Dice In The Darkness: Cthulhu Calls

Chapter 521: Cross Lake

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow, looking at Alice with a hint of surprise. "This branch has a special mission? That’s unusual. After all, it’s located within a school, and the school isn’t under the control of the Deep Diving Society. So what kind of special mission could this branch have?"

Alice nodded. "That’s what I thought too. I have no idea what kind of special mission this branch could have, because I haven’t been able to find any information about it."

It seemed that the difficulty of the module in the Hound of Tindalos region had indeed increased by a level, as it had significantly reduced the difficulty of obtaining intelligence.

In the previous module in the Shoggoth Region, Liu Xing and his companions had been able to gather a lot of intelligence at the beginning. However, in this module, they had yet to gather any intelligence at all.

After all, the information about the Mysterious Studies Club had all been revealed by the Keeper, Bamboo Rat.

It seemed that this time, they would have to find the intelligence themselves from scratch.@@novelbin@@

"Alright, I’ll be going now. The Deep Diving Society should know that I’ve returned to the Island Nation soon, so I can’t stay here for long. Once I’ve decided where to open a bar, I’ll contact you," Alice said, standing up.

Liu Xing nodded. "Alright, we’ll contact you by phone then. But speaking of which, doesn’t the Deep Diving Society know your real identity? After all, the Cult of the Cadaver must have discovered you in England."

Alice chuckled confidently. "That’s true, but when we were in England, we also discovered that the Cult of the Cadaver and the Deep Diving Society are at odds with each other. The Cult of the Cadaver has never allowed the Deep Diving Society to operate in England, nor have they provided the Deep Diving Society with any information about us. So before I returned, I contacted an undercover agent who had become a mid-level executive in the Deep Diving Society. He told me that the Deep Diving Society still doesn’t know about me, so that’s why I dared to return to the Island Nation."

It seemed that even secret cults were divided and suspicious of each other.

However, that was normal. After all, their goal was to rule the world. How could they truly cooperate?

This was a good thing.

After breakfast, Liu Xing and his companions decided to visit Tokyo Comprehensive University to see if they could find any information.

Since the new semester was starting in two days, Tokyo Comprehensive University was already bustling with activity. Many new students were carrying large bags and suitcases, preparing to move into their dormitories early.

Because Alice had pulled some strings, Liu Xing and his companions, who were supposed to live in the dormitories, had all become day students. They didn’t have to live in the dormitories with a bunch of strangers, which made it much easier for them to move around.

According to the new student handbook they had received when they enrolled, Tokyo Comprehensive University could be divided into two main areas. The east campus was the academic area, while the west campus was the living area. Liu Xing and his companions’ main target, the club activity area, was located on the east campus.

Therefore, Liu Xing and his companions went straight to the east campus.

The east campus had three teaching buildings and one laboratory building.

One of the teaching buildings was quite old, so the school had arranged for it to be used exclusively for club activities. Therefore, all the clubs that held their activities indoors were assigned to this Old Teaching Building.

When they arrived at the Old Teaching Building, Liu Xing and his companions saw that the various clubs had already put up their recruitment posters.

Liu Xing scanned the posters, but he didn’t see anything for the Mysterious Studies Club.

However, that was normal. After all, the occult was not a popular subject. Even in this parallel world with a Cthulhu Mythos background, there were very few universities that offered a major in the occult. (In the real world, it seemed that only Harvard University offered a dedicated major in the occult. Other universities offered majors in religion, philosophy, etc. at most.) Of course, the most famous one was Miskatonic University.

Therefore, although they were still unsure about the specific situation of the Mysterious Studies Club, Liu Xing was certain that the Mysterious Studies Club at Tokyo Comprehensive University was just a small club. Aside from the members of the Deep Diving Society, it would probably only recruit a few ordinary students as cover.

Since the club building was not officially open yet, Liu Xing and his companions could only go elsewhere.

However, before they had taken a few steps, they came to a man-made lake.

