There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

After the hotel regained its brightness, handling the subsequent events became much easier. The ghosts and spirits who mixed in with the crowd under the cover of darkness either hid or awaited the military's punishment.

The second floor was the most chaotic, covered not only with bodies but the crimson blood was particularly glaring.

Once the lighting was restored in the hotel, people in the second-floor guest rooms, who hadn't heard any more commotion from outside, and had heard orderly footsteps just before, opened their doors to check on the situation.

But the horrific scene outside scared them, so they quickly shut their doors again.

At every room's entrance stood two soldiers, strictly guarding, and even those bold enough to attempt leaving were forbidden from exiting their own rooms.

The more rambunctious ones were directly greeted with a gun to their forehead.

The Capital Commandant, having just left Room 218, stood expressionlessly in the messy corridor. He certainly knew that even if he searched Room 218 again, he probably wouldn't find anything, but he just had to go through the motions.

Glancing at the corpses that lay in pools of blood by the stairway, the Capital Commandant slowly made his way to the public restroom to inspect.

The corpses inside had indeed been tampered with.

After the power outage, the soldiers along the corridor had died in various ways. It looked as though the enemy had divided their forces and come up the stairs on both sides.

On the right side of the corridor, apart from the two soldiers at the stairway entrance who died from their throats being slit, the others died instantly without a wound.

It appeared some special method was used?

And the enemy created the false impression that he had come up from the first floor.

The Capital Commandant squatted at the entrance of the public restroom, observing the silent, motionless, unwounded dead soldiers lying on the floor, deep in thought.

The soldiers who had died on the left side of the corridor, judging from the wounds on their throats and temples, seemed to reflect the combat style of the aide who had skirmished with him for a while before.

Perhaps the aide did indeed come up from the first floor.

But it wasn't necessarily the same with the person on the other side.

The two of them cleared the soldiers guarding the corridor and finally met at the restroom—was it really for the dead contact inside?

The Capital Commandant pondered, the clues in his mind gradually coming together.

After the aide followed him to the hotel, he must have established a signal with the agents of the Radiant Corps during the investigation, but unaware that the contact had defected, the aide didn't fully trust him either, so he needed to confirm the contact's identity first.

But the restroom where the deceased was located had tight security—inspecting openly was definitely not possible.

So they needed to create an opportunity.

After that came the sabotage of the hotel's main power switch causing the outage, something only the aide who had individual contact with the two witnesses to the dead could do.

The aide knew he was not trusted by the other party, so he was also creating an opportunity.

And that opportunity was indeed manufactured.

Even, had he not arrived on the second floor in time, the aide might have not revealed his identity.

Because the female server vehemently denied any relationship with the aide and, no matter how severely tortured, couldn't give a reason for sabotaging the power switch, acting almost like—someone completely innocent and unaware.

The female server's reaction did not seem feigned; after all, even her microexpressions were poorly managed, and a mere sentence could scare her into revealing the truth, she really didn't seem like someone with extraordinary acting skills.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have exposed herself.

Perhaps it was… Hypnosis?

But why then didn't the aide choose to hypnotize the woman?

Unless there were specific conditions.

Otherwise, the other party should be able to directly hypnotize him as well.

The Capital Commandant stared expressionlessly at the corpse on the floor, lost in thought with a calm and cold demeanor, his eyes unflinching. A soldier who ran down from upstairs saw this and inexplicably froze, not daring to disturb him.

After a while, the Capital Commandant looked up and glanced at him, "What is it."

The soldier quickly reported, "Sir, there are signs of a struggle and traces of blood in Room 303 on the third floor!"

"Room 303…"

Upon hearing this room number, the Capital Commandant let out a cold laugh.

He stood up, stepped over the corpses, and walked towards the stairway entrance.

…

After the power outage, the soldiers stationed throughout the building refrained from any rash actions until continuous gunfire erupted from the second floor, prompting those on the third floor to decide to go down for support.

As a result, they too were completely wiped out, leading directly to the absence of soldiers guarding the second and third floors.

Capital Commandant walked upstairs, briefly scanned the corridor of the third floor, then turned and entered the wide-open Room 303.

The already searched and ransacked Room 303 had indeed become even more chaotic, with the living room's coffee table and sofa displaced, and a trash can toppled over, its contents of fruit peels and waste paper scattered on the ground.

On the soft leather sofa, there were marks of having been pierced by a small, sharp object.

Had the adjutant been here?

Could it be that the map was really hidden in Room 303 before?

But that seemed unlikely, as the soldiers who had searched Room 303 had nearly torn up the floorboards, leaving it in such a mess that it was uninhabitable.

He had inspected it thoroughly before and hadn't found anything unusual here.

Capital Commandant stared at the traces of combat in the living room, frowning slightly.

Why then had the adjutant come here?

Could it be that he had overlooked something?

After examining the room once more, the Capital Commandant, recalling the bloodstains reported by the soldiers, turned and walked into the bedroom.

A few drops of blood on the floor spread from the window to the inside of the wardrobe.

After opening the wardrobe, one could see even more bloodstains inside; it seemed that the person who had hidden there hadn't thought about erasing any traces at all.

It appeared they had hurriedly panicked into the wardrobe.

This was someone who wasn't very strong mentally.

The bloodstains stretching to the window suggested that the person had intended to escape through the window but had perhaps been restricted and thus abandoned the idea.

For instance, there might have been a sniper outside.

Tsk, the sniper wasn't very capable either.

The more Capital Commandant inspected, the deeper his brow furrowed, and the heavier and more oppressive his aura became, causing the soldiers following him to fall silent as if gripped by a chill.

Having surveyed the entire room, Capital Commandant tentatively reconstructed the events that had taken place.

At the time, there should have been four people present, the adjutant and someone else engaging in combat in the living room, and another person who had arrived in the room before them and hidden inside the bedroom wardrobe.

And naturally, the last person was the adjutant's contact.

The fourth person had left no signs of combat and might have been merely watching.

...Watching?

Capital Commandant fell silent, as there were no other bloodstains or even a body in the room, implying that the brief conflict hadn't reached a conclusion and that the four individuals had finally scattered.

Aside from the adjutant, who were the others?

Were they acquaintances, or had they met by chance?

Or perhaps, had they struck some sort of deal?

Capital Commandant cocked his head, his finger pressing on his temple as he stared thoughtfully at a spot in the living room.

Suddenly, his gaze sharpened.

The trash can, tipped over on the ground, had spilled its contents, including fruit remnants and waste paper.

Since the hotel was under military lockdown, the wait staff were all confined to the hotel's workspaces for supervision, so even after guests switched rooms, no wait staff were immediately available to clean up.

This resulted in the door to Room 303 remaining ajar the entire time.

Capital Commandant walked over, picked up the trash can, and turned it upside down to empty it, but it was already completely empty.

Staring at the fruit peels on the ground, Capital Commandant's face twitched, and he let out a cold laugh. Experience more content on empire

"Bet I wouldn't sift through the trash, did you?"

...