Live Action Murder Mystery

Chapter 81

300 years ago. 7 November.

The wife that Duke Dahl wanted to marry died.

That night, Eastern Magician did some adjustments to the murals until the early morning.

The next day, the Magician told the Duke, the adjustment of the wall paintings had been completed, and he could use his blood to activate the spell array.

As a matter of fact, the Duke had already sensed something but he was not particularly willing to trust his own intuition.

— He could feel that Aimeili was obviously starting to have feelings for him, how could she possibly make a choice that would hurt both of them?

Before the spell array was activated, the Duke went to the sixth floor where he was cultivating his bats.

Since the floor had no owner, there were lesser murals by comparison. There were no murals in the dark room where the bats were raised.

He wrote a few letters and tied them to the foot of different bats before he told them: “If something happens to me, deliver these messages. That way, foolish and avaricious humans will be duped into coming over to undo the seal, and I will have a chance to survive.”

Sure enough, something happened to the Duke later.

In the instant where he pricked his finger and imbued his blood into one of the wall paintings, all the wall paintings in the entire ancient castle connected and became an array— all of the resentful souls condensing into a net was more than enough to kill each and every vampire inside the ancient castle.

All of the vampires became scattered ashes and dispersed smoke instantaneously, except the Duke.

His strength was too powerful; he did not truly die.

When he saw the Magician appearing before him as he stood in the empty lobby in the ancient castle, he still appeared serene even though he knew he was a sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

The Duke asked him: “You loved her, yes?”

Magician: “You do not have the right to say that to her.”

“And you have the right?”

The Duke laughed coldly, “When I made inquiries about her, I heard that she had a person in her heart. She refused to marry the entire time because she loved a wanderer. Is that person you? You were the one who abandoned her. But I find it hard to fathom that— the person she liked was you. Or else I would not have fallen for your schemes.”

The human in front of Duke Dahl was an ugly and old person. Honestly speaking, he did not expect that Aimeili’s first love would be this person.

Hence, whenever the Magician went to meet Aimeili for a private conversation, the Duke never took it to heart.

The magician used a finger to draw a charm in thin air. In a moment’s work, the drooping elderly man became a handsome and spirited youth.

“It’s merely an illusionary spell. It’s similar to how I transformed butterflies to deceive Princess Rose and you. What she saw that year was not my true appearance. I deceived her and betrayed her heartfelt intentions, which is why I ran.”

“Coward,” the Duke berated.

Magician: “I’m not here to talk to you about these matters. You’ve harmed too many people. I have to pursue justice in Heaven’s stead.”

Duke: “You cannot kill me.”

Magician: “Sealing you is more than enough. Your undying body has already been broken by my spell. After sealing you for 300 years, you will disappear from this world completely and utterly.”

Duke: “I have been defeated. I concede. I only have two conditions.

“One, give me two hours, I want to look through the entire ancient castle in a thorough fashion.”

When he heard that, the Magician knew that he had not given up on all hope. He did not believe that Aimeili would participate in this scheme.

The Magician replied, “Sure. With regards to the things you cannot apprehend, you can slowly make sense of them in the next, long 300 years.”

— In that way, you can suffer in pain for 300 years.

Duke: “Two, the sealing location has to be— the sunflower garden.”

Magician: “I can agree to this condition too. You just need to lie there and repent your sins.”

That night, the Duke was buried alive in the sunflower garden and he was sealed away by the Magician’s spell.

The vampires in the nefarious ancient castle completely vanished in one night as well.

The Magician returned triumphantly, revered as a hero by the masses, and he founded his own Sect.

But scarcely known to everyone, the blood-filled bats who carried the Duke’s messages on the sixth floor, became the fishes that escaped the net as they departed from the ancient castle.

However, perhaps even the Heavens wanted the Duke to disappear.

Those messages did not immediately lure people over to break his seal immediately.

Up until 300 years later on this day, the contents in the message evolved into a secret rumour— the ancient castle hides the ability to crossover which could allow people to obtain treasures from the past.

The rumours reached Magnate Rong’s ears and he bought the ancient castle with a huge amount of money, deciding to slowly investigate the ancient castle’s mystery.

Having dominated and surpassed his competitors unconditionally, buying this castle was also proof of his well-fought prestige, and he allowed his daughter to live like a princess in this ancient castle.

