Chapter 4: The Variety Show

The next day, at eight in the evening.

Director Gu notified the nine guests that in two hours, at exactly ten o’clock Capital Standard Time, they were to arrive at Mei Wan Apartment.

He had rented the apartment as the venue and simulated the scenes in his mind, restoring them one-to-one.

Two hours later, the hundred participants arrived one by one. They needed to stand out among the hundred and draw ten people to participate in the variety show.

In the previous recording, several guests had known each other, exploiting loopholes that left Director Gu exasperated.

This time, Director Gu decided to let the top ten from the competition participate, reducing the chance of familiarity while allowing him to ramp up the difficulty.

Lu Nan was arranged in a quiet room, where she put on the tech earphones Director Gu had mailed her.

Her brainwaves synced step-by-step with the character. In the variety show, she wore a black tank top with a gray denim jacket over it, an vintage chain bracelet hidden under the jacket sleeve on her wrist, black cargo pants on her lower body, and a white backpack, making her appear tall and slender.

She strode toward the small room where Director Gu had arranged for them to pick up their task cards.

The small room was a modest wooden structure. Inside was a small box, with no staff present—only surveillance cameras recording in real time.

As soon as Lu Nan stepped on the first wooden plank, an icy AI machine voice rang out in the small room.

“Please draw your own card from the box.”

Lu Nan reached into the box and shuffled around before randomly drawing a card.

It was a card with a black building as the background, a knight with sleeves billowing in a fierce wind depicted in the lower left corner. The card’s border glowed faintly yellow under the light, and it read—

【Guardian of the Building, North Block Owner, Room 403】

“Please participate in the hundred-person competition first and head to the building after advancing,” the AI said coldly.

Snowflakes swirled in the air. When Lu Nan opened her eyes again, she was already buried in a snowdrift.

She had thought the senses in the game would be dulled, but the cold wrapped tightly around her body in perfect one-to-one sync.

Lu Nan looked down; she was now wearing a warm black cotton jacket.

In the vast white expanse, she clearly spotted a small villa covered in snow not far away.

Lu Nan trudged forward with heavy steps. The snow had stopped, but the biting wind continued endlessly, leaving countless footprints behind her.

A group of people had gathered in front of the villa. Lu Nan scanned them, counting carefully—ten people including herself.

Each wore a number tag from Number One to Number Ten: five men and five women, none of whom she recognized.

Lu Nan felt a twinge of disappointment deep down. Song Wenwei wasn’t here; she’d come for nothing.

The variety show was in live broadcast format, with reruns afterward.

[Barrage: It’s on! I’m camping this group today—looks like a bunch of old acquaintances.]

[Barrage: Scary? Is this episode scary? Gonna check the one next door first.]

She saw a man fiddling with the cabinet by the door. Lu Nan was too far to see his number.

He bent down and picked up a roll of something from the doorway, his expression surprised. “What’s this?”

It was a stack of brownish thick wool felt slips, full of a vintage feel, with several lines of large characters written on them.

“Game rules?” the skinny boy drew closer. “Let me see.”

The ten of them huddled together as the man unrolled the slips. Lu Nan lowered her head to read along.

【Welcome to “The First Building.” You are a group of adventure-loving kids who saw an online ad for a real script murder experience and came for it.

The script begins tomorrow morning. Please be careful and survive until five days later.】

Lu Nan found something odd about those words but couldn’t pinpoint it.

Number Four, the woman standing behind her, spoke up in a soft voice, hitting the key point right away. “A real script murder experience… without a script?”

“Yeah, where’s the script?” Number Five, the skinny guy, chimed in. He asked the man at the cabinet, “Did you only find this slip earlier?”

Number Two shook his head. “I was just a bit ahead of you all and didn’t see anything about script murder.”

No one else spoke up; the important questions had been asked, and the topic died there.

Number Two pocketed the wool felt. Standing at the front of the group, he reached out and pushed the wooden door. It didn’t budge.

An icy voice followed:

“Please unlock within three minutes, or the self-destruct device will activate.”

[The police found the missing body in the morgue. Autopsy showed pinpoint pupils, and the reporter, Auntie Li, said the corpse had a strong acidic stench.

