Dice In The Darkness: Cthulhu Calls-Chapter 554: The True Form of Thousand Faces

Upon returning home, Zhang Jingxu couldn’t wait to say, "If nothing unexpected happened, the summoning ritual conducted by those senior brothers and sisters was successful, and they summoned a mythical creature called Soul Devourer."

As "WatanabeRyuusei" also knew about the existence of the Soul Devourer, Liu Xing nodded and said, "Indeed, I also believe that the mythical creature summoned is the Soul Devourer. However, on another note, should we help our senior brothers and sisters deal with this Soul Devourer? After all, if we can eliminate this Soul Devourer, we can gain many benefits, such as its crystal. It’s a priceless item."

The NPCs of the secret cult were well aware of the function and value of the Soul Devourer’s crystal.

"What’s the function of the Soul Devourer’s crystal?" Lu Tianya asked with some confusion.

Zhang Jingxu chuckled and said seriously, "Because the Soul Devourer, as a mythical creature, feeds on human souls, its crystal is a high-density soul crystal that can enhance the strength of the wearer’s soul. In simple terms, it makes your will stronger, so you won’t easily go insane when seeing things you shouldn’t."

"This Soul Devourer’s crystal is indeed a good thing for us. After all, we often encounter various disturbing things like Ghouls and Deep Ones. I feel uncomfortable just seeing them now, not to mention other new mythical creatures. It makes me feel anxious. So, if I had this Soul Devourer’s crystal, I’d be much better off when encountering those mythical creatures in the future," Ling Ishikawa said with a smile.

Lu Tianya nodded with a vague understanding and asked, "So, how many crystals are there in a Soul Devourer?"

Lu Tianya’s question caused Liu Xing and the others’ expressions to freeze instantly.

This question posed some trouble.

The Soul Devourer’s crystal was not like human stones, categorized into kidney stones, gallstones, and the like. There would only be one crystal on a Soul Devourer because the crystal could be said to be "condensed" from the Soul Devourer itself.

Therefore, killing each Soul Devourer would only yield one crystal.

Hence the problem arose: if they obtained the crystal, who should it be given to?

For something as valuable as the Soul Devourer’s crystal, who wouldn’t want it?

However, the Soul Devourer’s crystal was too precious, and it had no market value, so distributing it would be quite troublesome.

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Liu Xing realized that their small group might encounter a big problem.

It’s the same old saying—people don’t worry about few but about unfair distribution.

For a small team based on equality and mutual benefit, the issue of distributing benefits could be minor or major. For some less important items, everyone could easily distribute them casually, and some people taking a small loss wouldn’t matter because they could make up for it next time.

But for precious items like the Soul Devourer’s crystal, everyone wouldn’t be so polite, after all, everyone wanted such a good thing.

To be honest, Liu Xing felt that if he didn’t get the Soul Devourer’s crystal at that time, he would definitely feel uncomfortable because he really wanted that Soul Devourer’s crystal.

Therefore, Liu Xing could be certain that Zhang Jingxu and Ling Ishikawa shared the same thoughts, just as Ming Hanxing and Zhang Wenbing did.

After all, players who had made it this far in the Cthulhu Role-Playing Game Hall were unlikely to be saints or angels. Each player had their own ulterior motives and a strong desire to possess important items like the Soul Devourer’s crystal, which could potentially save their lives.

So, if someone were to truly obtain a Soul Devourer’s crystal, it would be a tremendous stroke of luck for them individually. However, for their small group, it might not be such good news, as it could cause rifts among them due to distribution issues.

Thus, this Soul Devourer’s crystal could indeed turn into a major headache...

Liu Xing looked at Zhang Jingxu and Ling Ishikawa, believing that their current thoughts were likely similar to his own.

With this in mind, Liu Xing quickly spoke up, "Let’s not think about distribution issues for now. After all, things haven’t even started yet. Obtaining the Soul Devourer’s crystal won’t be easy. While the Soul Devourer’s weaknesses are clear, its survival instincts are strong. One careless move could allow it to escape. So, let’s focus on how to deal with the Soul Devourer first."

Liu Xing’s words finally brought Ling Ishikawa and Zhang Jingxu back to reality, and they nodded in agreement.

Seeing this, Liu Xing continued, "From the current situation, it’s highly likely that the Soul Devourer has already taken over Maeda Katsuya’s body. So, the Soul Devourer should still be in the hospital. However, it’s expected to awaken and leave the hospital soon. Even if it remains in the hospital, we can’t just kill it there. After all, Maeda Katsuya is already dead, his soul devoured by the creature. If we kill the Soul Devourer, it would appear as if we killed Maeda Katsuya, and that would lead to trouble."

"Exactly. We can only wait for the Soul Devourer to leave the hospital before taking action. However, it will still be troublesome. Whether it returns to Maeda Katsuya’s home or stays in the school dorms, its chances of being alone will be slim. If we try to attack it, we might be noticed by others. If we’re discovered, we’ll be in big trouble," Zhang Jingxu said, expressing his concern.

Liu Xing nodded in agreement. Zhang Jingxu’s concerns were valid. After all, they were all law-abiding citizens for now. Getting involved in legal issues wouldn’t be good, as Liu Xing didn’t want to participate in the "Prison Storm" module.

