Chapter 1 "What the Hell?"

"What the hell? You went through so much overnight after running out of my house last night?"

Seeing the news in the newspaper this morning, the serial killer case was front-page news.

Even if he wasn't interested, Zhen Hu could still see the photo.

Good heavens, they didn't hold back at all; the killer's face wasn't even blurred. He recognized that familiar face at a glance.

Wasn't that Bai Xiao?!

Looking closer at the details, a father and daughter were almost killed for trying to stop a crime, and there were photos of their injuries as proof.

Even with the victims blurred out, how could he not recognize Julian and Lu Xiaoyao's figures?

One of his teammates had gone to jail for murder, and another had nearly been killed and ended up in the hospital. How could Zhen Hu sit still?

So, he took the morning off work and inquired his way to the hospital ward.

Zhen Hu's loud entrance made Julian, who had finally drifted off to sleep after a restless night of pain from his shoulder wound due to poor anesthesia, snap his eyes open.

"Hey? Why are you staring at me?"

Zhen Hu entered the room carrying a fruit basket, only to be met with Julian's resentful gaze, leaving him completely bewildered.

"You… don't like fruit? Then… what do you want to eat? I'll bring it to you next time."

"Sleeping pills."

Zhen Hu: "…"

That wasn't a funny joke.

"Right, where's Lu Xiaoyao? I didn't see her."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Julian closed his eyes, seemingly wanting to fall asleep despite the loud voice.

However, Zhen Hu wasn't about to let him sleep.

"By the way, how did you get so badly injured? Was it really like Mingmei said, that Bai Xiao lost her mind and tried to silence you and Lu Xiaoyao after you stumbled upon her murder?"

"What else could it be?" Julian opened his eyes and glanced at Zhen Hu, hearing the doubt in his voice.

Mingmei and Mu Chen weren't the type to spread rumors, so they definitely wouldn't have described exactly what he and Lu Xiaoyao had done in such detail to others.

He just hadn't expected Zhen Hu to be suspicious.

"What are you doubting?"

Julian's tone wasn't very pleasant, and Zhen Hu noticed it, but he wasn't sure if it was his fault, so he just assumed it was because Julian was recalling the unpleasant events of last night.

"Ah… I just didn't expect Bai Xiao to seem so nice usually… and then be so…" Zhen Hu pointed to Julian's bandaged body, as if half of him was gone.

"It just means she was too influenced by her character setting." Julian didn't continue the topic, "You should go back first. With this sudden incident, I don't know if Lena's plan will be affected. You should ask her about it. See if what happened to us last night will affect her."

"Ah, that's right. She was also very surprised when she heard about it."

Reminded by Julian, Zhen Hu got ahead of Mingmei and the others and learned about Lena's plans before they could even ask.

…

"Huh? You're planning to throw a birthday party for Lena?"

Hearing a plan that was completely different from what he had imagined, Zhen Hu wondered if he had misheard.

"You heard right." Lena's lips curved into a smile, seeing the incredulous look on Zhen Hu's face, "I want you to throw her a birthday party."

"Me?" Zhen Hu pointed at himself, about to shake his head in refusal, but then he heard Lena say, "Don't worry, I've prepared everything. You just need to show up and read the lines I give you."

Zhen Hu: "…"

"Huh? That's it?"

Mingmei and Mu Chen, hearing what Zhen Hu, who had come to them for help, said, had the exact same expression he had when he first heard it.

Even the question they asked was the same.

"How is that simple? I can't act!"

Seeing that Mingmei and Mu Chen's focus seemed to be off, Zhen Hu quickly emphasized what he had to do in the plan.

"It doesn't matter, Mona won't be able to tell."

"Huh?"

Slightly stunned by Mingmei's words, Zhen Hu immediately asked, "How do you know?"

Mingmei: "…"

How did she know?

Could she say that Lu Xiaoyao's terrible acting could fool Mona for a long time?

"Think about Lu Xiaoyao. She spends more time with Mona than you do. Her acting is worse than yours, don't you have any confidence?" Mu Chen tried to reassure Zhen Hu in a different way.

However, this approach made Lu Xiaoyao, who was resting at home and happened to come to the store to buy a hot dog, feel stabbed in the heart.

Lu Xiaoyao: I have no acting skills?

"Speaking of which, what about Yuan Fang and Bai Xiao?"

After Lu Xiaoyao arrived, they briefly told her about Zhen Hu's situation. After eating the hot dog, Lu Xiaoyao's attention was no longer on who was the worse actor between her and Zhen Hu.

Instead, she was more concerned that she hadn't received any news from Bai Xiao and Yuan Fang from last night until this afternoon.

"Didn't you go to the police station to ask about the situation?"

Zhen Hu didn't know that Lu Xiaoyao now had PTSD from the police station. Asking her to go herself was worse than killing her!

"Didn't you go?" Lu Xiaoyao glared at Zhen Hu unhappily, still remembering that he thought her acting was worse than his.

"I went to see Julian first, then came back and chatted with Lena for a while, and then came over here."

Zhen Hu spent the whole day either seeing his teammates or on his way to see them.

"The evidence of Bai Xiao's murder is ironclad, so she probably won't be able to get out. The final result will either be that she's controlled by her character setting and stays inside until our game ends and she's released from the game character. Or… she'll regain consciousness midway, realize she can't participate, and end the game early like Hu Yue and the others…"

Mu Chen had obtained first-hand information again this morning while delivering milk.

"According to you, shouldn't Julian also leave early? With his injuries, he's just going to be a headcount when Mona comes back the day after tomorrow." Lu Xiaoyao thought of Julian. The medical technology in this game's setting wasn't as advanced as in the interstellar era.

His arm hadn't fallen off yet, but the injury would take so long to heal and would hurt like hell every day.

"His arm was cut, but it's not life-threatening. Are you suggesting he commit suicide, or are you going for a buy-one-get-one-free deal, where someone makes a move and then also goes to jail to sit?"

Mu Chen reminded her that Julian's situation was different from Bai Xiao's.

"What about Yuan Fang? Does anyone know where Yuan Fang lives? Is his identity in this game making his life difficult?"

Zhen Hu thought of Yuan Fang again. Thinking of how Julian was bandaged today, he thought of the other person in the game who was missing limbs.

Everyone's skills weren't good, so he couldn't be biased in his concern.