PFC Chapter 302 Who is the Murderer?
Chapter 302 Who is the Murderer?
Chapter 302 Who is the murderer?
Fang Shuo didn't understand why Yan Xun thought that way. He realized that something he had just said had probably displeased Yan Xun, and he quickly tried to make amends—
"She told me that you caused a player's death in a certain instance!" he blurted out without a second thought.
After Fang Shuo finished speaking, he immediately and carefully observed Yan Xun's expression, worried that he might be displeased.
Unexpectedly, Yan Xun's expression was quite subtle. If one had to describe it, it was a mixture of "I knew it" and a bit of amusement at the same time.
"That's what she said?" Yan Xun asked.
Fang Shuo nodded.
He carefully observed Yan Xun's expression, "...You two really know each other?"
When he saw that Yan Xun reacted to this keyword, he immediately felt a sense of unease. He had initially thought that Lin Wen was talking nonsense, after all, he had seen Yan Xun's daily interactions with other players and could not sense any malice towards others from him.
But judging from Yan Xun's reaction now, it seems to be true.
"Are you scared?" Yan Xun asked.
“How could that be…” Fang Shuo said, “I’m just worried about some misunderstanding.”
They weren't wearing headphones during their video call, so Lou Yanchuan, who was standing nearby, could naturally hear their conversation.
Lou Yanchuan let out a sneer, loud enough for Yan Xun and Fang Shuo opposite him to hear clearly.
Yan Xun didn't explain, "You mean more than just this?"
"Why don't you tell me your real plans?"
Fang Shuo called specifically not to reveal information to him, but rather to curry favor with him—using his "teammate's" reminder to curry favor, which Yan Xun found somewhat amusing.
Of course, Fang Shuo could explain that Lin Wen is an NPC, not a player, so it doesn't count as stabbing someone in the back.
But he clearly noticed that if Lin Wen were an NPC, some of her behaviors wouldn't make sense, yet he still chose to do it this way... Yan Xun didn't comment on this choice, he just thought it was pointless.
"That's how it is." Seeing that Yan Xun didn't seem angry, Fang Shuo continued, "You know that my roommate is an NPC and there are some suspicious things about her, so it's difficult for us to cooperate as teammates."
"So I was wondering if we could form an alliance?" Fang Shuo asked.
“I’ve found some new clues that I can share with you,” he told Yan Xun. “That way we can complete side quest 2 together and split the rewards.”
Yan Xun didn't say no, but asked what the clue was.
Fang Shuo hesitated upon hearing this.
“You’re the one who wanted to form an alliance,” Yan Xun said. “At least show some sincerity, great writer.”
For Fang Shuo, who knew what his character had done, the title of "great writer" was truly ironic—but Yan Xun probably didn't know, so he must only be called that because of his profession—Fang Shuo naively thought.
"Do you remember what I said in the group chat?" Fang Shuo didn't reveal his family's secret, but instead used another exchange.
He recounted in detail everything he had witnessed at the lakeside villa that day, then looked at Yan Xun, wanting to see his reaction.
Yan Xun's reaction was as shocking and unbelievable as he had expected.
"Is this true?" Yan Xun asked. "They really did it?"
Fang Shuo patted his chest and said, "Really."
"The clues I found in my memory."
"They did do it."
He deliberately concealed what he did in the villa, "but because I couldn't find any evidence, this memory only appeared in my memory after I went to the master's villa and learned about the relationship between the master and the crew cut."
"This doesn't count as completing the quest for the instance..."
He was interrupted by Yan Xun at this point.
"Huh?" Yan Xun looked at the air and said to Fang Shuo, "Don't you have a sign indicating mission completion?"
"...?" Fang Shuo was stunned.
Yan Xun brought up his own task page and turned off the transparency feature, allowing Fang Shuo to see the progress of side quest 2.
"I think I've completed one of my side quests!" Yan Xun clapped his hands excitedly. "Thank you, Fang Shuo!"
“I shouldn’t have doubted your sincerity in cooperating before…” He paused, then, seeing Fang Shuo still looking dazed, asked curiously, “Didn’t you complete this task?”
"No!" Fang Shuo stared wide-eyed at the completion status of Yan Xun's side quest 2, almost spitting blood from anger at this lousy dungeon!
Why!
He was the one who told Yan Xun the secret about the buzz cut!
Why did Yan Xun complete it when I didn't?
Fang Shuo was so angry that he wanted to take out the system and beat it up, but on the surface he could only remain calm and composed. "It's probably a system error and a delay. I'll ask the system about it later."
