?”

Then Li Ershao said, “This story really isn’t simple. How well we reconstruct the plot affects our final points, but the murder case itself isn’t necessarily very complicated. In fact, just now, Jiang Wan’er’s analysis of the victim’s behavior logic makes sense to me.”

Li Ershao’s words stunned Zuo Sanqiu.

This guy has been targeting Shi Zong the whole time, so why is he speaking up for him now?

Sensing Zuo Sanqiu’s gaze, Li Ershao, exuding a business-elite aura, gave him a faint smile and explained, “I’m not the type to wait until I fully understand all the causes and effects before making a judgment. That’s safer, but extremely inefficient. It’s like investing—if you hesitate too much, you miss the best opportunity.

“I think this strategy works in the game too. Everyone hides their motives so deeply, so why even talk about it? I’ll use another method to test out the real killer.

“Actually, I’ve long been convinced by Jiang Wan’er and believe she’s not the killer. But among the others, I couldn’t immediately find the real killer, so I used a little trick.

“I kept pressing Jiang Wan’er just to see if anyone would mindlessly follow along.”

Of course, the real killer wants to avoid being found, so naturally, they hope to shift suspicion onto others.

If someone helps them do that, they’re happy to follow the crowd and step on that person.

Whoa. You can do that too?

Everyone’s playing so many layers.

Zuo Sanqiu blinked several times, finally catching on—

Just now, the only ones who voted to accuse Jiang Wan’er were Li Simei and Wang Zhi’en.

Li Simei didn’t have the time to commit the crime, so the real killer must be Wang Zhi’en.

Wait, why did Li Simei also vote?

Zuo Sanqiu immediately looked toward Li Simei.

Nearby, Shi Zong observed the expression of the naive child Zuo Sanqiu, then followed his gaze to Li Simei.

She was sitting cross-legged on the ground, hands on her knees, her posture commanding, as if she was used to looking down on people.

It was clear she was trying her best to hide this aura.

But some things are probably innate. She could hardly conceal her sharpness and pride.

Actually, Li Ershao’s little trick had a flaw—

Shi Zong’s argument that Jiang Wan’er wasn’t the killer was too convincing.

This made Li Ershao seem a bit contrived. Wang Zhi’en might not fall for it.

At this moment, Li Simei made a key move.

She quickly agreed with Li Ershao and analyzed, from the game design perspective, the possibility that Jiang Wan’er was the real killer.

Thus, two people in a row claimed Jiang Wan’er was the killer.

For Wang Zhi’en, adding one more vote didn’t matter.

So he boldly spoke up, following the trend and voting for Jiang Wan’er, exposing his plan to frame Shi Zong, and ultimately was thoroughly suspected by Li Ershao as the real killer.

Leading the small trick and openly admitting everything at this moment was Li Ershao.

Li Simei, however, remained calm, hiding behind Li Ershao, making it difficult to see her true intentions.

Recalling their first meeting, when he offered help and she ruthlessly refused, indifferent to life or death, Shi Zong squinted, then smiled, finding Li Simei an interesting person.

In Shi Zong’s view, a saintly person with no selfish motives who helps others regardless of consequences is admirable.

But someone who refuses to help a “dying person” without hesitation, without even a moment of thought, knowing they will never regret it… achieving that is quite difficult.

It requires an extremely cold heart.

Are there others in the world as empathy-deficient as him, cold-blooded monsters?

Li Simei sensed something and looked over.

Shi Zong promptly averted his gaze and turned toward Wang Zhi’en, who had been set up.

In truth, Li Ershao’s little trick should have been effective.

He only made the wrong judgment because he lacked part of the information.

Wang Zhi’en certainly wasn’t the real killer.

Shi Zong guessed that Wang Zhi’en followed the trend to step on him because he was a “police” Chen Li’s accomplice.

Chen Li had drawn Shi Zong into the game, intending for him to die in this scenario.

Shi Zong turned the tables. His accomplice Wang Zhi’en couldn’t make him die, so framing him as the accused killer was also a good idea.

The sentence Wang Zhi’en didn’t finish earlier was probably—

“Players falsely accused as killers will have points deducted.”

All these players were newbies, starting with no points.

What happens if the system deducts points into the negative?

There might even be a risk of death.

Someone might inexplicably try to kill him.

Shi Zong could only silently counterattack, placing the “killer” label on Wang Zhi’en.

In a very short time, Shi Zong made a lot of calculated moves.

Yet on the surface, he looked gentle and harmless as he looked at Zuo Sanqiu. “Five minutes left, it’s almost 2 PM. The experts the three major families invited should be arriving. Look at yourself…”

“Oh, right. I’ll immediately initiate the vote.”

Zuo Sanqiu quickly patted his seat, ran to the red button, and pressed it.

Then Li Ershao also stood up.

