The waiting room fell silent for a second.
A living person appearing out of thin air was quite startling, especially combined with Zhou Qi’an’s current state: a pale face with a smile, like most NPCs, with an unreal smile that showed no emotion.
After the initial complex emotions passed, players even began to wonder if he was human or ghost.
Only the college student was the most delighted.
…Great, no need for a human sacrifice.
Zhou Qi’an walked towards them, and most players instinctively moved aside. This scene truly made him seem like a big star, no one daring to challenge his presence.
It wasn’t until he reached his own people that Zhou Qi’an stopped.
He suddenly raised an eyebrow: “What happened to your hand?”
Shen Zhiyi’s index finger had a deep, bone-visible scar, and the blood hadn’t seemed to stop.
“Just accidentally scraped it,” Shen Zhiyi said little, uncharacteristically urging him to pay attention to Miss Qi. The seventh act was about to begin.
Zhou Qi’an nodded and said to Miss Qi, “You continue.”
That tone, that attitude, one wouldn’t know it was an important leader directing a subordinate.
“…”
Miss Qi was very displeased but smiled and continued: “The final act is the masterpiece of Mr. King of Drama, and also the final chapter of ‘Bell Toll’.”
“After personally participating, you will understand how excellent and great Mr. King of Drama is!”
She spoke very quickly, as if eager to lead them to the recording.
The college student consciously moved to Zhou Qi’an’s side to treat his shoulder wound.
Zhou Qi’an: “Just let the wound heal generally.”
As he spoke, he saw his mother holding a black leather notebook.
“What’s that?”
The college student briefly explained the previous act: “Driver’s license.”
Zhou Qi’an’s eyelids twitched at the news. “Damn, with a car and a driver’s license, who can tell my mom and Mr. Si apart now?”
Miss Qi didn’t speak for too long and led everyone towards the gate.
Today, the gate was surprisingly open, no need to pay for a ticket separately.
Miss Qi specifically emphasized: “Mr. King of Drama has already paid for everyone’s tickets in advance, consider it a small extra benefit.”
Her expression when she said “benefit” sent shivers down the players’ spines.
In games, what’s free is usually the most expensive.
As soon as they stepped out, everyone paused. Outside, another coach had appeared at some point.
Players noticed it immediately, thanks to how striking the vehicle was.
The front of the bus was adorned with a large number of fresh flowers, arranged in colorful circles.
Someone whispered: “I’ve only seen cars like this near funeral homes in my hometown.”
Miss Qi dutifully acted as their guide, leading the players to board the bus.
The car windows weren’t fully closed, and rain sprayed in, filling every corner with mist. The mist was even thicker than in the coach that had taken Zhou Qi’an away earlier; once inside, they couldn’t even see if there were people in the seats.
The team preferred to sit together, and Zhou Qi’an was no exception.
He walked to the middle, fumbled around, and his fingers touched a passenger’s cold shoulder.
Zhou Qi’an’s expression slightly changed, and he immediately withdrew his hand.
After several attempts, he found that all the double seats had at least one person, and single seats were also interspersed with passengers.
Clearly, all the arrangements were designed to separate the players.
Having confirmed this, Zhou Qi’an stopped being picky and found a vacant seat nearby.
He took out his phone and added Shen Zhiyi and the others to a separate group chat.
[Zhou Qi’an]: Where are you?
[Shen Zhiyi]: Sixth row on the right.
[Mother Zhou]: Didn’t count.
“…” Good, that’s his mother’s style.
The college student was the last to reply: [I’m still walking back. Brother Zhou, this bus seems to…]
He seemed to have encountered something unbelievable, and after a while, he sent: [It seems to have no end.]
Zhou Qi’an was stunned for a moment and quickly typed: [Don’t walk anymore, find a place to sit down as soon as possible. It might be a ghost wall or something similar.]
Both the front and back doors were closed, and the driver started the bus normally. No one knew where this bus’s destination was.
The moment the bus drove onto the road, all cell phone signals disappeared, and the system prompt appeared:
“Congratulations on successfully triggering ‘Bell Toll’ Act VII: [Coach Murder Case II].”
[Story Background: On a coach driving down the highway, a sudden scream broke the silence in the carriage. Someone died! In an instant, screams, fear, tears… filled the entire coach.]
Zhou Qi’an’s expression was subtle; wasn’t this the first act?
Even the story background was identical.
[Your Story: You are just an ordinary law-abiding citizen who recently returned from an ancient city with your girlfriend, never expecting to be caught up in a mysterious coach murder case.]
“The identity card has changed.” Last time he played a detective, now he was just an ordinary person.
