Luca and Eirene looked at each other, preparing to continue running, only to see the mistress's footsteps stop and then leave, leaving both of them bewildered.
"Hey, what the hell is going on?"
Luca, who was still trembling slightly, unconsciously asked Eirene, only to see her sigh in relief…
"This is probably the rest time mechanism of this instance, I guess… After all, each instance is different; no two are the same."
[End of today's cleaning]
Those were the words they saw before it disappeared, and their bodies automatically moved back to the dining room, and each of them sat in their usual positions. Arknight simply sighs. She didn't expect the time to end so quickly; she hadn't had time to do anything yet. Meanwhile, Crestfall was injured, and the wound showed no signs of healing, which made her furious, but there was nothing she could do. The poison ran faster, but luckily, it stopped on its own, just not fully recovered.
Luca looked around the room… two people had disappeared or died; in general, something bad had happened.
The mistress once again entered the room, but this time her skin had turned from black to a lighter black, and the smell was much less unpleasant than before. This was something everyone had paid special attention to since she entered the room and sat in her own chair.
The butler entered with a tray of food, as usual, everyone had started eating, and everyone had eaten a lot, after all, they were exhausted from the first cleaning. The mistress still looked at Luca with her usual sharp eyes. Luca still couldn't eat a bite because he was trembling, knowing that it had been two days since he hadn't eaten anything.
His body was already exhausted from the child's pursuit, and now he was also mentally tortured. He wished he were a little stronger... to put it bluntly, he wished his body wouldn't lose control.
Anyway, there was nothing he could do right now, so he just sat there while almost the entire dining table knew the reason why he couldn't eat anything was that he was scared and all... How unlucky to be as smart as a coward; he really lost a talent.
After finishing eating, the lady just walked out the door. Luca was able to breathe easier and move a little. Now, he wanted to eat immediately, but didn't want to attract attention from others; he just wanted to be a normal passerby.
Eirene simply stood up and took her bag, preparing to return to her room, and everyone else was the same... Luca just quickly stole some hand-held food like buns and bread and put them in the pocket of his butler outfit, giving off a strange charm.
Luca walked into his bedroom and locked the door before rolling on the bed and started to eat his food to stave off his hunger.
Luca looked at the album that he had unconsciously brought with him since early morning without anyone noticing. Could it be that it was invisible? When he checked it again, the child's face turned into the child's face in the basement, and the mother's face turned into his.
Luca just stared at the picture and tried to remember the rules, and then an idea popped into his head. He tried to open the virtual button with just one button, but this time it was successful and gave him a pretty interesting idea. Maybe he understood a hidden rule in this plot.
Luca just sighed and lay on the bed, officially exhausted and collapsed, so he intended to take a nap. Normally, he couldn't sleep, but luckily, thanks to his exhaustion, he fell asleep unconsciously.
...…
Eirene was in her room and checked the contents of her bag, and then looked at the only item she had that was on cooldown and sighed.
Why did I form a team and sacrifice so much for him…
Eirene had been asking herself that question ever since they were chased, but only now did she have the time to ponder those thoughts of hers. There was no answer right now, and that made her even more excited… She loved solving mysteries.
Eirene simply looked at her own clothes, then looked at her surroundings, and looked at her skills.
[Skill 'Crystal Memory' has expired]
[Do you want to use it again for the next 24 hours?]
Eirene just nodded and waited for her power-giver to respond.
[Loading…]
[Has succeeded]
Eirene just dozed off for about 2 seconds to let the information flow into her brain, then opened her eyes and continued to go out to find new information.
...…
Sol and Rivenhart each had a room, and both were resting, checking their equipment, and thinking about their next move, while Arknight was quite calm. She was just sleeping right. What do we do after killing someone, yeah, sleep… She didn't care much; she just calmed down and was optimistic.
...…
Crestfall was in Mareen's room, and both of them were trying to remove the poison from Crestfall's body.
"This is so annoying! If I had known, I would have changed floors!"
Mareen was just trembling slightly while trying to remove the poison from her body by the emergency medical method of tying a towel around the bite wound tightly to slow down the spread of the poison, although it was currently stopped, but high possibility that, as the game continued, the poison would continue to spread.
Crestfall simply lay on Mareen's bed. And on the ceiling of the room, she began to notice a strange detail, in general, very strange. It was as if there were eyes watching her, but she didn't care much and just lay there resting. Mareen, the owner of this room, just found a chair to sit and take a nap.
