Dice In The Darkness: Cthulhu Calls

Chapter 453: Fortune in Misfortune

At this moment, KP Li Shunchan spoke up, "Because player Liu Xing was hit by several bullets, losing 8 HP in one go, he will be in a critical condition for the next week. And he will remain injured until the end of this module, which is a week after. While in critical condition and injured, some of Liu Xing’s attribute values and skill levels will decrease to a certain extent."

Liu Xing furrowed his brows upon hearing KP Li Shunchan’s words. He quickly opened his character card panel and found that his current critical condition had indeed directly halved many attribute values and skill levels, with the remaining values also decreasing more or less.

As for Liu Xing’s current HP value, after rescue efforts, it had recovered to 6/12, exactly half.

However, Liu Xing, after attempting to move a bit, realized that even without external help, he couldn’t sit up. Any movement involving his chest wound sent a sharp, agonizing pain through him.

It seemed he would be bedridden for a week.

Just then, a knock sounded at the door.

Liu Xing managed to open his mouth and said, "Come in."

Ling Ishikawa entered the room, now back in his male form.

Seeing Liu Xing, Ling Ishikawa breathed a sigh of relief. "Liu Xing, you’re finally awake. I thought you’d be unconscious for another day or two."

Ling Ishikawa nodded, saying seriously, "Yes, Liu Xing, you’ve been unconscious for two days now. But speaking of which, Liu Xing, your luck is really bad. I checked with Zhang Jingxu yesterday, and you rolled an 8 on a d10."

Liu Xing sighed helplessly, smiling bitterly. "What can I do? I feel desperate too. My luck has been pretty good before. I never expected to crash during this Judgment..."

At this point, Zhang Jingxu walked in, looking somewhat embarrassed. "It’s actually my fault. If I hadn’t rolled a major failure earlier, we wouldn’t have been caught up in the mafia’s chase, and you wouldn’t be in this state now, Liu Xing."

Zhang Jingxu seemed to be in decent shape now, indicating his HP had fully recovered after treatment.

Liu Xing shook his head, saying, "No, no, no. It’s fate. Even if you hadn’t rolled that major failure, I would’ve still ended up seriously injured later."

Of course, Liu Xing couldn’t blame Zhang Jingxu.

"By the way, has anything important happened during the two days I was unconscious?" Liu Xing asked.

Ling Ishikawa nodded earnestly, "Quite a lot has happened in these two days. Firstly, although you were attacked by the mafia, everyone except you sustained only minor injuries, so we managed to reach the shipyard relatively smoothly. Meanwhile, we faced an attack from the Cult of the Cadaver, but luckily, it was just their vanguard. With Baruka’s help, we easily dealt with them."

"Then we decided to leave Glasgow Cathedral and head towards the shipyard through the sewers. However, due to both my and Yis People’s poor luck, we encountered another attack from the Cult of the Cadaver. But Baruka’s strength is incredible; he single-handedly fought off four Ghouls, and we managed to leave the sewers unharmed and meet up with you at the shipyard."

"Next, during our return journey to England by sea, our luck still wasn’t good, and we encountered a joint blockade from Scotland and the Deep Ones. Fortunately, we managed to escape without much trouble. After returning to England, we had you and the others treated, and since the treatment went smoothly, we decided to bring you all to the safe point in Manchester."

"Then there was the interrogation of William. According to the information provided by Chris, William did indeed betray his father Rogers under the influence of the Cult of the Cadaver, particularly Bai Hecheng, who manipulated him into orchestrating a car accident to capture Rogers and extract information about Baruka’s whereabouts. However, despite intense pressure, Rogers remained defiant and didn’t reveal Baruka’s location. But William did provide several possible hiding places for Baruka to the Cult of the Cadaver. Fortunately, they only arrived at Glasgow Cathedral later."

"As for why he was shot, William claimed he was tricked by the Scottish higher-ups. They tasked him with organizing a large rally in Glasgow and delivering a speech, promising to elevate him as the new William Wallace of the era and integrate him into politics. However, when he was shot, he realized he had been used."

"So, with a sense of resentment, William woke up shortly after being shot. He cleverly feigned continued unconsciousness and overheard the Scottish higher-ups planning to assassinate him. Hence, after being transferred to the intensive care unit and making sure the police officers and medical staff left, he escaped to the toilet. Then, after confirming Jack’s and his common plight, he decided to escape together with Jack."

"Now, William has been turned into a tainted witness by the English authorities, while Jack has been relocated to the Manchester police department through Chris’s connections. Mendez also resigned from Glasgow Royal Hospital and has gone to Buckingham Palace to treat the Queen. As for Scotland, they seem to have backed down, and the riots in Glasgow have mostly subsided. However, for some reason, the KP hasn’t reminded us that the sudden mission has officially ended."

Hearing this, Liu Xing couldn’t help but interject, "What about Hu Li? How is she doing? Has she contacted you?"

