Dice In The Darkness: Cthulhu Calls

Just as KP Green Light had initially mentioned, there were indeed numerous Side Quests within this module. Unexpectedly, a casual remark triggered one.

However, the activation of this Side Quest validated Zhang Jingxu's speculation that there were indeed remnants of previous occupants in this villa, and they were suspicious items.

"Suspicious" is an interesting word.

Everyone exchanged glances, and Liu Xing stepped forward, suggesting, "Since that's the case, and we have some spare time, why don't we play a treasure hunt game in the villa? After all, ordinary villagers of Fisher's Village wouldn't enter this place. So, those who lived here before might have left behind some interesting things."

At this moment, Lu Tianya looked at Liu Xing with some amusement and remarked, "Ryusei, I didn't expect you to still be so childish. You actually want to play a treasure hunt game? Tsk, tsk."

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow, surprised that he had been teased by Lu Tianya.

But when he thought about it, Liu Xing realized that his suggestion did seem a bit childish. However, it was because of the Side Quest. Lu Tianya, being an NPC, didn't know about the Side Quest, which was why he responded that way.

To mediate, Zhang Jingxu, sitting next to Lu Tianya, smiled and said, "Lu Tianya, how can you say that? Ryusei's suggestion isn't bad at all. After all, Fisher's Village has limited communication with the outside world, and those who lived here in the past probably wouldn't come back to search for lost items after leaving Fisher's Village. It would be too troublesome. So, if this villa hasn't been thoroughly cleaned, we might find quite a few things."

"Most importantly, if Fisher's Village really poses a threat to the male relatives of our group, then this villa might hold some evidence. We can be prepared. So, while Alice is away, let's search this villa thoroughly. Hopefully, we can find something useful."

Thus, everyone started to divide the tasks.

Since the first floor was relatively spacious with few places to hide things, Miyako Goudong took charge of searching it. On the second floor, Liu Xing and Zhang Jingxu were responsible for the search, while on the third floor, Panda Pig conducted the search.

Regarding whether they should take the opportunity to enter Alice's room, opinions were divided among the group.

Miyako Goudong and Panda Pig believed they should enter Alice's room while she was away to see what she had brought to Fisher's Village and potentially deduce her purpose. However, Liu Xing and Zhang Jingxu thought it best to be cautious, as Alice was responsible for intelligence work at the Deep Sea Gospel Society's Kyoto branch. Her counter-investigation measures were likely well-prepared. Rushing into her room could leave traces, leading to complications. At the very least, Matsui Yui's anxiety would increase.

So, concerning Alice's room, the group decided to wait and watch for now and refrain from entering it casually to avoid unexpected complications.

Liu Xing returned to his room and contacted KP Green Light, saying, "KP, I want to perform an inspiration judgment to think about which places in this room might conceal something."

KP Green Light immediately replied, "Of course, you can do that, but this time the inspiration judgment will be hidden, and I'll provide you with different information based on the result."

Liu Xing, ???/70, ???

After performing the inspiration judgment, Liu Xing had an idea. Under the bed, in the closet, and in the bathroom were likely places to find hidden items.

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow, knowing that his inspiration was likely just an ordinary success or even a failure. He would have searched these three places regardless, without needing an inspiration judgment.

After the inspiration judgment, Liu Xing heard a series of dice being rolled, indicating that other players were also making various judgments.

Sighing, Liu Xing activated the flashlight mode on his phone, got down on the floor, and began inspecting under the bed.

As expected, there was nothing under the bed, not even a speck of dust. Fisher's Village was secluded, and few people visited, so there was little chance for dust to accumulate. Typically, if something of one's own was lost under the bed, it could be easily found by bending down.

Next, Liu Xing started rummaging through the closet and, to his surprise, found something unusual in a small cabinet – a thumb-sized Pikachu toy, one of those cheap plastic toys sold on the streets.

Liu Xing furrowed his brow, realizing that someone, likely a child, had stayed in this room at some point.

However, when Liu Xing picked up the Pikachu toy, he noticed that it felt unusually heavy. He suspected that there was a piece of metal inside, covered with a layer of plastic.

This was clearly abnormal because no toy manufacturer would use metal to make children's toys due to the high cost.

Carefully, Liu Xing took out a ritual dagger from his backpack and delicately cut open the plastic covering the Pikachu toy. Inside, he found a piece of pink-colored metal.

Liu Xing furrowed his brow again; this pink metal was clearly unusual. He had never seen metal of this color before. Furthermore, based on the laws of nature, things with strange colors were usually not a good sign.

So, Liu Xing wrapped the unknown metal in a piece of paper and put it in his bag.

Next, he proceeded to inspect the bathroom.

The bathroom was relatively spacious, but there were few places to search. Soon, Liu Xing found a partially burned notebook hidden beneath the ashes in the bathtub. The notebook had an anime-style cover, and Liu Xing had a hunch that it belonged to the same person as the strange metal.