...…
Eirene was the only one still awake, and she was walking around the first floor looking for information. She was thinking about the events, luck, and characters to pay attention to or NPCs in this game. They had just confronted the child and the butler, and they were already at a disadvantage, so if the cleaning time hadn't ended by then, would they still be alive... That was the question Eirene wanted to find the answer to.
Eirene noticed every step of the statues and roses everywhere in this house. They had seen many places, but the thing worth mentioning here was where the butler's room and the mistress's room were. Where was the kitchen? They always had food, but no one knew where the kitchen was? It only appears in certain events. After going around the first floor, she started to find a place near her room to think.
In her head, the images were rearranged in a reasonable order to help her make the most accurate judgment. A preliminary map of the mansion was made; of course, it was still quite vague.
On the first floor, there were a total of more than 10 rooms, 8 of which were the main rooms, and the remaining 2 were unknown. She saw the door but could not open it.
2nd floor: It was unknown, but according to the architecture of the mansion, it would have fewer than 10 rooms because the two large rooms had windows.
Basement 1: The place where she and Luca ran away from that child was connected to Basement 2 and was the warehouse and gardening storage area, as she remembered. There were a total of 7 or 9 rooms, because the rooms were very confusing; even if she remembered, she could only guess.
Basement 2: This place was more difficult to run. They ran through 4 rooms after that, because she used props, it must be very confusing now if this game didn't have a system or room reset mechanism.
There were 4 floors in the mansion in total, and they all had roses as she remembered; the number was equal, only the garden had the most, and that was also where the mistress often went.
Eirene smiled slightly. The rule said not to enter the flower garden when the mistress was inside, so what if she didn't enter but was invited in? Which rule would be applied? Obeying the mistress or entering the garden when the mistress was around? Eirene would definitely have to try this after tonight.
Eirene could only put away her endless curiosity and quietly return to her room when she saw that there was more information than one, that no one was chasing her at night. Maybe because there were new people and the second stage, it was easy, but it was not certain that with long-time players like Sol, Rivenhart, or Arknight, the game would focus on attacking them more than new players like her and the others.
Eirene felt lucky for the first time because she was new well for the second time, then it still counts right? So she quietly returned to her room, not wanting to bother anyone or judge anyone at night as she did with Luca when she was chased by the air. That's right, she lied to judge the person she wanted as an ally... Although Luca was a bit timid, at least he had a brain and wasn't a saint. She hated saints or people who thought of themselves as heroes the most.
They always say that others are heartless and should form a group or something, but when it comes to heroes, they push things around, making themselves look pitiful and acting like they are victims... She doesn't even intend to invite such idiots to work together unless it's mandatory.
...…
Early morning is like a cycle. They were dragged into the dining room and had breakfast; everyone was a little more cheerful because they had a break in this game.
Luca sat on his chair without moving his chopsticks and started thinking. Why didn't anyone attack, and the timing was so reasonable? He wasn't an assassin or a psychopath; how would he know?
Luca just watched everyone eat with longing while the mistress still looked at him with that look. At that moment, he just wanted to curse in his heart again.
Damn it, I only said a few words, but now you're pinning me or something!! And if it's related to your child in the basement, I don't want her!! She admitted it herself!!
Luca was overwhelmed with helplessness at the fate he had to bear. If a man were to become a mother, how could he possibly become a husband in the future…
But stop thinking nonsense, Luca consoled himself while the mistress had just finished eating. The atmosphere? Anyway, her plate had nothing; it was just that she had left on time, and after she left, the butler hadn't come either. They saw that and stood up. Mareen was in charge of guarding the door, while the rest went to explore the dining room. After all, they didn't dare to venture out too far except for Eirene, but she had to follow the majority.
After seeing everything normal, Luca and everyone else looked at the painting that was always there, of a man. Or some handsome young man.
"It's highly likely that this is her husband or some relative, in general, the owner of this house."
"It's not certain that it's her husband, but if you pay attention, then she will try to avoid that painting, but still hang it on the wall? After all, does she love her husband or not?"
"That's important but not the main goal."
They discussed together while Luca stood there, hearing that being ignored was better than being the center of attention in the conversation. Luca really started to think. He didn't like the attention of others, but he couldn't survive in the game without the help of others.
It was really contradictory, but maybe he should start practicing courage if he wanted to survive… Anyway, it was impossible to be sure that he wouldn't enter a game where everyone wanted to harm him or that he was alone.
Luca could only look at the other players, guessing what the painting meant, whether it was a prop or not, and they even opened the painting and… Just as they thought, there was a hole inside, but they didn't know what it was for.
