There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

Xu Shuo returned to the studio and dealt with the game proposals left by his employees, then continued to work overtime, hoping to get the game app out as soon as possible.

However, by around nine in the evening, he packed up and went home because of that Script Space, Xu Shuo planned to adjust his working hours back to normal for the next few days.

Overtime was okay, but staying up late was out of the question. Otherwise, if he had to spend more energy in the game again, he didn't know if he could keep going.

A small light was left on in the entrance of the rental apartment; Xu Xi had returned early and was now reviewing in her room.

Xu Shuo didn't disturb her. After coming back, he took a shower, then went to bed early, closed his eyes, and seemingly fell asleep. In reality, his consciousness entered the Script Space, where he opened the Player's Handbook.

This was probably what it felt like to party alone in a secret base.

He couldn't wait to go directly to the "square," where he found that the hot topic was still "The Fifth Hospital." If this were social media, the topic would have hung on the top for a remarkably long time.

Xu Shuo found the post he had been reading before. He only got through half of it last time, and he hadn't finished reading the author's analysis.

Only an afternoon had passed, and the responses to the post had already reached tens of thousands of floors. He hadn't expected that there were so many players in this Script Space?

Xu Shuo continued reading from where he left off last time.

...

In the character analysis, the player character "Doctor Chen Chu" did not originally exist in the hospital script. According to the accounts of two players in that particular scripted murder game, Doctor Chen Chu made very strange moves, which differed from the usual script arrangements.

In every Scripted Murder Game, aside from player characters, other NPCs will only act according to their original trajectories. Without any special incidents, they won't perform any actions beyond the script.

The role of Doctor Chen Chu was to kill patient number thirteen at a specific time to initiate the time loop.

Some players had tried to eliminate Doctor Chen Chu before, but the time loop would still be triggered since a rather pesky suicide mechanism for patient number thirteen would be activated...

So, the time loop was inevitable.

But in that game, Doctor Chen Chu seemed to be very involved, and the players experienced no less than ten instances of time distortion!

It wasn't just a simple reset loop, but time confusion brought them back to any point in a previous loop, happening at random, twisting the order over a dozen times.

Moreover, in that scenario, patient number six didn't seem to be a player.

[Players aren't that creepy!] proclaimed Patient No. 8, who was a player.

Because if the main task for patient number six, the player, was to burn down the hospital, her task would have already been completed. There was no need to keep following him.

He was a player, and the interpretation value gained by staying by his side was limited, simply not worth it!

What's more, the main task even changed after the game ended!

Xu Shuo paused slightly upon reading this.

He wasn't concerned about the potential exposure of his role, but according to the players, staying by an NPC to act seemed to harvest some sort of interpretation value?

No wonder that nurse was so determined to stick around Luo Kun?

Furthermore, during the final showdown, all the players acted as if possessed by the spirits of actors, performing more realistically than anyone, as if they were the actual figures from that scene.

Was it because he and Luo Kun, these two NPCs, were present?

Then how could one distinguish which NPCs could yield interpretation value?

If there was a unique way to tell, then Director Zhang, being a player himself, wouldn't have hesitated over whether "Chen Chu" was a player, and there was no hint in the game about who was a player.

Xu Shuo really had too many questions, yet this Scripted Murder Game had no guide for new players. It wasn't newbie-friendly at all.

...

[So our final speculation is that the BUG in the script lies in the character of Doctor Chen Chu, who very likely has Awakened!]

What is character awakening?

Xu Shuo had a mental question mark.

However, this analysis post finally shifted the focus onto "Chen Chu." They believed he was the reason for the chaos.

The role responsible for the time loop encountering a BUG led to the collapse of the entire script, the sixth patient became a common NPC, and under the influence of the 'distortion,' she acquired strange abilities, joining forces with the already mad patient number thirteen to completely destroy "The Fifth Hospital"!

Xu Shuo curled his lip in disbelief. He was unconvinced. It was Luo Kun, that little pervert, who had messed up the timeline, so why should it fall on him when it had nothing to do with Chen Chu at all?

At most, Chen Chu was just possessed by him.

In the original script, Chen Chu's only actions were to execute the murder and then initiate the time loop. To break the loop, one had to either stop Chen Chu's murderous actions or trigger the game over countdown.

To stop Chen Chu, one needed to restore the script story, delve into clues to resolve the NPCs' emotional issues, a significant time investment.

Logically, after going through two or three loops, most players should have realized the need to cooperate and trigger the game over countdown mechanism together.