“Some things aren’t suitable to discuss here. We don’t have time. Let’s do this: once back in reality, go to Meizhu Residence, tell the front desk ‘Changming Town,’ that’s enough.

“This game is too strange, probably controlled by some unknown, incredible force. We can’t fight it individually. We need to cooperate. Hope to see everyone at Meizhu Residence.”

With that, Li Ershao quickly pressed the red button.

Then he walked to Shi Zong and added, emphasizing, “Don’t disrespect me—make sure to come find me.”

Only one minute remained, and the time was approaching 2 PM.

In the distance, faint footsteps and strange bell sounds could be heard.

Shi Zong looked up and saw at the end of the long commercial street, a crowd slowly approaching.

These were the exorcist experts, accompanied by townspeople who wanted to witness Jiang Wan’er’s soul vanish.

Shi Zong had about a minute left.

Now, they needed one more person to press the button to start the vote.

Wang Zhi’en couldn’t be relied on, so the focus shifted to Li Dashao and Li Simei.

Shi Zong didn’t look at Li Dashao, instead observing Li Simei, seemingly to watch her actions clearly.

The childlike shell gave her the greatest advantage.

No one suspected her from start to finish.

Who was the person hiding behind that shell?

“Clang!”

“Clang clang!”

The eerie yet clear sound of bells grew louder.

Hearing the bells, Shi Zong felt needle-like pain at his temples!

Pain shot through his chest, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

“You okay?!”

Zuo Sanqiu ran over in shock and helped Shi Zong up.

Shi Zong shook his head casually, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and then looked with interest at Li Simei.

Amidst the crisp chimes, under the increasingly hot sunlight, the two stared at each other from a moderate distance.

Li Simei furrowed her brow slightly, then stood expressionlessly.

But another person acted first.

Li Dashao quickly ran to the statue and pressed the red button.

Suddenly, the bell sounds disappeared, the footsteps vanished, the sunlight’s temperature stabilized, the air stopped moving, and not a breeze could be felt…

On the long street, at the front of the crowd, stood a Taoist. One of his feet was lifted, yet it never came down.

Behind him, someone was crying and calling out, “My Yinyin, you—”

The single tear hung suspended in midair, and the latter half of her words never emerged.

The world seemed paused.

The only ones able to move were the six players.

Soon, a system prompt appeared in their minds—

【1. Voting has been activated. In 30 seconds, the voting interface at the red button will open. Players, please proceed in order.】

【2. The system will assign numbers to players randomly. Line up in order

During the voting, Zuo Sanqiu was number 2, and Shi Zong, behind him, was number 3.

With a silver “2” above his head, Zuo Sanqiu went to vote before Shi Zong.

After casting his vote and turning around, he frowned tightly, as if confronted with an unsolvable question.

A moment later, Shi Zong approached the red button, understanding the reason for his confusion.

Above the button floated a small screen displaying two questions—

“1. Please select who you believe is the real killer of Elder Gong.”

“2. Please select the player you finally decide to vote for.”

The two questions seemed redundant, but there was clearly a subtle difference.

It was this difference that ensured every step he took was correct.

Shi Zong’s lips curved slightly as he quickly selected two different answers.

Five minutes later.

A system notification sounded in everyone’s mind.

【Voting closed. Players may now engage in free discussion.】

【The system is preparing the ending animation. Please wait for loading…】

Once the notification disappeared, Li Ershao exhaled in relief. “Next is waiting for the animation and the game reward settlement, right? Finally over, nothing more for us. By the way, everyone voted for Wang Zhi’en?”

Seeing that all players except Wang Zhi’en nodded, Li Ershao smiled satisfactorily. “Very good. By the way, make sure to go to Meizhu Residence! I’ll be waiting there for you all for three days!”

After this, nearly all the players looked relaxed.

Zuo Sanqiu just exhaled a long-held breath, but then thought of something, his face turned pale, eyes wide.

“Wait…no, we’ve fallen into a trap!

“If—if the victim died from poison…poison isn’t the same as stabbing or arrow attacks. With a knife, excluding special devices, the killer has to act on the spot, but poisoning doesn’t work that way! Elder Gong often coughed, and since Ah Hua always carried a water bottle, we all knew about this. So…

“So the killer could have poisoned the water bottle long ago; Elder Gong only drank it after 3:20!

“Let me think…when Ah Hua was asleep backstage at the hall…and that big fire…”

In the paused world, the clouds above didn’t move at all, and the sunlight reflected off the statue of the saint remained unchanged.

The world was so quiet that the voices of just a few players echoed loudly across the square, almost seeming noisy.

Shi Zong quietly stepped back, then slowly approached Li Simei.

Eyes fixed on Zuo Sanqiu, who was analyzing the case, Shi Zong leaned down and whispered in Li Simei’s ear—

“Ye Yunfeng, long time no see. I hope you’ve been well.

“Ten years ago, when Li Simei was born, she stopped breathing. That was when you took over her body?”