There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

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After searching room 303, although there was no violence and the process was quite harmonious, it was still left in a mess.

The last act of taking everything apart can be attributed not to attention to detail but rather to frustration from finding no evidence.

After they left, Xu Shuo quietly packed his things back into his suitcase and locked it with the combination lock.

He had previously changed the method to open the hidden compartment; it was no longer necessary to toggle a concealed latch and then rotate the combination lock, but rather it could pop open directly.

Only with such an arrangement could it be justified.

Hiding a pack of acupuncture needles shouldn't be that complicated.

Xu Shuo finished packing his things, put on his leather shoes after taking off the slippers, and left with his suitcase.

The soldiers in the corridor and by the stairs hesitated as they saw him coming out of the room. They had no restrictions on the guests' movements, just to prevent them from entering other rooms at will.

Moreover, even if he carried his suitcase to the ground floor, he probably wouldn't be able to leave the hotel.

So the soldiers simply saluted him with their eyes.

Xu Shuo went straight to the hotel lobby where the guests seated in the booths cast a few puzzled glances at him, dressed neatly and carrying a suitcase.

Then Xu Shuo approached the front desk and handed over his room card.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Hello, may I change rooms? After all, room 303 is no longer livable. You could send someone to tidy it up." Xu Shuo spoke with a warm smile, "As for the reasons, you may inquire with those two officers."

The front desk clerk's standard smile was somewhat stiff.

There was no need for verification; since the guest requested a room change, they quickly processed new information.

Then they gave Xu Shuo a new room card.

Room 316, still on the third floor.

And chances are it wouldn't be searched by that person a second time.

Xu Shuo handed back the room card, smiling warmly, "I would like to stay on the second floor, if that's possible? Moving up and down the third floor isn't convenient, especially with my heavy suitcase."

The front desk was taken aback, checked that there was an empty room on the second floor, and compliantly exchanged rooms for him.

Actually, in a five-star hotel, the higher-floor rooms are usually considered better than the lower ones, and the front desk discreetly assigns rooms based on the guests' social standings, a fact that is commonly understood though never openly acknowledged.

In this era, there was no process for booking rooms in advance; it was a matter of first-come, first-served. Now, with the social season on the horizon, the rooms in the five-star hotel were almost fully occupied.

Xu Shuo received the new room number, 218.

In the five-star hotel, rooms with odd numbers have windows facing the back of the hotel, overlooking the low-rise building area, while rooms with even numbers face the main street.

Xu Shuo carried his suitcase up the stairs from the right side, gave the soldiers by the stairwell a view of his room card, and then it was just two steps to his room. Room 18 was at the end of the hall.

Compared to the third-floor rooms, the second floor might be a bit noisier, the rooms a bit smaller, but beyond that, there was no significant difference—the decor and equipment were the same.

The reason the rooms were smaller might be because the hotel offices and storerooms were located on the second floor, occupying some space.

Xu Shuo took a brief look around the room, then proceeded to remove his shoes and slip into new slippers as he had gotten used to doing upon entering.

He opened the window of the living room and looked outside.

The room was situated at the corner turn of the hotel's side, from where he could see the hotel entrance tightly guarded by the military. A few passersby didn't dare to stand directly opposite the hotel but pointed and talked from some distance away.

Fortunately, the hotel's walls were not designed with floor-to-ceiling glass, or being observed and pointed at by a crowd like that would have definitely infuriated the hotel's distinguished patrons, and it would've taken more than fine dining and nice words to appease them.

Though they still likely wouldn't have dared to defy the military.

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Because the room was on the edge, stores stretched along beside it, offering a glimpse of the street end.

But after entering the Five-star Hotel's vicinity, a one-way ramp set up by the military allowed only one vehicle to pass at a time, causing a traffic jam on both sides.

So at a glance, carriages, cars, rickshaws were all clogged up at the end of the street.

Xu Shuo looked up at the commanding heights of several buildings, pretending to open the window to let in some fresh air, then after a while, he returned to the living room.

He then opened his suitcase, took out a few medical books, and continued to study them.

——The Capital Commandant took a particular interest in his identity as a doctor.

According to the information provided by his role, the contact and he had absolutely legitimate reasons to meet here. Explore more at empire

Xu Shuo had speculated that the other party might appear as a patient or someone with a medical-related profession, as after all, those two identities seemed least suspicious.

Or else, simply relying on the covert meeting codes.

The information was hidden inside medical books he'd bought, and only agents trained by the Radiant Corps could understand it.

Xu Shuo was aware of this because the role information had provided a password combination matrix, which he was now learning to decrypt.

Some ancient medical knowledge marked in the books appeared to be annotations, but when combined, they formed a set of special password messages.

Truth be told, in the real world, the only code Xu Shuo knew was Morse code.

——Even elementary school students could learn that kind of code.

Now that he had arrived in the game world, he needed to learn a much more complex matrix code, which he found... it was a bit simpler than makeup, actually.

Xu Shuo didn't write down the passwords but instead continuously simulated and inferred them in his mind. Although this method could result in errors, writing them down would likely lead to even more mistakes.

He was the kind of person who could even discard mission items, so how could he keep such suspicious things around him?

When he finally assembled the string of codes, Xu Shuo got a message: [211].

Coming to the Five-star Hotel for the exchange was the instruction he received after his role had stolen the map, but the identity of the contact and the exact location of the exchange were still not confirmed.

Although they were agents of the same organization, in reality, they didn't know each other.

They all communicated decrypting various texts within the city or certain patterns, a very brain-consuming process, but crucial for security and concealment.

So now, was this 211 a room number?

The medical book was very new; it was evident that it was newly purchased.

Xu Shuo did not take any action just yet and casually flipped through the pages when his gaze suddenly sharpened.

Apart from marked annotations with pen and ink, a very faint and fine indentation appeared under a line of text, as if made by something pointed but blunt.

For instance, a person's fingernail.

Xu Shuo narrowed his eyes slightly, focusing on this indentation, then flipped the pages around it, unsurprisingly finding other indents.

He took out a pen, covered these indents with ink and wrote what looked like annotations for ancient medicine beside them.

After making the disguise, Xu Shuo began to decrypt.

This information proved to be far more complex than the simple numbers, and after spending a considerable amount of mental effort, he received a message——

[The contact is dead.]

Xu Shuo: "..."