The rumour also floated to Chief Mei’s ears, which made him conduct his search with greater fixation. However, the information he received was different from Magnate Rong and it was closer to the original contents in the Duke’s message— Unravelling the seal will revive the Duke, thereby allowing him to open the space-time door.

Hence, on the night of 8 November 300 years later, Chief Mei and his partner Sister Mei killed Lady Rong, using the secret spell to undo the Duke’s seal. But their time of arrival was long-overdue; far later than the Duke had expected.

The Duke had been buried alive for 300 years and he was on the verge of becoming scattered ashes and dispersed smoke. By borrowing Lady Rong’s blood, he could only survive for three more days at most.

After waking up, the Duke walked into the ancient castle. He saw Magnate Rong who was soundly asleep after returning during the late night, and Actor Ming who had been in constant slumber.

When he left the ancient castle, he went to the southern road of the ancient castle and saw three corpses.

In that instant, the Duke understood— Things have remained the same, but the people have changed; what he wanted, would never return again.

He could only use the last of his powers to create a dreamscape, appropriating dreams to deceive himself.

It was also at this moment where he came to the lamentable realisation that after 300 years, he could no longer remember the appearance of his beloved clearly. Even the countenance of the person he loved deeply had become a blur and he had no way of reconstructing her appearance in his dreams and he could only borrow it from someone else.

There was a corpse in the car accident that shared some similarities with Aimeili’s face, so she became the Aimeili in the Duke’s dreams.

This dream had to be absolutely perfect and extremely realistic, which meant that a lot of details had to be the same as 300 years ago, for example— Right, the Earl was going to visit, no?

How did he look like?

The appearance of the male corpse in the car accident will have to suffice.

Lastly, for the sake of a perfect construction&#k2014; like he genuinely succeeded in crossing over 300 years, he placed numerous antiques in the ancient castle’s lobby.

Mn, as long as I see these objects, I will know that I have crossed over.

The places with the wall paintings must have antiques that had crossed over as well, everything was in accordance with the Magician’s deceit.

The Duke only had three more days to live, so he could only control the dream for three days.

In those three days, the two pairs of protagonists would meet and fall in love in compliance with the plot he had designed, and proceed to get married.

However, he did not expect that a setback would occur.

That setback was caused by the people who unravelled his seal— Chief Mei and Sister Mei.

After Chief Mei and Sister Mei moved the two corpses to the back trunk, Chief Mei had suddenly lost consciousness not because he had fainted from the strain, or because he had been affected by the Duke’s spell casting.

He was knocked unconscious because of a heavy blow dealt to the back of his head by Sister Mei.

As Chief Mei was moving the corpses, Sister Mei had been using the scope of her sniper rifle to observe the vegetable field.

After all, they had just unravelled a vampire’s seal and this matter was very dangerous. They had to keep a constant watch to know whether they succeeded before they would decide if they had to run.

It was also at this moment where, through the night vision scoping lens of her sniper rifle, that Sister Mei saw the Duke climbing out from the ground.

Sister Mei did not know that the Duke had been sealed for 300 years and he was presently hanging on the brink of complete death, and he could not drink human blood at all.

When she struck Chief Mei unconscious with the back of her gun, she was reckoning with the possibility that if the Duke were to come over because he needed human blood, she would have a good chance of fleeing if she left Chief Mei there.

For the same reason, Chief Mei did not know if the Duke had resurrected.

The only person who had seen the Duke wake up was Sister Mei.

And later, among the people in the dreamscape who could have known this was the Duke’s dream, and assumed that killing the Duke’s personification could allow them to leave the dreamscape, was only Sister Mei.

After she knocked out Chief Mei, Sister Mei did not drive off and flee.

Because it was possible that the loud rev of the car would draw the Duke’s attention.

Hence, she threw Chief Mei’s unconscious body on the road before she turned around and ran.

In that way, even if the Duke walked over, sucking Chief Mei’s blood would take a long period of time and she would have enough time to flee.

However, Sister Mei did not expect that after running a certain distance, she would still fail to escape the dreamscape’s scope of influence. Affected by the dreamscape, she collapsed to the ground and fell asleep, sinking into the dreamscape.

