Chapter 1 Aftermath

After more than an hour of puzzle-solving, Ji Chang finally broke free from his memory space. The white light that lit up around him heralded the change of environment. Just as he was getting used to the light, Qiu Feng's voice rang out beside him, "Well, everyone's here."

Ji Chang looked over at the sound, and was immediately shocked.

At this moment, a short sword was stuck in Qiu Feng's chest. The sword had "nailed" his body to the seat, and the wound was still bleeding.

"Don't panic, he's fine...not in immediate danger," Honghu's tone was as calm as ever.

Hearing this, Ji Chang turned to look at the other side.

Honghu was not injured by a sharp weapon, but his entire head was "locked" in a small metal cage, like wearing a helmet that could not be removed.

The cage was a rectangular prism, only slightly larger than Honghu's head, with a round hole at the bottom that fit snugly around his neck. To be honest, the design was a bit amusing in a bizarre way.

"What exactly is going on..." Ji Chang quickly understood the situation before him. He found himself sitting at a round table, with many strange cards spread out on the surface. Around the table were six chairs. In addition to the four players, there were two unfamiliar characters at the table.

The two NPCs, or Bosses, both looked calm and unharmed. But the players were in a different situation...

"The quest should be updated," said Feng Bu Jue.

Jue Ge's situation was also not optimistic. His cheeks had been cut, and a wound extended from each corner of his mouth, slanted upwards, as if he had a permanent smile on his face.

"You've gone too far trying to imitate the Joker..." Ji Chang couldn't help but say.

He had a reason for saying "imitate," because Feng Bu Jue was actually holding a bloody folding knife in his hand, so it seemed that this "smile" was indeed cut out by himself.

"Hmph... just think of it that way," Feng Bu Jue replied with a cold smile.

[Current quest completed, main quest updated] The system prompt sounded at the appropriate time.

In the quest logs of the four players, [All surviving players enter the "Deduction Club."] was finally checked off.

As for the quest [Escape the memory space and return to the seventh floor of the "Testing Building."]. Although each player had it, it was not a joint quest, but four identical individual quests. Therefore, the players completed them separately.

"Oh...is that so..." Feng Bu Jue saw the new quest that appeared in the quest log [Defeat Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty in the "Round Table Game"], and said with a smile, "The difficulty is not small..."

"How can you say it's difficult while showing such a happy expression..." Qiu Feng recited in a lifeless tone.

"Ha...aren't you having fun too?" Feng Bu Jue smiled.

Qiu Feng said, "Where do you see fun? I still have a bleeding effect on me."

Feng Bu Jue shrugged, "Heh...Honghu is the most comfortable."

Honghu made a stinky face through the bars, "I think this iron cage on my head has made me lose something very important."

Ji Chang looked completely clueless, scratching his head and asking, "What exactly are you guys doing?"

"We'll talk about that later," Feng Bu Jue said, "First, say a line that you haven't 'encountered' in the memory space."

"Haven't encountered..." Ji Chang's eyes flickered, wondering if this was a hint from Brother Feng.

During the puzzle-solving process in the memory space, Ji Chang did encounter several situations that were very close to what "those lines" referred to. There should be two lines left that he hadn't encountered...

Sherlock Holmes took a puff of his pipe and said in his British accent, "I believe that you, like these gentlemen, clearly remember the content of those five lines, so please say one of them so that the game can continue."

Moriarty continued, "But don't say a line you've already encountered, because the 'hint' effect of those sentences has been used up and cannot be used as a condition for entering the game."

Ji Chang looked around, countless thoughts flashing through his mind. He saw that his teammates were all sitting peacefully in their seats. Even though someone had a sword stuck in their chest, no one intended to resort to violence, which showed that the current situation could not be solved by force.

"Um...when you think you have gotten what you want, you have actually lost more," Ji Chang said.

In the memory space, he had not yet experienced a plot that matched the meaning of this line.

As soon as he finished speaking, a card on the table began to move without being touched, slowly moving in front of Ji Chang.

"Fuu--" Sherlock Holmes spat out a mouthful of smoke, "Turn it over, Mr. Yu."

Since the other party said "turn it over," it meant that the card was currently face down. Ji Chang lowered his eyes and looked at the card. In addition to the boundless blue texture, the back of the card was also printed with a word -- [Hint].

Ji Chang looked up at his teammates again. Honghu and Qiu Feng both had solemn expressions, while Feng Bu Jue had a smiling face...

"If I guessed correctly..." Ji Chang's hand was already on the card, but he didn't turn it over. Instead, he looked at the two Bosses and said, "The sentence that Brother Feng chose is...use a smiling face to greet the tragic fate, and use a hundred times the courage to deal with all this misfortune. And the sentence that Honghu chose is...there is no place in the world like home."

"Heh...correct deduction." Holmes replied with a smile, "That's right, the card will produce corresponding effects based on the content of the 'hint'."

Ji Chang sneered and said to Qiu Feng, "I can't guess which sentence you said, Qiu Feng."

"A sincere good deed, not seeking reward," Qiu Feng replied listlessly.

"Hmph..." Ji Chang murmured, "It seems that no matter which sentence you say, there will be no good results." He turned his face to Moriarty and Holmes again, "So...what if I don't turn this card over?"

"What else can you do?" Feng Bu Jue replied for them, "The game will stay on your turn and cannot continue. Then everyone will just wait, wait until you are judged by the system as playing passively, or everyone collectively disconnects due to the game time being too long."

Qiu Feng continued, "By the way, the items in the bag can't be used anymore. If you delay for another hour or so, I might bleed to death."

Honghu also added, "And if you want to use force to solve the problem with the Professor and the Detective, you'd better recall the wall of light that blocked the door on the first floor...guess who made that."

Ji Chang gave a dry laugh and shook his head, "Okay, I'll turn it over, it's just a little injury..." He muttered, and turned over the card in front of him.