Dice In The Darkness: Cthulhu Calls

"The Ghoul standing at two meters tall could probably slice us in half with a single swipe," Yis People expressed concern.

Ryuzaki nodded beside him, his tone heavy, "Back when I was still a rookie, I underwent wilderness survival training in the Amazon jungle. I was with three teammates, and on the first night, we encountered an accident. One of my teammates screamed during their watch, waking us up. When we rushed to the scene, we found a lot of blood on the ground and strange footprints."

"Based on those footprints, we deduced that the owner of those footprints was a humanoid creature over two meters tall and weighing three hundred kilograms. Then the rest of us started tracking this humanoid creature, and eventually found my teammate’s body in a cave—a body split in half, with its entrails completely eaten, surrounded by numerous human corpses, most of whom were in military uniforms."

"We contacted headquarters at the time, reporting our situation, considering we were undergoing wilderness survival training and only had a knife on hand. Faced with such Monsters, we couldn’t possibly fight back. However, not long after, we were attacked by that Monster. Since it was nighttime, all I saw were its enormous, sharp claws, tearing my comrade apart..."

At this point, Liu Xing noticed Ryuzaki’s hand trembling unnaturally, indicating that Ryuzaki had likely experienced temporary insanity at the time, leaving him with psychological trauma.

Standing beside Ryuzaki, Alice sighed, patting his shoulder, "Before joining the Deep Sea Gospel Society, I served as a psychologist at the American military base in Japan. Ryuzaki visited me several times for counseling. At that time, I also believed Ryuzaki encountered a Ghoul in the Amazon jungle. After all, as far as I know, there are many cannibals in the Amazon jungle who worship Ghouls."

Liu Xing nodded. On the Cthulhu RPG Game forum, many players summarized a pattern: whenever a cannibal tribe appeared in a module, Ghouls would inevitably appear. Moreover, the members of the entire cannibal tribe would be disguised as Ghouls.

However, what concerned Liu Xing more was whether Ryuzaki had a fear of Ghouls. After all, according to the setting of the Cthulhu Role-Playing Game Hall, if a player enters a temporary state of madness due to a mythical creature, it is very likely that they will develop a latent phobia of that mythical creature. When the player encounters this mythical creature again, the phobia may be triggered once more.

Therefore, Liu Xing expressed his concern, "Miss Alice, can you confirm whether Mr. Ryuzaki has fully recovered from his fear of Ghouls? If Mr. Ryuzaki experiences a relapse when encountering Ghouls again, it could pose a serious problem. After all, Mr. Ryuzaki is holding an automatic rifle, and if it accidentally fires, we could suffer heavy losses..."

Alice frowned, nodding, "I understand what you mean, Mr. Ryuusei. So, let me give you all an overview. After prolonged treatment, Ryuzaki’s current condition can only be described as relatively stable. At least, he no longer feels fear when faced with photos of Ghouls. However, as you can see now, Ryuzaki involuntarily trembles and has some mental issues whenever he thinks of Ghouls. And the reason Ryuzaki accompanied me to England this time to deal with the Cult of the Cadaver is actually a case of fighting fire with fire, allowing Ryuzaki to confront Ghouls directly."

At this point, Ryuzaki also regained his composure, nodding, "Alice is right. My condition isn’t great right now, but I’m mentally prepared. If I really have to face Ghouls this time, I should be able to remain calm and not be scared crazy."

Liu Xing sighed reluctantly, "I hope so. If anything happens to Mr. Ryuzaki, it could be very troublesome for us."

Although Liu Xing said so, he was very worried. After all, given the current situation, Ryuzaki was like a time bomb. He might explode instantly when encountering Ghouls.

But Ryuzaki was undoubtedly their strongest combat force now. After all, Ryuzaki was a pilot, and pilots could be said to have the best physical fitness in the armed forces of various countries, and they also learned combat skills and shooting.

So, for Liu Xing and the others, Ryuzaki was now a double-edged sword. Although he could harm the enemy, he could also hurt himself.

However, these words couldn’t be said aloud at the moment, so Liu Xing decided to change the subject.

"Speaking of which, Miss Alice, do you know where this alley leads?" Liu Xing asked.

Alice took out her phone and pulled up a picture, saying, "This alley connects to a residential area, but due to various reasons, the residents on this side of QuarryBank Textile Factory have started moving out on a large scale to Manchester city, making this residential area almost deserted."

"Did the Manchester police investigate the housing in this area?" Ling Ishikawa asked.

Alice nodded seriously, "Of course, the Manchester police conducted a thorough search of this residential area after the incident, but still found nothing."

Liu Xing thought for a moment, suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and said, "I think the Manchester police might have overlooked one place, which is the QuarryBank Textile Factory."

Alice raised an eyebrow and after a moment of contemplation, said, "That’s right. I remember that the Manchester police did not search the QuarryBank Textile Factory because there were tourists visiting at the time. So, after questioning some tourists and QuarryBank Textile Factory employees, the Manchester police did not further investigate the QuarryBank Textile Factory. By the way, this alley does lead to the back entrance of the QuarryBank Textile Factory."

Liu Xing nodded, seriously saying, "If that’s the case, I think there’s a possibility that the people from the Cult of the Cadaver have kidnapped those foreign tourists to QuarryBank Textile Factory because only the Cult of the Cadaver would have insiders in the QuarryBank Textile Factory who could secretly hide those foreign tourists there. After all, hidden in plain sight, QuarryBank Textile Factory could be considered a blind spot for the Manchester police."