At that moment, everyone became caught up in the dream.

When they woke up inside the dream, it was 9 November, 8 o’ clock in the morning.

But the time in reality was 9 November at dawn.

Owing to her perusal of illusionary spells and dream construction while she followed Chief Mei, how she had seen the Duke resurrect with her own eyes, and her gradual understanding of the story as the script enactment progressed, Sister Mei realised that this was a dreamscape— Everything had to be some conspiracy made by the resurrected Duke.

She knew that in order to wake up, she had to kill the Duke inside the dream.

But she did not know who the Duke was, and she could lock onto the two likely targets, namely the Earl and Magnate Rong.

Sister Mei initially thought that the possibility of Earl William being the real Duke was higher.

After all, he knew how to command the bats.

As for Magnate Rong, he might be similar to Mother Ai in the sense that represented the Duke’s hope for reincarnation in the story.

Thus, Sister Mei deceived Magnate Rong by saying that she saw Earl looking for Aimeili at night, and the Earl was the true Duke Dahl. Just like how Mother Ai was Aimeili’s reincarnation, Magnate Rong was only the reincarnation of Duke Dahl. Presently, the real Duke Dahl from 300 years ago wanted to replace him, and even snatch away his Mother Ai.

Consequently, Magnate Rong decided to kill the Earl.

When everyone was conducting a search, they found a method for vampires to hold a cross without hurting themselves from Servant A, hence Magnate Rong decided to use Servant A’s method which allowed him to hold the cross in his hands.

In reality, Magnate Rong did not know that his lack of injuries was not because Servant A’s method was effective but because he was in a dream.

On the day of the wedding itself, Sister Mei realised that she did not have a chance to act after she did some careful calculations. She promptly decided to wait for Magnate Rong to kill the Earl to see if she would wake from the dream before she planned her next course of action.

Upon becoming lucid in the dream, she took a cross and hid it on her body to prepare for any eventualities.

It was small in size and convenient to carry around. Moreover, if someone were to discover it, she could borrow a pretext— There were vampires in the story and carrying a cross with her was only for the sake of self-defence.

The time approached 11 November, 2 in the afternoon.

Sister Mei went to the rose garden to pick flowers, and saw a mysterious man.

At that moment, she felt that there was a chance that her previous conjecture was wrong; perhaps this mysterious man was the real personification of the Duke.

Hence, when she heard faint movements coming from the direction of the sunflower garden as she was going out to pick flowers again at 3:50 in the afternoon, she thought that the person in the sunflower garden was the mysterious man whom she had incidentally met in the afternoon.

Putting down the flowers in her hands, Sister Mei gripped onto the cross in her right hand as she went to the sunflower garden.

From the distance, she saw a man wearing a black evening suit standing there. Unable to care for too much, Sister Mei sneaked up, taking him by surprise. She used one hand to cover his mouth while her other hand wrapped around to the front of his chest, impaling the cross into his heart…

The murderer was motivated to kill because she wanted to wake up from the dream.

Scumbag Yu, Confidant Ai, and Designer Mei were already dead so they did not have any self-awareness, and only their appearances were borrowed and brought into the dream.

As for Magnate Rong and Actor Ming, the Duke had seen them as he was wandering down the memory lane that was his ancient castle. The Duke had intentionally brought the two of them into his dream, affecting the pair’s consciousness as he fabricated stories for them, and made them dream with him.

Whereas the Duke had never met Chief Mei and Sister Mei, since he did not venture towards the western road.

The fugitive pair entering the dream was considered a complete accident, through and through.

Hence, inside the dreamscape, Mother Ai only had the notion that “she had a fiancé”, affected by Aimeili’s previous affections for the Eastern Magician, and the Duke had given this “fiancé” figure some of the Magician’s temperament.

For the same reasons, Mother Ai treated Chief Mei like he was her fiancé, but Chief Mei was confused by the situation, because the Duke had never met him and he did not arrange a story for him.

As for Sister Mei, she was even more irrelevant to the story inside the dream.

The Duke never met her, her consciousness was not influenced by the Duke, which was also one of the reasons why she could sober up so quickly.

Sister Mei was the real murderer in this case.

* * *

Three days passed.

