There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

"It's time for your medication, hurry back to the ward."

Xu Shuo retracted his hand without touching the poison, and after he said this calmly, he did nothing more to the teenager but turned around and left, running into the nurse who had come to deliver a second message to him.

Behind him, Luo Kun, who was crouching in the stairwell, watched his retreating figure with a puzzled look in his eyes.

At that moment, the nurse ran to the stairwell, relieved to see the boy, and cautiously said, "Little Kun, what are you doing here? Let's hurry back to the ward, okay?"

Speaking softly, the nurse tentatively stepped forward and, seeing that Luo Kun did not show any signs of resistance, immediately stepped up to help the boy up.

With the boy back in the ward, Xu Shuo also returned to his own office.

Sitting in his office chair, feeling somewhat weary, he rubbed his forehead and summoned the Player's Handbook, glancing again at the task.

Xu Shuo wasn't quite sure if this bizarre Scripted Murder Game involved any spacetime theories, but even though he had just taken a nap, he was well aware that he wasn't dreaming.

If it were a dream, the system should have given him the prompt to "Enter the Theatre" again when he first opened his eyes.

Yet now, the system's completed tasks could actually revert to incomplete status.

It seemed that the key point of the task was not "he killed Luo Kun," but "whether Luo Kun was dead or not."

Since Luo Kun was not dead, the task remained incomplete.

After resting his head for a while, Xu Shuo reopened his eyes, picked up an unmarked medicine bottle from the desk, poured out two pills, and then pocketed them before heading out.

Ward number thirteen.

Xu Shuo pushed open the door, inside the ward, the curtains were still tightly drawn over the windows, and the unlit room was dim and oppressive.

Luo Kun was sitting on the bed reading a book, looking up at the sound of the door opening, although it was a mystery how he could read in such a dark environment.

"Take your medicine," said Xu Shuo without turning on the light, picking up the thermos to pour a glass of water and handing it over.

"Alright, Doctor Chu." The boy was still very obedient, a smile permanently on his lips, as he took the medication and water from him.

"Swallow it," Xu Shuo watched him quietly.

Luo Kun glanced at the two pills lying in his palm, then back at Xu Shuo, and tilting his head, he asked, "Doctor Chu, this medicine seems different from what I've been taking before. Have I been switched to a new prescription?"

"Mm-hmm," Xu Shuo made an affirmative sound and said, "Your condition has improved, so the dosage has been reduced."

"That's great!"

The boy showed no objections to this announcement, his face lighting up with a bright smile as he swiftly swallowed the pills and then opened his mouth to Xu Shuo to show he had taken them.

"Good," Xu Shuo nodded in approval, then asked, "What book are you reading?"

Luo Kun turned the dim cover of the book toward him, smiling ingratiatingly, "A collection of short stories by Robert A. Heinlein."

Xu Shuo pulled over a stool to sit at the bedside, took the book from his hand, and while opening it said, "You might feel a little drowsy after taking the medicine. Rest for a bit; I'm not sure if the new medication will have any side effects, so I'll stay here and read."

Caught off guard by the sudden loss of his book, the boy paused for a moment, then obediently scooted into the bed and pulled the covers over himself, saying with an obliging smile, "Alright."

After speaking, he closed his eyes and lay motionless on the bed as if falling into instant sleep.

Suddenly, the entire dim room fell into silence, so quiet that only faint breathing could be heard. A narrow beam of light slanted in from the slightly ajar door, dividing the bedspread in two.

It was eerily quiet outside too; the hospital seemed dead silent as if only this place had some semblance of life.

Xu Shuo quietly turned the pages of the book, reading for a good while—nearly half an hour had passed, and the system still had not sent him a prompt that he had completed the task.

Half an hour had passed, and the medicine that had been held in his mouth should have dissolved by then, most probably it wasn't poison.

In the end, Xu Shuo carefully placed his fingertip on the young boy's exposed wrist, felt the strong pulse beating, closed the book, and stood up to leave the sickroom.

The door clicked gently shut behind him, and after he left, the boy who had been lying on the hospital bed like a dead person suddenly opened his eyes.

A pair of eyes in the dim room seemed eerily bright, he tilted his head in confusion as he looked at the closed door, then lifted his finger to his mouth, somewhat stiffly fishing around inside it.

The next moment, his finger paused.

"Dissolved..."

...

After Xu Shuo left the sickroom, he headed towards his office.

However, as though at the same moment, his brain suddenly began to throb dully, as if something was squeezing, trying to come out, making his breathing feel sluggish.

Was it around the same time before?

Xu Shuo tried to maintain his normal condition, but the dizziness came like a fierce storm, and just as he reached the door of his office, he staggered, only avoiding a fall by bracing himself against the wall.

If he couldn't hold out, then what followed was—

"Doctor Chen!"

The familiar, caring shout rang out as the nurse who had fed him the medicine before came around the corner and, seeing his state, approached with worry to ask, "Doctor Chen, are you alright?"

Xu Shuo shook his head, speaking in a low voice, "I'm fine."

Yet hearing him say this, the nurse didn't relax at all, instead her expression turned strange, and she asked cautiously, "Doctor Chen, do you have a headache? Have you taken your medicine today?"

This time, Xu Shuo complied amiably, "No, I will take it now."

The nurse opened the door to the office, helped him to sit on the office chair, then, just like before, picked up the medicine from the desk and poured out two pills, even considerately pouring him some water.

"Doctor Chen, please take your medicine quickly," the nurse urged earnestly.

"Alright." Xu Shuo took the pills and drank the water to swallow them down.

Seeing this, the nurse quickly showed a smile, "Doctor Chen, you might feel a bit drowsy after taking the medicine, you should rest a bit."

Xu Shuo nodded and said nothing, and after the nurse closed the door behind her, he rolled the pill around under his tongue, hesitated for a long while, but still pushed the pill to the back of his throat and slowly swallowed it.

Nothing happened after he swallowed the pill, and his head stopped hurting, but the drowsy feeling did not abate.

Xu Shuo took out his cellphone from the drawer and opened a small game to pass the time; he wanted to keep himself somewhat alert, but as time passed, his consciousness inevitably began to blur.

Finally glancing at the time on his phone, Xu Shuo, with his heavy head, took out a pen and wrote down the current time on paper: 1405.

...

[Congratulations to the player for triggering the character task: Chen Chu.]

Xu Shuo, who had been lying with his head on the table, suddenly raised his head, his eyes showing neither vacuity nor sleepiness. He surveyed the surroundings, and then looked down.

Beneath his arm, there was a piece of paper with a strange string of digits written on it, like a time.

The young man tapped to wake the cellphone lying beside him, 14:06.

Looking at the time, a bizarre smile suddenly picked the corners of his mouth, revealing a chilling touch of sinister smugness.

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