Truth

The Elder Sign was a rather peculiar existence in the Cthulhu Mythos System. Simply put, it was remarkably effective against most Mythical Creatures, because in their eyes, the Elder Sign was essentially something filthy, much like the products of human digestion. However, for most Mythical Creatures—especially the evil gods—there was no such thing as goodwill or malice toward humans. It was like how humans treated ants: merely acting on a whim. Thus, under normal circumstances, many evil gods would not attack humans holding an Elder Sign, lest they dirty their hands...

Therefore, the Elder Sign was known as one of the Three Divine Artifacts in the Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG. In many situations, it could save your life. Of course, some Mythical Creatures did not mind getting their hands dirty under certain circumstances, so do not expect the Elder Sign to be especially effective against them.

However, the Elder Sign could also form a combo with another of the Three Divine Artifacts in the Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG. But that would remain a mystery for now, until Liu Xing obtained that other artifact.

"Looks like this amulet is a good thing." Liu Xing took out the amulet bearing the Elder Sign and placed it in his suit pocket, just in case.

In the Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG, as long as one could obtain an Elder Sign, their chances of survival would increase considerably.

Liu Xing read through the messages for a while longer but found no more useful information, so he put away his phone.

Although he had obtained an Elder Sign, Liu Xing still had not gained much useful information about the Side Quest. He could not help but sigh. But there was still plenty of time, and since he had nothing better to do, Liu Xing began seriously examining the secret room for the first time.

The secret room was a little over twenty square meters. In the center stood the table around which the four of them sat. Behind Bai Wan was a Sailor Moon poster, stained with quite a few dark red bloodstains. It somewhat resembled the final photo Liu Xing had seen on Shan He's phone, so Liu Xing determined that this secret room was one of the crime scenes from the Family Annihilation case years ago.

Besides that, behind Wu Gen Cao was a small cabinet with an old-looking desk calendar placed on top.

At this point, Liu Xing already had a bold guess. He felt that he was getting closer and closer to the truth. He only needed to confirm two more things before he could complete this Novice Room mission.

With that in mind, Liu Xing began to act.

"Looks like there might be some clues in that cabinet. How about we open it and take a look?" Liu Xing asked the other three.

"There probably isn't anything in that cabinet, is there?" Wu Gen Cao frowned as he looked at Liu Xing.

Seeing this, Liu Xing grinned. "How would we know if we don't look?"

After saying that, Liu Xing stood and slowly walked toward the cabinet. He could feel the gazes of the other three settle on him.

"Why are you all staring at me? Come on, let's see what's inside this cabinet together." Liu Xing looked at the three and smiled. Shan He and the others said nothing, merely watching Liu Xing in silence. This made Liu Xing even more certain of his guess.

Liu Xing walked up to the cabinet and opened it effortlessly. Inside, he found only one thing—a Household Register.

Liu Xing laughed inwardly. This Household Register was exactly what he had wanted to find.

This Novice Room mission was really simple.

"Old Chinese Doctor, bring the Household Register over here so we can look at it together." Wu Gen Cao suddenly spoke. "I know this family well. I can verify whether this Household Register is real."

"Oh." Liu Xing chuckled, picked up the desk calendar, and examined it carefully. "Perhaps that will not be necessary."

The date displayed on the desk calendar was November 2000.

Now, Liu Xing knew that all the clues had connected into a single thread. The truth was right before his eyes.

"This Side Quest is really easy. It's making me a little full of myself." Liu Xing smiled as he walked back and returned to his seat.

Liu Xing placed the Household Register on the table, folded his arms, and said with a smile, "There's no need for me to open this Household Register now, right?"

As soon as Liu Xing said that, Shan He and Wu Gen Cao's expressions changed. Only Bai Wan kept his head lowered.

Watching their reactions, Liu Xing felt completely reassured. It was time for this game to end.

"I'm not targeting anyone in particular, but none of you here are alive, are you?" Liu Xing pushed up his nonexistent glasses again and spoke with certainty.

The moment Shan He heard this, he slammed the table and shot to his feet. He roared furiously at Liu Xing, "Who are you calling inhuman? Say that again if you've got the guts!"

Wu Gen Cao beside him also stood, glaring viciously at Liu Xing.

Yet Liu Xing merely smiled indifferently. "Looks like I was right. You three are ghosts, aren't you?"

After saying that, Liu Xing looked at Bai Wan and said regretfully, "As expected, all the cute ones are boys."

