This volume is adapted from Alfred Hitchcock's film *Dial M for Murder* and the short story *Second-Rate Detective and Cat* by San Tian Liang Jue (that's me).

Any similarities… well, I doubt you'd notice any even if I didn't say so.

…

"Heh heh heh… Welcome to… Thriller Paradise…"

This was usually a familiar greeting to the players, but at this moment, Feng Bujue felt a strong sense of unease upon hearing it.

Because the speaker's voice and tone, along with that signature "heh heh heh" strange laugh, were all proclaiming that the script before him was a devilish trap…

[Loading complete. You are currently in a Single Player Survival Mode (Nightmare).]

[This mode provides a script introduction and has a chance of triggering side hidden quests and a special worldview.]

[Script Completion Reward: Double the base experience bonus upon completion.]

[The script introduction will now play, and the game will begin immediately after.]

The opening CG began immediately. First, Jue-ge saw blue skies and white clouds, and then he saw a cruise ship.

[You are an eccentric and famous detective.]

"Wait a minute… that sounds familiar." Jue-ge, who had already faintly sensed something was wrong, instantly retrieved similar lines from the attic of his memory. "The next line wouldn't be 'On an afternoon in October'…"

[On an afternoon in October, you decide to go out for a long journey.]

As a result, the narration spoke the second sentence before he could finish his internal retort.

"They really didn't even change a single word…" Feng Bujue immediately recited, "But looking at the CG screen, the third sentence should be different, right…"

He guessed correctly. No matter what, this was at sea, so the next development wouldn't turn into a plot where "the detective's cheap rental car breaks down in the desolate mountains."

[You arrive at a seaside town, wandering aimlessly.]

[That evening, in a bar in town, you strike up a conversation with a gentleman who loves to smoke a pipe and quickly become friends.]

[People who take things as they come are usually lucky. That gentleman just happens to be a captain, and his Bulldog is docked in the harbor, ready to set sail early tomorrow morning.]

[The captain invites you aboard and promises to take you to his destination for free—a small island not far from the coast of Wales.]

[The captain will also arrange for room and board, although the conditions are only slightly better than the sailors, but at least you have a private room.]

[Finally, at your insistence, the captain still symbolically charges you some fees and happily drinks a toast with you.]

[The next day, your trip to the island begins.]

The narration ended there, and the CG screen instantly switched to a scene of a pier.

The next second, Feng Bujue gained the ability to move.

He looked around and found that he was in an open space not far from the pier; behind him was the Bulldog cruise ship, and in front of him was a large billboard with a line of exaggerated font that read—“Welcome to Kcochctih Island.” Below that line of large characters, there was a line of smaller characters that read—“Home to the Best Tuna in Western Europe.”

After confirming the location, he began to look for clues about the "time."

Judging from the buildings, public facilities, the attire of passersby, and the electronic products they were holding, the era of this script was obviously in the twenty-first century, but it was difficult to determine exactly when. After all, this was an "island town," and the overall standard of living was not surprisingly ten to eight years behind the big cities.

[Important Note: You cannot use any items brought in from outside the script in this script; your inventory is locked; your skill bar is locked; before leaving the script, your clothing will be temporarily changed to the style of the storyline character, and your physical fitness will be corrected to the level of your real life.]

Just as Jue-ge was making preliminary observations of the environment, another familiar prompt sounded in his ears.

Almost at the same time as the system voice sounded, Feng Bujue looked down again, and his clothes had changed into a very ordinary casual outfit, the kind of clothes that he would wear out in the real world without any sense of incongruity.

He immediately touched his pockets and found a mobile phone, a charger that went with the phone, a wallet, and a passport.

Jue-ge first picked up the phone and found that it was a smartphone that was popular in the 2010s. Although he didn't know the password, he successfully unlocked the screen with his fingerprint.

After spending about a minute or so, he confirmed that there was only one useful piece of information in this phone, namely—the owner's username was "fengbujue." In other respects, the phone was basically in factory configuration.

Then, Jue-ge flipped through his wallet, which contained several U.S. dollars and British pounds of various denominations. If calculated according to the exchange rate of the 2010s, its total value would be equivalent to about two thousand RMB. In addition to cash, the wallet contained two credit cards. There were no other miscellaneous cards.

As for that passport… the system had blurred it out. The words on it all looked like they were covered with mosaics in Feng Bujue's eyes, and he couldn't see them clearly even with data vision. Therefore, he knew nothing about the nationality, age, or validity period of the passport of the character he was playing.

Overall, he had very few things on him, and they didn't add up to much intelligence value.

Of course, Jue-ge didn't mind this, because at this time… he basically knew the nature of this script.

"If nothing else… the main quest of this script should be…" Just as Feng Bujue was muttering to himself.

The system voice seemed to be picking up on his words and suddenly sounded: [Main quest triggered]

Hearing this, Jue-ge opened the game menu and looked at the quest bar.

[Complete this script in thirty-three chapters.] This line of text, as well as a sub-quest below it—[Check into the Alfred Hotel] appeared in Jue-ge's sight.

"Sigh…" After reading those two lines of text, Feng Bujue sighed deeply, then looked up at the sky and said, "What's coming… will eventually come…"

…

A highly skilled murderer, an impeccable locked room, and an elusive motive.

A bizarre case that would normally take at least dozens of chapters to solve became very simple due to the appearance of a person and a cat.

In front of "Second-Rate Detective and Cat," this kind of case can be solved in about ten chapters…

The pressure of life, the depletion of manuscripts.

The turning point of life, the distortion of inspiration.

In this critical period before the grand finale of the whole book…

The desperate writer finally awakened the legendary detective sealed in darkness once again…

The man who had to make up thirty-three chapters no matter what, has returned again!

The constantly emerging absurd reasoning, the constantly increasing number of suspects, the constantly disturbing detective, will he still be able to bring the real culprit to justice?

This… is the legend of "Thirty-Three Chapter Detective vs. Second-Rate Detective and Cat"!