First RPG Session (Part 1)

After all, Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG had a relatively small audience in China, so no developer was willing to invest the effort and capital to build a platform specifically for it. Besides, all Players needed to play Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG were a sheet of paper, a pen, a suitable set of dice, and a mouth. There were no in-app purchases either. With no profit to be made, Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG had never had a dedicated online platform. Online Game sessions were generally hosted through communication tools such as QQ, or through China's only web-based RPG platform—Duo Dong Doufu.

Now that Liu Xing had actually found a dedicated Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG platform, he was naturally overjoyed. This was something Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG enthusiasts in China had dreamed of for years.

So, Liu Xing glanced at the time in the bottom-right corner of his computer. It was only around six in the evening, leaving him plenty of time for a relatively short session. With a bit of selfishness in mind, he decided to try out this Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG Game Hall himself before recommending it to his friends. After all, if it turned out to be some awful scam platform, he would definitely get roasted for promoting it too soon.

Thus, Liu Xing eagerly clicked the icon on his desktop. A black hole suddenly appeared in the center of the screen, and an avatar of Cthulhu—an affectionate nickname Cthulhu fans used for Cthulhu—emerged from it.

"What a cliché trick." Liu Xing, who had already prepared himself mentally, could not help complaining.

Then came a registration page, and all Liu Xing had to enter was his identity information and phone number.

"No account or password? Or does it bind directly and let you log in with a Tencent account?" Liu Xing had plenty of questions, but he still filled in his real information. He could not be bothered making up fake details.

"Registration successful. Welcome to the Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG Game Hall." Cthulhu's avatar formed a line of blood-red text, then vanished.

The special effects were pretty good.

Liu Xing nodded, becoming even more interested in the Game Hall—or rather, in whoever was operating it. In his eyes, the Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG Game Hall was clearly losing money just to build publicity.

The black hole in the center of the screen did not disappear with Cthulhu's avatar. Instead, it spread across the entire display, and then the interface of the Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG Game Hall finally appeared.

The Game Hall's borders were lined with Cthulhu's signature Forgiveness Green tentacles, with a corpse or two mixed in. It gave Liu Xing an inexplicable sense of awe. This was very Cthulhu.

"Please enter your game ID." At that moment, the Electronic Synthesized Voice of a young woman suddenly sounded, and the Game Hall interface automatically switched to the personal center.

"I'll stick with my old ID." Liu Xing had trouble coming up with names, so he used basically the same game ID in every game.

"Welcome, Old Chinese Doctor. Please claim your Novice gift pack." That was right, Liu Xing's game ID was "Old Chinese Doctor." Since childhood, he had studied traditional Chinese medicine with both his grandfather and maternal grandfather, so by now, he could indeed be considered an old Chinese doctor.

"A Novice gift pack? There should be something good inside." Liu Xing immediately clicked to open it.

"Congratulations! You have received 10 Points!"

Liu Xing stared dumbfoundedly at the screen, unable to think of anything to say for a moment.

"Are you kidding me? The Novice gift pack only gives 10 Points?!" Liu Xing said in disbelief.

Suppressing the urge to curse, Liu Xing opened the shop, hoping those 10 Points could buy him something worthwhile.

The moment Liu Xing looked at the first section of the shop, he immediately realized just how generous this game was.

Points could be exchanged for Renminbi. Each Point could be exchanged for 10,000 Renminbi. No wonder the earlier advertisement had said, "Play and get 100,000 Renminbi."

Seeing this, Liu Xing casually clicked the exchange option with the thought that he had nothing better to do, and maybe it would work. He exchanged all 10 of his Points for Renminbi.

However, Liu Xing suddenly realized something was wrong. He had never entered a bank card number, so would this exchange actually work?

Before Liu Xing could come back to his senses, the phone he had set aside began vibrating with a "bzzz, bzzz, bzzz."

"100,000.00 Renminbi has been credited to your bank card today." Liu Xing carefully checked the sender and confirmed that this was not some fraudulent text message!

"So it's actually real. Tencent really delivers." Liu Xing remembered that his QQ Wallet was linked to his bank card, so he assumed that this Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG Game Hall belonged to Tencent.

However, Liu Xing did not notice that a new app had suddenly appeared on his phone.

"Since I've taken your money, I should at least see how well you made this Game Hall." Liu Xing was still somewhat dazed, but following the principle that accepting favors meant owing something in return, he happily put down his phone and prepared to begin his First RPG Session in Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG.

"I wonder how many people are online in this Game Hall right now." As Liu Xing thought this, he clicked the Start button in the Game Hall.

Liu Xing smoothly entered the secondary interface and found that it was divided into four areas—Ghoul, Shoggoth, Hound of Tindalos, Cthulhu, and Azathoth.

The five levels clearly corresponded to difficulties such as beginner, intermediate, advanced, epic, and hell. Ghouls were the lowest-tier Mythical Creatures, while Shoggoths were servant creatures of higher races, though their combat power had surpassed that of some ordinary Mythical Creatures through continuous evolution. Hounds of Tindalos were a special type of undead creature. Put simply, Hounds of Tindalos would endlessly hunt down people who traveled through time, earning them the title of every time traveler's lifelong enemy. As for Cthulhu, there was no need to explain—he was one of the major gods among the Great Old Ones. Azathoth, meanwhile, was the origin of all things in the Cthulhu Mythos System. Its power went without saying.

"Do I have to enter before I can choose a specific room?" Of the five areas, only the Ghoul Area was marked as unlocked, so Liu Xing could only click it.

"Since this is your first time entering the game, you will automatically join a Novice Room."

The female Electronic Synthesized Voice sounded again. Liu Xing was directly added to a so-called Novice Room. There were four slots in the room, and aside from his, the other three already showed Players as ready.

"Looks like this is a four-player session. If it's a Novice Room, the process shouldn't be too long, right?" Liu Xing stretched and clicked Ready. "This looks pretty interesting. My first Cthulhu Mythos RPG journey should be a good experience."

"The game is about to begin. Please prepare yourself. I hope you can return alive." It was still that same Electronic Synthesized Voice, but Liu Xing had the strange feeling that it carried a hint of schadenfreude.

"Why did I get that impression?" Liu Xing rubbed his nose.

The game began!

P.S. I didn't expect to get recommendation votes so quickly. Thanks, 12350, and please bookmark the story.