“I see…” Yan Xun nodded, “You should go and ask quickly. Wouldn’t it be a huge loss if your side quest 2 didn’t show as completed?”
He continued to pierce Fang Shuo's heart, "You were the one who wanted to tell me the clues, but you ended up helping me complete side quest 2 instead."
"Fang Shuo, you're so kind."
Fang Shuo could barely maintain his composure. "Haha, it's great that I can help you."
"However, I think there might be something wrong with my system."
Yan Xun offered another round of comfort, but everyone knew that no matter how much Fang Shuo called the system, Side Quest 2 would not be changed to one-fifth completion status for him.
His situation was similar to that of the crew-cut man; both of their memories only surfaced after Yan Xun had already triggered enough clues.
For the instance, this doesn't count as completing a task; at most, it's like getting a free movie screening.
Although he was annoyed that Yan Xun had completed Task 2 before him, Fang Shuo still had to keep up the act, saying, "Now you should be able to believe in my sincerity."
He didn't want to hear Yan Xun say anything that would upset him, so he quickly changed the subject, "I see that you and Xie Qingdu seem to have a good relationship."
"Did you get any clues from him?"
Yan Xun wondered if this was the last glimpse of his true intentions.
He had been curious about Fang Shuo's purpose in contacting him, but he never expected that Fang Shuo had come to test him after realizing that Xie Qingdu might be a hidden boss and that they had a good relationship.
"A clue?" Yan Xun thought for a moment. "Does his knowing my grandmother count as a clue?"
Yan Xun mentioned Anxin Sanatorium, and also mentioned that his grandmother and Xie Qingdu's distant relative lived in the same ward, and the two had met a few times before.
"But my family's secret is so difficult," Yan Xun said, looking troubled. "It would be great if you could help me think of something."
"Heh, who would think of that for you?" Fang Shuo thought to himself.
"Don't worry, I'll help you find clues," he said, then took the opportunity to complete the secret of Yan Xun's family in side quest 2.
"By the way, what clues do you have about your family?" Yan Xun asked. "Tell me about it, maybe I can find out your family's secrets too."
Fang Shuo gave a perfunctory answer, saying he had something to do and would hang up the video call first.
Looking at their chat page, Yan Xun turned to Lou Yanchuan, who had been watching the show with great interest, and asked, "Don't you think Fang Shuo's personality seems to have changed a bit?" He seems to be getting closer to the Fang Shuo from the storyline.
He now suspects that the longer players stay in dungeons, the more their personalities will resemble those of characters in the story.
Lou Yanchuan watched Yan Xun act from the side, "I didn't expect..."
Yan Xun gave him a look that said, "Speak your mind."
"I didn't expect you to be so good at performing skits."
"I saw Fang Shuo hang up the phone and was about to smash his phone in anger."
Although Fang Shuo didn't smash his phone after hanging up, he was indeed quite angry. He immediately contacted the system in his head to ask what was going on.
System: [All functions are normal after testing.]
Fang Shuo: "What do you mean 'normal'? I was the one who gave Yan Xun the clues, so why did he complete the mission but I didn't?"
If his system weren't unable to materialize yet, he would have loved to rip the other person out of his head and yell, "Take another look!"
"Or submit an application to the main system."
"You guys must have made a bug!"
Fang Shuo's system was not very intelligent, so when it heard Fang Shuo say this, it did not explain further and directly contacted the main system.
After a moment, the voice in Fang Shuo's head changed to the cold, mechanical voice he had heard before.
The test revealed no abnormalities.
"No!" Fang Shuo exclaimed anxiously, "I told Yan Xun about this clue."
"If you don't believe me, go watch the replay!"
"Is there any justice in this world?!" he yelled at the main system. "Why did Yan Xun complete the mission while I didn't get any response?"
"There must be something wrong with your system."
Fang Shuo was so angry in the kitchen that he was jumping up and down. If his system were any smarter, or if he had teammates in this instance, they would have noticed his abnormality... Fang Shuo was not this irritable and impatient in the early stages of the instance.
At this moment, Fang Shuo himself did not realize that his system did not have such a high level of intelligence, and therefore could not discover it.
[After testing, everything is normal.]
The main system still gave the same response.
“Then Yan Xun must have cheated,” Fang Shuo said. He suddenly remembered that Yan Xun and Xie Qingdu had a good relationship… and suspected that Xie Qingdu had given Yan Xun some clues.
