Dice In The Darkness: Cthulhu Calls

Chapter 523: Liu Xing Wants to Drop Out

"Did the drowning person not even cry out for help?" Liu Xing murmured to himself.

Hearing this, Liu Xing had some guesses forming in his mind.

Ming Hanxing continued, "That’s right, the drowning person didn’t make a sound, and even though the location where they fell into Cross Lake is the deepest part, the rescue team arrived in less than a minute. By the time they got there, there wasn’t a single ripple left at the spot. When divers went in an hour later, there was nothing to be found."

"However, Tokyo Comprehensive University and the police still didn’t believe it. They thought this drowning was just an accident, possibly caused by a sudden illness that made the student faint and fall into the water. Due to losing consciousness, the student didn’t call for help and ended up in the unfinished underground parking lot at the bottom of Cross Lake. Since the situation in that unfinished parking lot is complicated, it was normal for the divers not to find the body. Of course, while this reasoning seemed reasonable, almost no one believed it was the truth."

"But at this moment, the abbot of the temple next to Tokyo Comprehensive University stood up again and told the university’s president that there was a sinister ghost lurking beneath Cross Lake, which had come from the sea through a sea eye. It had the ability to control human consciousness, causing them to fall into the water to become its food. However, at present, the ghost’s power was not that strong, so it could only control one person at a time. If there were others around, it would give up controlling the drowning person."

"Naturally, the president of Tokyo Comprehensive University didn’t believe the abbot, but because the abbot had a decent reputation in Tokyo, the president agreed to let the abbot take charge of investigating these consecutive disappearances for a period of time. The abbot’s method was simple and crude: installing a large number of monitors around Cross Lake to ensure twenty-four-hour surveillance, then having all the guards leave Cross Lake and stand by in the nearby Old Teaching Building."

"Only two days passed, and one night, a student who was walking alone around Cross Lake suddenly stood still as if in a trance. After about a minute, the student looked around, made sure there was no one else, and then jumped into the water. The abbot immediately ordered the guards to go and rescue the drowning student. Fortunately, because the Old Teaching Building was very close to Cross Lake, the guards quickly arrived at the lake."

"At that moment, the drowning person, who had been completely still and seemingly sunk, suddenly surfaced and started shouting for help. After the guards rescued the drowning person, they said they had been happily listening to music while on a walk, preparing to meet their friends and leave campus to sing karaoke. However, when they approached Cross Lake, they suddenly heard a strange song, thinking they had switched songs by mistake. But soon they realized that the song playing in their headphones was still the one they liked."

"The strange song seemed to appear directly in the drowning person’s mind, impossible to shake off, and there was no aversion to the song. This caused the drowning person to lose consciousness without realizing it and when they came to, they had already fallen into the water. Most importantly, there was a humanoid monster in front of them, grinning slyly, making the drowning person feel as if they were in an ice cellar."

Initially, Liu Xing thought that since the Deep Diving Society was interested in Cross Lake, the mythical creature there should be a Deep One. But on second thought, the behavior of this mythical creature in Cross Lake didn’t match that of a Deep One. So, the option of a Deep One was now ruled out.

However, the mythical creatures Liu Xing remembered were vastly different from the one in Cross Lake. Could it be an original mythical creature?

If the mythical creature in Cross Lake was an original one, that wouldn’t be good news. After all, players’ biggest advantage in the Cthulhu RPG Game was their understanding of the mythical creatures in the game, knowing their basic settings. This way, players could determine what mythical creature was causing trouble in the current module by following clues. Even if the player’s character card didn’t know about these mythical creatures, players could avoid making wrong choices with some reasonable justification.

The appearance of an original mythical creature would be bad news for players, as no one would want to face a monster they knew nothing about.

Just like encountering original mythical creatures in Panlong Town, if it hadn’t been for Hu Li’s help, Liu Xing felt that dealing with those original mythical creatures would have been difficult, or perhaps evenimpossible...

But then again, Liu Xing recalled a thread on the forum from the Shoggoth Region. It mentioned that starting from the Shoggoth Region, players might encounter some original mythical creatures, and in the Hound of Tindalos area, the likelihood of encountering original mythical creatures would significantly increase. Fortunately, these original mythical creatures were mostly individual entities, unlike the mythical creatures that existed as a whole race.@@novelbin@@

"Teacher Ming, where did you hear this information? It doesn’t seem like something easy to come by," Zhang Jingxu asked with some skepticism.

Liu Xing nodded. Zhang Jingxu’s point was valid. After all, information detrimental to the school wouldn’t just be casually shared.