Duke Dahl, who had been buried alive for 300 years and thoroughly depleted of his powers, finally died a complete death in the sunflower garden.

They woke up from the Duke’s dream.

But what about the others?

Three people died in reality.

The players who acted as those characters, would they really die as well?!

Standing under the intense sunlight, Gu Liang watched as the sedan moved closer and closer. His voice was sharp and severe as he questioned: “Where is Yang Ye?”

“Li Xiao Yu, Su Lan, what about them?”

The men in black did not answer Gu Liang’s question.

Hence, before they could get closer to Gu Liang, he twisted his body around at a swift speed and sprinted back to the rooms on the sixth floor inside the ancient castle.

When the men in black appeared out of nothingness in front of him, he was already holding the matchstick box in his hands.

He had taken those matchsticks from the storage room, and it was the box that Scumbag Yu had used when he attempted to set Lady Rong on fire.

Against the men in black, Gu Liang spoke, neither servile nor overbearing. “I’ve destroyed the fire-prevention sprinkler system. Having to rebuild so many places, it must be rather taxing on your energy. Tell me, are the others dead or alive? Let me see them.”

“You’re threatening the system again, do you know that your actions and behaviour have no—”

“I know that my threats are useless against the system. This system is incredibly strong, and all of you are very strong. But the system must have established rules and regulations, and it has to honour certain rules in its conduct.”

Gu Liang focused on the men in black’s indiscernible faces as he said faintly, “If it didn’t have rules and regulations, wouldn’t it be as easy as a wave of its hand if it wanted to punish us? From what can be perceived, it requires the players to continue playing the game at the very least.

“Tell me Yang Ye’s whereabouts, is he alive?

“He has never committed any crimes, he shouldn’t have to suffer the death penalty. Even if he lost his player identity through the method of ‘death’, where did he go and what kind of NPC is he being right now? Does he have years to serve?

“Tell me everything, or else I won’t cooperate and play the game.

“Honestly speaking, I’ve been wondering what’s the worst punishment a player has to suffer if they completely refuse to comply.

“Perhaps I don’t need to be a player and I can jump out of here, which would allow me to make sense of everything and its inner workings, is that it?”

Noticing that the men in black were maintaining their silence, Gu Liang took out a match and prepared to strike it.

In the next instant, another man in black appeared out of thin air behind him and struck the back of his neck, knocking him unconscious.

As they were carrying the unconscious Gu Liang into the sedan, the man in black in front said: “The system prohibits violent behaviour against players. Your pay will be deducted. I was about to explain it to him… We were going to bring him the resting area anyway.”

That man in black said: “But his emotions weren’t stable, he might have lit the match before you even had the time to explain. If we let him burn that down the venue, our pay will be deducted even more. Picking the lesser of two evils, yes?”

“Your words are reasonable too. Being responsible for following him… This must be the plaguing bad luck that I’ve accumulated from the past eight lifetimes…”

The man in black at the front thought deeply, “Unless it’s the script enactment segment, the system doesn’t take such violations into account for the players. Mn, I will report this situation, and see if the system can make any revisions in the later stages. Gu Liang’s behaviour is essentially the archetype of the barefooted not fearing those with shoes. It’s more likely than not that he will stir up some kind of trouble in the future—

“Ah, also, ask someone to clean up this place. When the next round of players arrive, don’t put so much alcohol and oil inside the kitchen, they don’t need that much when they’re making food. Look at what happened; it’s an extravagant waste and it’s dangerous!”

“Yes!”

* * *

When Gu Liang woke up, he was already in a place that was analogous to a large bedroom in a hotel, and it was very similar to the room he used to stay in the resting area. It seemed like he was brought to the resting area by the men in black.

After sitting up, Gu Liang actually felt that he was a little weak.

His reaction was identical to Actor Ming— There was food and water inside the dream, but he had been sleeping for three days straight inside his sixth-floor room in the ancient castle, neither eating nor drinking.

The discomfort in his body, the worry he had for Yang Ye and the others, and the pain throbbing at the back of his neck; the culmination of these factors made Gu Liang’s emotions sink to the lowest point.

Gu Liang trod into the bathroom and washed his face. Then, he stepped in front of the toilet, closed the toilet cover, returned to the basin, and directly smashed the mirror with practiced ease.