A letter in the body’s pocket read: “Had a free dinner tonight but got chased away like a beggar. Aiporei’s wooden stick is very five, I hate that kind of wood very much but there’s nothing I can do.”

Police deduced the murder location was hidden in the letter and caught the killer. Where was the location?

___ (Limit: three characters)]

Number Five scratched his head. “How are we supposed to guess this? It’s not like it’ll really blow up the building—if it does, we’re all eliminated, right?”

“If we can’t even solve the entry puzzle, we deserve to be eliminated,” Number Four said.

Her words cut straight to the core. If they couldn’t even grab the entry ticket, what was the point?

Number Five shut his mouth instantly. Wasn’t that just calling him stupid in a roundabout way?

Number Three, dressed in a suit with a mild-mannered elite look, spoke up to stop the pointless bickering. “No infighting. We only have three minutes—brainstorm.”

“If there’s anything to analyze…” Number Six began. She was a sweet-looking girl with straight bangs and dimples when she smiled. “From the dead man’s pupils and smell, he overdosed on DP before dying—maybe too much.”

“Yes, he was poor and destitute, chased away by that Aiporei guy. The letter has our answer,” Number Two said, head lowered in thought.

“Symmetry,” Lu Nan said coldly. “The characters ‘mouth,’ ‘non,’ ‘often,’ ‘wait’ are left-right symmetrical, and there are connections between the words.”

She had first thought “free” counted too, but realized it contradicted her point as she spoke.

She was more intrigued by that misspelling. Logically, there shouldn’t be typos—was it a red herring or a hint?

Five—what did that mean?

Number Three slapped his thigh and looked at Lu Nan approvingly.

“I got it: ‘late free,’ ‘eat beggar,’ ‘wooden stick,'” Number Eight said. He’d been listening to everyone and realized it made sense.

“These six characters are left-right symmetrical, and the first and last pair up coincidentally. Cross out the duplicates—’sun mouth insect.'”

It even sounded like a place name.

“Not sure how many tries we get. ‘Ugly’ feels off—why would someone say the stick is ‘ugly’? He probably meant ‘thick’…”

Number Six paused, then added, “Sun mouth thick insect?”

“Why thick before insect?” Number Five asked, puzzled.

“It’s right across from ‘eat.'” Number Eight nodded in agreement. “We can try: Sun Mouth Thick Insect.”

No sooner had Number Eight spoken than Number Five shoved forward from behind, bumping Number Two aside with his hip.

“What the hell are you doing?” Number Two, caught off guard, steadied himself against the wall to avoid falling.

His typing was so fast no one reacted. Everyone stared as the door clicked open.

Number Five mumbled sheepishly, “Well, it opened.”

Number Eight and Number Six exchanged a glance, wanting to say something but holding back.

Number Two wasn’t having it—this was blatant credit-stealing. The guy had been idle before but rushed ahead now; plus, the idiot had shoved him without apologizing.

“Why the rush? We should’ve discussed with Number One, Six, and Eight first. Why butt in?” Number Two grabbed Number Five’s collar, furious. “You shoved me—apologize!”

His anger was about to erupt; it felt like fists would fly any second.

“I…” Number Five looked aggrieved. He glanced at the others for help, but seeing none, his eyes reddened. “Sorry.”

Number Two was normal enough not to get why he was the aggrieved one—he’d been shoved first.

“Green tea bitch!”

Number Two cursed under his breath and let go. He didn’t want drama right at the start.

He strode into the villa, the others following. It was a four-story small villa: the first floor had a huge living room and kitchen, with rooms for Numbers One through Ten upstairs.

“Since the plot starts tomorrow, let’s all relax tonight,” Number Three said, heading up the stairs.

“Then everyone get some early sleep. Goodnight…”

The group dispersed to their rooms. At the last moment before entering hers, Lu Nan glanced back and saw the lights in the downstairs hall dim.

She stood at her door, hand still posed to open it, her head tilting up just in time to see the woman upstairs close her door and enter her room.

Lu Nan shut her door. In the pitch-black room, her face showed no expression.

Number Seven, Nine, and Ten hadn’t said a word the whole time.