The man-made lake was estimated to be the size of more than ten standard football fields. There was also a pavilion in the middle of the lake, and unlike ordinary pavilions that only had a single walkway, this one was directly connected to the four cardinal directions.

"The design of this pavilion is quite interesting," Liu Xing said.

Zhang Jingxu nodded in agreement. "But it’s also convenient for pedestrians. They don’t have to take a detour. However, this lake seems to be quite deep."

Ling Ishikawa, who was holding the new student handbook, said, "This lake should be Cross Lake. Before Tokyo Comprehensive University was established, Cross Lake was a flat area. At that time, someone was preparing to build a department store here. However, after the foundation had just been laid and the underground parking lot had been completed, a typhoon struck. After the typhoon passed, Cross Lake appeared. The steel and wood from the construction site were floating on Cross Lake, and most importantly, they formed a cross. That’s how Cross Lake got its name."

"Of course, the developer at that time chose to drain Cross Lake and continue building the department store. However, the pumping work continued for a day and a night. Logically speaking, the water pumped out should have been enough to fill two Cross Lakes, but the water level of Cross Lake still didn’t drop. Therefore, some people believed that there might be an underwater river connected to Cross Lake after the typhoon, and the groundwater that surged after the typhoon had been replenishing Cross Lake, which was why the pumping work made no progress."

"So the developer had no choice but to temporarily halt the construction of Cross Lake and wait for the water level of the underground river to drop before dealing with Cross Lake. A few days passed, and logically speaking, the underground river should no longer be able to replenish Cross Lake. So the developer started the pumping work again, and this time, they prepared even more pumps. However, another day and night passed, and the water level of Cross Lake still didn’t change."

"This was obviously very abnormal, so the developer hired divers to investigate the situation. However, they found that the water under Cross Lake was extremely murky, and they couldn’t see anything at all. So they had no choice but to return empty-handed. At this time, the abbot of a nearby temple found the developer and told him that there might be a sea eye under Cross Lake that was directly connected to the ocean. Therefore, the water in Cross Lake could never be drained."

"Of course, the developer didn’t believe it, or rather, he couldn’t bear to give up the land of Cross Lake. After all, the cost of buying the land, laying the foundation, building the underground parking lot, and paying the workers during this period was a huge sum of money. How could he just give up? Therefore, the developer waited another half a month and then started a larger-scale pumping operation. However, the result is what we see now. It was completely useless."

"Therefore, the developer had no choice but to give up. After that, Tokyo Comprehensive University decided to build a new campus here. They used the underground parking lot in Cross Lake as the foundation and built this pavilion. They officially named it Cross Lake. The shallowest part of Cross Lake is about three meters deep, and the deepest part is probably more than ten meters deep. Therefore, although there are no railings around Cross Lake, students are forbidden from walking around the lake. Violators will be expelled."

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow, saying with some doubt, "Isn’t this rule a bit strange? If the school is worried about students having accidents while walking near Cross Lake, they could just install railings around Cross Lake. That wouldn’t cost much."

Ling Ishikawa shrugged and continued, reading from the new student handbook, "According to the new student handbook, the reason why the school hasn’t installed railings around Cross Lake is because they’ve already installed railings around Cross Lake many times, using various materials. However, something strange happened. No matter what material the railings were made of, they would all develop problems within a month. Basically, the railings would corrode severely on the inside and would break with just a light touch. Even stainless steel railings would break. As for the specific problem, the school hasn’t been able to figure it out."

"Because of this, the school had no choice but to give up on installing railings. After all, without railings, students would be more careful and the likelihood of them accidentally falling into the water would be much lower. However, if students were faced with railings that could fail at any time, they might become careless and lean or lie on the railings without any preparation. Then, because the railings were damaged, they might fall into the water. This has happened quite a few times before."

"In that case, it should be a problem with the water. Hasn’t Tokyo Comprehensive University studied the water in Cross Lake?" Zhang Wenbing said, stroking his chin.