"This is getting interesting. Logically, the owner of these two items should be a child, but how could a child have this strange-colored metal or toy?" Liu Xing muttered to himself.

Liu Xing opened the notebook, and fortunately, the owner had also been an Island Nation person, so Liu Xing could read its contents.

Although the notebook didn't reveal the owner's name, it was evident from the handwriting and content that the owner was a primary school student. The notebook was essentially a diary, recording trivial everyday events.

Liu Xing skimmed through the elementary school student's diary and found one noteworthy clue: the diary ended on November 3, 2010. In the entry for that day, it mentioned terms like "wedding," "sister-in-law," and "brother."

Clearly, the owner of this diary had a brother who got married to a woman from Fisher's Village on November 3, 2010. The diary had somehow ended up here and was partially burnt for unknown reasons.

Liu Xing speculated that since the diary wasn't completely destroyed, the room had likely remained unopened since November 3, 2010, indicating it had been vacant for several years.

From this, he deduced that Fisher's Village might not have held any weddings or rituals in these years.

Liu Xing frowned, recalling what Dogo Aige had said about Fisher's Village frequently hosting weddings, especially because male relatives of the village had to return for weddings.

So, Liu Xing believed Dogo Aige had been misled.

Liu Xing placed the diary and the unidentified metal on the table and continued searching the room.

Ten minutes later, Liu Xing made another discovery. He noticed peculiar scratches on the window frame. These scratches appeared random, but he felt there was some connection.

Liu Xing decided to ask KP Green Light, "KP, can I perform an inspiration judgment on these scratches now?"

KP Green Light thought for a moment and said, "Of course, but you can also choose to make an Occultism Judgment on them."

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow. His inspiration score was 70, while his Occultism skill score was 80. So, he chose to make an Occultism Judgment.

Liu Xing: 16/80, Success.

Liu Xing breathed a sigh of relief; it seemed luck was on his side.

KP Green Light then explained, "You've discovered that these scratches appear to form a combination of several magical runes. If you want to analyze the specific effects of these runes, it will take 5 hours, and you'll need to make an Occultism Judgment for each rune."

Liu Xing's eyes lit up. He hadn't expected these scratches to form magical runes, and multiple runes at that. However, it wasn't the right time to analyze their effects. He needed to take the diary and the unidentified metal he found earlier downstairs.

After finishing the search in his room, Liu Xing entered Ling Ishikawa's room. Since Ling Ishikawa was one of his staunch allies, Zhang Jingxu assigned Liu Xing the responsibility of searching his room.

Upon entering, Liu Xing noticed a backpack haphazardly placed on the table with the zipper open.

According to scientific research, most people tend to be curious about others' privacy and unconsciously want to pry into it, especially when they are sure that the person is not present and won't return soon.

Although Liu Xing was an exception, when he glanced inside the backpack, he saw a talisman. Curiosity got the better of him, and he reached in to take the talisman.

The moment he touched the talisman, Liu Xing received information about it.

A Calming Talisman that could make the holder feel calm and composed.

Liu Xing furrowed his brow. The description of this Calming Talisman was intriguing, but it didn't seem to reduce Sanity (San) loss, which was what mattered in the Cthulhu RPG Game. Only the effects specifically mentioned would be effective.

However, Liu Xing couldn't help but wonder why Ling Ishikawa had this talisman in his backpack.

Curiosity killed the cat, they say, and Liu Xing's curiosity had now been piqued twice.

Liu Xing couldn't resist reaching into Ling Ishikawa's backpack again and found another item – the Beast Tamer's Notes.

The Beast Tamer's Notes were written by a famous beast tamer and detailed how this tamer had tamed powerful and unruly beasts. Interestingly, the tamer was eventually attacked and killed by one of the beasts he had tamed. To read and understand this book, players needed to spend 36 hours on it, and upon completion, they would gain a Beast Taming skill value of 1d20+20.

Beast Taming skill? Liu Xing furrowed his brow. Why would Ling Ishikawa want to learn Beast Taming? Did he intend to change his character from a swordsman to a druid?

However, Liu Xing suddenly remembered something Wu Lei had mentioned – a peculiar player who had persuaded KP to let him use the Beast Taming skill on a wild Formless Offspring. The result had been outstanding, and he successfully tamed the Formless Offspring.

In a way, mythical creatures were not much different from lions or tigers, just more intelligent and powerful.

So, learning Beast Taming might indeed be a feasible option.

Liu Xing stroked his chin and decided to ask Ling Ishikawa about it when he returned. First, he put Ling Ishikawa's items back in his backpack.

After searching Ling Ishikawa's room, Liu Xing went to the window. As expected, there were similar scratches on Ling Ishikawa's window frame, identical to the ones on his own window frame.