In the quiet suburban streets of Kami-Ikebukuro in Tokyo stands a three-story house that looks no different from the rest. Inside, however, youths wearing historical Chinese costumes are absorbed in trying to solve a murder.

Welcome to the world of murder mystery games, where players sit around a table with a notepad and a pen in hand, trying to reason their way through a carefully woven script to find the culprit sitting among them.

Known as "jubensha" in Chinese — literally "scripted murder" — these elaborate role-playing games have taken China's youth by storm in recent years, with a consumer insight report by Meituan, China's leading provider of on-demand online services, forecasting sales of 15.42 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) in 2021 to 9.41 million consumers.