Because the difficulty of the assessment scripts was horrifying compared to the ordinary ones, they could erode the consciousness of the players and cause confusion in thinking. Therefore, no experienced players would waste time in an assessment script, particularly a second-level one.

Second-level assessment script?

Xu Shuo had another mental question mark.

When he entered "The Fifth Hospital" script, he did indeed hear the system mention it was an assessment script. But there are levels to it?

With this thought, Xu Shuo temporarily exited the post and opened the profile page of the player he was previously looking at. Under the player's level category, he saw the words "Second Level."

Afterward, Xu Shuo opened his personal panel.

Behind the avatar and name, his player level was "Level 1." He clicked on the level but no explanatory prompt appeared.

This game really isn't very newbie-friendly.

Xu Shuo went back to the forum to continue reading posts.

"As everyone knows, the 'son' of all the ladies here, the great god Yang Lei, is an Awakened NPC character. There's a certain chance that even characters we treat as virtual within the game's scripted scenarios can awaken and become player characters!"

What?

NPCs can become players?!

Xu Shuo raised an eyebrow and held his chin in thought, Could it be that I am actually an NPC from the real world?

Wait a second, there's a problem—

This analysis post centers on "Doctor Chen Chu being the Awakened," but actually, it's always been Luo Kun stirring things up.

It's just that the guy is a madman with ill-intent towards The Fifth Hospital, and his actions have not strayed from his usual scripted behavior, so no one suspects him.

Instead, it's the character of Doctor Chen Chu, whether it's the act of going to the archives room or leading the players to start the game countdown in the fourth round, and especially killing Luo Kun in the last few seconds of the game's end, all of which are filled with suspicious traces.

But actually, all this was based on Xu Shuo's efforts to complete the mission, operating as a player character.

So, it's actually Luo Kun who should be the real Awakened one, right?

Xu Shuo took a sharp intake of breath. According to the analysis post, this meant that Luo Kun might have become a player!

He really didn't want to see that lunatic again, who went out of his way to plan his death, refused medication unless threatened, and was only interested in watching the drama unfold with his unstable mind.

At this moment, Patient No. 8's player spoke up again in the forum thread.

"Um... is there a possibility, I mean maybe, that Doctor Chen Chu is actually the player of Patient No. 6 who ended up in the wrong body?"

"..."

"..."

After all, "The Fifth Hospital" script space has five player characters, five main missions.

And at the game's end, the main mission on the panel was [Kill the patient Luo Kun in ward thirteen.]

Who would want to kill Luo Kun?

That would only be Doctor Chen Chu's second personality!

"But there has never been such a precedent before. The characters that players can possess are fixed; in previously 'discontinued' scripted scenarios, only 'NPC Awakening' and 'World Collapse' situations have occurred."

"So where did the Patient No. 6 player go?" Discover endless adventures on m-vl-em,py-r

"The hospital was ultimately burned down, right? There's no need for it if that player wasn't present."

"Here I need to say something, I'm the nurse, and it was the patient in ward thirteen who told me to burn down the hospital. That madman wanted to reenact something from over a decade ago."

"So, did the player of Patient No. 6 actually end up in Patient No. 13's body?"

"Didn't you say the possession list is fixed?"

"Then why would the main mission involve Patient No. 13, unless it's because Chen Chu needed to do this task."

"Dr. Chen Chu joined the Script Space immediately after he awakened?"

"There's a problem, even if he awakened, the original five players who were supposed to enter the script were also set from the beginning."

"Right! So where did the Patient No. 6 player really go?"

"..."

Yeah, where did he go?

Xu Shuo watched the forum users argue with interest. Although the heavyweight poster had analyzed the "Doctor Chen Chu character" as Awakened, there were still some players who suspected that other characters could have awakened.

Like the patient in ward thirteen?

And even if the possessor list is fixed, it doesn't mean exceptions can't be made!

The imaginations of netizens are limitless, and sometimes they might discuss and uncover the true nature of events in a moment of epiphany.

But the word "discussion" itself remains speculative and uncertain regarding the facts, so it can only ever be "discussion," not a definitive conclusion.

As for Xu Shuo, the covert center of this discussion, he wouldn't jump out at this time and reveal that he is the character of Doctor Chen Chu.

That would simply be asking for trouble.

Besides, if Luo Kun had really Awakened as the players had discussed, then he seemed likely to join the Script Space and would come into contact with these things...

Xu Shuo decided to keep the identity of Chen Chu to himself!

After all, once a script is discontinued, the 'Performed Scripts' column for players would not be disclosed, and no one would know he had participated in "The Fifth Hospital." He was just a newbie who knew nothing.