Wen Nan wanted to step forward to help, but was stopped midway by a member.
Wen Nan turned his head to look at the person and saw that it was Li Zhenbei, with whom he had interacted the least.
The other person’s face was pale, his clothes soaked with cold sweat, looking like a man on the verge of death, trembling as he said, "President, save me!"
Wen Nan was startled, "What’s wrong?"
Li Zhenbei shakily pulled out a military knife, presenting it to Wen Nan.
Upon seeing the familiar snowflake pattern on the knife, Wen Nan immediately understood the problem, "Your target is... Xiao Xue?"
Li Zhenbei had been in utter despair, but now, seeing the president, recalling this big shot’s formidable abilities, he suddenly rekindled a desire to survive, "What do I do, President, am I about to die?"
Wen Nan’s brow furrowed.
This matter was indeed a bit tricky.
However, since the other person was still standing here and hadn’t been immediately eliminated by the system, Wen Nan thought there might be a turnaround.
After pondering for a moment, he turned and headed towards the staircase, "There’s still a way... follow me."
Upon hearing this, Li Zhenbei wiped his nose and tears, and quickly followed Wen Nan down the stairs.
Truly, their president was omnipotent. Even in his situation, there was a way to come back to life!
Thinking of this, Li Zhenbei almost cried.
Seeing Li Zhenbei and Wen Nan heading towards the staircase, the two solo players standing on the other side followed them.
Zhao Lei had already determined that his strategy character was Susu’s embodiment, the chinchilla called Little W., so like Li Zhenbei, he was also stuck in desperation.
Seeing Li Zhenbei complaining to his president and then hopefully following him, Zhao Lei was certain that this president must have a way to "revive" Li Zhenbei, and no matter what, he had to go see it too.
He thought he could still be salvaged.
Wang Hao followed along.
He hadn’t yet confirmed who his strategy target was, but as Xu Dongsheng and Han Feng, the two players, had already left the villa early, having surely completed the first main task, Liang Yiming also admitted his task was done, and the president certainly wasn’t simple and must have finished long ago.
This left only Zhao Lei and Li Zhenbei, the two unlucky ones waiting to die, with Wang Hao and Luo Wei still not having found their strategy characters.
That Luo Wei, for some reason, seemed particularly interested in Doctor Lu earlier.
This gave Wang Hao a bad premonition—his strategy character was likely the embodiment of those twin girls lying on the ground.
Wang Hao felt very desperate, thinking that perhaps only this seemingly significant president could save the three of them.
The president was, of course, unaware of what the three unfortunates behind him were thinking as he led them to the entrance of the first-floor dining hall, the scene of the first murder.
There, two male servants were lifting Jiang Xueying’s corpse and slowly moving it outside.
Seeing this, Li Zhenbei stepped forward, trying to stop them, "What are you doing?"
The two male servants hesitated for a moment and explained, "Lady Yushou instructed us to move the body of the Xiao Xue Butler."
As he spoke, seeing Li Zhenbei raise his hand as if to touch the corpse, the two male servants were startled, hastily stopping him, "Sir! Please show basic respect for the body! Otherwise, we will sound the alarm!"
Hearing the male servants’ threat, Li Zhenbei dared not reach out again, stepping back, looking toward Wen Nan for help, whispering, "President, what do we do?"
If even the body is taken away, would that mean he has no hope left?
But Wen Nan raised his hand, signaling him to stay calm.
The other three players simultaneously looked at Wen Nan, feeling that he looked enigmatic, unsure of what he was doing, but they didn’t dare to ask and could only quietly wait.
In Wen Nan’s mind, a system prompt sounded—
9527: [Your skill Mind Reading Technique has been activated, with a total duration of 10 minutes.]
The Mind Reading Technique skill was successfully activated.
At least it indicated that Jiang Xueying’s embodiment hadn’t been completely removed from this map.
Holding his breath and listening intently to the voices in his mind, he heard a series of strange, fragmented noises—
"Click," "click," "click."
Like the sound of porcelain pieces clinking together.
Until the 10-minute duration elapsed, aside from these faint sounds, Wen Nan heard nothing else.
Thinking for a moment, he approached the male servant guarding the dining hall entrance and asked, "Who cleaned up the broken snowflake porcelain vase when the incident happened here?"
The male servant shook his head, "After the first incident, everyone was sent out to search for evidence. No one paid attention to it. We also found it strange why the vase fragments disappeared, but now with such a big event, no one cares about these trivial details."
After the first incident, everyone was sent out to search for evidence...
Except for one person!
And it was precisely that person who suggested leaving in pairs to search for evidence.
Thinking of this, Wen Nan immediately opened the guild group chat to inquire—
[Nine: Has anyone seen where Doctor Lu went?]
Moments later, a response arrived—
[Awei: [Image] [Image]]
[Awei: I’ve been following him, trying to find a chance to lock him down, but he slipped away too quickly. I never got the chance to get close]
[Awei: He seems to be in his workspace, which appears to be a pharmacy? He’s been locked inside for a long time]
[Awei: I listened by the door, it’s very quiet inside, can’t hear what he’s doing]
Closing the group chat interface, he heard a noisy discussion.
Following the sound, Wen Nan saw Yu Shouling already leading some of the villa’s original residents, carrying the bodies of four women into three coffins.
The clear glass exterior looked icy cold, and inside seemed to be some kind of agar-like substance. Rather than a coffin, Wen Nan thought it more resembled some experimental oversized petri dish.
After the bodies were neatly placed, Yu Shouling dismissed a few nearby helpers.
The male servant assistants, seeing Yu Shouling’s eyes lowered, gaze fixed on the four "crystal coffins," clearly grieving the loss of close friends, expressed sympathy and understanding, bowed deeply, and quietly left.
Wen Nan instructed the three players behind him to check the situation in the small meeting room on the third floor, then walked over to Yu Shouling.
Yu Shouling’s curled eyelashes dropped, her eyes once bright, now clouded with gloom.
She was truly mourning the loss of her companions, "I doomed them."
"It was just an accident, not your fault," Wen Nan tried to comfort her.
Yu Shouling shook her head, fell silent for a moment, then turned to Wen Nan, "I opened Pandora’s box."
Wen Nan’s brow slightly knitted, uncertain if she was speaking metaphorically.
Yu Shouling averted her gaze, continuing, "Before leaving, my father once told me that if I grew tired of the dull and monotonous life in the villa, I could open it up, allowing guests to enter. They would break the monotony here, bringing excitement, but from then on, there would be no peace here anymore.
"I decided to open the villa to guests, and their arrival triggered one chain reaction after another."
Just as her father said, guests brought Yu Shouling unprecedented novelty and exciting experiences, but she forever lost her quiet, peaceful life.
Wen Nan didn’t know how to respond, and after a moment of silence, he only softly said, "I’m sorry."
Yu Shouling looked back at him, and with slightly reddened eyes, there appeared a hint of a smile, "Why apologize? You are the sole good outcome from my decision."
With that, Yu Shouling stepped closer, stood on her tiptoes, and gently kissed Wen Nan on the lips,
"Because of you, I don’t regret making this decision."