Chapter 1

"Go straight, turn right at the end of the road, and then you will reach your destination."

"GPS is continuously guiding you."

"GPS signal is weak."

'You have arrived at your destination.'

The last sentence was not a voice but floating text in the air.

Star River Script Shop.

Jiang Qi looked at the destination at the end of the road, his expression uncontrollably cracking.

He knew it, his sister was never reliable.

This script murder shop, hidden in a small alley in the old district, where the GPS signal was often abnormal and could not be found even with navigation, was the one his sister Jiang Bing had spoken of, which she had invested heavily in, located in a bustling market, central urban area, and CBD, with a promising future.

On his way here, Jiang Qi did not see high-rise buildings or bustling commercial districts; he only saw breakfast shops, halal beef noodle shops, quick-fry fast food shops, Hunan rice noodle shops, spicy hot pot shops, skewer shops, pancake shops, fruit stands, Mianyang rice noodle shops, and countless fly-by-night restaurants with signs that were already tilted and illegible.

This was clearly a street of old district snack shops and delivery services!

If it weren't for a system that could only provide directions and had no other function, Jiang Qi would probably be so full he couldn't find the destination.

Just as Jiang Qi stood at the shop door, doubting his life, his sister Jiang Bing called.

"Hello."

"Jiang Qi, have you arrived at my shop? Is the navigation correct?"

"I've arrived, but this place seems a bit different from what you told me yesterday..."

"It's fine that you've arrived. I'm already at the airport, and I have to board in half an hour. I have another call to make, so I'll keep it short."

"This shop has cost me a lot of effort. You know, I've run 12 shops before, and I have rich experience in running shops. I had high hopes for this one. If it weren't for something that required me to be away for half a year, I wouldn't want to leave."

"Since you just graduated and haven't decided what to do yet, why don't you help me run the shop for half a year? You're good at this anyway. Your parents always say you stay at home all day and don't go out or make friends. Running a script murder shop is great for socializing. Since you just graduated and don't have a job, I won't let you work for free. You can keep the shop's profits for the next few months as pocket money. If you really like it, I'll give the shop to you, and I'll open another one elsewhere."

"I'll send you the landlord's WeChat. If there are any problems with the house, talk to him. The rent is paid every six months, and there are four months left. Don't worry, work hard!"

"I remember you said last night..."

"Oops, I have a call, I'll hang up. If you need anything, contact me on WeChat. Beep... beep... beep beep beep..."

Jiang Qi: ...

Didn't you say you had half an hour before boarding?

Jiang Qi looked up at the Star River Script Shop squeezed between Wang's Pancake Shop and Tian Tian Fried Skewers, sighed deeply, and found a corner to quietly open the exclamation mark that had been floating in the upper right corner of his vision, opening the system panel.

Since the summer of his senior year in high school, when he was tricked by Jiang Bing into helping her run a shop, Jiang Qi had obtained a system whose purpose he didn't know.

Player Name: Jiang Qi

Age: 23

Occupation: Freelancer

Owned Shops: Milk Tea Shop (closed), Fried Chicken Shop (closed), Skewer Shop (closed), Flower Shop (closed), Childcare Center (closed), Snack Shop (closed), Convenience Store (closed)

Script Murder Shop (locating, not confirmed)

This system was activated the moment Jiang Qi stepped into the soon-to-be-closed milk tea shop (working illegally) that Jiang Bing had tricked him into running. Apart from helping Jiang Qi locate the shops he owned, it had no other functions.

The system panel was extremely simple, with only text and no images. The text was in Song style, indicating that the game had not hired an artist. Jiang Qi had had the system for four years, and this three-nothing half-finished system had not changed at all. The only update was the addition of a new shop to the "Owned Shops" section each time Jiang Qi helped Jiang Bing take over a shop. It was indeed a fake and inferior system.

"Hello, are you Jiang Bing's brother, Jiang Qi?" Just as Jiang Qi was silently cursing this three-nothing system, a clear female voice interrupted his thoughts.

A girl with a semi-heavy makeup, with mascara clearly smeared on her eyelids, and a rather delicate appearance, had appeared behind Jiang Qi.

"Who are you?"

"I'm a summer part-time worker at your sister's shop. My name is Liu Lan. You can just call me Lan Lan." Liu Lan said with a smile, "Just now, Bing Sister called to tell me you were at the shop entrance. I waited for two minutes and didn't see you, so I came out to look for you. Our shop is not on this side but on the other side. The sign is not very noticeable, and the GPS location is inaccurate. I guessed you might not have found it, so I came to pick you up."

Sure enough, part-time workers were the favorite of Jiang Bing, who had saving money ingrained in her DNA.

Jiang Qi had been one of them before, even cheaper than ordinary college student part-timers, only promised a future and not paid, and sometimes even had to pay out of his own pocket.

Jiang Qi quickly closed the system panel as Liu Lan turned around and nodded, "Thank you, it's indeed hard to find."

Looking at his phone, Jiang Qi confirmed it was only June 17th, and even college students generally hadn't taken their summer break yet, so he said, "Your school's break is quite early, it's not even July yet."

"My home is nearby. I study broadcasting and hosting at the local teacher's college, so it's very convenient to work. The school hasn't taken a break yet, but there are no more classes. I can come every day during the summer, and I can come on other days as long as I don't have classes. Bing Sister set my summer salary at 1000 yuan base pay plus commission, with four days off per month. Currently, I'm the only DM (script murder host) in the shop, and another part-time worker will be back next week. I hope the young boss will take care of me."