Zhou Qi’an suddenly felt something and touched his neck… it seemed to be a camera.
He immediately realized that he was playing one of the young couple from the first murder case.
An ethereal voice came from his ear: “Brother Zhou~”
Damn!
If it weren’t for that familiar address, Zhou Qi’an would have almost lost control and used a white silk ribbon to hang himself.
With the mist engulfing some sounds, the college student’s voice sounded faint.
The seat beneath him had become a double seat, and the college student had unknowingly sat down beside him.
This eerie scene was not unique to him; many players were startled when they found their positions changed, but they quickly composed themselves.
The carriage was very quiet now, and the college student didn’t ask any questions, understanding that this non-natural force wasn’t arranged by Brother Zhou, so asking was useless. It was better to be quiet and let the other party think.
This role-play did not prevent players from communicating their identities. To further confirm, Zhou Qi’an gently said, “My dear.”
The college student immediately understood and replied in a high-pitched voice, “I’m here.”
“…” It could be confirmed that the other party was playing his girlfriend.
After figuring this out, Zhou Qi’an felt increasingly uneasy.
The King of Drama wouldn’t be so kind as to specifically arrange familiar teammates together. There were two possibilities: either the college student was a fake, or… this arrangement would create very unfavorable factors for him.
He narrowed his eyes and said nothing more, always feeling that something was not quite right.
“Something seems to be missing…”
The coach was still speeding down the highway. After about five or six minutes, the vast whiteness was replaced by darkness.
A familiar, uncontrollable drowsiness came over him, and Zhou Qi’an’s eyelids almost drooped several times.
The coach was passing through a deep, long tunnel, and the intertwining mist and darkness made them even more drowsy.
“Ah—”
A terrified scream rang out.
The sound was a bit distorted, but Zhou Qi’an barely recognized it as Xia Zhi’s voice.
He immediately understood what was wrong; there was no victim. The first act only began after a victim appeared.
The college student’s throat tightened: “Something happened to someone.”
His evolved eyes couldn’t see anything, and the holy artifact was too bright. Zhou Qi’an thought for a moment and quickly made a decision. He quietly opened his camera, adjusted it to night mode, and carefully leaned out halfway.
His breathing was slightly rapid.
It worked.
The camera seemed to have a special function. Through the screen, he could see a blurry outline in the fog.
That person was standing around the third row, holding a very large machete high in their hand.
Zhou Qi’an couldn’t see the face, but he could clearly see the large machete, its gleaming blade looking like it could cut through iron like mud, enough to split a person in half.
Click.
Just as he wanted to get a closer look, the camera actually started taking photos automatically, and the flash exposure was quite conspicuous in the darkness.
Zhou Qi’an’s hand trembled, and his lips also trembled, mainly to curse.
He quickly bent down, using the back of the front seat to conceal himself.
Click, click, click.
The camera kept taking automatic photos and couldn’t be turned off. After about five or six shots, it finally stopped.
“Come to the back with me,” Zhou Qi’an whispered to the college student.
Cold sweat appeared on his forehead as he crab-walked backward, checking the photos.
Since they were taken, he might as well look.
The photos were similar to what he saw through the screen: a blurry figure holding a machete.
The second, third… Zhou Qi’an suddenly went back, then quickly looked again, unable to help but swallow.
He wasn’t mistaken; in the photos, the killer’s body angle had changed.
At first, it was facing the window, then slowly turned, finally facing them.
Although there was a layer of mist, Zhou Qi’an could clearly feel that he was looking at him!
The back seat was empty.
Just as they found a new spot, the college student’s voice trembled: “Brother Zhou, we seem to still be in the same place as before.”
“…Are you sure?”
“Probably. The seatbelt buckle in my original seat was broken, and the seatback was tilted forward.”
Zhou Qi’an’s face was grim; the ghost wall was everywhere.
Fortunately, he roughly understood one thing: if he took photos of the killer, he would be on the hit list.
As a deeply intimate girlfriend, the college student wouldn’t be able to escape either.
Feeling an intense life-or-death crisis, the college student, uncharacteristically, gritted his teeth and said fiercely, “Don’t worry, it’s two against one.”
Zhou Qi’an suddenly asked an unrelated question: “What did your profile say?”
The college student recited: “You are just an ordinary law-abiding citizen, not long ago…”
Zhou Qi’an interrupted: “It’s as I thought… only the killer can kill us, we can’t counter-kill.”
“Law-abiding” was definitely a death rule.
The college student, who was fierce for once in a millennium: “…”
Zhou Qi’an changed the subject: “Xia Zhi might not be dead.”
“Huh?”
“If someone died, the detective should appear to investigate.”
