"So, it turns out we were all assigned specific story roles by the game system." Ginger looked enlightened. "Those are the four people who were discussing things in the opening narration."
The players and their corresponding identities are:
Hard Candy Hank = Freddy Riley, a lawyer who coerced The Factory Manager into giving up the Military Factory.
Sweet Candy Sky = Emily Dyer, a high-society doctor who injected The Factory Manager with a Tranquilizer, causing him to perish in a fire.
Ginger = Amelia Woods, a worker at the Military Factory and the perpetrator of the arson.
Caleb = Cliché Pierson, a street thug, gang leader, initiator of the orphanage plan, and a catalyst for the Military Factory fire incident.
At this point, the cause and progression of the entire story were basically clear... Everyone exchanged the information they had read from their memories.
"The relationship between these four people is very unusual; they seem to have come together for a common reason and call each other 'family'." Ginger said, "The worker I'm playing initially didn't want to risk committing a crime, but because of the 'family' bond, she had no choice but to do it."
"This Riley I'm playing is quite sinister. To drive The Factory Manager away, he truly resorted to any means, even trying to kidnap The Factory Manager's five-year-old son!" Hard Candy Hank said, rubbing his nose.
'The dead boy in the closet was The Factory Manager's son.'
Hard Candy Hank's words revealed the identity of the closet boy.
By the way, Caleb hadn't yet mentioned the 'closet boy' to his three teammates. He considered that this clue was discovered by the Explorer's exclusive ability and was a clue in the scene related to 'hidden treasure'. This also indirectly indicated that the 'closet boy' was not part of the escapees' puzzle-solving process, but rather exclusive to Caleb's personal puzzle-solving process. He didn't need to share this clue; wouldn't it be better to enjoy the 'hidden treasure' all by himself?
"Cliché's memory wasn't particularly special; it mainly explained the origin of the 'orphanage plan'." At this point, Caleb raised the flashlight in his hand and changed the subject: "However, in the description of his exclusive item, a name for The Overseer was mentioned! I guess that must be the name of the Ghost-faced Man."
"The Overseer?" Ginger murmured the name, "Does this name carry any special meaning?"
Caleb shook his head. "I don't know, but this is stronger proof that the opponent is also played by a player."
..."Next, we still have a few special things to deal with." Ever since his three teammates were startled by The Overseer, Caleb had subtly begun to take on the role of the team leader.
"First, we need to find the telegraph machine on the wooden table in the starting cabin, and second, the overturned wooden plank in the container area also needs to be dealt with. Then, there's the power supply issue within the factory. If power cannot be restored, the telegraph machine cannot be activated, and thus the escape mission cannot be completed. The power system is in the basement in the center of the factory, and what's currently missing is the key to open the basement door."
At this point, Caleb pointed to himself and lied without batting an eye: "Since I am not afraid of being startled by The Overseer, it would be most suitable for me to go find the basement key alone."
This excuse for leaving was both reasonable and logical. The Overseer only appears in front of a single player; for escapees to guard against the opponent suddenly jumping out and scaring them, they must ensure they monitor each other. Ginger and the other two could not act alone, and even splitting into two groups might not guarantee they wouldn't be scared by The Overseer. Only Caleb, who was immune to fear, could wander around the scene alone. Furthermore, finding the missing telegraph machine and moving the wooden plank both required more than two escapees. Therefore, a three-to-one grouping was undoubtedly the most reasonable solution.
And so, Caleb successfully left the team and embarked on the path to find the 'hidden treasure' alone...
The first two scares were indeed as simple as Ricky had imagined. Watching the man and woman get scared out of their wits by him, Ricky felt a great thrill and an immense sense of accomplishment.
"Tsk tsk… These escapees are really weak; they can't handle a scare at all."
However… when Ricky designed to attract the silver-haired escapee and launched his 'turn-around scare' at him, the other party was surprisingly unaffected. He failed to scare him.
"This is impossible!!" Ricky absolutely refused to believe it. "Even if he saw through my scare tactics in advance, under a sudden surprise attack, it would surely be difficult to guard against; any normal person would at least feel nervous and have their heart rate quicken, right?"
But this silver-haired guy seemed completely immune to scares. Moreover, he even tried to resist Ricky. Although, due to the nature of his [Spirit Body], the opponent's attacks couldn't harm Ricky at all. But this behavior severely dampened Ricky's sense of accomplishment.
"Darn it! Caleb, is it?" Ricky noted Caleb's ID in a 'Hunting List' in the upper left corner of his vision and gritted his teeth, saying, "You just wait for me!" He also knew that with the opponent on guard, the possibility of scaring Caleb now would only be smaller. He could only let the other party off for now...
The Voodoo Sect's Corpse Puppet Formation required Ricky to collect 4 Sources of Fear. Ricky had now collected 2, still needing the Sources of Fear from Caleb and Sweet Candy Sky (Shui Guo Tang).
"I'll go scare the other person first." He activated the [Spirit Crow Servant] skill, and the spiritual form of Leo Beck emitted a purplish-black light. The next second, Ricky's consciousness transferred to the crow that had been following him since he left the basement.
Caw! Caw! The crow let out a hoarse cry and soared into the sky...
Not long after, Ricky successfully scared the survivor whose ID was Sweet Candy Sky, obtaining the third Source of Fear. But with the four escapees having converged, he was temporarily unable to scare that 'troublemaker' Caleb.
Ricky also didn't plan to continue scaring people; he wanted to use his invisible characteristic to stay near the escapees for a while and listen to their subsequent action plans.
But what he didn't expect was... Hard Candy Hank, dressed in beggar's clothes, actually activated an identity ability! The skill forcefully 'begged' 5 escape points from him.
"...Darn it!"
The loss of these escape points wasn't much, but this ability indirectly exposed Ricky's player identity. And the escapees even guessed some of the effects of his Spirit Body form's abilities. This was too disadvantageous for Ricky, and it directly increased the difficulty of Ricky's subsequent trial mission.
"Forget it, I'd better go look for the ritual material that Leo Beck's son stole first." To avoid any further unexpected situations, Ricky could only leave here for now...