Dice In The Darkness: Cthulhu Calls

Chapter 309: Ling Ishikawa Returns

One hundred years...

Liu Xing looked somewhat speechless as he gazed at Sirius. For an Ancient One like Sirius, who was immortal and ageless, one hundred years was indeed too short. However, for a human like Liu Xing, one hundred years was already the limit of his own lifespan, unless...

Liu Xing looked at Sirius, contemplating whether Sirius knew of any methods to extend one’s life. Suddenly, a question crossed Liu Xing’s mind. Sirius seemed to always address him as "Liu Xing" rather than "Ryuusei."

With this in mind, Liu Xing raised an eyebrow, feigning confusion as he asked, "Sirius, why do you call me Liu Xing?"

Sirius chuckled and pointed to Liu Xing’s heart, saying, "Some things do not change with the alteration of the physical form, so you are Liu Xing, not Ryuusei, right?"

Liu Xing looked at Sirius in astonishment, not expecting Sirius to discern his "true self."

This was getting interesting.

In Liu Xing’s impression, only powerful beings like Aughra had the ability to recognize him as a player.

Therefore, Liu Xing thought that Sirius might be more than meets the eye.

However, Sirius continued, "I must apologize to Liu Xing here. Since you entered my Soul Casket in a conscious state, I read some of your memories, including the fact that your original name was Liu Xing. So, initially, I thought you came from the so-called ’great race,’ the Yis People, as they excel in soul exchanges."

Upon hearing Sirius’s explanation, Liu Xing secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It was a "reasonable" explanation for why Sirius knew he was originally "Liu Xing."

Moreover, Liu Xing saw this as an opportunity for his "self" to acquire knowledge about the Yis People.

So, Liu Xing feigned ignorance and asked Sirius, "Great race? Yis People? I’ve never heard of them before."

Sirius chuckled and replied mockingly, "Yis People are nothing more than a bunch of sly tricksters. They use their ability to traverse time and space and exchange souls to cause trouble everywhere in the universe. I nearly had my soul exchanged by a Yis Person once. In short, Liu Xing, just know that Yis People are not good folks."

Sirius then proceeded to share some knowledge about the Yis People with Liu Xing.

After Sirius had finished his explanation, KP Green Light spoke, "As player Liu Xing received Ancient One Sirius’s explanation and acquired knowledge about the Yis People, due to the unique circumstances of player Liu Xing using the ’Watanabe Ryuusei’ character card, the results of this oral check are as follows: player Liu Xing will lose 2 sanity points and gain 2 Cthulhu Mythos knowledge points."

A small smile crept onto Liu Xing’s lips. Indeed, the "Watanabe Ryuusei" character card was quite useful.

After clearing his doubts, Liu Xing requested that Sirius send him out of the Soul Casket.

The moment Liu Xing left the Soul Casket, it felt like he had been awakened from a nightmare. However, he suddenly realized that he was experiencing sleep paralysis, as his body remained completely immobile.

Furrowing his brow, Liu Xing hadn’t expected to encounter sleep paralysis in the Cthulhu RPG Game. He had experienced it several times in the real world, with the most recent occurrence during his first semester of college. He had woken up in the middle of the night, unable to move.

Back then, Liu Xing wasn’t frightened because he had already experienced sleep paralysis many times and had developed a method to alleviate it. He knew that by trying to move one of his limbs, he could break free from the paralysis. Typically, only one limb was mobile, but moving just one could end the episode (a technique he had perfected, having never failed to overcome sleep paralysis).

However, in this moment, Liu Xing sensed that something was amiss. The atmosphere was becoming increasingly eerie, and even his dormitory roommates seemed lifeless, with no audible breathing.

Then, Liu Xing heard an eerie sound of wind. Given that it was winter, all the doors and windows were tightly closed, except for the bathroom window used for ventilation. Therefore, there should have been no sound of wind inside.

Realizing that things were getting unsettling, Liu Xing decided to see if he could summon a ghost, just as he had heard in some ghost stories. However, he quickly grew apprehensive as the atmosphere became even more unsettling. It seemed that everyone in the dormitory was dead, and even their breaths were inaudible.

Soon, Liu Xing heard strange whispers in the wind. He knew that it was impossible to hear the wind inside the room due to the sealed windows and doors.

Liu Xing promptly abandoned his idea and tried to free himself from the sleep paralysis, which he successfully managed. Everything returned to normal, and Liu Xing breathed a sigh of relief.

As a medical student, this experience prompted Liu Xing to study the phenomenon of sleep paralysis further. Before this, he only knew that sleep paralysis was a sleep disorder. Through his research, he learned that sleep paralysis was a symptom of sleep paralysis disorder in sleep neurology. During sleep, patients would enter a semi-wakeful state, often experiencing hallucinations, which explained the sensation of encountering ghosts.

In this state, the patient’s muscle tension reached its minimum, allowing them to open their eyes and perceive their surroundings, but they couldn’t move their torso or limbs or produce sound. In severe cases, it could lead to difficulty breathing, which explained the connection to ghosts.

However, Liu Xing reminded himself that this was the world of the Cthulhu RPG Game. In this realm, phenomena like sleep paralysis, which could be explained scientifically in the real world, might actually involve real supernatural elements.

With this realization, Liu Xing immediately took action to break free from his "sleep paralysis" state. However, he discovered that his efforts were in vain. He was still trapped in the state.

This made Liu Xing start to panic, wondering if he had attracted the attention of some malevolent entity.