Ming Hanxing shrugged, smiling as he said, "I understand your point. However, this information has essentially become one of the school’s urban legends. The president of Tokyo Comprehensive University knew that if they deliberately concealed this information, it would eventually come to light and would undoubtedly tarnish the university’s reputation. So, at that time, after discussions among the university’s senior leadership, they decided to make this information public as a campus legend. After all, prevention is better than cure. This way, it served as a warning to students not to wander around Cross Lake at night and also provided a somewhat justifiable defense for the university. When the truth eventually came out, they could at least say they had been transparent."

"I see," replied Liu Xing.

So that’s how it was.

Liu Xing rubbed his chin and spoke, "It seems that Tokyo Comprehensive University is quite something, actively spreading this information. Whether the students believe it or not is not their concern. But then again, if that’s the case, why doesn’t Tokyo Comprehensive University just fill in Cross Lake? Even if there’s a sea eye underneath Cross Lake, it’s not a bottomless pit that can suck up soil."

"Tokyo Comprehensive University did consider that," Ming Hanxing replied, "but after the university entertained the idea, the abbot hurried over to caution them against such a bold move. The abbot explained that the creature beneath Cross Lake had made it its lair. Filling in the lake would likely enrage the creature, leading it to use the drainage pipes underneath to enter the student dormitories, resulting in more severe consequences."

Liu Xing nodded, turning to Zhang Wenbing. "Zhang, any insights on the mythical creature in Cross Lake?"

Zhang Wenbing pondered for a moment, then sighed, "I really can’t figure out what mythical creature resides beneath Cross Lake. It’s quite different from the mythical creatures I know. I’ll send this information back to my friends in China and see if they know anything about this mythical creature."

"By the way, Teacher Ming, do you know where the temple the abbot belonged to was located? We should go and see," Ling Ishikawa asked.

Many temples in Island Nation are family-owned, and the land is private. As a result, most temples in Island Nation don’t have worshippers but are not abandoned either.

Ming Hanxing shook his head with a puzzled expression. "That temple no longer exists. When I heard about the situation at Cross Lake, I wanted to inquire at the temple, but I learned that the temple had been engulfed in a fire over twenty years ago. The entire temple was destroyed, and the abbot perished in the blaze. The heir of the temple had no intention of rebuilding it and instead sold the land. The area where the temple once stood has now become a residential district, and as for the abbot’s descendants, they have disappeared."

"What’s even stranger is that after the abbot’s death, the president of Tokyo Comprehensive University, along with some other senior leaders, and the police officers investigating the consecutive disappearances, all encountered various misfortunes. For instance, the president was killed while resisting a robbery, the head of the security guards was hit and killed by a drunken driver while out shopping with his wife, and three police officers were killed when a thief they were trying to apprehend suddenly detonated a bomb... All these people died within a year due to various reasons."

Liu Xing furrowed his brow and nodded, "There’s definitely something fishy about their deaths. While it may seem like accidents and coincidences, upon closer examination, it’s clear that these people died due to foul play. The mythical creature in Cross Lake clearly has the ability to control human minds, so it’s entirely possible that it was responsible for these deaths."

It seems that the creature’s ability is quite powerful, enabling precise remote control to eliminate targets.

It looks like in this module, they not only have to deal with the members of the Deep Diving Society but also guard against the mythical creature in Cross Lake.

"Alright, let’s change the subject for now. After the term begins, should we start our own club or join an existing one?" Liu Xing proposed.

Zhang Jingxu considered it and earnestly replied, "I think it’s best if we join an existing club. After all, starting our own club would be quite troublesome, and it wouldn’t be easy to gather information. Joining an existing club would make it much more convenient to seek answers."

Ling Ishikawa nodded in agreement, "Exactly, I think the same. If we were to establish our own club, everything would have to start from scratch. Joining an existing club should allow us to obtain information related to the Deep Diving Society from senior students."

Naturally, Lu Tianya supported Zhang Jingxu’s opinion.

So, the group decided to join an existing club, and most likely, they would choose to join the China club recommended by Zhang Shiwu.

Soon, two days had passed.

Tokyo Comprehensive University officially started the new term.

Liu Xing looked at his admission letter and found himself momentarily speechless because the major written on it was Early Childhood Education!

Yes, Liu Xing’s university major was in early education!

Liu Xing finally understood the meaning of the Interlude Growth at the beginning of this module. It was used to determine his university major.

It seemed his luck wasn’t great as he had randomly been assigned the early education major.

Liu Xing was now considering dropping out...

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