There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

The female social worker leading the way suddenly stopped, then rolled up her eyes and turned around, her expression softening in a second.

Her gaze passed over the female journalist and settled on the thing perched atop the printer.

It was a purebred, pitch-black cat.

Only its eyes were red.

But within those eyes flowed a viscous black sclera, with blood-red, vertical pupils that swirled with a bewitching attraction capable of ensnaring the soul.

It was identical to the eye on the Qiming Orphanage's front gate.

The cat belonged to the head of Qiming Orphanage.

Yet it was the first headmaster's cat, now aged over a dozen years, very much adored by the children, especially having a close relationship with Yueshu.

The cat often traveled between the office and the archives, as the old headmaster liked to read in the archives, spending the whole day there with the cat.

After the destruction of Qiming Orphanage, its role here remained that of a cat.

But it was a somewhat eerie cat.

The female social worker's demeanor was gentle and smiling, but her eyes held no emotion as she stared at the cat until its gaze abruptly met hers.

The cat's head moved without changing its curve, the blood-red pupils minutely dilating as they locked with hers.

The next moment, the female journalist's heavy breathing was heard from the side.

She gasped like a drowning person suddenly hitting air, desperately inhaling the cold breath, which then triggered another bout of coughing.

The female journalist clutched at her chest, her pupils dilated, and it took a long while for her to come to her senses.

That instant of suffocating crisis at the orphanage entrance, she felt it again, and this time it was more intense and violent than before; she even thought she might die from her own asphyxiation!

The surge of nausea in her throat, the choked breath, the delirious words and confusion in her mind—her thoughts were a chaotic mess!

She thought she would fall eternally into that chaos of darkness.

Even now, a mere recollection brought those blood-red eyes with their pitch-black sclera back into her mind, still emitting malice towards her incessantly.

However, within her consciousness, there still shone a dim array of stars.

The female journalist, weakly supporting her head, saw that her blurred vision had cleared, and she immediately looked up to see the social worker in front of her intently staring behind her.

Realizing she had regained consciousness, the social worker, without shifting her gaze, reached out to her.

"Come here,"

the social worker said softly, her voice gentle.

Staring at the outstretched hand before her, the journalist lingered in a daze, somewhat bewildered.

Truth be told, her current situation was truly dire, with a wolf ahead and a tiger behind: behind her was something strange that could throw her into mental chaos with one look, and in front was an inscrutable, false ally.

But now, it seemed she could only choose between these two directions.

After a moment, the journalist resignedly extended her hand.

There was no helping it! Compared to the monster behind that could corrupt her with a glance, at least the female social worker still pretended to be human to deceive her... Wuu wuu wuu...

...

After taking the female journalist's hand, the social worker pulled her back, still fixated on the cat.

The two of them skimmed to the office desk near the door, and before the journalist could react, she was pulled into the wall by the other woman.

The cool and sticky sensation vanished in a flash, and the journalist's vision shifted from pitch black to moonlight white.

Looking around in alarm, she realized she was in a bedroom.

The window of the bedroom was open, letting in the moonlight that cast outlines of the room's interior—a bed, a wardrobe, a desk—in its neat setup.

As the office desk in the archives rested against the right wall, the room behind this parallel wall should be Room [313].

Independent bedroom... This must be the staff dormitory of the orphanage, right?

The last two rules in the archive room state that if you violate the rules of the archive room, you should immediately leave and find a caretaker's room to enter, and then you would get a new job.

A new job at the orphanage...

As this thought dawned on her, the journalist who had come to her senses suddenly pushed off the social worker who was holding her, prepared herself defensively once more, and asked again, "What exactly is your purpose, can you tell me now?"

The female social worker smiled, turned, and walked out of the bedroom, answering a question that wasn't asked, "That cat, actually shouldn't have appeared there at that time."

"... Cat?" The journalist paused.

"Yes, the thing you just saw." The social worker turned back with a puzzled look at her.

"Oh... Oh!"

The journalist felt a bit uneasy and ran her hand through her hair, in truth she had not seen clearly what that thing was at all!

Embarrassed, she had only seen a pair of eyes.

As she saw the social worker walk out of the bedroom, she also followed tentatively while always keeping her distance, ready to activate the marble she was holding at any moment.

Outside the bedroom was a small living room that even had a bathroom and an open kitchen; the room was small but had everything one could need.

Qiming Orphanage's staff benefits are not bad...

The journalist quietly surveyed her surroundings, while silently criticizing in her mind.

"So, what do you mean by this?"

She didn't forget to continue asking questions, and when she saw the social worker stop walking, she also came to an immediate halt.

The social worker turned to look at her: "That cat was probably trying to test me; all the auxiliary rules in the orphanage are independent spaces. Apart from SOA-09, only that cat can move freely between them. Although the archive room is the director's territory, the cat wouldn't need to enter the rule space to get there, and it happened to appear while we were present."

The journalist caught another key point: "So you're saying that after leaving the Black and White Dice, I was indeed still in another rule, right?"

"You're thinking correctly but not completely," the social worker said with a smile, "Actually, you have been in his rule space ever since you broke the first rule."

"Damn it, the first rule was not to enter the orphanage, wasn't it," the journalist muttered under her breath.

So it was impossible to obey in the first place!

The journalist frowned: "Can you just tell me directly what you're after? What exactly do you want to do by pretending to be a social worker and lurking around me?!"

Upon hearing this, the social worker was taken aback, then looked at her up and down with a baffled expression.

The journalist: "..."

The journalist felt provoked by that dumbfounded gaze and, restraining her temper, she asked through gritted teeth, "Is there something wrong? You must have a reason for seeking me out, right?"

"What I didn't expect was that your brain..."

The social worker raised her hand with a strange expression, tapped her temple with her fingertip, and said with a smile, "Has become this simplistic."

Is this the aftereffect of the 'factual notes'?

Because of the reliance on notes for reasoning over the years, has she gradually lost her own thought process?

He had thought he explained things clearly enough just now, yet this person was still obsessed with the social worker's motives.

From the beginning, this group of people was already in the rule space.
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And the archive room was the director's territory.

Apart from the Black Cat, SOA-09 can also enter the rule space associated with Rule Objects.

However, it only allowed the cat to come in, clearly out of wariness of something, or perhaps it didn't want to startle the prey by moving the underbrush.

He delivered such a long spiel, yet this woman, she had nothing but the social worker on her mind.

...