Chapter 1

The earthquake had just caused violent tremors and fissures, forcing Li Ang to pull out the [Xin Yuan] (Mind Monkey) staff and use its special effect to stabilize the surrounding seismic disaster.

The Xin Yuan staff came with a negative buff that reduced sanity by 300 points. An ordinary person touching it would likely go insane.

Even Li Ang would feel a bit irritated after holding it for a long time without using his psionic abilities.

However, what Li Ang meant by "bad" wasn't that he had to take out the Xin Yuan staff to deal with the situation,

but rather, it referred to the partial role-playing mode.

The script missions in the Killing Field game could be divided into three types, based on their restrictions.

The first type had no restrictions, allowing players to freely use their own abilities.

The second type was a full role-playing mode, where players were replaced with a character from the script mission. All their attributes, skills, equipment, and items were sealed. This was common in puzzle-solving script missions.

The third type was incomplete role-playing, where players' abilities were severely weakened and subject to restrictions.

Logically, the more restrictions, the more difficult it should be.

Puzzle-solving full role-playing mode should be the most difficult,

comprehensively testing a player's intelligence, skills, knowledge, meticulousness, and so on. Even if everything was done perfectly, a bit of luck was sometimes needed to barely pass.

However, incomplete role-playing wasn't necessarily easier than full role-playing. Allowing players to use weak extraordinary powers was a strong hint

that the script mission contained dangers and difficulties that ordinary human strength couldn't solve, making it equally perilous.

Li Ang slowly exhaled a breath and asked Wang Congshan, "From your perspective, what do I look like now?"

"Huh?"

Wang Congshan frowned and looked Li Ang up and down. "You're wearing a white shirt and black pants, and your face is still your own.

What's wrong?"

"We're in role-playing mode now, and we might have been replaced with the male and female protagonists in the script world."

As Li Ang spoke, he reached into both of his pants pockets.

From the left pocket, he pulled out a gray canvas wallet and a set of bicycle keys with Naruto stickers.

From the right pocket, he pulled out two clipped newspaper articles and a slightly old-looking harmonica in a box.

In the shirt's chest pocket were a palm-sized tear-off notepad and a mechanical pencil.

He opened the wallet, which contained several Japanese yen bills, coins, and a bank card, as well as a student ID wrapped in clear plastic.

The student ID had a white background and showed that its owner was named Ogasawara Tetsuya, a student at En'gi High School, enrolled in Heisei 31 (April), born on October 11, Heisei 14.

The photo on the left of the student ID was of a boy wearing a black Japanese high school uniform,

but his face was very blurry for some reason, making it impossible to see his features clearly.

"So, this is a Japanese setting..."

Li Ang rubbed his temples and said with a headache, "Starting with an earthquake, and such an ominous, remote starting location, and having to go to some remote village.

I wouldn't believe it if nothing Japanese-style supernatural happened.

Tch, why couldn't it be something light and cheerful, set in a high school, full of budding youth and heart-fluttering moments?"

Wang Congshan retorted, "Knowing the style of the Killing Field game, even if it's a Japanese high school setting with young boys and girls, they'd turn it into a dark and cruel battle royale or death game.

By the way, the character I'm playing also has a wallet in their pocket."

She took out an identical pink canvas wallet from her pocket, which also contained Japanese yen bills and coins, as well as a student ID.

The student ID was the same shape and color as Li Ang's. Its owner was Ogasawara Ayaka, also a student at En'gi High School,

enrolled in Heisei 31 (April), born on the same date as Ogasawara Tetsuya, October 11, Heisei 14.

"Ogasawara Tetsuya, Ogasawara Ayaka..."

Li Ang said, "Born on the same day, month, and year, they could be twin siblings.

Heisei 31, which is 2019 in the real world.

Unfortunately, the newest coins in both wallets are only from Heisei 31, so we can't determine the exact time."

He flipped through Ogasawara Ayaka's student ID. The photo on her student ID was also blurry like Ogasawara Tetsuya's, looking as if the paint had melted.

Wang Congshan thought for a moment and asked, "Is this the system deliberately not letting us see what the characters we're playing look like because it's related to the final answer?

Or did Ogasawara Ayaka and Ogasawara Tetsuya encounter a supernatural event and are entangled in an abnormal state, causing the photos to become like this?

Like how cameras sometimes capture ghostly afterimages."

"It's not certain yet."

Li Ang shook his head and returned the student ID to Wang Congshan, telling her to put it away in her wallet. "It's possible that the two of them were entangled in something supernatural, or it's possible that they're already 'dead' and we're in a ghostly state.

There's too little information to make a deduction."

He looked through the other items. The bicycle keys were useless, as there were no vehicles in sight.

The harmonica in the box was made of metal, with black and gold colors, and looked quite high-end.

Although it looked a bit old, it was well-maintained with no scratches, showing that its owner cared for it a lot.

Both of the clipped newspaper articles were folded into squares. When unfolded,

one of the newspapers was dated Heisei 21, which is 2009 in the real world.

The headline of the clipping was "Folklorist Missing."

[Professor of Toyo University and famous folklorist Ogasawara Masayuki went missing while investigating local folklore legends in Okasen Prefecture. The rescue team dispatched helicopters and search teams to search Mount Enishi for fifteen days, finding only Mr. Ogasawara's lost watch.]

The accompanying photo was of a metal watch placed on a large bluestone, the dial broken, the hands stopped at 3:21 AM.

Toyo University, folklorist, Okasen Prefecture, Mount Enishi, missing, watch.

Li Ang quickly captured these keywords in his mind, clicking his tongue.

For any horror or mystery script mission, there's a rule that must be followed: stay away from folklore.

Folklorist NPCs usually have a wealth of knowledge about mysterious rituals and strange taboos, acting as plot drivers, explainers, and people who court death.

The closer you get to the weird, the more you study the weird, the higher the risk of death.

"In Heisei 21, folklorist Ogasawara Masayuki went missing near Mount Enishi. Judging from the names, he should be the father of Ogasawara Tetsuya and Ogasawara Ayaka, the people we're playing."

Li Ang paused, clapped his hands, and concluded, "I roughly understand.

This should be a 'Where Did Daddy Go?' script mission."