Xiao Lou stood before the wall of cards, dazzled by the sheer number of them. He was surprised to discover that, aside from symbols like the Two of Hearts and the Three of Spades in the upper left corner, each card featured an animation.

These cards seemed like countless condensed dimensions. Each card, like a miniature television screen, was playing out a different plot.

The card directly in front of him had the clearest animation.

Xiao Lou peered closely and saw that in the card world, a short girl was being chased by several hideous zombies. She slipped and fell to the ground. The zombies quickly surrounded her, ripped off her head, and devoured it with relish. The girl's terrified eyes seemed to be looking straight at him through the window of the cards—

Xiao Lou's scalp tingled, his stomach nauseated. He clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging into his palms. The intense pain told him this wasn't a dream, but another, alien dimension composed of cards he couldn't comprehend. That girl definitely wasn't going to survive, but having her brain eaten by zombies was too cruel a death...

Was she, like himself, inexplicably dragged into the card world?

Xiao Lou closed his eyes, unable to bear the sight.

The system asked coldly, "Did you see the world in the cards?"

Xiao Lou took a deep breath and said, "Yes."

The system said, "You only have one chance to change your choice. A or B. Which one do you choose?"

Xiao Lou said without hesitation, "I choose B."

The system said, "Confirm your choice."

The system said, "Congratulations on becoming the 86,587,847th challenger in the card world. Before entering the new world, you can change your appearance and gender. You have three minutes to adjust your initial data."

A mirror appeared before them. The young man in the mirror had a handsome face and gentle features, but at that moment, his face was unnaturally pale—anyone who encountered such a situation would find it difficult to remain calm. Xiao Lou was considered relatively calm. At least when he saw the girl's head being eaten by zombies, he didn't scream. Xiao Lou looked at himself in the mirror and said calmly, "Appearance and gender will remain unchanged."

Perhaps many people who died in accidents were transported to the card world. He was over 80 million challengers, and he thought that if he didn't make any adjustments, he might run into someone he knew. Although he couldn't understand this card world, all he could do for now was to abide by the rules of this new world and try to survive. "Challenger Xiao Lou, initial data storage successful." The mirror before him vanished, but the system's cold, mechanical voice lingered: "Next, let's read out the basic rules of the new world."

"In the card world, each card represents a different miniature world. You can think of it as a secret room."

"The type of secret room is determined by the suit of the card. Hearts represent puzzle rooms, diamonds represent trap rooms, spades represent survival rooms, and clubs represent challenge rooms."

"The difficulty of the secret rooms, from lowest to highest, is D, C, B, A, S, and finally, the most difficult, SS. Only by clearing the SS-level rooms can you return to the human world and truly be reborn."

"Successfully clear a level and receive rewards. Failure will result in punishment in the Nightmare Room. Players who fail to survive the Nightmare Room will be completely wiped out of the card world."

"I'll just explain the rules once. Now, please choose your cards."

Four cards appeared out of thin air in front of Xiao Lou: 2 of Hearts, 2 of Diamonds, 2 of Spades, and 2 of Clubs. These four cards, unlike those on the card wall with their dynamic storylines, resembled the most common playing cards in everyday life, with suits printed on the front. He had no idea what he would face after turning the cards over.

Each card represented a world. Which one should he choose?

Xiao Lou pondered carefully, reached out, and drew the "Two of Hearts."

He had loved detective novels since childhood. Ever since his roommate dragged him to a locked room game during college, he had fallen in love with these thrilling, logically rigorous, real-life escape room games. Whenever he visited a city, Xiao Lou would check out the escape room venues in each major city. He had played hundreds of them and was well-versed. However, in his world, escape room games were mostly puzzle-solving and mechanical. He had never heard of "survival" or "challenge" escape rooms.

Thinking back to the image of the girl being eaten by zombies, the survival room of the spades card was likely to be a dangerous place to survive; the challenge room of the clubs card, by its very name, sounded daunting; entering rashly could lead to an even more horrific end. Relatively speaking, the Diamonds mechanism and the Hearts puzzle sounded more user-friendly, and they were also Xiao Lou's forte.

To be on the safe side, he chose Hearts first.

—Card selection complete.

—The Hearts 2 secret room, "Rose Funeral," is now open.

—Challenger Xiao Lou, data loading complete.

—The time limit is 30 minutes; exceeding the time limit will result in a failure.

After the system prompt, a soft, blood-red glow suddenly emanated from the Hearts 2 card. This light quickly formed a vortex, sucking Xiao Lou directly into the card world.

Xiao Lou's vision suddenly went dark.

When he regained his vision, he found himself in a narrow, empty corridor.

The corridor was dimly lit, with a door at the end. The surrounding walls were bare, the common white, and beneath his feet lay spotless off-white tiles. No useful clues were to be found.

A transparent floating frame with the words "Countdown 30:00" appeared before him. Xiao Lou noticed the countdown had already begun, so he hurried to the door.

He pushed the door open and quickly scanned the interior—

It was a three-bedroom, two-living-room residence, approximately 120 square meters.

The furniture was warm-toned, creating a very cozy atmosphere. The living room featured a soft fabric sofa, a thick rug beneath the coffee table, and a large LCD TV opposite. The dining room was immaculately clean, with a bouquet of vibrant roses on the table.

The doors to the three adjacent rooms were all open. One was the master bedroom, one was a children's room covered in cartoon wallpaper, and the other was a study.

The house was open from north to south, with a square layout, a typical layout for a family of three.

Upon entering, Xiao Lou was struck by a strange, foul odor, seemingly mixed with the fragrance of roses.