Zhang Jingxu and Ling Ishikawa exchanged a glance before shaking their heads. "Hu Li hasn’t contacted us yet. We also checked with Chris and found out that the English maritime authorities haven’t located the ship carrying the over two hundred foreign tourists. So, we speculate that the ship is still at sea, waiting for an opportunity to enter England... Of course, we don’t rule out the possibility that the ship might head elsewhere. But Liu Xing, rest assured, if there’s any news, we’ll inform you first. So, for now, focus on recovering. Try to be able to walk within three days, as it’s Isabella’s birthday. Chris invited us to his house, and it would be great if you could join. After all, Yis People might not be reliable."

Liu Xing nodded and sighed, "Okay, I think my recovery ability should be decent. Although every movement hurts like hell right now, I’m confident I can start moving around in three days. If not, I can always use a wheelchair to meet Isabella. But either way, we need to figure out how to win over Isabella."

Zhang Jingxu gave Ling Ishikawa a signal, and Ling Ishikawa smiled, saying, "Liu Xing, you should rest now. We won’t disturb you. By the way, there’s a bottle of painkillers and sleeping pills in your bedside table. If the pain becomes unbearable, take two pills."

Liu Xing nodded, watching Zhang Jingxu and Ling Ishikawa leave.

Sighing, Liu Xing acknowledged that despite the current favorable turn of events in the storyline for his group, the absence of Tian Qing still troubled him.

Liu Xing couldn’t deny that Tian Qing still held a place in his heart.

Tian Qing was Liu Xing’s first love and his only girlfriend.

Although there were many girls at Shudu Traditional Chinese Medicine University, and Liu Xing had excellent qualities himself, he couldn’t forget Tian Qing. During his time at the university, despite some ambiguous interactions with other girls, he never took the final step because he always hoped for reconciliation with Tian Qing.

Previously, Liu Xing had thought he could do anything for survival in the Cthulhu Role-Playing Game Hall, but now he realized he would have to eat his words...

Lost in thought, Liu Xing was suddenly interrupted by KP Li Shunchan, "We’re now entering the settlement phase of the sudden mission. Since you successfully rescued the key figure, William, the large riot in Scotland has been downgraded to just the Glasgow riot. As for your mission reward, you have gained recognition from the English authorities. You now officially have a special assignment from the Manchester police department, with the same authority as regular police officers. Additionally, you can now receive more assistance from Chris."

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow. The reward for the sudden mission was decent, and it would indeed aid their future missions. Previously, although Chris had provided them with genuine police officer credentials, strictly speaking, they were still fake police officers. This posed a potential problem if Bai Hecheng and others exploited this loophole. Now, they had fewer worries.

As for receiving more help from Chris, Liu Xing assumed it meant better weapons and equipment. After all, police officers had different types of weapons.

However, Liu Xing still had a concern. So far, apart from meeting Bai Hecheng and Shi Zixuan once, his group hadn’t had any contact with players from the enemy camp, let alone information about them.

In any game, information was crucial, often determining the outcome of a battle.

Liu Xing was sure that Bai Hecheng and others had gathered a lot of information about them. Apart from knowing Bai Hecheng, Shi Zixuan, and Ace’s names, they knew nothing else.

If things continued like this, Liu Xing felt that they would eventually be ambushed by Bai Hecheng’s side...

At that moment, the door opened again, and in addition to Zhang Jingxu and Ling Ishikawa, Buke entered, carrying a first aid kit.

"Buke has voluntarily joined our temporary team as our team doctor. He wants to change your medication," Ling Ishikawa explained.

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow, looking at Buke with some suspicion. He hadn’t expected Buke to choose their side within a week.

However, Buke clearly misinterpreted Liu Xing’s expression and said with a smile, "Mr. Ryuusei, you must trust my professional skills. After all, being a forensic doctor isn’t just about dissecting bodies. I’ve also studied common diseases and trauma treatment. Plus, I used to be a military doctor a few years ago, so I’ve seen much worse gunshot wounds than yours."

Liu Xing nodded and said, "I see. I may have been overthinking it. Please, Buke, change my medication."

As an experienced military doctor, Buke’s skills were indeed impressive. He quickly changed Liu Xing’s medication.

After packing up the first aid kit, Buke smiled and said, "Mr. Ryuusei, you’re lucky. Although both bullets hit your chest, they narrowly missed your spine and organs. They were just flesh wounds. Otherwise, you might not have survived."

Liu Xing nodded. Indeed, he was fortunate that the bullets hadn’t hit his spine or organs. It was a stroke of luck in misfortune.

In the USB drive Yin En had given him before, Liu Xing had learned about a hidden setting in the Cthulhu Role-Playing Game Hall. During damage judgments, the KP would also make some real random decisions to determine how the injuries were caused.

For example, the 8 points of damage Liu Xing suffered could be caused by a bullet hitting his lungs or kidneys, breaking his spine, or two bullets hitting his body, causing excessive bleeding. Although these injury methods only resulted in an 8-point HP loss for Liu Xing, their aftermath would be vastly different. For instance, hitting organs would permanently lower Liu Xing’s attribute values and skill levels, breaking his spine would paralyze him, while flesh wounds would temporarily decrease certain attribute values and skill levels.

Thinking about this, Liu Xing felt a bit frightened and relieved at the same time.

"All right, Mr. Ryuusei, you should rest. I’ve checked your wound, and it’s healing very well. You should be able to get out of bed tomorrow, barring any fear of pain," Buke said with a smile.

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