Ending (Part 2)

Liu Xing leaned on the second-floor railing, his hands involuntarily raised. He didn't know what to say for a moment, after all, this was the first time Liu Xing had a gun pointed at his head... or perhaps it would be the last.

However, just then, Liu Xing noticed that Gary had put on a pair of sunglasses at some point, completely covering his blood-red eyes.

"What do you know, or rather, what do you know!" Gary had calmed down by now, saying to Liu Xing in a cold tone.

Liu Xing knew that at this point, he could only use persuasion. "KP, I want to use persuasion on Gary!"

KP004 also knew the situation was urgent, so he didn't waste any more words and directly started the roll.

Persuasion, 15/20 (This is not a rigged roll, I didn't expect the protagonist to be so lucky, I was already preparing for a failure scenario), Success.

Because the situation was urgent and Gary was full of suspicion towards Liu Xing, this was a difficult persuasion check. However, the result made Liu Xing extremely surprised. He didn't expect his luck to be so good, actually passing a check with only a twenty percent success rate.

But now was not the time to be happy. Liu Xing quickly organized his words and said to Gary, "Mr. Gary, please don't get agitated. If possible, please put the gun down first. I just heard some strange noises coming from this room when I was leaving the study, so I wanted to come and take a look. That's when I saw what just happened. I can't stand seeing anyone hit a child, so I wanted to come in and stop your actions. I didn't expect you to be so agitated, Mr. Gary, that you'd even draw a gun."

Because the persuasion succeeded, Liu Xing knew that as long as he didn't say the wrong thing and didn't stimulate Gary's sensitive nerves, Gary wouldn't point the gun at him again. Therefore, Liu Xing's tone became much more relaxed and natural.

One must know that in the Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG, the results of checks are like the will of the gods, and no one can defy them. Liu Xing remembered a joke he heard from Wu Lei, also about a persuasion check – an explorer was cornered by a Fanatic NPC and was about to be killed when the explorer rolled a Critical Success on persuasion, successfully convincing the Fanatic that he was the explorer's son, even though the explorer was only in his twenties and the Fanatic was in his thirties...

Therefore, even though Liu Xing's words had quite a few loopholes if scrutinized, Gary had already believed Liu Xing. He put away his pistol and said to Liu Xing with a chuckle, "Mr. Liu Xing, I apologize for startling you. I was just trying to play a joke on you, Mr. Liu Xing. This pistol in my hand is just a lighter."

Liu Xing wiped a cold sweat from his forehead and said with a wry smile, "Uh, Mr. Gary, you really scared me this time. You know, in our China, we only see guns on television and in movies. So, if you hadn't said anything, Mr. Gary, I would have thought the gun in your hand was real."

Liu Xing naturally had to continue agreeing with Gary's statement. He couldn't possibly say directly that he knew the gun was real. However, Liu Xing, having narrowly escaped, couldn't help but complain, "Aren't you supposed to be a Magician, BOSS? Why are you using a pistol? This isn't magical at all!"

"All players please note, the Main Quest for this tabletop RPG session has changed. All players may now leave Ains Castle. However, the quest will only be officially completed when you are ten kilometers away from Ains Town!" KP004 suddenly announced.

Liu Xing's eyebrows shot up. He knew that his actions had caused the Main Quest to change. After all, as the saying goes, although players have a high degree of freedom in the Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG, every action must be "reasonable." For example, although KP004's announcement said that players could choose to leave Ains Castle, currently, except for Liu Xing, Bai He Cheng and the others could not leave Ains Castle because they did not have a suitable "reason" to do so. Liu Xing, however, could now use the reason of "being threatened by Gary with a gun, and thus worrying about his own safety" to leave Ains Castle.

Therefore, although Liu Xing could now choose to leave Ains Castle alone, he had no intention of betraying his teammates... Well, if it was just betraying Bai He Cheng, Liu Xing thought he might consider it...

After all, Liu Xing was no saint. Bai He Cheng had caused trouble time and time again, pushing Liu Xing's patience to its limit. Therefore, Liu Xing had already made up his mind that if it was necessary to sacrifice Bai He Cheng, Liu Xing would definitely sell him out without hesitation.

"Mr. Liu Xing, please return to your room first. I have some matters to attend to," Gary said, then hurried away once more.

"Liu Xing, you can attempt a Listen check here," KP004 said to Liu Xing as Gary went down the stairs.

Liu Xing certainly wouldn't refuse. After all, this was clearly KP004 giving him information. However, Liu Xing hadn't spent skill points on Listen, so his Listen skill was only the base value of 20.

Listen, 42/20, Failure.

Liu Xing shrugged helplessly. This was within expectations. However, what Liu Xing didn't expect was that KP004 still gave him some information. "Although you didn't clearly hear what Gary was muttering, you vaguely heard words like 'child,' 'stupid,' and 'ridiculous.'"

Liu Xing thought to himself that the Listen check had indeed failed. The words he heard, when combined, were nothing more than Gary mocking his earlier actions.

Liu Xing had originally planned to return directly to his room and tell Bai He Cheng and the others what had happened here, so that Bai He Cheng and the others would have a reason to leave Ains Castle with Liu Xing.

However, the moment Liu Xing prepared to return to his room, he suddenly thought of Isabella. So, he opened the door and saw Isabella sitting on the bed, crying.

Liu Xing quickly stepped forward and comforted Isabella, "Miss Isabella, are you alright?"

Seeing that the person who arrived was Liu Xing, Isabella quickly wiped the tears from her face, pretending that nothing had happened, and said to Liu Xing with a smile, "I'm fine, Mr. Liu Xing."

Liu Xing looked at Isabella's tear-streaked face and, for some reason, blurted out, "Miss Isabella, would you like to leave here with me? Mr. Gary's behavior towards you is truly too vile."

Liu Xing suddenly felt as if he had awakened some incredible attribute.

After a moment of stunned silence, Isabella smiled and nodded, "Okay, if it's Mr. Liu Xing, I'm willing."

Liu Xing felt as if he had successfully kidnapped a little loli.

I received a notice from the website today that I'll be on the channel's strong recommendation on Sunday. I definitely have to thank everyone for their support in achieving this result, so after the recommendation on Sunday afternoon, I'll have three updates. Next week will also be double updates every day. Of course, let me have one last day of rest with a single update tomorrow.

On a side note, the protagonist's next group is in the Reader Group. It's a group I'm running as KP for the readers. Because of two consecutive days of power outages (for me and another reader), it's called the Power Outage Group. The show's effect was explosive... in every sense of the word...

Finally, please collect and recommend. Thank you all.