He followed the scent to the master bedroom. In the center of the bedroom sat a double bed, now covered with bright red roses. Atop the rose petals lay a woman in white silk pajamas, her hands gently folded across her abdomen, appearing to sleep peacefully.

However, a large, glaring mass of blood splattered across her chest.

The woman's pajamas were stained red, and her delicate, once-makeup-filled face was now stained with the telltale signs of corpse necrosis. Her lips were blue, her skin pale as paper. The air was thick with a foul odor, the very scent of the woman's corpse.

—The Red Hearts 2 secret room was a murder scene!

Xiao Lou nearly vomited from the overwhelming stench. He pinched his nose hard and surveyed his surroundings.

As a longtime escape room game player, he had played numerous puzzle-solving rooms and witnessed many horrific scenes. Furthermore, his expertise as a forensic examiner had made him immune to corpses. Therefore, upon suddenly spotting a female corpse on the bed, he didn't panic, but quickly calmed himself. The card suit of Hearts represents the "Puzzle Room."

Since this room was a murder scene, the mystery to be solved was naturally the cause of death.

Xiao Lou endured the stench of the corpse, stepped forward, and began a thorough examination.

The deceased, a young woman in her 30s, had died at home in her pajamas.

There was a large pool of blood on her chest. The fatal wound was a stab wound to the heart. The weapon was likely a sharp knife, which had directly pierced the heart's aorta, with a very decisive and efficient technique. Apart from this, she had no other injuries or signs of abuse.

This was the master bedroom, with a separate bathroom.

Xiao Lou began searching the room for clues.

He went to the bathroom first.

There were many long hairs scattered on the bathroom floor, the same brown curly hair as the deceased. They must have been left there while she was bathing, and she hadn't had time to clean them. Also in the bathroom were her changed clothes, with some dark red stains on them. Xiao Lou picked it up and examined it carefully. It looked a bit like blood, but it wasn't. It was clearly different from the blood on her pajamas.

[Countdown 28:10]

[Special Tip for D-Class Secret Room: Clue Collection 5%]

The moment he picked up the clothes, a line of text suddenly appeared in the floating box in front of him: Clue Collection 5%. This was a crucial reminder, especially for newcomers to the card world; it at least allowed him to confirm whether the items he had found were related to the case.

It seemed that the clothes were indeed connected to the case. Xiao Lou carefully searched the pockets of the clothes but found nothing else. However, the dark red stains on the clothes, resembling blood, seemed to remind him of something.

He put the clothes down and continued searching for other clues.

The bathtub and toilet were clean, and the toiletries on the sink looked normal. In the nearby trash can, some toilet paper looked dirty. Xiao Lou turned the trash can upside down and dumped the contents onto the floor.

He found some scraps of paper.

Xiao Lou quickly pushed aside the soiled toilet paper and retrieved all the torn paper. He pieced the shredded paper together and surprisingly pieced together a photo—the ID photo from their marriage certificate.

[Countdown 27:45, Clue Collection 15%]

Xiao Lou memorized the two clues, turned, and left the bathroom, beginning his search in the bedroom.

The escape room games he'd played before usually had a time limit of over an hour, with the more challenging ones usually lasting three to five hours, and some large group escape rooms could even take seven or eight hours.

Half an hour to solve the puzzle was too short.

Thankfully, this room wasn't too difficult; it was a D-level room after all, and there was a "Clue Collection" indicator.

As Xiao Lou searched the closet, he quickly analyzed the situation in his mind.

The ID photo from the marriage certificate had been torn up and thrown into the bathroom trash, indicating the woman's marriage had broken down. However, the presence of men's clothing and shoes in her apartment suggested they hadn't reached the stage of divorce. Her death was likely connected to her husband, and the focus of his search would be on his belongings. Xiao Lou quickly searched through all the pockets of the man's clothes in the closet—only to find a wallet. It contained no cash or bank cards, but a photo of the couple, the couple pictured on their marriage certificate.

In the photo, the woman, wearing a pristine white wedding dress, nestled happily in the man's arms. The handsome man and beautiful woman looked perfectly matched.

[Countdown 24:06, Clue Collection 25%]

Searching the closet took a long time. Xiao Lou calmed down and thought, then turned to search the dresser and nightstand.

On the dresser, he spotted an exquisite perfume bottle. He opened it and sniffed, discovering the scent of roses.

In the dresser drawer, he found a card. It read, "Dear, this bottle of rose perfume is for you. I wish you a happy birthday and eternal youth and beauty—your best friend, Liu Yun, July 17th." A large red cross had been crossed out over the word "best friend" on the card. Birthdays, rose perfume, the crossed-out card, the new character Liu Yun—these clues are crucial. The floating box in front of Xiao Lou shows his clue collection percentage jumping from 25% to 50%!

[Countdown 22:00, Clue Collection 50%]

[Clues collected over halfway, a suspicious figure appears. Do you want to identify the murderer? Yes/No]

[Hint: The faster you complete the level, the more clues you collect, and the higher the reward.]

Xiao Lou thought for a moment and selected "No" in the floating box.

He still had 22 minutes, and without all the clues, there was a high chance he'd misidentify the murderer.

The few clues he'd found so far all pointed to the husband or best friend as the culprit: the husband had an affair with his best friend, and when the hostess caught him, the heroine, in anger, tore up her marriage certificate and drew a large red cross on the card her best friend had given her. Perhaps an argument arose on her birthday, and the heroine was murdered by her husband or best friend.

If that were the story, most of the clues could be explained.

But...

Is it really that simple?

Xiao Lou glanced at the gorgeous rose bed and quickly turned and walked out.

This wasn't the original crime scene at all.