Liu Lan was quite familiar with the surrounding restaurant owners. As they passed a noodle shop, she shouted to the owner, "Boss, don't forget to send a bowl of beef noodle soup over in the evening, extra scallions, no cilantro."

"What about your regular base pay?" Jiang Qi asked.

"Regular? There's no regular base pay, only commission." Liu Lan didn't think there was anything wrong with it, "Bing Sister is very nice. She said since I don't have classes now, it's the same as being a summer worker, so she started calculating my summer pay from the day before yesterday."

Jiang Qi looked at this worker who had already been exploited by capitalists before entering society: ...

If he remembered correctly, the operating hours of the script murder shop that Jiang Bing told him last night were from 2 PM to late at night, with no upper limit.

He could only say, Sister, you are indeed you.

As the only brother of Jiang Bing, Jiang Qi knew his capitalist sister very well.

Graduated from a famous art school, her main job was an illustrator, and her secondary job was running shops. From her freshman year to now, she had opened 12 shops of various sizes, from milk tea shops, fried chicken shops, and skewer shops to print shops, clothing shops, and flower shops, with a wide range and variety that made people exclaim that she must have too much money to burn.

The common feature of these shops was their short lifespan and low cost, ranging from a week to a year. The first shop Jiang Bing opened was a stationery shop, seven years ago when Jiang Qi was still in high school. The shop was located on a seafood street, using the family's own storefront, so there was no rent. It only lasted a week before closing, and the stationery left behind was still not used up by Jiang Qi.

At that time, Jiang Qi thought his sister would see reality, realize she wasn't cut out for business, and turn back. But Jiang Bing was more determined to try, losing more and more, using her main job's money to support her side jobs, truly achieving a state of being penniless.

Jiang Qi wasn't the first to help his sister clean up the mess. As a recent college graduate who had failed the postgraduate entrance exam and was torn between retaking it and finding a job, Jiang Qi had plenty of time. He had started from the summer of his senior year in high school, helping Jiang Bing take over (working for free) several shops that were about to close, mastering various snack-making techniques and shop-closing methods, accumulating rich work experience at a young age.

It was clear that Jiang Bing had not learned how to make money as a capitalist, but she had learned how to exploit employees to the fullest.

Given that Jiang Qi himself had a useless system, he had reason to suspect that Jiang Bing had a system that could make money by opening and closing shops, otherwise, it was hard to understand why she was so enthusiastic about opening shops after closing so many different ones.

And the more she opened, the bigger and more expensive they became.

Jiang Qi followed Liu Lan into the shop.

The first floor was well-decorated, with a reception desk and a bar counter in sight. Behind the reception desk were two large wooden bookshelves, with hundreds of scripts, and a few delicate small decorations on the empty parts of the shelves. On the bar counter were two figurines Jiang Qi didn't recognize, a few glass cups that looked quite textured, and a half-drunk glass of juice. The first floor had no excessive decoration, with a sofa set for guests, a corner ice cabinet, light green wallpaper, and a chandelier that didn't quite match the wallpaper. There were hanging plants by the windows, a full-length mirror on the wall, and star lights hanging along the windows. The room was well-lit, giving an overall bright and spacious feeling.

It was much better than Jiang Qi had imagined, and it was clear that Jiang Bing had put some thought into the decoration, which was a step up from the previous shops that were considered decorated with just a layer of wallpaper.

"Bing Sister said you haven't played script murder before, so she asked me to help you run the shop for a while. A group of customers booked a new exclusive script that Bing Sister bought last week, which arrived yesterday. I've already read through it and need a male DM to perform a part. I was thinking of deleting that part, but since you're here, why don't you read that part and we can practice it together to see if you can perform it?"

"You don't have to call me young boss, just call me Jiang Qi." Jiang Qi had no aversion to performing roles; he was in the drama club in college, and most of the time he played plants, flowers, and stones on the side of the road.

Jiang Qi had never been involved in script murder before, and his understanding of it came entirely from the emergency shop manager training that Jiang Bing gave him last night.

Scripts are divided into three types based on price: box, city-limited, and exclusive.

The scripts on the shelves were mostly ordinary box scripts, with no purchase restrictions, and you could buy as many as you wanted.

City-limited scripts are usually limited to three per city, with a few exceptional issuers limiting to twelve per city. City-limited scripts are usually fiercely contested in big cities and casually chosen in small towns, and Jiang Qi's city, Xun City, was the latter.

Exclusive scripts, as the name suggests, are unique to one shop.

DMs are the hosts who guide players in script murder games. Each script has different character roles, and each character has their own story and mission. All the stories are linked together to form the entire script. Players receive a script and need to play the role they receive. Scripts are generally divided into four types: mystery, emotional, comedy, and horror.

As a fan of mystery novels and detective dramas, Jiang Bing's script murder shop naturally focused on mystery scripts. The proportion of mystery scripts was astonishingly 80%, and the remaining 20% were all comedy scripts, with no emotional or horror scripts.

Given such a whimsical approach to running a shop, it was no wonder the shop was on the verge of closing.

Jiang Qi examined the scripts on the shelves, matching them with what Jiang Bing had told him last night. As he looked, he saw one that Jiang Bing hadn't mentioned.

"The Mask Club."

A black cover, not particularly noticeable among the dark-colored scripts.

"What is that script?"