Chapter 1

**Chapter 1** is the first chapter of *Murder by Choice*, primarily taking place at Isla Esperanza.

## Synopsis

Carla Page, a young journalist, receives an unexpected invitation from billionaire Ruben Navarro to join his yearly private party on a tropical island. Upon arrival, Carla finds herself surrounded by some of the richest, most influential people in the world—and directly in the path of the worst storm of the year. However, getting stranded on the island will be the least of her worries. Moments after setting foot on shore, a murder takes place. Carla takes it upon herself to try and get to the bottom of it, but each discovery leads only to more questions.

## Plot

#### The End...?

The cargo ship sounds its horn and stops near Isla Esperanza. Ruben deduces it got as close to the island as possible and gathers everyone to leave. The Admiral goes to get Margot. Everyone gets onto the rowboats on the docks with the paddles Carla found attached. Once the Admiral arrives with Margot still tied up to get on a rowboat, Ruben, Jax, and Q sail their rowboats with the other people on them towards the cargo ship's lowered ladder. After everyone gets onboard with Ruben appearing to talk to the captain, Carla looks back at the island as the ship sails away and the clouds finally clear up. Carla begins narrating and describes what happened afterward.

Once everyone arrived on the mainland U.S., the U.S. government immediately arrested Margot for her crimes and soon interrogated everyone about what happened on the island, protecting everyone during their investigation. In the process, Carla informs the U.S. authorities about the Overseers and gives them Ruben's book on the Overseers' history and members. A month or so later, Margot testified in court against the Overseers, grabbing international attention. Margot revealed all of the Overseers' crimes across the past two decades, exposing all the corruption, coercion, and murder they committed throughout the world. Soon, the governments of the U.S., Italy, Germany, and other countries rose to take down the Overseers, arresting all known members and the biggest members (discovered after not being detailed in Ruben's Overseers book). The members were put on trial and imprisoned, with the elite members, including Margot herself, getting a life sentence. If Carla chose to stop protecting Margot after her trial, Margot soon gets assaulted and killed in prison, with a knife sticking out of her chest and a single tear going down her right eye. If Carla instead chose to keep protecting Margot, Margot lives. Carla notes that Project Genetica was never mentioned in Margot's trial, guessing that the U.S. government decided to cover up the project after Ruben burned all the serum's files.

With the threat of the Overseers gone, the U.S. government allowed everyone to return back to their normal lives, with Carla driving back to her L.A. apartment. Carla later writes and publishes an article titled "Beautiful Mind of Ruben Navarro" about what had happened on Isla Esperanza while avoiding talking about Project Genetica. Carla's article became the most popular issue of the year. Carla then narrates about how everyone else is doing: Ruben and Janet are now a couple, Jax finds a role in an upcoming blockbuster movie, Kat takes a break from work to spend more time with her wife and children, the Admiral earns a medal of honor for his work on Isla Esperanza, and Mrs. Bird and Q return working for Ruben after a long vacation. Carla is seen walking outside the Los Angeles Convention Center happily, holding a coffee cup and phone and thinking how everything was becoming normal again. However, the screen turns black as Carla says "I really thought the nightmare was over". She then says how "if only I’d known what would come next" and how "maybe I could have prevented it". The on-screen white text gets filled up with bloodstains and slowly becomes red...

## Characters

### Main Characters

* Carla Page
* Ruben Navarro

### Supporting Characters

* Margot St. Germain
* Janet Lim
* Jax Traynor
* Freddie Wolf
* Katharine Bennet
* Samuel Wilkinson
* Portia Frost
* Georgiana Bird
* Joaquin Díaz

### Minor Characters

* Unnamed pilot
* Lukas Matonis
* Genie

### Mentioned Characters

* Marianne Page (text messages only)
* Bob (text messages only)
* Emma (text messages only)
* Brook (text messages only)
* Bryan (text messages only)
* William

## Trivia

* This is by far the longest single chapter Nordcurrent has produced, beating any chapter from Murder in the Alps.
* It is unknown when Chapter 1 takes place, other than definitely being in the present-day. Freddie says Ruben saved him a bottle of 2016 Silvaner Rheinhessen, meaning at the very least, Chapter 1 takes place after 2016. The chapter likely takes place during the 2020s, since that was when the chapter was developed and released. This also likely takes place during the spring or summer given the weather and appearance of Isla Esperanza and L.A. as seen during the chapter.
* This chapter is currently unnamed unlike Chapter 2, which is named Wedding Bells.
* There were two glitches during the ending cutscene that have since been patched:
	+ If the player chose to protect the culprit, Carla's two voice lines outside her apartment didn't play. This could have been because there was an extra comic page if the player didn't choose to protect the culprit and Carla's voice lines were coded to player when that page did play.
	+ Carla's final line "Maybe I could have stopped it." didn't show up on-screen while her voice line did play. When the game was patched to have the line on-screen, there is an effect of the white text being filled up as red with blood stains, which could have been why the text didn't show up in the first place.
* This parallels the very first chapter "Deadly Snowstorm" of Murder in the Alps:
	+ Both take place at a location the characters cannot leave due to intense weather.
	+ Both feature a large cast of 9-10 suspects respectively excluding first victims.
	+ Both kill off some suspects over the course of the chapters.
	+ Both have all suspects hide some secret that the protagonists find out.
	+ Both have characters that parallel each other (specifically the protagonists, the owners of the chapters' locations, and the culprits).
	+ Both feature desired research into living longer (Professor Clark finds a recipe for the drink Soma to grant immortality, Ruben creates the Genetica serum to modify one's genes to reverse and stop aging).
* This chapter has many direct references to other Nordcurrent games:
	+ When Carla is snooping through Portia's laptop, she can find and comment on 3 Nordcurrent games Portia has:
		- Cooking Fever: *"I'd love to see Portia have a go at this game."*
		- Murder in the Alps: *"Murder in the Alps... Somehow feels familiar."*
		- Time Guardians: *"Time Guardians! A timeless classic!"*
	+ In the hidden object scene in Margot's dresser, the app icon for Pocket Skyler can be found on one of the shirts.
	+ A corrupted remix of the main theme of Murder in the Alps Part 2 is played on a record player in the club room near the end of the game.
	+ During Exploration Mode, there is a category called "Nordcurrent Universe":
		- The first item is Anna Myers' hat from Murder in the Alps.
		- The second item is a plush burger from Cooking Fever.
		- The third item is a magazine featuring the app logo of Pocket Skyler.

## Gallery

* In-Game
* Q&A

The loading screen of Chapter 1.

The announcement of a Q&A session.The first questions answered.The next questions answered.The last questions answered.