5 Choices Have Consequences

[Choice! Choice!]

[Pick one option that's the least suspicious!]

[I was raised on a farm, a farm boy...]

[I'm the son of a rich man, and I have too much time on my hands.....]

[I live a normal life with my parents and a student full time.....]

Ye Delun looked at the choices in front of him.

'Why don't I get to say something on my own?' He thought.

[The writer of the letter would not reveal his own past!] The system said through another message.

'But the third choice is already close enough to explaining to me so what's the point?'

[The writer of the letter would not reveal his own past!] The system repeated.

'What's that supposed to mean? I wasn't going to say anything about being a writer?'

[The writer of the letter would not reveal his own past!] Once again the system repeated.

His face blanked as he looked at the system's spammed messages. Not wanting to argue with the game system, Ye Delun just picked the 3rd option. His mouth opened automatically and words he didn't form came out. "I'm Ye Delun, I'm 21 years old and I go to college for 'major business and management'. Although I live in my college dorm, I still visit my parents as often as I can. My favorite food is meat and in my free time I like to watch people's expressions change. Besides that, I strive to find something exciting in life that would send me a feeling of thrill."

"..."

"..." No one said anything.

"!!!" 'Ah...that was my whole life you just explained.'

[The choice you have chosen has changed the way several characters think of you!]

Suddenly several messages showed up in front of him.

[The character 'Yin Meng' is extremely suspicious of your answer!!!]

[The character 'Xiang Tingfeng' is slightly nervous about the way you spend your free time!]

[The character 'Li Yusheng' is bored and is thinking of a new design of pants that match your style!]

[The character 'Kang Meixiu' is neutral about your personal life and just wants to go home!]

[The character 'Shen Lin' crosses her arms and shakes her head in disappointment at your rookie mistake!]

[The character 'Xue Peng' wants to toss out all suspicious people out the window!!]

[The character 'Duan Li' mocks the way you spend your pass time!]

['Yang Lan' is happy that someone has a simple past similar to hers!!]

[+20]

[+20]

[+2]

[Your suspicion has risen to 67!]

[+10 Favorability!]

[The female lead's favorability of you has risen! Keep it up, Ye Delun!]

[Reach favorability 200 and win the happy ending with the female lead, 'Yang Lan'.]

"..." Again, he watched the rising bar in the suspicion meter. And another bar, one decorated with hearts and flowers, appeared. It also rose slightly.

Thankfully, Yin Meng broke the awkward atmosphere. "You all can call me Yin Meng. That's all you need to know."

Xue Peng turned away from Ye Delun and looked at Yin Meng with a wronged face, "What? That's not fair! We all shared more about ourselves, you have to as well!" He exclaimed as he pointed a chubby finger at him. Ye Delun thought it was amusing how the sweat shined off his bald forehead and the way his chins couldn't fit in his collar and stared at him longer than he needed to.

"Boy. Or... should I say, Yin Meng." The old woman, Duan Li, mocked. "You asked us to introduce ourselves, now it's your turn. Are you going to go against your words?."

"I never asked you to share your life story," He took a glance at Ye Delun. "I said to introduce yourself, which only needs a name." He factly stated.

"Alright, that's enough. There's no need for any more time-wasting, we only have so little." Shen Lin said as she stepped forward.

"She's right guys, let's calm down and think about this rationally." Reasoned Yang Lan.

"How can I think rationally when one of you plans on killing me!" Xue Peng suddenly stood on his feet. His belly jumped with the movement. A small 'wow' left Ye Delun's lips.

"I say, we get rid of the most suspicious people right now, strike first! There'll be an 11% chance that we'll get rid of that monster and if we use our brain together then we're sure to get rid of it!" He reasoned. Once seeing no one agreeing with him, he continued.

"Like that kid!" He said as he swung his arm around towards the young man who was only giving a small percentage of attention towards the conversation and the rest to the movement of Xue Peng's body fat. At seeing the man he was avidly watching point at him, he pointed his own finger at himself, "Eh? Me?"

'Wasn't my suspicion only at 67? Why am I being accused already?' He took a quick look at the suspicion bar to make sure it hasn't risen somehow without his knowing.

"You hear what the kid said, he's obviously abnormal and a risk to the rest of us! So let's just get rid of him now!"

"What do you want us to do!? Kill him? You're being irrational!" argued Yang Lan.

"And risk my life by letting him survive? Yeah, I say we do it!"

Feeling like he's heard enough, Xiang Tengfeng stood forward. "And what if he's not the murder, then wouldn't you be at even more of a risk?"

The middle-aged man paled at his words. Shen Lin also stood forward, "Killing others just because you think they're weird makes you no better than the actual murderer. There's also no way I would kill a person so young." She clenched her fists tightly and her face scrunched up as if reminded of bad memories. "We need actual evidence before we make any irrational decisions."

Yin Meng also spoke, "And if you think he's weird, then why not kill me as well. Am I not as strange as him?" He questioned. Ye Delun felt confused. Wasn't he the one that was piling up his suspicion points? Why is he acting all heroic now?

[You are being suspected as the murderer!]

[Pick an option to defend yourself!]

[It's alright, I understand....]

[Hey, wait for a second...]

[Alright, do it then; Cost 10 gems]

Again, Ye Delun looked at the choices in front of him. He was a little more cautious after the system totally scammed him with the last one. But when his eyes caught onto the last choice, a sudden urge riled up within him.

'I really wanna push it.'

He wouldn't know what would happen, and the thought of Xue Peng going bonkers trying to kill him made him want to laugh. But when he looked at the corner of his peripheral vision...

[Balance: 5]

He had to give it up.

'Whatever,' He thought. 'It probably would have done the opposite of what I wanted and installed some kind of trust or something.' After all of his time playing video games and reading horror novels, information this common was already installed in his mind. That, and the fact that the system was making people pay for it said that it would be a good choice to pick.

Ye Delun ended up choosing the first one. Once again, he lost control of his vocal cords and his mouth spurted out nonsense.

"It's alright, I understand." A voice sounded out. Everyone turned their heads back to look at the young man they were accusing make a pitiful face. "I understand why you're thinking it's me... but I don't want to die." His face looked down and small piteous tears formed around his eyes. "I-I'm just starting my life and found out what it's like to live. I don't want that to be taken away from me so quickly..." He tightened his face and tried his best to look strong. "So let's all just figure this out rationally, alright!"