It couldn’t be entirely the killer’s home ground.
Just as the college student finally caught up with Zhou Qi’an’s thinking, he heard him quickly say: “No wonder they put us together; they want to trick us into stepping into the trap of counter-killing the killer.”
Two against one, anyone would want to try their luck.
It was both a conspiracy and an open plot.
Even if he realized it, the college student’s combat strength was almost negligible, and he himself was in danger and had to protect someone; even a god couldn’t do it.
The drowsiness grew more and more overwhelming. This tunnel seemed endless. Zhou Qi’an shook his head violently, trying to stay awake.
Perhaps due to the ghost wall, they couldn’t see or hear what was happening in other seats.
Opposite to the drowsiness was their rapid breathing.
How could they survive? And how could they survive while protecting both of them as much as possible?
As if misfortunes never come singly, the college student suddenly said, “Brother Zhou, my skill has failed.”
The college student had originally wanted to help Zhou Qi’an completely heal his wound to increase his survival chances, but it had failed.
He became even more nervous: “Something seems to be moving inside me.”
According to the college student, Zhou Qi’an grabbed his arm, and something did seem to be moving in his veins, like worms.
He was silent for a moment: “I understand.”
In fact, Zhou Qi’an also felt an abnormality in his body, as if an external force was infiltrating him.
After a while, he took a gentle breath, and a hint of madness gradually appeared in his eyes: “Don’t worry about it.”
Players wanting to survive never truly relied on skills.
“I’ve thought of a good way to fight the killer.”
…
The thick fog perfectly concealed the crime.
Slight rustling sounds were muffled by the sound of the bus passing through the tunnel.
Zhou Qi’an almost crouched between the two narrow seats, not letting his head be exposed. He lowered his head, estimating the distance between himself and the killer, and when he felt it was about right, he unexpectedly reached out his hand.
Immediately after, he started pressing the shutter button wildly towards the aisle.
There were no passengers in front, behind, or to the sides who reacted to the exposure.
Once he became the target, the ghost wall surrounding them became even tighter.
The entire world seemed to be left with only him.
Tap.
In the pauses between shutter clicks, Zhou Qi’an heard faint footsteps, indicating that the killer had fully entered the space where he was.
He retreated half a step, still pressing the shutter button continuously.
The strong light did have some effect, making the killer squint slightly.
The darkness and mist cast a sinister gleam on the newcomer’s face, and Zhou Qi’an’s almost desperate act of self-preservation seemed to amuse the killer.
This represented a dead end.
The coach briefly left the tunnel, and in the mist, the newcomer’s movements seemed to slow down slightly.
At least he didn’t raise his knife immediately.
But in the next instant, the bus unexpectedly entered the tunnel again, and this time, the drowsiness was even deeper.
The killer seized the opportunity.
Whoosh!
The large knife swung down, the wind from the blade creating a rustling sound.
Zhou Qi’an awkwardly dodged in the opposite direction.
The blade grazed the ends of his hair, and the upper part of the seat was cut off.
The newcomer swung the knife again, the target clear: next time, it would be the youth’s head.
At the crucial moment, Zhou Qi’an suddenly spoke: “Autumn Equinox!”
That was the flat-top’s name.
The killer’s hand, holding the knife, paused.
Zhou Qi’an was just guessing, but from the killer’s instinctive reaction, he guessed right.
Xia Zhi inexplicably screamed, pretending to be a victim. Either the killer was her, or it was someone Xia Zhi knew well.
Only teammates could make the other party cooperate with the performance.
Zhou Qi’an immediately thought of the flat-top, who was protected in layers. Halfway through the instance, he had suspected that the other party’s skill was not simple.
The distance was already very close. Through the fog, the camera couldn’t capture the true face of the other party. He could only barely see through the screen that the flat-top seemed to be wearing a terrifying ghostly mask.
Even if he guessed the killer, there was no way to point it out.
The newcomer seemed to have realized this and once again began to wield the butcher’s knife.
“Killers and victims are naturally opposed identities. Aren’t you afraid that Xia Zhi and Dong Li will team up and eventually kill you?”
After his identity was revealed, the flat-top’s attacks became even more ruthless.
“Don’t you worry about it.”
He only needed to complete one round of playing the killer without being discovered.
With a several-meter-long machete, Zhou Qi’an was almost unavoidable.
Everyone had their own script, and the killer’s script was very simple.
[Your Story: You are the only lawless villain present.]
The large knife and mask in his hand were equipment automatically provided by the game when the [Killer] card was assigned.
As a killer, he had the right to be [immune to ghost walls] and [retain 50% visibility in the fog] in this round.
