Chapter 22 Mr. Guo's Treasure

The photographer found the gardener not with the butler, but alone, curled up in a dark corner of the courtyard, clutching his head and mumbling to himself.

The short-statured middle-aged man was huddled up, his body trembling like a sieve, half-hidden by the dense thicket. If the photographer hadn't been specifically looking for him, he might not have seen him at all.

It wasn't until he drew closer that he could clearly hear the gardener incessantly muttering something about "don't come looking for me", looking quite frightened.

The photographer felt a vague understanding in his heart and was about to go over and offer some comfort, when suddenly, something seemed to explode in his mind, followed by that familiar system notification sound—

[Congratulations, players, for completing more than 50% of the main quest. The theater will end in two hours, please get ready.]

The photographer was startled, then his face underwent a dramatic change!

...

This system notification resounded in everyone's minds, almost immediately after Zhan Qian's task two was announced as completed, the next moment this reminder sounded again.

Instinctively, she looked over at the young man opposite her, who was now looking upwards with interest, likely viewing his quest panel.

The main quest was just over 50% complete, meaning there must be people who haven't finished their tasks yet, and with only two hours to go before the end, those who hadn't completed their tasks would face punishment.

However, seeing the young man's nonchalant demeanor, perhaps he had indeed already completed his tasks.

"I didn't expect the condition to leave this world to be this," Zhan Qian came back to her senses and said, somewhat awkwardly adjusting her hair, and complained to herself internally.

Calling it a Scripted Murder Game, just finishing more than half of the main quest already lets it end, so imprecise...

She had been insisting on restoring the original story of the script until recently.

Of course, it wasn't ruled out that because she had already revealed the story, the Scripted Murder Game system might have also deemed the story "restored" in some way… Zhan Qian silently consoled herself.

...

Meanwhile, Tan Xiaohe, who was rummaging through the storage room, was also stunned.

What filled her mind was: it seems I've suddenly won by doing nothing, not only are the tasks already complete, sparing me from any punishment, but the game is about to end as well.

"Miss Tan, what's wrong?" asked the detective with a smile upon seeing the girl suddenly freeze: "I've found the door to the wine cellar~"

"Ah?"

Tan Xiaohe snapped back to reality and looked at the detective who had suddenly appeared behind her and, upon hearing she was looking for the wine cellar, volunteered to help without asking further.

After a thought, Tan Xiaohe said with a hint of resignation, "Nothing really, I just suddenly lost the desire to explore, after all, none of this really has anything to do with me!"

The detective glanced at the girl who had suddenly entered a wiser frame of mind and didn't respond, merely opening the door to the wine cellar.

"Let's go, before the butler realizes what we're doing, let's see what fine wine there is inside." The detective, completely ignoring her previous words, said cheerily, pulling the girl along toward the basement.

"Hey, hey, hey, I'm really not curious anymore!" Tan Xiaohe made a token struggle.

The wine cellar buried underground was extremely dim, filled with a sweet and rich aroma. After the detective left the door ajar, he fumbled around to turn on the light.

Warm yellow light poured down, revealing rows of sealed wine jars on the ground.

"Wine," the detective leaned in and sniffed.

Since they were about to leave this game world, Tan Xiaohe really felt it was tasteless and lacked that strong urge to explore, simply looking around out of boredom.

It seemed to be just an ordinary wine cellar, storing many wines below, most of which were already brewed, with a light heady scent lingering at the tip of her nose.

The detective sniffed carefully, and Tan Xiaohe felt this person's sense of smell seemed to be very keen, she couldn't help but say, "If there were many people poisoned to death, wouldn't inhaling so much poison every day be a problem?"

It seemed like before, in the master bedroom, this guy also sniffed directly, wasn't he afraid to encounter a poison that could kill upon inhalation?

Hearing this, the detective paused for a moment, then laughed twice and said, "Thanks for the concern, beauty, but I've never really thought about that~"

When he encountered challenging cases, he just wanted to figure out a way to solve them, and he couldn't be bothered to think about anything else.

Besides, with no tools available, what else could he rely on but himself?

Maybe after getting out, he could also find a "Huasheng"?

The detective idly thought about these things, groping his way to a wall, and then moved the wine jar in front of him and continued to feel along the wall.

Tan Xiaohe saw that he seemed to be purposeful and asked, "Did you find something?"

"I feel that there is also another strange smell here, this smell, I have encountered many times before..." said the detective squinting, his expression getting somewhat serious now.

What kind of smell could the detective frequently encounter?

He wouldn't be referring to a smell that is commonly found in daily life; it was likely related to his detective work.

Tan Xiaohe thought for a moment, then suddenly her thoughts halted, blood?

...

In a second-floor guest room, after sleeping for most of the day, Yang Ming finally woke up to the continuous system prompt sounds. He subconsciously wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth, and then looked up into midair.

On the system's task panel, there was a green checkmark next to the main mission, indicating it was completed.

And below this message, there was another new one, highlighted and bolded, "This scripted murder game will end in two hours."

Yang Ming blankly thought for a while, remembering he had entered a game, remembered going out to steal in the middle of the night, and was cracking the password for the stolen data files.

At this realization, he suddenly came to his senses, looked down at the tablet in his hands where the download progress bar had reached the end, popping up with an "unlocked" window.

Yang Ming promptly sat up straight, tapped the screen, and in an instant, a folder opened, with rows of densely packed video files listed out.

Was this what the manor owner had hidden so deeply?

They were all video files, could it be that Mr. Guo had done some illegal business, and these were all saved as leverage?

Yang Ming allowed his thoughts to wander for a bit then randomly clicked on a video.

While the video was loading, he suddenly remembered seeing something about a mission prompt earlier, so he pulled up the system again to check, and sure enough, his and Tan Xiaohe's cooperative mission, "Steal the manor owner's treasure," showed as completed.

And the game was almost over!

Yang Ming: "???"

What on earth had happened below while he had accidentally dozed off?

Just then, the video finished loading and started playing automatically, Yang Ming quickly looked down.

The screen showed a pitch-dark secret room, a wall covered in bloodstains, a dim and gloomy light, an elaborately crafted chair, and a girl with numerous scars, bound and captive.

Yang Ming again: "???"