Zhang Jingxu thought for a moment and said, "Indeed, there is such a possibility. From the perspective of this missing case of foreign tourists, the Cult of the Cadaver has been very meticulous in their actions, knowing to cut off the power supply in the area at the same time they act. So, I think the Cult of the Cadaver must have prepared the location to detain these foreign tourists from the beginning. If QuarryBank Textile Factory is indeed the place prepared by the Cult of the Cadaver for detention, then it is indeed a very good place because it is close enough and the chance of being discovered will be much smaller."

Alice nodded and sighed, saying, "What you all said indeed makes sense. QuarryBank Textile Factory is indeed a good place for the Cult of the Cadaver to detain foreign tourists. Firstly, it’s a tourist attraction with many foreign visitors. Secondly, it’s sparsely populated, especially this alley; hardly anyone walks through here all day. So, for the Cult of the Cadaver, controlling those foreign tourists and transporting them from here to the back entrance of QuarryBank Textile Factory without anyone noticing is entirely plausible. Regarding QuarryBank Textile Factory, if I’m not mistaken, it belongs to a Duke of England’s private property, and this Duke is indeed likely to have sided with the Cult of the Cadaver."

"But if that’s the case, it’s not easy for us to conduct a search of QuarryBank Textile Factory. Although QuarryBank Textile Factory is open to the public, in reality, it still belongs to that Duke’s private property, and the strong influence of the English royal family means that the rights of these English nobles are significant. So, to search QuarryBank Textile Factory, apart from necessary search warrants, we also need the consent of the English royal family. And now, with the Cult of the Cadaver having insiders in the English royal family, if we follow this procedure, we will surely find nothing during our search of QuarryBank Textile Factory, as the Cult of the Cadaver will undoubtedly have moved those foreign tourists before our search."

Alice’s words plunged everyone into silence.

After a while, Yis People sighed and said, "Well then, let’s pretend to be ordinary tourists and enter QuarryBank Textile Factory for a visit. At the same time, we can observe the internal situation of QuarryBank Textile Factory. Perhaps we can gain something."

Ryuzaki nodded at this point, smiling, "If we can find anything suspicious about QuarryBank Textile Factory, then I can come back tonight to confirm whether those foreign tourists have been detained inside. If we confirm that those foreign tourists are indeed detained in QuarryBank Textile Factory, then we can contact Chris and take action preemptively."

So, the group entered QuarryBank Textile Factory as ordinary tourists.

As a tourist attraction, the highlight of QuarryBank Textile Factory was its 19th-century spinning workshop, filled with various old-fashioned spinning machines.

Also, because QuarryBank Textile Factory was a tourist attraction, coupled with it being a working day, QuarryBank Textile Factory appeared somewhat deserted.

Liu Xing and the others dispersed very tacitly, pairing up and starting their investigation.

Naturally, Liu Xing teamed up with Ling Ishikawa.

"Leader, what do you think of Ryuzaki?" Ling Ishikawa suddenly asked.

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow, shaking his head, "I think Ryuzaki would be a good helper, but he could also become a time bomb at any moment. After all, his mental state is unstable, so I think we should keep a certain distance from Ryuzaki, just to be safe."

Ling Ishikawa nodded, then said, "Should we try to persuade Ryuzaki to join our Worshipers of the Yellow Sect?"

Liu Xing stopped in his tracks, looking at Ling Ishikawa with some surprise. He hadn’t expected Ling Ishikawa to come up with such a daring idea.

In the forum, many players believed that in the modules of the Cthulhu Role-Playing Game Hall, there were many hidden settings, among which there was one almost universally recognized hidden setting: the fanatical NPC of the module would not go into temporary madness under normal circumstances.

This hidden setting had been affirmed by tens of thousands of players. In this hidden setting, under normal circumstances, when the fanatical NPC encountered a mythical creature whose strength was not greater than the mythical creature they believed in, they would not undergo a temporary state of madness. However, if they encountered a mythical creature like a Star Kin or a Great Devouring Worm, they might still undergo temporary madness.

Of course, this hidden setting only applied to mythical creatures.

So, this hidden setting was very easy to understand; after believing in a higher-level mythical creature, the fanatical NPC would have a kind of mysterious self-confidence or superiority when faced with lower-level mythical creatures, thus counteracting some of the sanity point checks’ effects.

Therefore, if Ryuzaki were to join the Worshipers of the Yellow Sect, then Ryuzaki, who believed in King Hastur in Yellow Robes, should no longer need to undergo related checks when facing Ghouls to determine his mental state.

But saying it was one thing, actually doing it would be troublesome.

"Persuading Ryuzaki to join our Worshipers of the Yellow Sect is indeed a good idea. With Ryuzaki’s belief, he should no longer have psychological trauma against low-level creatures like Ghouls. However, as a pilot, Ryuzaki’s willpower is undoubtedly very firm. It won’t be easy to persuade him to join us, and Alice and Ryuzaki have a very good relationship. Alice is likely to notice any anomalies in Ryuzaki. If Alice finds out our identity, I’m afraid we’ll have to deal with internal strife first." Liu Xing frowned.

Ling Ishikawa nodded, saying helplessly, "I’m just saying it. It would be too difficult to persuade Ryuzaki to join us."

Liu Xing took a few more steps, suddenly remembered someone, and stopped to say, "By the way, Ling Ishikawa, didn’t you contact Suneo and the others recently? Did they mention what Miguel is up to?"

Because of the previous module’s restrictions, they couldn’t contact the outside world, so Liu Xing almost forgot that as a leader, he could order his followers to come and help.

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