In other words, other players had limited activity areas and had to be law-abiding.
A cramped environment, an unavoidable machete, and crucially, players couldn’t counter-kill.
“A perfect hand, how can I lose?”
The flat-top activated his skill: [Parasite].
Dong Li was willing to protect him because of this heaven-defying skill.
It used parasites to temporarily seal the abilities of surrounding players, even making those people briefly revert to their pre-evolution physical state.
The skill lasted for five minutes and came with a high cost. Not only would the game experience for this round be zero, meaning he would have wasted the instance, but he would also become very weak after the skill duration ended.
The flat-top felt a little pained missing out on the massive experience points and felt a vague sense of unease.
His skill was too suitable for being a killer, as if the game had been waiting for this scene to send most players to hell.
“Die.”
The flat-top composed himself, gripped the knife with both hands, and swung it down at an unprecedented speed.
Right in front, Zhou Qi’an still stood in place, as if scared silly, and started repeatedly pressing the shutter button again.
A few seconds later, blood began to gush like a fountain, splashing heavily onto the seats and windows.
Time seemed to stand still at this moment.
After a while, the flat-top moved first.
He incredibly turned his head slightly; a dagger was plunged deep into his carotid artery.
“You…” The flat-top struggled to open his mouth.
How dare you violate the rules and kill someone?
It wasn’t Zhou Qi’an who killed him; those long, beautiful hands were still holding the camera.
Instead, it was the college student, who had been bending over and pressed against the edge of the aisle seat, whose legs had gone soft, covered in blood.
Just moments ago, he had killed someone, and this realization left the college student’s mind blank.
Only then did the flat-top realize that the position that originally belonged to the college student was empty, only a blurry outline of stacked clothing.
He had been distracted by the high-frequency flashing of the flash and hadn’t noticed the anomaly.
After committing the murder, the college student’s aura also rapidly weakened, unable to utter a single word, his body falling weakly to the ground.
But unlike the flat-top’s almost dispersed pupils, the college student still maintained his last faint breath, with a false sense of vitality.
The flat-top wanted to say something, but blood constantly gushed from his mouth.
His face grew more and more confused. He had clearly been careful enough.
Zhou Qi’an’s most powerful assets were his holy artifact and his brain, but his low level of physical evolution meant he hadn’t entered the instance many times and wouldn’t have many items; the fact that he had asked Xia Zhi for items indirectly proved that this team had strong skills but poor equipment.
If it were Bertram and Wen, they would certainly have countless items.
As for the college student, the flat-top looked down on him even more.
A healing type with no initiative, he could be easily manipulated once his backbone was gone.
So he understood even less why the college student would do this, knowing he would die.
Zhou Qi’an’s tone was icy: “He won’t die even when you have your seventh-day memorial.”
[Cloud Crystal].
The item he obtained in the school’s comprehensive building, which preserved living things. When the locked species was human, it could preserve them for ten to fifteen minutes.
This was also their capital for counter-killing.
As long as this farce ended quickly, the college student could still be saved.
Facing the bleeding flat-top, Zhou Qi’an gently helped him remove his mask and wiped his face clean with his sleeve, ensuring a clearer close-up shot.
“Your curtain call makeup is perfect.”
In the flat-top’s terrified eyes, Zhou Qi’an tilted his head, his lips curving upward, the whole person presenting a facade of innocent gentleness:
“…Our killer, it’s time for your wrap-up.”
Only then did he take out the holy artifact, dispelling the mist within less than a meter nearby, but enough to illuminate the flat-top’s face.
With a click, a photo with the killer’s face was born.
This was [Ironclad Evidence]; as long as it was given to the detective, this act could end.
After taking the photo, Zhou Qi’an immediately showed disdain and pushed the person aside like trash.
The flat-top fell down with a thud, his eyes filled with various complex emotions, more of which were frozen in the terror before death.
Without even a second glance, Zhou Qi’an helped the college student onto the seat.
Like the frozen pig’s head in the school cabin, the college student looked like he was asleep, only his chest barely moved.
Zhou Qi’an observed his surroundings, narrowing his eyes. The killer was dead, but the mist had not yet dispersed.
In fact, he felt even sleepier.
“Ah!” A faint scream came, trembling with a fear that didn’t seem feigned.
It was Xia Zhi.
Zhou Qi’an’s expression changed.
The first scream was to cover for his teammate, but what was this second scream about?
He swallowed: “Could it be that something really happened to Xia Zhi?”
__
Author’s note:
Zhou Qi’an: Scared me to death. From the first day I got the Cloud Crystal, I thought I was going to die once.
College student: ?
