Dice In The Darkness: Cthulhu Calls

Liu Xing and his group left the café and then headed back to Liu Xing’s home for dinner.

Initially, Liu Xing had wanted to go to Shudu Restaurant where Zhang Shiwu worked part-time, as the authentic Shudu cuisine there suited his taste. After all, inhabiting Watanabe Ryuusei’s body, Liu Xing was essentially a Shudu person at heart. Finding an authentic Shudu restaurant made Liu Xing very happy, and he was willing to frequent the place.

However, because Zhang Jingxu and the others were not Shudu people, they couldn’t handle the spiciness of the authentic Shudu dishes, which were prepared with an extra kick to signify their authenticity. Therefore, they decided to have a hotpot at Liu Xing’s home today, a way to celebrate the formal establishment of their new team.

Of course, Liu Xing also invited Honekawa Suneo and the others. After all, they were all in the same boat, so it was good to get acquainted in advance.

Naturally, Liu Xing had already given Honekawa Suneo and the others a heads-up to avoid exposing their true identities midway.

While Lu Tianya and the others prepared the hotpot, Liu Xing and his group gathered to chat. Since they had almost covered all the important matters, it was time to relax and engage in some casual conversation.

The first topic, naturally, was about Ming Hanxing.

"Teacher Ming, you’ve been back in China for so long, how come you suddenly got married? This comes as quite a surprise to us, especially since you previously mentioned rejecting several blind date offers," Liu Xing said with a smile.

Ming Hanxing rubbed the back of his head and began, "Well, it’s quite a long story. When I returned to China, it was to visit my hometown for ancestral rites. At that time, my family needed to update our genealogy, so all family members were required to return to participate in the ancestral rites. Naturally, I chose to go back. However, as soon as I got home, I encountered something strange. Our neighborhood experienced power outages every day, with no fixed schedule—sometimes at night, sometimes in the afternoon, and the duration varied."

"As you all know, mainland China is not like Taiwan, where power shortages are common. Even in a major city like Taipei, power outages are sporadic due to insufficient electricity supply. Essentially, apart from circuit upgrades or unforeseen circumstances, our city rarely experiences power outages throughout the year. We approached the neighborhood management about the power outage issue, but they couldn’t find a reason. Electrical personnel had inspected the transformers and lines in the area, finding no issues. Moreover, neighboring districts hadn’t experienced any power cuts."

"So, I found the situation quite peculiar. There had to be a reason for such unusual occurrences. I began to suspect the involvement of a mythical creature in our neighborhood. That’s when I met my wife, Luo Li. Let me clarify, Luo Li is actually my old classmate and neighbor. She lives in the apartment above mine, and we attended the same school from elementary to high school, even in the same class during elementary and middle school. So, we’ve had a good relationship since childhood."

"Isn’t this like a plot from a drama?" Ling Ishikawa said with a laugh.

Ming Hanxing looked at Ling Ishikawa speechlessly and continued, "If you put it that way, I can’t argue. In short, Luo Li and I have always had a very good relationship. However, due to her deep interest in mysticism since childhood... let’s just say she wasn’t focused on her studies. Consequently, her academic performance was not great, and her college entrance exam score was just over three hundred. Eventually, she didn’t attend college, opting to write novels on a certain website. However, she chose the right path, as her monthly income now surpasses mine as a teacher."

"After we met, we naturally discussed the power outage issue in the neighborhood. Luo Li mentioned something. While writing her novel late at night, she once saw a strange figure on the rooftop of the opposite building. It was strange because the figure appeared elongated, possibly close to three meters in height. This reminded me of an urban legend from the United States—Slender Man."

"Slender Man, I’ve heard about this. Years ago, there was a serial killer targeting children in the United States. Local authorities soon realized something was amiss because the victims mentioned having nightmares about a slender figure, the Slender Man, chasing and eventually killing them in their dreams. Initially, local authorities didn’t pay much attention, thinking it was just children’s nightmares. However, those children who experienced the nightmares mysteriously died, all under tight protection. This alarmed the local authorities, and the case was escalated."

"The official organization in the United States responsible for supernaturalevents took over the case. However, due to well-known reasons, the organization handling supernatural cases in the United States was surprisingly ineffective. Consequently, they outsourced the project to several civilian organizations, one of which had connections with the China Dao Sect. That’s how I learned some inside information. It turns out that the Slender Man was merely an experimental subject genetically altered by some mythical creature, or rather, a creation made on a whim, then discarded."

"The Slender Man possessed a certain level of psychological manipulation ability, which allowed it to induce the same nightmare in its victims. Additionally, it had the ability to teleport, enabling it to suddenly approach and kill its victims, even if they were in a secure location. Due to the Slender Man’s formidable abilities, it took considerable effort for those civilian organizations to successfully eliminate it. However, from the Slender Man’s notes, they discovered that at least two more human subjects had been altered by that mythical creature, with one of them seemingly of Chinese descent," Zhang Wenbing explained seriously.

Ming Hanxing was initially surprised, then nodded. "Exactly. After Luo Li and I conducted some investigation, we discovered that among the residents of the building opposite ours, there was a foreign couple. The husband is a Chinese-American, while the wife is of German descent. However, this couple was very peculiar. Only the husband occasionally went out, while the wife, after moving in, hardly ever stepped outside. So, Luo Li and I suspected that this couple was most likely responsible for the frequent power outages in our neighborhood. As it turned out, our suspicions were correct."