Speaking of "Prison Storm," Liu Xing had indeed heard of such a module. Its difficulty was extremely high because all items carried by players would be temporarily confiscated, leaving them to face mythical creatures empty-handed.

Therefore, modules like "Prison Storm" had a very high mortality rate, making them the least desirable type among all players in the Cthulhu Role-Playing Game Hall.

In summary, Liu Xing believed that killing the Soul Devourer might be easy now, but doing so without attracting attention would be troublesome. After all, killing the Soul Devourer would require using high-decibel noise, which would inevitably draw the attention of others.

This was a dilemma.

So, it seemed they needed to discuss with the players of that module. Only by following the flow of that module could they possibly kill the Soul Devourer without anyone else knowing.

With this in mind, Liu Xing suggested, "On another note, should we meet with Mizuta Saki and gather more clues from her?"

Ling Ishikawa decisively shook her head and said seriously, "No, it’s better if we don’t contact Mizuta Saki. She’s a former member of the Strange Tales Club, and the parchment used to summon the Soul Devourer belonged to her. So, Mizuta Saki might be associated with the Deep Diving Society, and they might have orchestrated the summoning ritual."

Zhang Jingxu agreed from the side, "Exactly. I also think Mizuta Saki might be problematic. So, for safety’s sake, let’s avoid contacting her. However, we can still have a good chat with other senior brothers and sisters who participated in the Summoning Ritual. The only trouble is, if these senior brothers and sisters don’t have a clear understanding of the Soul Devourer or other mythical creatures, we might be in a bit of trouble."

As Zhang Jingxu said, if the players of that module were all novices, cooperating with them would be difficult. The character cards of novice players often had a major flaw—they lacked understanding of mythical creatures, and some didn’t even care due to their personalities. This could easily lead to problems.

So, Liu Xing now felt that killing the Soul Devourer was more troublesome than he had imagined...

Just then, Zhang Wenbing suddenly called Zhang Jingxu.

Zhang Jingxu activated the speakerphone and answered the call, "Zhang, what’s up?"

Zhang Wenbing chuckled and said seriously, "Here’s the deal. We’ve confirmed the identity of Thousand Face on our end. He’s the renegade who defected from the Yin Yang Sect, named Luo Renjie. But his name doesn’t matter anymore since he’s now inhabiting the body of a mythical creature... Now, back to the point, we’ve also confirmed the type of mythical creature Thousand Face is using, and it belongs to the Ferret Clan."

"Ferret Clan?" Liu Xing raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t expected Thousand Face, as Dagon’s subordinate, to be using the body of a ferret rather than a Deep One.

While ferrets appeared in folklore in the real world, they were an original mythical creature in the Cthulhu RPG Game, so their portrayal differed slightly.

Firstly, ferrets only appeared in the Island Nation region. Most modules related to ferrets were set in the Chubu region, as ferrets were creatures from the folklore of Chubu.

Usually, ferrets appeared in the form of whirlwinds, attacking people with their sharp claws resembling sickles. Due to their incredible speed, victims wouldn’t feel any pain despite sustaining long gashes on their skin.

Liu Xing understood this aspect very well. During his university anatomy classes, he had accidentally been cut by scalpels many times. However, because scalpels were too sharp and Liu Xing hadn’t initially noticed the cuts, he would only realize he was injured after the wounds had healed... Of course, if Liu Xing had noticed the wounds before they healed, he would have felt some pain.

But I digress.

Because of the ferret’s tremendous speed, its physical form had never been seen in legends. However, in a painting depicting the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade, the ferret was depicted as a large rat, so the Cthulhu RPG Game also followed suit, portraying the ferret as a creature similar in size to an adult human, standing upright like a ferret. Additionally, every ferret could be called a master of wind-based magic, as they were proficient in using various forms of wind magic.

For example, the sound of wind Liu Xing "heard" in the Tiger’s Den that day.

Of course, because ferrets had tangible forms in the Cthulhu RPG Game, unlike in real-world legends where they were amorphous whirlwinds, it was very easy to deal with ferrets. Although ferrets could use wind magic to accelerate themselves or even fly, their actual movement speed was still too slow. Therefore, it only took a few guns to easily take care of ferrets.

As a result, the Island Nation authorities had regained confidence in dealing with Thousand Face. They believed that they only needed to locate Thousand Face’s hiding place to easily kill him.

So, the Island Nation authorities had once again launched a comprehensive investigation into Thousand Face. They also upgraded protective measures for Thousand Face’s revenge targets. For example, various testing devices were installed in all ventilation openings in their homes. If Thousand Face attempted to use wind-based magic to attack revenge targets, the special fluctuations produced by wind-based magic would be detected by the testing devices, which would then trigger alarms and activate protective devices on the revenge targets... However, because the so-called protective devices were self-initiating magic shield generators, the Island Nation authorities didn’t have many of them. Therefore, only some of the revenge targets of significant importance had protective devices, while other "less important" revenge targets could only quickly seek refuge in nearby fully enclosed shelters upon hearing the alarm.

But this was also a case of using technology to deal with magic.

In addition to material rewards, the Island Nation authorities also offered a rather special reward—a redemption voucher.

As the name suggests, the purpose of the redemption voucher is to offset the punishment for committing a crime, as long as it’s not a major offense like blowing up the Tokyo Tower.

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