Upon returning to the bedroom, he lifted up the mattress and realised that the bed frame underneath was built out of flat and sturdy wooden planks.

Gu Liang dismantled the bed and stripped the wooden boards, deciding to trash the entire room starting from the head of the bed.

His irritation was not solely derived from the fact that Yang Ye might be dead, or how he might have lost his whereabouts completely.

He was doing this because of the grievances and dissatisfaction he felt towards the system and this unfathomable game, which had been accumulating for a long time, and it was only being magnified by several folds now.

Typically, this displeasure would be concealed by his calm exterior while he repressed them deeply in the bottom of his heart.

And Yang Ye’s disappearance became a fuse; igniting the resentment he had buried in his heart, making it burn to the highest heat. It was necessary for him to unburden himself.

Why did he have to allow the system to lead him by the nose?

Why should the system be allowed to arbitrarily decide another person’s life and death?

The rarely heard, public broadcast rang out in the resting area.

“Warning! Warning! Player Gu Liang is destroying public property in Room 7701, the system will be implementing a punishment against you based on the extent of property damage!”

“Do whatever you want.”

With an indifferent expression, Gu Liang smashed the side table with a series of loud thuds before he looked for a pair of scissors to destroy the sofa.

But not long after the broadcast stopped, knocks started sounding at his door.

Gu Liang stopped momentarily, then continued to smash the furniture loudly in lieu of acknowledging it.

The ruckus he was causing was too loud and it completely drowned out the subsequent knocks.

Let alone the knocking, Gu Liang could not even hear the person outside the door.

Evidently, the person outside the door became anxious. He slammed against the door, breaking the door lock with his back. Then, he stomped on the door a few times to break it altogether.

Following closely, a new broadcast rang out. “Warning! Warning! Outside the door of Room 7701, Player Yang Ye has destroyed public property, the system will be implementing a punishment against you based on the extent of property damage!”

Gu Liang went stiff, ceasing his movements and turning around.

In the next moment, he was pulled into Yang Ye’s arms.

Gu Liang raised his hands subconsciously and he placed it on Yang Ye’s arms gently at the start.

Subsequently, he exhaled a deep breath, gripping onto Yang Ye’s arms tightly.

“Gu Liang, what’s wrong? Did the men in black bully you?”

Sensing that Gu Liang’s state of mind was still unsteady, Yang Ye stroked the curve of his head gently with his palm as he said: “Me, Li Xiao Yu, and Su Lan, we were brought away together by the sedan first. The men in black told me that you and Chief Mei still had to finish up the final leg of your script enactment, and you would be reaching soon. Therefore, I was in the resting area waiting for you. Did you encounter something terrifying on your end?”

“I only thought that—”

I only thought that I would never get to see you again.

It was only at this instant where Gu Liang finally realised— It turns out that the concern he felt for Yang Ye, was far more than he had originally imagined.

An emotion like affection, it truly did not speak with reason.

Prior to this, he had not made sense of this point.

“It’s fine now. I… I was just venting a little.”

Gu Liang heaved out a sigh again before the corners of his mouth pulled. “As you can see, my temper is truly and extremely terrible. Furthermore, my emotions aren’t stable enough, my old illness can relapse at any given time, my mental state—”

“Nonsense. The system has been constantly sending us on errands here and there, what’s wrong with smashing a few things? If you’re going to get punished, so be it, I’ll accompany you. Have you satisfied your urges? If you’re not satisfied, shall we continue with the destruction?”

Yang Ye carressed Gu Liang’s head a few times before he carried him up, bringing him to his room directly. “However, you do appear quite weak right now. Should we come over again and continue trashing this room after you’ve taken a nap and eaten?”

Gu Liang laughed out of amusement. “That’s no longer necessary.”

Yang Ye: “Is it really unnecessary? If you’re done smashing your own room, you can smash my room as well. Just make sure you leave the bed so we have a place to sleep, you can smash the rest if you want.”

Gu Liang placed his head on Yang Ye’s shoulder, a jumble of fatigue and relief emerging from the bottom of his heart.

Closing his eyes, he murmured lazily, “It’s no longer necessary, I’m done venting.”

Gu Liang could not explain the reason why, but when Yang Ye appeared, he felt like he had been cured.