Nevertheless, he didn’t panic for long. Liu Xing realized that he was not experiencing sleep paralysis but rather an out-of-body experience. He could see his own body lying beside him.

With this understanding, Liu Xing faced another challenge: how to return to his body...

After contemplating for a moment and taking a deep breath, Liu Xing focused intently on moving his consciousness back toward his physical body.

Surprisingly, it worked. Although he had only moved his consciousness a few centimeters closer, Liu Xing felt as if he had just run a kilometer. If he had a physical body at this moment, he believed he would be out of breath.

And so, Liu Xing spent over fifty minutes to finally synchronize his consciousness with his body.

Once he regained normalcy, Liu Xing sat up and started breathing heavily. Although he didn’t experience any physical fatigue, mentally, he felt more exhausted than if he had run a non-stop marathon.

"Wow, I never thought astral projection would be so exhausting. How do those Taoist characters in xianxia novels do it so effortlessly, coming and going as they please?" Liu Xing couldn’t help but complain.

At that moment, a knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.

Liu Xing instinctively glanced at the window and noticed that it was already daylight. He furrowed his brow, realizing that he had spent much more time inside Sirius’s Soul Casket than he had thought. He initially believed it had only been about an hour.

However, now was not the time to dwell on these matters, so Liu Xing quickly got up and asked, "Who is it?"

To his surprise, the voice of Ling Ishikawa came from outside the door, "It’s me, Ling Ishikawa."

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow, not expecting Ling Ishikawa to return so soon. However, Ling Ishikawa’s early return was beneficial, especially since they had to attend the Ancestral Hall in Fisher’s Village that afternoon. If Ling Ishikawa couldn’t make it, it would certainly cause problems, and Matsui Yui would likely become more anxious.

Thinking of this, Liu Xing immediately opened the door and said, "Ling Ishikawa, your return is timely. If you hadn’t come back today, we would have been in trouble."

Ling Ishikawa scratched his head somewhat sheepishly and said, "Uh, that’s my fault. Fortunately, my luck was quite good this time, and I successfully completed the mission from my master, Serak. That’s why I could return early and not cause you any more trouble."

Liu Xing nodded and was about to speak when he heard someone coming up the stairs. Liu Xing knew it was most likely Dogo Aige.

Liu Xing immediately whispered to Ling Ishikawa, "Ling Ishikawa, because you were suddenly transported to Hybrier before, and we were afraid that Dogo Aige or Matsui Yui might inquire about your presence, I discussed it with Zhang Jingxu and the others. We decided to tell them that you were resting in your room due to a cold. Don’t reveal any inconsistencies."

Ling Ishikawa nodded.

At that moment, Dogo Aige had already reached the second floor and said, "Hey, Ling Ishikawa, are you feeling better from your cold?"

Ling Ishikawa nodded and replied with a smile, "Thank you for your concern, Dogo Aige. I rested well yesterday, and my cold is basically gone."

Dogo Aige patted Ling Ishikawa on the shoulder and said, "That’s good to hear. I was actually thinking about finding an excuse for you if you couldn’t make it to the Ancestral Hall this afternoon. After all, it’s important for everyone to attend the event."

After chatting for a while, Dogo Aige left to wake up Alice and Panda Pig on the third floor. According to Dogo Aige, Matsui Yui had requested that Alice be woken up every morning, and she would join them for meals at Matsui Yui’s house.

Once Dogo Aige left, Ling Ishikawa signaled Liu Xing to enter the room for a private conversation.

After closing the door, Ling Ishikawa couldn’t wait to say, "Leader, my trip to Hybrier was quite productive. I learned three new Magic Spells from Wizard Serak!"

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow, surprised by Ling Ishikawa’s good fortune in learning three Magic Spells from Wizard Serak.

"Oh, that’s impressive. But you mentioned that Wizard Serak is planning to have you apprentices compete, right?" Liu Xing asked curiously.

Ling Ishikawa nodded and smiled, "Yes, that’s right. However, as I mentioned earlier, I’m really lucky. I’ve already passed the first round of tests. But how I did it, I’ll have to keep you guessing for now. I promise to reveal it later at the dining table. For now, let me demonstrate one of the Magic Spells I learned."

With that, Ling Ishikawa closed his eyes and began chanting an incantation. After a moment, a light sphere the size of a ping pong ball appeared in his hand, emitting a bright light.

"This is the Light Orb Art, an entry-level Magic Spell. Although it’s primarily used for illumination at the moment, I believe it has great potential. Once my abilities grow stronger, I can use it as a flashbang or to assist you during your proselytizing missions in the future," Ling Ishikawa explained with a smile.

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow, considering that the Light Orb Art seemed to have untapped potential.

Then, Ling Ishikawa closed his eyes again, chanted a spell for a while, and suddenly produced a fireball the size of an egg in his hand. Just as this happened, Liu Xing couldn’t hold back a sneeze, inadvertently extinguishing the small fireball in Ling Ishikawa’s hand.

The situation became somewhat awkward.

Ling Ishikawa smiled wryly and said, "Well, my second Magic Spell is the Fireball Art. However, due to my current limitations, it’s only a small fireball. But don’t worry, Leader, as my abilities grow, the Fireball Art’s power will increase exponentially. Just like Wizard Serak, I’ll be able to create fireballs the size of washbasins with ease, and their firepower will be greater than hand grenades."

Hearing Ling Ishikawa’s words, Liu Xing could only nod reluctantly, indicating his trust in Ling Ishikawa’s words.

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