Determining Skills

Liu Xing found nothing in the group that could help him. The announcements were all about which members would be playing on certain dates and what time they had agreed to start matching into games together.

After giving it a quick look, Liu Xing put away his phone and prepared to head out to find the friend who had dragged him into the massive pit that was Cthulhu Mythos RPG.

Liu Xing's friend was named Wu Lei. He was also a Chengdu local and, like Liu Xing, a student at Rongcheng University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. They were classmates and roommates, so they had always gotten along well. However, after finishing his internship, Wu Lei had not chosen to continue working at a hospital. Instead, he opened a Tabletop Game Store and became his own boss.

As it happened, Liu Xing's current place was only about a ten-minute walk from Wu Lei's Tabletop Game Store. Liu Xing often went there to play, mooch off the tea and snacks, chat and brag with Wu Lei, and, of course, watch Wu Lei play Cthulhu Mythos RPG with other people online.

This time, Liu Xing hoped Wu Lei could help him determine how to allocate the Skill Points on his Character Card. After all, Wu Lei was far more capable than him in this area.

So Liu Xing arrived at Wu Lei's Tabletop Game Store, where Wu Lei was tidying up the place.

A Tabletop Game Store was like a restaurant: it had to make customers feel at home. That was why Wu Lei cleaned the shop three times a day. Right now, he had just opened the door and was getting everything in order before officially starting business.

Liu Xing walked in, casually greeted Wu Lei, then very consciously picked up a rag and began helping him clean.

A little while later, the Tabletop Game Store was spotless. Wu Lei opened the display freezer, handed Liu Xing a can of cola, and said with a smile, "Liu Xing, how did your interviews go these past couple of days?"

"How else could they go? What hospital would take a fresh college graduate like me? These damn hospitals basically only hire Graduate Students now." Liu Xing took the cola and sighed helplessly.

If he had passed an interview, Liu Xing figured he would never have joined that damned Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG Game Hall...

Wu Lei had expected that answer. Like Liu Xing, he had interviewed at several hospitals after finishing his internship, but none of them had worked out. That was why he had chosen to open a Tabletop Game Store instead, rather than put up with other people's crap.

"So what are you going to do? Are you planning to go home?" Wu Lei knew Liu Xing's family ran a clinic, so he thought Liu Xing had come to say goodbye today.

Liu Xing cracked open the cola and took a sip, shaking his head. "No, no, no. I'm not planning to slink home in defeat just yet. A friend found me an Online Part-time Job. The pay's pretty decent, enough to support myself."

"An Online Part-time Job? Is it reliable? Don't get scammed." Wu Lei looked at Liu Xing with the concerned gaze one reserved for an idiot.

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow and said, "What do you mean by that, Wu Lei? Do you think I, Liu Xing, would be that easy to fool? Besides, they've already transferred my first month's pay."

Wu Lei smiled and shrugged, then carried the signboard outside. "That's good, then. If you ever don't have enough living expenses, remember to tell me. My Tabletop Game Store might be small, but the income is pretty decent. Supporting you, brat, wouldn't be a problem."

"Get lost. Do you think I'm someone you can keep? Oh, right, I came to see you for something important today. I got the sudden urge to make a Character Card, so help me allocate the Skill Points." Laughing as he cursed, Liu Xing pulled out a sheet of paper containing the attributes of his Character Card.

Wu Lei looked at Liu Xing in surprise. "What? You finally made a Character Card? Hand it over and let me see."

Wu Lei had been recommending Cthulhu Mythos RPG to Liu Xing for around three years, but Liu Xing had always found one excuse or another and stubbornly refused to make a Character Card. Without a Character Card, he could not play Cthulhu Mythos RPG.

As a result, Wu Lei had nagged Liu Xing about it plenty over the past few years, constantly urging him to hurry up and make a Character Card so this Veteran Driver could take Liu Xing into Cthulhu Mythos RPG.

Wu Lei took Liu Xing's Character Card. "You sure you didn't just make these numbers up? These attributes are all pretty good."

Liu Xing rolled his eyes and said speechlessly, "You're slandering my character. I seem to recall someone rolling the dice several extra times when making a Character Card for an Online Game."

That had happened a few days ago, when Liu Xing had gone to watch Wu Lei play an Online Game. Wu Lei had been dissatisfied with one of his Character Card's attributes, so he rolled the dice two more times before getting a number he liked. Then he claimed in the Online Game that he had only rolled once.

Because Online Games had highly random settings, one game might take place in Lighthouse Country in 1920—when most original Cthulhu Mythos stories were set—while the next could take place in an island nation in the twenty-first century. Since many online videos about Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG came from that country's n Station, many original modern domestic scenarios were also set there. The time periods varied too greatly, so Players were generally required to make new Character Cards. And unlike in-person games, Online Games offered no way for everyone to supervise one another, so many people chose to "cheat" when rolling dice for attribute values, rolling again and again until they got a number they liked. The author occasionally did this too. Well, occasionally.

Wu Lei's old face reddened at Liu Xing's words, and he muttered something about how rolling the dice a few extra times while making a Character Card for an Online Game did not count as cheating.

After a while, under Wu Lei's guidance, Liu Xing finalized the Skill Point allocation for his Character Card.

First was Credit Rating. Liu Xing assigned it 50 Professional Skill Points. A Credit Rating of fifty was enough to make Liu Xing a wealthy man in Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG, giving him a chance to buy items that low-Credit Rating Players could not, such as bulletproof vests and pistols. He could also afford to hire private detectives or bodyguards.

Then came the Doctor's most important skill—First Aid. First Aid could treat injured Players during combat. In any game, healers were indispensable, so Liu Xing raised it to 80 points, which basically guaranteed successful First Aid checks.

Next was Medicine. Medicine could identify symptoms such as illnesses, poisoning, and injuries, then treat them outside of combat. Its treatment effects were also better than First Aid's, so Liu Xing spent 78 Professional Skill Points on Medicine.

Finally, Liu Xing added 70 points each to Psychology and Psychoanalysis. Psychology could determine whether someone was lying, which was crucial in Cthulhu Mythos tabletop RPG, since a single piece of false information could very likely lead to a Total Party Kill. Psychoanalysis, meanwhile, was a Divine Skill that had a chance of restoring a Player who had fallen into madness to clarity. After all, a Player who went insane was often the fuse that set off a Total Party Kill.

As for Liu Xing's Interest Skill Points, he put 60 into Persuasion, 40 into Investigation, and the remaining 70 into Jump... That was right—Liu Xing had invested in "Jump," a skill regarded as a Divine Skill within the Cthulhu Mythos System.

Persuasion and Investigation needed little explanation, as they were skills every Player should ideally invest in. Jump, however, was an extremely odd skill. It could be used as an evasive skill in combat, and it could also serve as a movement skill during exploration, allowing one to reach places inaccessible by ordinary means.

P.S. This chapter was a bit of filler as a transition, but the main plot would begin next chapter. Please continue to bookmark and recommend.