The likes of Yang Ye had always been too passionate and overly familiar.

Whereas Gu Liang was the guarded and neurotic type of person, who would divide himself and other people very strictly with a security zone between. Needless to say, he had never been fond of people like Yang Ye from the start, and he was not really adapted to it.

But after getting along for an extensive period of time, he realised that people like Yang Ye were honestly like small suns; they were capable of giving the people around them tremendous strength. A person like him, was probably the type that Gu Liang envied the most.

He must have lived with a very liberal family, and received good education from his parents ever since he was young, which allowed him to grow up like this.

Light had been planted in his heart ever since he was a child, growing as he aged and gained experience, slowly becoming a colossal energy, which could infect everyone around him.

And having gathered up enough kindness and happiness, he was filled with so much optimism and enthusiasm that it made him unafraid of hardships and perils. Then, he passed on that cultivated happiness to other people, like Gu Liang for instance.

* * *

After Gu Liang was fully appeased by Yang Ye, he laid down on the bed and fell asleep.

Yang Ye stayed with him for a while before he stepped out of the room on light feet to go downstairs to get some food and deliver it to him.

Just as he entered the corridor, Yang Ye bumped into Su Lan.

Upon seeing Yang Ye, Su Lan frowned. “Can you go to my place for a talk?”

Yang Ye tilted his chin towards his own room door: “I have a family here. How could I possibly go to another person’s room to talk to them alone?”

A hint of embarrassment slid past Su Lan’s visage before she said: “I know that my jealousy towards a love rival and my tantrums probably look like a little girl acting wilfully by causing a scene, and in consideration of the fact that I am female and tender in age, both of you felt like it was beneath your dignity to argue with me, and it’s to the extent where you don’t take me seriously.”

Yang Ye pretended to be surprised: “Oh, so you are aware.”

Su Lan: “……”

After pausing for three seconds, Su Lan knitted her eyebrows together. “I really have something to say to you, I’m doing this for a reason.”

Yang Ye moved towards the elevator. “I’m getting some food for him. When I’m waiting for the food, I spare a few minutes to talk to you.”

Su La released a sigh, following Yang Ye to the restaurant downstairs and listened to him order a few dishes. Then, they walked to the seats beside the window and sat down.

Yang Ye asked: “What do you want to say?”

Su Lan: “I don’t have any intention to separate the both of you. I don’t overestimate my abilities that much. I’m just… unhappy in my heart. And I wanted to vent it. Because I felt that no matter how unsightly I was, no matter how childish my actions might appear to be, it wouldn’t matter in the slightest.

“When I was alive, I didn’t dare to tell you anything, and I didn’t even have the courage to show myself in front of you. But I’m already dead, why do I have to repress myself? Since I’m unhappy, I want to express it as I please, I…”

“After I tell you everything this time around, I can finally say that I’m done venting. Afterwards, I’ll stay far away and I won’t disturb either of you anymore. I’ll stop giving both of you trouble. I apologise.”

“Hold on—”

Yang Ye looked at her with scrunched eyebrows, and his eyelid jumped violently, albeit involuntarily. “What living and dead, what do you mean?”

The author has something to say:

Some of you didn’t understand what Yang Ye meant in the previous chapter?

Actually the core of that perspective is that if Sister Mei is the real murderer, she wouldn’t dare to say that she went towards the sunflower garden. And if she said that she was in the rose garden, she can’t see other people’s timelines either, which is why she doesn’t have a lot of space to lie.

Whereas Chief Mei was in the main lobby, so he could see the elevator and the people coming and going from the main lobby. If he was the murderer, he would consider the jumping, play smarter, and with his intelligence being online, it was completely within his rights to falsify his timeline and say that he saw a suspicious person to trample the other suspect underfoot. But the fact that Chief Mei didn’t lie when he was holding such a dominant position, meant that the probability of him being the real murderer is comparatively smaller~~

Additionally, everyone reconstructed the other moving parts of the plot in those 5 hours as well, and did a lot of detailed analysis and discussions, like Chief Mei’s and Sister Mei’s reconstruction and deductions. However, I felt that writing all of it would be long, tedious, and redundant, so I omitted it.

If anyone is interested, you can stand in the perspective of the murderer and think about how you can lie and remove your suspicions, hei hei~~