But that's impossible.
If Xie Qingdu knew he was killed by Cun Tou and his gang, he wouldn't have stayed obediently in the villa without showing any signs of distress.
Fang Shuo had many thoughts running through his mind, and even considered complaining about the main system's dereliction of duty, but in the end he suppressed the thought of "Who in the court is accusing this official?"
He turned off the flameless stove in front of him, took a deep breath, and tried to put on a good expression to face Lin Wen in the room again.
But when he was carrying the stew pot and preparing to go to the restaurant, he found that Lin Wen was already standing outside the kitchen—just a door away from him.
Fang Shuo almost lost his grip on the stew pot—
"I'll help you," Lin Wen said, pushing open the kitchen door.
Fang Shuo forced a smile. "No need." He dodged Lin Wen's approach. "Don't burn yourself."
Lin Wen watched him carry the stew pot towards the dining room. Fang Shuo only breathed a sigh of relief when the stew pot was placed on the placemat. He turned to look at Lin Wen and said, "When did you arrive? You didn't make a sound at all. You scared me."
"just."
She only said "just now" without specifying the time, making Fang Shuo suspect that she had seen his call with Yan Xun.
But Lin Wen seemed oblivious to Fang Shuo's ulterior motives; she pulled out a chair and sat down.
"It's the fourth day," Lin Wen said. "Have you found any new clues?"
Fang Shuo sat down opposite Lin Wen. "All I know so far is that on the day Cun Tou and the others went on their graduation trip, I was at Cun Tou's relative's villa."
“I interviewed Xie Qingdu once before through your connection.”
He recounted his interview with Xie Qingdu, saying, "That should be our only connection." He looked at Lin Wen, "Through you, no less."
"What about you?"
What new clues have you found?
Lin Wen stirred the stewed beef in the bowl with a spoon. The meat had been stewed into shreds and would fall apart when pressed with the spoon. "I went to other houses with red roofs and found that they were all inhabited by couples."
"There have also been cases of murders committed in the name of passion."
Fang Shuo looked away somewhat awkwardly. "You suspect that a crime of passion also happened in this house?"
“It’s not doubt, it’s certain,” Lin Wen said.
"While you were away from the house, I went to see all the bathrooms in the house."
"I used an item from the store; this potion reacts to bloodstains."
“There was splattered blood on the bathroom walls, and even more on the floor,” Lin Wen said to Fang Shuo. “You probably didn’t check the guest bedroom bathroom when you came back.”
When Fang Shuo returned, he was in a hurry to put the goldfish in the bathtub, so of course he wouldn't go to the guest bedroom's bathroom—to be precise, there were enough rooms in this house, with two or three guest bedrooms, and he didn't know which one Lin Wen was referring to.
"No." Fang Shuo pushed back his chair. "Which floor?"
“The one on the first floor, the one without a bathtub,” Lin Wen said, putting down her spoon.
Upon hearing this, Fang Shuo immediately walked towards the smallest guest room on the first floor. The moment he opened the door, everything was clear and no further explanation was needed.
The potions in the system store directly recreated everything that had happened in this guest room. Red bloodstains were all over the guest room, with the most bloodstains being covered by the artwork hanging there.
Fang Shuo walked over and took down the artwork, discovering a mark on the wall that resembled a bullet hole.
Lin Wen followed her into the bedroom. "It seems that a crime of passion has also occurred in this house."
Fang Shuo turned to look at Lin Wen, "You already know what happened in this house?"
“That’s not hard to guess,” Lin Wen said.
"I just haven't found enough evidence."
“We need to find evidence to complete side quest 1,” she said to Fang Shuo. “You’ll help me, right?”
"After all, we are partners who will complete the mission together."
Standing in this blood-stained room, even though he knew it was all the work of the previous owner, the scene, which resembled a blood-soaked hell, still reminded him of everything that had happened at the lakeside villa.
He took a deep breath. "Of course."
He said to Lin Wen, "In that case, let's find the clues in the house as soon as possible."
He looked around, avoiding the bloodstains that covered the room, and said, "Shall we go outside and talk?"
"This place looks a bit... creepy."
“I think this place is great,” Lin Wen said. “Maybe the clues are hidden in a room like this.”
Seeing Lin Wen's insistence, Fang Shuo had no choice but to stand in the blood-red room with a stiff upper lip.
He looked at Lin Wen cautiously, and for a moment he felt as if he had really become Fang Shuo in this instance.
Do you know which of the two of us is the murderer?