Horror Movie Set: This extra is too good at playing the tricks.

Chapter 79 Actors and Designers

Da Lu reached out to help Lu Dan, who had collapsed to the ground.

As the red dress faded and the yin energy receded, Lu Dan looked like a sponge that had been squeezed dry, his face deathly pale.

Thanks.

With the support of Da Lu, Lu Dan managed to straighten his back.

His gaze swept quickly across the room: Ye Jianguo was leaning against the octagonal table, pressing his hand in pain; Chen Hua was tightening a cloth strip around his severed finger.

It has been confirmed that all members are alive and still conscious.

"Everyone," Lu Dan's voice was hoarse, "don't be too quick to feel relieved, and don't be too quick to cry out in pain. This damn pause button only lasts for half an hour."

He pointed to the giant white hand outside the door, "Once the countdown reaches zero, this deity will come in and take us away."

"We need to do a post-mortem analysis, immediately!"

He pushed Da Lu aside, staggered to the octagonal table, and sat down.

"Indeed." Chen Hua gritted his teeth, his forehead covered in cold sweat. "So far, it's all a mystery. We're like a bunch of blindfolded rats thrown into a maze, just running around aimlessly, with no idea where the exit is."

She glanced out the window. "And this god seems a bit too unsolvable."

A brief silence fell over the room.

Ye Jianguo, who was standing next to him, was in a very strange state. The bluish-black veins on his skin looked like earthworms, throbbing and bulging wildly.

"call--"

Ye Jianguo closed his eyes, his chest heaving violently.

After a long while, he suddenly opened his eyes. He forcefully suppressed the crimson in his eyes with astonishing willpower, and his gaze regained its clarity and determination.

"Let's get to know each other again."

Ye Jianguo's voice was low as he pulled a crumpled ID book from his pocket and threw it on the table.

Although the national emblem on the certificate was stained with blood, it remained solemn.

"My real name is Ye Jianguo. I belong to the Amuro Special Investigations Division and am an investigator sent down by the government."

No one was surprised at all; judging from his actions and demeanor, this official position was inevitable.

"Recently, the number of missing persons has surged, and various supernatural phenomena have been occurring frequently." Ye Jianguo pointed to the ceiling. "The higher-ups have long noticed that an app called 'Film Studio' is eroding reality."

"I'm in charge of investigating all the people who were selected and forcibly brought into the film set."

He pointed to Da Lu, who was panting beside him: "Da Lu is my assistant and also an unofficial member of the investigation team."

Chen Hua raised an eyebrow, ignoring the pain in his hand, and astutely grasped the key point: "Investigators? You're not designers? Then how did you get selected for the film set?"

Lu Dan narrowed his eyes as well, this involved the core of this terrifying app.

"What designers?" Da Lu looked blank. "We're actors! Team Leader Ye and I are both officially registered actors on the app."

An actor? Lu Dan and Chen Hua exchanged a glance, both seeing shock in each other's eyes.

"We're designers," Lu Dan said. "We've never heard of any actors."

He paused, then added, "I've never seen any posts about actors on the forum either."

"This is interesting." Chen Hua sneered. "I know that A Dan's real name is Lu Dan, and he is a very famous horror script designer."

Ye Jianguo said in a deep voice, "I only saw actor recruitment and script announcements on the forum, and I never saw the word 'designer'."

At this point, he frowned. "From what you're saying, this app has screening criteria? It has to be for creative professionals?"

"But according to my previous investigation, the people I encountered in the first few scripts came from all walks of life. There were vegetable vendors, teachers, and unemployed people. They didn't care what your profession was at all."

The intelligence was significantly flawed, indicating that there were two or more completely separate systems operating within the film set.

Lu Dan leaned back in his chair, his brain racing.

Designers are responsible for the concepts, and actors are responsible for the performances?

No, in the scripts they've been through, although they're called designers, they're doing work that puts them at risk of their lives.

Meanwhile, the two actors, Ye Jianguo and Ye Jianguo, are also working hard to drive the plot forward, and the boundaries between their roles are extremely blurred.

He waved his hand, interrupting everyone's thoughts of continuing to investigate: "None of that matters. Whether you call us actors or designers, our current identity is just that of people who want to survive."

"Everyone should be in Anshi in real life, right?"

Everyone nodded.

"That makes things easier. As long as we can get out alive, we'll have plenty of time to discuss the app's operating mechanism at the hot pot restaurant."

"We have about twenty minutes left, and we need to piece together the skeleton of this script. Please share whatever fragments you have; we need to complete the puzzle."

"Let me start by throwing out an idea."

He straightened up and held up one finger: "First, the dual identity system. The most disgusting thing about this script is that it separates day and night."

"At least that's how it is for me. This body is controlled by two completely different consciousnesses during the day and at night."

"At first, the memories weren't interconnected. When I woke up, I didn't know what I did during the day, and when I woke up during the day, I probably didn't know what I did at night either."

He looked at Ye Jianguo and Chen Hua: "Based on your previous experiences, if you want to retain your memories, you must actively cross the back mountain during the day and enter the shady village from the sunny side, right?"

"That's right." Ye Jianguo nodded.

"Okay, here comes the contradiction." Lu Dan held up a second finger. "You said you didn't see another version of yourselves in the villages here."

"In other words, regardless of day or night, Ye Jianguo is Ye Jianguo, and Chen Hua is Chen Hua. You came here with your souls intact; your bodies are unique. But—"

Lu Dan suddenly stopped, his gaze fixed on the oil lamp on the table, as if trying to see through the false tranquility: "I am different, I have already died once."

These words were like a chilling wind blowing down the back of everyone's neck.

Da Lu shuddered: "Brother Lu Dan, this joke isn't funny at all."

"I'm not kidding." Lu Dan said expressionlessly, "Just now, when I was possessed by my roommate, I saw a corpse in the abandoned oil pool of the temple halfway up the mountain. It was wearing a dark blue cotton-padded coat, exactly the same as the one I'm wearing."

"Even though my head was cut off and my body was burned to a crisp, I knew that was me."

"At the same time, in my memory, I am indeed dead."

"So who am I, sitting here talking to you now? If the body is unique, then where did this physical body of mine come from? A clone? Or a product of time travel?"

Lu Dan's words sent a chill down the spines of everyone present.

"And this box." Lu Dan took out the wooden box he had taken from the coffin from his pocket and placed it on the table. "I seem to have foreseen this moment during the day. He left a picture inside the box and said that the 'eye' was with him."

Ye Jianguo stared at the box: "But you don't have 'eyes' during the day."

"Indeed." Lu Dan's lips curled into a mad smile. "So I guess the core that can separate Yin and Yang and support the operation of the entire Twin Village—the 'Eye'—is very likely inside that charred corpse's stomach."

Chen Hua gasped, "So we're going to retrieve the body?"

Lu Dan drew a line on the table with his finger.

"Zhang Min said that the first generation of Lao Ye used his eyes to become a monster and then controlled the entire Shuangshan Village, so the eyes are the anchor point of the rules."

"The current situation is that the headless white-robed god wants to kill us. Once these thirty minutes are over, we'll be sitting ducks."

"The only way to break this deadlock at this stage is to acquire the wards, destroy this balance of yin and yang, and cause everything to collapse."

Da Lu weakly raised his hand: "How do we get there? The gatekeeper is still guarding the outside."

"Furthermore," Ye Jianguo added, "we don't know the specific usage of the 'eye.' What if we get it but don't know how to use it?"