Bai Wan, who had kept his head lowered the entire time, raised it upon hearing this. His face was pale as he stared at Liu Xing. Shan He and Wu Gen Cao on either side also looked at Liu Xing in shock.

"Looks like I got everything right." Liu Xing picked up the Household Register. "This should be your Household Register. Here, take it."

At this point, Wu Gen Cao could only smile helplessly. He sat back down, accepted the Household Register, and asked calmly, "How did you know all this?"

Liu Xing sat up straight and smiled. "Actually, I felt something was wrong from the very beginning."

"After the game started, I observed all of you. But I found that none of you cared about my scrutiny at all. That clearly was not a reaction normal people should have. When facing a stranger's undisguised observation, normal people would react one way or another, yet none of you did."

"Second, your clothing was rather strange, especially Shan He. We were indoors, yet you were still wearing a hat." Liu Xing pointed at Shan He's Baseball Cap. "Later, when you showed me those photos, I wondered what the point of your outfits was. It was not until I came up with a bold guess that I understood: you were dressed so strangely to conceal the wounds you had when you died. For example, your head, Shan He. You were the victim in the second photo, weren't you?"

Hearing this, Shan He shook his head helplessly and said, "So I was the one who gave it away?"

"No, I was only a little suspicious at the time." Liu Xing continued, "What truly made me turn my guess into suspicion was Bai Wan triggering the Side Quest."

Liu Xing stood and stretched. "Generally speaking, no matter what game it is, missions should be given to Players by NPCs. Yet Bai Wan triggered a Side Quest just by saying a single sentence. That was clearly not quite right, so I began suspecting that Bai Wan's identity was far from simple."

At that moment, Bai Wan raised his head. The red necklace Liu Xing had thought he was wearing was actually a red bloodstain around his neck, covered in fine stitches.

"Then, when Wu Gen Cao told me about the Family Annihilation case from ten years ago, I realized that all of you had clues related to it, while I had none. At first, I thought I simply had not found mine, so I searched myself and found an amulet and a phone." As Liu Xing spoke, he placed the phone on the table.

"This is a Nokia 5230. Though I do not know its exact production date, I used one back in high school, around 2010. So at first, I thought my character was supposed to be a down-and-out Office Worker still using this outdated phone." Liu Xing played with the phone as he continued.

"It was only when I was about to put it away that I realized there was no exact time displayed on it, nor did any of the messages mention a specific date. When I noticed that, I suddenly thought that the time might be very important information."

Liu Xing put down the phone and said to Shan He, "That was when I remembered something. The phone you showed me those photos on was a Smartphone. I had not cared at the time, but after discovering the issue with the date, I began wondering: what year is it now?"

Shan He smiled at Liu Xing but said nothing.

"So by then, I was already eighty percent certain that there was something wrong with all three of you!" Liu Xing said firmly. "However, I still had two questions left unanswered. One was what year it currently was, and the other was Bai Wan's gender—whether he was male or female."

Liu Xing looked at Bai Wan, a strange trace of regret in his tone. "The clues you gave me at first were probably meant to mislead me into thinking that the family of three who were annihilated consisted of two men and one woman. But I remembered Wu Gen Cao saying that the killer was the classmate of the family's younger son. A younger son, by definition, should have had an elder son. Therefore, all three members of the family should have been male. So the person in the third photo whom I thought was a girl was actually a boy."

Wu Gen Cao shook his head and sighed. "Looks like that was my mistake."

Liu Xing stood and walked over to the cabinet again.

"Finally, when I saw this cabinet, I knew I could confirm my theory." Liu Xing picked up the desk calendar and waved it at Bai Wan and the other two.

"The date on the desk calendar is 2000, so the time of the Family Annihilation case can be determined." Liu Xing returned to his seat with the desk calendar. "Shan He said that case happened ten years ago, so it should be 2010 now. Shan He's Smartphone clearly does not belong to this era."

What the Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG emphasized was realism. Therefore, there were detailed rules regarding what items could appear in each era. In theory, Shan He's Smartphone could not have appeared in 2010—unless Shan He came from some great race of account thieves.

"So my first question was satisfactorily resolved." Liu Xing looked at the Household Register in Wu Gen Cao's hands and continued, "Then, when I got the Household Register, your reactions told me that my second question had also been answered."

Shan He suddenly began applauding. "Not bad reasoning. You passed, Old Chinese Doctor."

P.S. Thanks for all your recommendation votes. Love you all.