Chapter Three: The culprit is you

_Host Seemed Abit Smart_

Yuan Zhu was taken to a room, in spite of the thorough cleaning, the thick dusty smell lingered In the air, Yuan Zhu gave a loud sneeze.

Above her was a ceiling, apart from the dim light there was nothing else.

The floorboards were covered with dusts, in the room, Yuan Zhu knew more than enough not to be careless, her survival depended on how cautious she was.She was familiar with horror movies, bad things mostly occured to the lone person, and the first to die were always the people alone.

Yuan Zhu inspect the room but nothing seemed amiss, also the moment she entered into this room the ominous feeling kept increasing.

"System" she called in her mind.

[Host, system lovie 00.1 version is at your services, what may I help you with]

"Are there others like me in this world?"

[No host, this world was to be explored by a single person which was you, also host has to survive and discovered the culprit before five days. The punishment will be triggered after five day in this world]

"What time is it?"

[The time In this world rotates sixteen minutes as an hour, while six hours and minutes make a day, therefore Host had spent almost a day in this world]

Yuan Zhu laid on the bed staring at the ceiling, her arms clamped against each other, her messy hair has been packed into a bun.

[Host don't you have anything you want lovie to helped with?]

Ha! Still staring at the ceiling she replied in her mind "If I were to ask you to tell me who the culprit is, will you"

[System are forbidden to disclose the world secret to host, it was host responsibility to explore the world, unravel the secrets and survive]

Yuan Zhu smile and declared coldly "I knew it from the beginning, useless! Since you can't do that, then hush and let me think!"

The system was scared away that she went quiet, not daring to say anything else.But after the system quieted, it became very quiet in the cabin that even an ant steps could be heard.

She suddenly was feeling unease, there was a strange feeling of being watched, like something was looking straight at her, just like a pair of lifeless eyes staring at her quietly, waiting for the right moment to launch an attack.

Yuan Zhu glanced sideways, there was this old hourglass, the sandglass was set upright, allowing gravity to pull the sand downward. As the sand falls through the neck, it gradually fills the lower bulb.

Yuan Zhu close her eyes and sleep, putting behind her the day stress, leaving a space to refresh her brain, however The inexplicable sound of footsteps echoing from outside the walls doesn't affect her abit, moreover fear kills faster than the actual thing, those things has a way to mess with people head, played them and planted a great fear until they despair and walked themselves into doom.

The next morningA prolonged crying and wailing forced Yuan Zhu out of her sleep, she sat up on the bed wondering who the people crying was, she slowly sat up, she blinked rubbing her face.

Slowly she came off the bed, barefooted she walked out of the room, as she entered into the sitting room, she saw an identical duo, sitting really close on the chair, their face were pale, both eyes had this dark circles under them, they were so thin that they look they could break, their eyes were grim while their reddened lips were covered with Weird smiles.

Yuan Zhu gazed at them for a while, they also were staring back at her, one of the twins pointed her thin bony finger at Yuan Zhu, her fingernails were pointy and dark brown with tinge of red at the tip.

Yuan Zhu couldn't look more, moreover she had to check out the happening outside. She walked out but she could feel their gazes on her back.

As Yuan Zhu stepped out of the cabin, before her gathered few melancholic people, they're wailing "Xing Fu!" "Xing Fu"The voice was indisputably Zhang Han's, it sounded almost breaking as he called agonizingly, Yuan Zhu drew closer and enter amidst the crowd squeezing her small frame in.

Zhang Han squatted beside a body which was laid on the ground, the yellow cotton dress she wore was the only form of recognition.

Xing Fu laid limbless on the ground with both eye socket empty and mouth torn, flies hovered around her as their humming was sounding very loud, The cotton yellowed dress had being painted with dark blood, It couldn't be unseen, it was vivid it happened overnight with the dried dark thick blood and paleness of her skin, Zhang Han body was covered with blood as he sniffled.

Xing Fu has been killed.Yuan Zhu stood on spot, unable to process a thing.Zhang Han slowly let go of the body and stood, he appeared lamentable as he walked away from the body, although he was sorrounded but people started parting creating way for him.

He slowly walked towards the direction of the wood collection and started taking them out, one after the other.

He arranged it all alone before coming back and picked up Xing Fu's body..

The people stepped aside, Yuan Zhu as well stilled as she carefully observe every detail.

The people left after Xing Fu was cremated, although alot of people cried but most cried because the next to die might be any of them, being killed in such gruesome way must be painful, people are originally scared of death to say nothing of a painful one.

Zhang Han said to Yuan Zhu who refused to leave his side "Go back inside before the people recognized you as the lady from last night"

Yuan Zhu nodded, and walked back towards her room, as soon as she entered she called "System.."

[Lovie is at Host service, what does host needs help with?]

"How much time do I have left?"

[Six hours, I'm afraid Host might failed to find the culprit]"

I previously assumed the culprit was Xing Fu, I guess she was out of the list" Yuan Zhu was suspicious of Xing Fu the moment she saw her looking that innocent.

[Host seemed Abit smart]

Yuan Zhu sat on the bed and said "You sure are so naive, infact being dead doesn't mean she wasn't the culprit or erased my impression of her being one"

[What Host meant was not understood by Lovie]

"It was of two parts, things like this aren't always hard. First, She was the culprit and probably knew my identity hence, due to her insecurities she decided to kill herself to get rid of my suspicion, and secondly she knew something that could exposed the culprit thus she was murdered to be shut up but how despicable she was to give herself sort death"

[Host, what if it was the other way round, what if she was murdered by the creepy sisters in there]

"Thought you said systems aren't allowed to disclose world secrets to Host?" Yuan Zhu asked biting her fingernails.

[It was entirely different, Lovie doesn't have any access to worlds information]

Yuan Zhu smiled "Tell me, when was systems programmed to tell a lie"

[Lovie is an advanced system of human-level intelligence, self-awareness, knowledge, conscience, thought and also lovely]

"Why not tell me you're as clueless as I am when I asked about the world instead of making up something to deceive me"

[Lovie was only trying to keep her image, also what lovie has access to is limited]

"It doesn't matter, but concerning the two creepy sisters they have nothing to do with it" [Why did you say that]

"You have alot to learn, it was my first time playing, as assumed the welcome mission must be of easy mode because it was to test my abilities and capabilities, thus the two sisters was more like a redirection, although it was of easy mode but that doesn't mean it will be that easy... All evidence pointed at them so as to confused me and divert my attention to studying them while the culprit was right out there"

[I was wrong, in the future I won't randomly tell untrue words, I'm amazed Host is too intelligent. How could she finds out so much when she does nothing than sleeping]

She slightly smiled, infact this system seemed abit stupid but she doesn't hate her. She even know how to act pitiful when she was just a proud one but has already been bounded to her. "Mn.."

[Sincerely I can be useful in many ways]

Yuan Zhu knitted her eyebrows "I know. I know you're very useless"

Lovie felt her heart was pierced with an arrow

[This wasn't consoling at all okay? Spare me some dignity would you?]

Yuan Zhu couldn't help thinking of Xiao le, and He Bai, after being broken apart she could said he make her whole, although the age difference is abit.. how could she not like him when he was so nice, at first it felt she has gotten used to it but as time went by she realized it was a different story.

A knock was heard at the door, Yuan Zhu slowly stood up and walked towards the door, she reached out and opened the door to be faced with the two skinny creepy sisters grinning weirdly.