Ling Ishikawa shook her head and said seriously, "According to Tokyo Comprehensive University, they’ve contacted many experts to study the situation of Cross Lake, but they still haven’t found any problems with the water quality of Cross Lake. One could even say that the water quality of Cross Lake is better than that of many international mineral water sources. Therefore, Tokyo Comprehensive University ruled out water quality issues and turned to studying the geological conditions around Cross Lake. However, they found nothing. So in the end, Tokyo Comprehensive University had no choice but to resort to this measure."

Liu Xing nodded and said, "It seems that the reason why the Deep Diving Society has established a branch within Tokyo Comprehensive University is because of this Cross Lake. As for the so-called secret mission of this branch, it should be to investigate the various疑点 of this Cross Lake. Next, as long as we stay near Cross Lake, we should be able to find the people from the Deep Diving Society."

"Then should we go to the pavilion in the middle of the lake now?" Zhang Jingxu suggested.

"Of course."

Everyone said in unison.

Soon, Liu Xing and his companions arrived at the pavilion in the middle of the lake.

Because there weren’t many people active in Tokyo Comprehensive University today, and it was already eleven o’clock in the morning, Liu Xing and his companions were able to "monopolize" the pavilion.

However, the scenery of the pavilion was nothing special. After all, strictly speaking, Cross Lake was a man-made lake, so the environment was naturally not as good as that of a natural lake... To put it simply, it lacked灵气.

Therefore, after Liu Xing and his companions looked around and found nothing, they returned the same way they came.

Because it was already noon, and Liu Xing and his companions weren’t really here to attend Tokyo Comprehensive University, they were not interested in their future learning environment. They left Tokyo Comprehensive University directly and found a random place nearby to eat.

Because Liu Xing and his companions were all Chinese (although Liu Xing and Ling Ishikawa were now only Chinese in spirit), they chose a restaurant that claimed to serve authentic Shudu cuisine.

After entering the restaurant, Zhang Wenbing, as the oldest person in the group, naturally took on the responsibility of ordering the dishes.

In order to verify whether this restaurant was authentic or not, Zhang Wenbing deliberately said to the waiter in Chinese, "We’ll have one serving of mapo tofu, boiled fish, twice-cooked pork, and kung pao chicken."

The waiter looked at Zhang Wenbing in surprise and said in Chinese, "Judging from your accent, you should be from the Magic Capital. We’re fellow countrymen."

Zhang Wenbing nodded and said with a smile, "Then it seems that your Shudu restaurant is not very authentic. After all, we people from the Magic Capital are not very good at eating spicy food."

The waiter shook his head with a smile and said, "No, no, no. I’m a student at Tokyo Comprehensive University. I’m just working part-time at this restaurant. The owner of this restaurant is a genuine Shudu native, and many of the ingredients are airlifted from China by the owner’s son. So I can guarantee that the Shudu cuisine at this restaurant is very authentic."

Zhang Jingxu nodded and said with a smile, "In that case, you’re our senior. The few of us are all freshmen at Tokyo Comprehensive University this year. Senior, you have to take care of us in the future."

"No problem. My name is Zhang Shiwu. I’m a third-year student majoring in management at Tokyo Comprehensive University. If you have any problems in the future, feel free to come to me. We’re all in a foreign country, so we definitely have to help each other." Zhang Shiwu said, patting his chest.

It was obvious that this Zhang Shiwu was the NPC who would provide basic information for their group in this module.

Therefore, after Zhang Jingxu asked Zhang Shiwu to submit the order to the kitchen, they pulled Zhang Shiwu down to sit and chat.

Soon, Zhang Jingxu naturally turned the conversation to the clubs at Tokyo Comprehensive University.

"Because Tokyo Comprehensive University is a comprehensive university, there are all kinds of clubs. However, in the last semester, because there were too many clubs, many clubs had conflicts with each other for various reasons, so quite a few clubs were disbanded." Zhang Shiwu said, taking a sip of water.

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