"Is that a place to hide?"
Mareen asked while still standing near the door, looking in and out to watch for the butler or any staff.
"I'm not sure if it's big enough to hide something anyway? Its use is a question mark anyway…"
Eirene answered him while Arknight looked at the hole and sighed, looking at the group in front of him.
"If we say this is a place to sneak attack, there's no second possibility of hiding things without a place to hide them? The possibility of hiding is quite high, maybe higher than your guess."
Are you angry? Yes, Eirene rarely gets told that her deductions are wrong, but she has to endure it. After all, Arknight doesn't intend to pretend anymore. Everyone knows the truth, so she doesn't bother pretending anymore.
"Let's calm down, we can't judge anything just by looking at it, right?"
Sol just smiled as if to ease the conflict, as if the more they argued, the more they attracted others, so the two of them stopped.
Rivenhart didn't say anything and simply used his ability.
[You have used the skill 'Whisper to the Dead' more than once, and now you want to use it again]
[You are asking to borrow D-6's power]
[Loading…]
[D-6 has declined]
[Message: Story progress has not arrived yet]
Rivenhart could only sigh. After all, this wasn't the first time he had been rejected like this… It was too familiar. Sol could only hold back his laughter, while they could only put the painting back in its original place.
"Shall we share information?"
Sol told them that while the butler or whatever monster hasn't come yet, they should just pretend that nothing happened and let them share the information.
"Even though he hasn't arrived yet, we should still be prepared to be ordered around again."
Crestfall said in a rather bored and sarcastic tone as they sat down on the chairs. When everyone sat down at the table, Sol, Eirene, and Arknight, along with Crestfall, occasionally joined in exchanging information with each other while the others were either quiet or scared. That was all.
After finishing the story, Eirene and the others, of course, only shared enough information to exchange.
Sol was the first to break the atmosphere. He put his hands on his hips and smiled.
"You guys are really amazing."
Sol said, his voice trailing off as if he was praising them, but in reality… he wasn't sure if he was praising them. Eirene also smiled back, but it was a soft, polite, and calculating smile.
"Nowhere else, yours is amazing. Decoding the meaning of a rose in such a short time… the brain is for playing, not for decoration."
Sol and Eirene continued to bicker… under the guise of complimenting each other. The people around could see the sparks of their fight in the tension.
Luca just stared at the man in the picture and opened his own album while no one was paying attention to him.
He simply compared the picture of the husband whose face was missing and the picture… There was a possibility that both were the same person, and just as he guessed, the album had changed from the picture of the faceless husband to the face of the man in the picture.
Luca looked at his face that was pasted onto the woman, the face of the man next to him, and the face of the child that was still blank.
Could it be the child?
As soon as the thought came to him, the blank part was erased and replaced with the face of the child they met in basement 1 and basement 2. At this point, they stopped talking to each other and focused on the sound of Mareen turning back to them.
"The butler is coming back."
After listening, they just calmly walked back to their seats and watched the man who came in and stood in front of them, and took out a wristwatch from his pocket to look at the time.
"9:25, you guys take 10 seconds to settle down."
He spoke in a serious tone and assessed them before giving them a new job.
"You guys must ensure the safety of the upcoming mistress by any means; that is your task for the whole day."
Everyone heard the task and started to get serious… Although they knew they shouldn't trust the words of the staff, this was the only clue they had. Or maybe to harm the mistress today?
It was really confusing, and the question here was if he was telling the truth; if he wasn't considered an employee, then? What could hurt the mistress? Who was almost destined to be the boss of this stage? Could it be an entity they could block or damage?
Luca and everyone else had the same thought on this matter. Luca just looked around and saw Arknight looking at him with a chill down his spine, while he just laughed gleefully.
"Before, for now, before that, you guys can move freely."
He disappeared before their eyes, and everyone stood still… free to move? Was he considered an employee? Should they trust him?
For now, they didn't and just sat there moving a few body parts anyway. He said they shouldn't trust employees while he was an employee, or maybe they shouldn't just do both.
That's what Sol thought, and everyone else started to follow him after all, most of them were new players and didn't have any real combat experience.
Luca just sat there. This is his first game, maybe the rules wouldn't be so strict… But he shouldn't be subjective after all, for someone like him; if Eirene weren't there in the first round, he would have died a long time ago. Luca just looked at Eirene, and she caught his signal and just sighed. Luca roughly understood that she meant to wait a little longer.
