Overthinking Everything

Kobold Mountain Village.

Green woods surrounded rows of wooden houses. Black night crows perched on the treetops, their bodies rigid and their eyes closed as they played dead.

Everyone in black robes lay prostrate, trembling involuntarily, their backs cold.

The closer they were to the well, the more they felt an inexplicable terror.

It was as though invisible tentacles were swimming around them, burrowing into every opening they found. The sensation was unbearable.

The Kobold Priest pressed his forehead to the ground. Ever since a cloud of eerie mist had appeared above the well, he had not raised his head.

Gods must not be gazed upon directly.

Especially an insanity-inducing evil god like Cthulhu. Anyone without strong mental resistance would surely go mad at the sight of him.

Following the guidance of a powerful ghost, he had offered the village's rising star to Cthulhu, hoping to receive Great Cthulhu's help.

After the dog bowl was thrown into the well, the inexplicable atmosphere of terror gradually dissipated, and the icy chill slowly faded. The Kobolds no longer felt tentacles burrowing into their noses, ears, mouths... and assholes.

Was the sacrifice over?

Everyone present still trembled with lingering fear. They dared not look up, speak, or move.

Only an hour later, when someone shifted their aching backside without going mad on the spot or suddenly dropping dead, did everyone realize that Great Cthulhu had left.

The Kobold Priest recited a passage praising Cthulhu's divine name where he knelt. After finishing, he remained silent for five seconds, then slowly raised his head and glanced at the space above the well from the corner of his eye.

There was no indescribable mist. Nothing was there. The evil god had left.

He slowly rose and stretched his stiff body.

He leaned halfway over the well and looked inside. The dog bowl that carried the hopes of the entire village was gone too.

"Villagers, the Great Old Ones have accepted our offering! They have accepted our offering! Our sacrifice was a success!"

The Kobold Priest removed his mask, tears streaming down his aged face.

The village's leading members were delighted to hear this. They crowded around the well and examined the water, finding no sign of the dog bowl.

"The Adventurers must have lost all hope of continuing their line now," an elderly Kobold said optimistically.

"I'll lead a team to check."

The Kobolds were thrilled. They had found a new reason to live.

Before this, they had once despaired, believing their village had no future generations left. Every death meant one fewer villager.

Then, unexpectedly, Black Ghost had arrived and told them that as long as they worshipped Cthulhu and offered a sacrifice that could catch Great Cthulhu's attention, he would answer his followers' pleas and grant their insignificant wishes.

The Kobold villagers feared the evil god. After all, worshipping an evil god was extremely dangerous.

They had heard that many villages that worshipped evil gods met terrible ends. Often, after a period of prosperity, something horrifying would happen, and they would vanish from the face of the earth, never to be found again.

The priest thought that if those Adventurers had not wreaked havoc in Kobold Village and captured all their women, they would never have been able to bring themselves to offer a sacrifice to an evil god.

Fortunately, this sacrifice had concluded successfully, without a single death.

A few hours later, the Kobold patrol returned.

"Well? Have they lost their future generations?"

The old priest had been waiting at the village entrance. He hurried forward and anxiously questioned them.

"The female Adventurers are still alive. The Adventurers can still continue their line," a member of the patrol said, shaking his head with a sorrowful expression.

"What happened? Didn't we offer a sacrifice?"

"Could our request have been too much? Did the Great Old Ones think our offering wasn't worth what we asked?"

Panic spread immediately. Knowing that the female Adventurers still existed made them deeply uneasy.

"Our village is doomed."

"It's over. Now even our village's only hope is gone."

"We have no future!"

The Kobolds wiped tears from the corners of their eyes. Their faces were bleak, as though they had aged ten years in an instant.

"Everyone, listen to me." The priest stepped forward, his red eyes streaked with bloodshot veins.

"Offering sacrifices to an evil god is no easy task. Even a blood sacrifice may not successfully summon one. We offered the hope of our entire village, but in his eyes, it was no more than an insignificant ant by the roadside. It hardly qualified as a proper offering."

"I think our faith wasn't sincere enough, and our offering wasn't rare enough. We need to hold another sacrifice!"

"Lord Priest, what could we offer that would move the evil god?" someone cried.

"I don't know, so we must work hard to find it." The priest shook his head. He was only an ordinary priest, after all. This had been his first sacrifice to an evil god, and having no villagers die was already the best outcome he could have hoped for.

A patrol member said hesitantly, "I heard that Cat-Faced People Mountain Village also offered a sacrifice to the Great Old Ones."

"What? They held a sacrifice too?"

A crowd of Kobolds gathered around.

"How many of them died?" an older Kobold asked urgently.

The patrol member shook his head. "No one died. They offered their village treasure."

"Then did they succeed?"

"It seems they didn't receive a response from the Great Old Ones either. But the Cat-Faced People had nightmares last night. I heard they were terrifying, worse than death. A lot of their elderly went mad after waking up."

Hearing this outcome sent a chill through everyone's hearts.

Offering sacrifices to an evil god was never the best choice.

At best, it brought a string of misfortunes. At worst, everyone was wiped out.

Only fanatics who longed in their hearts to destroy the world enjoyed summoning evil gods.

With all their women abducted by Adventurers, the villagers of Kobold Mountain Village wanted nothing less than to destroy every female Adventurer in the world.

That desire aligned with the mad notion of destroying the world, and it was their main motivation for taking such a dangerous risk.

Just then, the village's Kobold Strategist tapped his walking stick against the ground. "Our ultimate goal is to make the Adventurers pay for blood with blood. Bloodshed is an unavoidable part of that path!"

"Next time, capture a batch of Adventurers and make them kneel on the ground to witness the sacrificial ritual firsthand. Let them have a taste of those nightmares!"

The Kobolds' eyes lit up at the Kobold Strategist's new tactic.

"That sounds like a pretty good idea."

Someone else asked, "Why don't we just send the Adventurers over as offerings? Once they see the evil god's true form, they definitely won't live to see tomorrow."

"Idiot! That would anger the evil god, and our whole village would be destroyed! Don't assume just anything can serve as an offering!" The Kobold Strategist tapped the ground, exasperated by their foolishness.

"Those Adventurers are vile, arrogant, and look down on everyone. They could easily anger the evil god. We mustn't do anything stupid."

After hearing the Kobold Strategist's explanation, they understood.

"That makes sense. That makes sense."

"The strategist is right."

The Kobolds scratched the backs of their heads, ashamed of their foolish ideas.

Before long, Kobold Mountain Village had found a new goal to strive for-capture Adventurers alive!

Far away on Earth, Ke Meng was looking at his task list, preparing to carry out a review task. He had no idea that the evil god's followers had convinced themselves their offering was not rare enough and their faith not sincere enough. Nor did he know that some unlucky Adventurers would be involved next time.

The first two sacrifices had taken place near the time he woke up, and Great Cthulhu had fallen asleep after accepting them.

If future sacrifices took place while he was awake, Great Cthulhu would be able to respond.

But for the summoners, whether summoning an evil god would bring help or an even greater disaster remained uncertain.

After all, he was the Evil God Boss. Whether he helped or destroyed them depended entirely on the protagonist's mood.