"Before Luo Li and I could take any concrete action, we saw two people confronting that couple. Shortly after entering their home, a piercing scream echoed, drawing a crowd of onlookers. However, the couple vanished without a trace, leaving behind two bodies that looked as if they had been struck by lightning. Since then, our neighborhood has not experienced any further power outages. So, it’s highly likely that this couple was the experimental subjects of those two mythical creatures you mentioned, Mr. Zhang Wenbing."

Upon hearing this, Liu Xing couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. He hadn’t expected Ming Hanxing to inadvertently win a round, with two unwitting allies helping him pass the module.

After resolving this matter, Luo Li’s and my relationship advanced by leaps and bounds. After all, we had mutual feelings back in high school. However, as we both felt that long-distance relationships were not reliable after college, we didn’t take it any further. So, our becoming a couple seemed like a natural progression. Luo Li accompanied me to visit my hometown for ancestral rites. However, this ancestral trip turned out to be more challenging. We encountered a heavy rainstorm as soon as we arrived, and the roads in our hometown were buried due to a landslide.

As a result, over two hundred members of our family were unable to leave our hometown for a while. Without cars, it would take over two hours to walk to the nearest town, and many mountain roads had become extremely dangerous after the storm. Therefore, more than two hundred of us crowded into six or seven houses, preparing to wait for the authorities to clear the roads before leaving. But the next day, a thick fog enveloped us, and I found myself in the middle of a desert.

You see, my hometown is in Southern Jiangsu, so how could there be a desert there? I realized that I had likely encountered another mythical creature. After conducting some experiments, I confirmed that I wasn’t in a hallucination or a dream. So, I resigned myself to finding an oasis in the desert. Fortunately, I soon met Luo Li and found an oasis.

We stayed at the oasis because we didn’t have any items to store water. If we left the oasis, we could very likely die of thirst in the desert. After all, the desert lacked landmarks, so leaving the oasis would likely lead to getting lost. Therefore, we felt it was safer to stay put. However, we soon encountered an attack from a group of human-faced rats.

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow, surprised that Ming Hanxing had encountered human-faced rats.

But upon reflection, it made sense that Ming Hanxing would encounter human-faced rats. Human-faced rats were a fairly common mythical creature, or rather, not strictly speaking a mythical creature. They were created from deceased fanatic believers transformed by the power of a demonic spell, leading many players of the Cthulhu RPG game to consider human-faced rats as magical constructs.

As for the reason why some players didn’t consider human-faced rats as mythical creatures, it was due to their weak combat abilities. In appearance, human-faced rats looked similar to ordinary rats, and were not significantly larger. At a distance, it would be easy to mistake them for ordinary rats.

However, a closer look would reveal that the face of a human-faced rat was an evil human face, and its hands and feet were like those of a small human. Additionally, their teeth were sharp and had a powerful bite.

So, the combat abilities of human-faced rats were limited. They were considered to be a mythical creature that players could easily defeat in one-on-one situations.

Of course, despite their poor combat abilities, human-faced rats had the ability to regenerate, as they were originally created from deceased people through magic. Unless turned into a pile of minced meat, human-faced rats would not die.

Returning to Ming Hanxing’s situation, it was highly likely that some malevolent wizard was behind the incidents.

"Fortunately, during the daytime, Luo Li and I prepared makeshift spears from the surrounding rocks and branches to defend ourselves, so we managed to repel the attack from the human-faced rats without incident. However, this made us realize that if we remained at the oasis, we would eventually fall under the repeated attacks of the human-faced rats. Therefore, after making preparations, we left the oasis and eventually found what appeared to be an abandoned small town."

"In this small town, I encountered many relatives and several strangers. These strangers, like us, had been unwittingly transported to the desert after a storm and had also faced attacks from the human-faced rats. Sadly, some had already perished at the hands of the human-faced rats. Most importantly, someone had discovered a castle ten kilometers from the abandoned town. Every night, the castle doors would open, releasing a group of human-faced rats. Then, in the morning, the group of human-faced rats would return to the castle and the doors would close."

"So, you can probably guess the rest of the story. We organized a group of people armed with homemade weapons. After the human-faced rats left the castle, we rushed in. After killing a group of resident human-faced rats, we encountered a malevolent wizard who was already in a mummified state. Eventually, after paying a heavy price, we defeated the malevolent wizard. Then, Luo Li and I were transported back to our hometown, leaving our relatives who had perished in the desert." Ming Hanxing said with a tinge of regret.

Liu Xing sighed. Although Ming Hanxing’s promotion mission sounded relatively easy, it was actually quite troublesome. After all, it was a massive hit to his sanity points.

First, being inexplicably transported to the desert, then facing a shortage of water and food, subsequently encountering attacks from human-faced rats at night, witnessing the deaths of relatives, and encountering a mummified wizard—these experiences were enough to cause a dramatic decrease in a player’s sanity points.

Therefore, the fact that Ming Hanxing did not succumb to madness during this promotion module indicated his strong willpower and a stroke of good luck.

It seems that reaching the Hound of Tindalos area was no easy feat for Ming Hanxing.

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