Arknight, after a few minutes, decided to stand up and go outside, then smiled and said to them…
"Hey? Did he ever say that after we move, we will die?"
[Detected a bug user - in the process of editing]
Everyone who received the notification was not very surprised, especially the old players, but the first-time players like Luca were almost shocked… He didn't expect that he could take advantage of the loophole in the rules to play like that.
[The owner of the stage decided to agree with this bug… Editing the stage]
[Loading…]
[Finished editing to fit the bug, please continue]
Everyone, after seeing the message, just looked at Arknight, who smiled at them innocently like a teenage girl who knows nothing.
Clank
The sound of the painting made everyone focus on it. They saw a silver box in the middle, right at the hole behind the painting they had found before.
Currently, the box was both the beginning and the end for them; the ratio was 50/50, making the decision more and more difficult. This time, Arknight just stood close to get a clearer view and looked at them.
"This time, change the person."
Arknight had just opened a way for them to survive, so she went to pass them. Luca also agreed, even though he was weak, but it was a simple morality that everyone had learned when they were young; if they didn't know, it would be considered uneducated…
Rivenhart volunteered without… to be exact, he automatically walked towards the box and put it on the dining table, and everyone turned around, curious about what this box was.
"This is probably a new announcement or hint for the new update."
Luca, although he didn't want to be the center now, had to ask anyway, just act like a normal newcomer.
"Will the new update appear regularly?"
"Yes, it will appear almost every time someone uses a bug, or too powerful, or there's a special event like a boss dying or something, just think of it as a game update."
Sol explained on behalf of his taciturn boyfriend to the rest. Eirene was quite surprised. After all, in her previous playthrough, she had never experienced a similar situation; this was the first time… How should she say it? It was quite interesting; it made the game much more interesting.
Luca also took in new information… The fact that a game fixes it immediately makes it quite difficult to exploit bugs often, and it must be admitted that it is quite flexible when it comes to that problem.
"If that's the case, then this box is likely a hint or notification of a new change; in general, it will have some information we need."
Sol said while looking at Rivenhart and winked at him, while he blushed a little.
OMG ARE THESE TWO LOVERS?!
Crestfall and Mareen were officially surprised on the spot… they were about to die, and they were single and under emotional attack… Eirene and Arknight already knew or guessed it before, so it was no surprise, and as for Luca, well, he didn't really care anyway; he was bisexual, so this was quite normal.
Back to work, Rivenhart slowly walked closer to the box and unlocked it quite gently. Inside, there was only a piece of paper and a rose with thorns.
Luca and everyone else read this passage with a little pity for the woman… Well, not just a few of them. The point to note is that another character had appeared… the devil.
Rivenhart frowned slightly. He held the rose with two fingertips as if afraid that touching it too hard would cause it to shatter into ashes. The sharp thorns glinted under the beautiful but dangerous white light, just like the passage they had just read.
"The demon…"
Sol muttered, his eyes lingering on each word as if trying to analyze the hidden meaning.
"If it's included in the reminder, it means it's not just a symbol."
Luca swallowed as he felt a chill run down his spine. Not because of the content of the text, but because of the way the paper was placed in the box. Subtle but intentional, like a whisper for those sensitive enough to understand.
"What does it mean? Is… we're going to meet a real demon?"
Rivenhart didn't answer Mareen's question right away, but instead placed the rose in his palm and turned it gently. The thorns lightly touched his skin, leaving faint red marks.
"I think… this is a warning about the hidden law."
"The hidden law?"
"In this kind of game, the most dangerous thing isn't the monsters. It's the things that make the player misunderstand."
Everyone fell silent in the dining room; the atmosphere was unusually heavy after just one sentence…
A short 'beep' sound rang out from the ceiling, making everyone jump. A new line of text appeared on the wall, red as if it had just been written in blood.
Luca heard someone behind him gasp. No one knew what this meant, but everyone felt that something had just been activated. A new mechanism or a new game phase, or rather a new version, was starting.
Rivenhart gently squeezed the rose in his hand, the thorns pricked his skin, and the blood that oozed out only made Sol feel sorry for him.
"Keep calm."
Luca and the others are taking their mission to protect their mistress seriously. Will it start from here?
Clank…
The sound of the door being opened startled everyone who was on guard, and Arknight immediately went out, followed by Sol and the others.
Right at the entrance, they saw a very handsome and handsome man entering, but no one was surprised or too happy at this appearance.
"It's been a long time since I have been back here, huh?"
The man smiled wryly while everyone became more tense… The husband-in-law had officially appeared.