Chapter 682: Hound of Tindalos |
"What's wrong, Chris?" Jill asked with some doubt, following Liu Xing as they ran over.
Liu Xing let out a sigh and explained, "I just saw Ithaqua carrying a book out of a store, so I directly followed him. However, because I'm not familiar with the layout of this area and I don't know if Ithaqua has any accomplices hiding in the alleys, I didn't dare to continue chasing him."
Jill furrowed her brow, let out a sigh, and said, "So, it seems that this time's Chinatown riot was instigated by Ithaqua behind the scenes. His target must be that book. By the way, Chris, can you call Miss Wang now and ask if she knows what book Ithaqua took from that store?"
Liu Xing nodded and took out his phone to call Miss Wang.
As the de facto owner of Chinatown, Miss Wang naturally knew what was happening in Chinatown. However, because the London police had not yet officially cleared Miss Wang of any connection to the previous attack, she was still under surveillance and couldn't take charge of the situation in Chinatown.
When Miss Wang answered the phone, Liu Xing got straight to the point: "Miss Wang, I just saw Ithaqua in Chinatown. He was carrying a thread-bound book when he came out of a street-side store. It seems that his main goal in instigating this Chinatown riot was to get that thread-bound book."
"Ithaqua took a thread-bound book?" Miss Wang said with some surprise. "It turns out that book was really left in Chinatown. I didn't expect it to be hidden under my nose for so many years, and now it's been stolen by that guy Ithaqua."
Hearing Miss Wang say this, Liu Xing knew that the thread-bound book Ithaqua took might not be simple.
"Actually, the thread-bound book looks like an ancient Chinese literary work, but in reality, it's a magic book. Although it only records a magic spell, I'm not too clear on what the specific effect of that spell is. I only know that the spell comes from a magic book called 'The Secret Scripture of Xuanjun'," Miss Wang said seriously.
Liu Xing raised an eyebrow, not expecting to be connected to The Secret Scripture of Xuanjun in this era. Although the thread-bound book might just be a fragment or a copy of The Secret Scripture of Xuanjun.
However, the magic spell recorded in the thread-bound book was worth exploring, especially since the magic spells in The Secret Scripture of Xuanjun had significant differences between them.
After all, there was a huge gap between Ghoul and Nyarlathotep.
However, Liu Xing estimated that the magic spell recorded in the thread-bound book was unlikely to be used to summon Nyarlathotep, as that spell was too buggy. If Ithaqua successfully summoned it, the module would be unplayable.
As for the Gate of Kadath, it was also unlikely, and summoning the Earth-boring Demon Worm was even more unreliable. If Ithaqua used these two magic spells in the London city area, Liu Xing was afraid that when the module's results were projected into the real world, he would see news headlines like "London City Reconstruction Work to Officially Begin" or "20th Anniversary of the London Earthquake"...
That would be a huge joke.
Of course, in Liu Xing's view, resurrection spells were just a trap, so even if Ithaqua learned this magic spell, it would be useless. Therefore, Liu Xing believed that the Cthulhu Role-Playing Game Hall wouldn't prepare such a useless magic spell for Ithaqua.
So, in the end, there were only three magic spells left: summoning Ghoul, summoning Byakhee, and summoning Hound of Tindalos. In Liu Xing's eyes, these three summoning spells were all very useful for Ithaqua.
Although Ithaqua had already fallen out with the Cult of the Cadaver, which meant he had also fallen out with Ghoul, Ithaqua could still use the Ghoul summoning spell to attract Ghoul to a specific location, achieving the effect of "luring the tiger away from the mountain" or "leading the enemy into the trap".
If Ithaqua summoned Byakhee, he would have aerial support, which would be a significant advantage for Ithaqua. Since the various factions participating in the Sacred Book projection contest were basically "infantry", Ithaqua could use Byakhee to gain an advantage in terms of vision and intelligence.
As for the final Hound of Tindalos, it was a killer move for Ithaqua. The Hound of Tindalos was extremely powerful and would not give up until its enemy was dead. Most importantly, it was impossible to avoid the Hound of Tindalos's pursuit by eliminating "angles" outdoors. If Ithaqua summoned the Hound of Tindalos in the Sacred Book projection contest, the entire contest might become a hunting show by the Hound of Tindalos.
However, it was fortunate that Liu Xing knew that the summoning spells recorded in The Secret Scripture of Xuanjun were all typical "Cthulhu"-style magic spells, which meant that the summoner had no way to unconditionally control the summoned creature. Therefore, Liu Xing didn't think Ithaqua had the ability to control the Hound of Tindalos, so if Ithaqua dared to summon it, he would have to be prepared to hurt himself while hurting others.
So, overall, Liu Xing wasn't too worried that Ithaqua would greatly increase his power after obtaining the thread-bound book, but he would definitely encounter some trouble.
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"By the way, Chris, do you remember which store Ithaqua came out of? If you remember, take a photo and send it to me. We can ask the store owner later what's recorded in that thread-bound book and infer what magic spell it contains," Miss Wang continued.
Liu Xing hung up the phone and brought Jill to the store where Ithaqua had just been.
Luo's China Variety Store.
Liu Xing took a photo and sent it to Miss Wang, then entered the store with Jill to check the situation.
Although the store was called a miscellaneous goods store, it was actually a gift shop selling various Chinese specialties. However, due to the recent riot, the store was in disarray, with some shelves even knocked to the ground.
As for the store owner, Liu Xing remembered that he had been sent to the hospital for treatment, which was why Ithaqua was able to obtain the thread-bound book so easily.
"Chris, look, there's a hidden compartment," Jill said, pointing to the wall behind the cash register. Liu Xing looked over and saw that there was indeed a hidden compartment, and inside, there was an open safe with a lot of cash.
It seemed that Ithaqua must have taken the thread-bound book from this safe, because if the rioters had discovered the safe, the cash would have been gone.
In addition, Liu Xing noticed that there was a painting on the wall below the safe, which seemed to be used to cover the safe. Liu Xing picked up the painting and found that it was quite strange, depicting a group of people riding horses and hunting, but the "hunting dogs" they were carrying were all weird and didn't look like dogs at all.
Hound of Tindalos?!
Liu Xing frowned, thinking that this painting was probably hinting at the Magic Spells recorded in the thread-bound book, which were used to summon the Hound of Tindalos. The reason why the Hound of Tindalos was called a "hunting dog" was not because it looked like a dog, but because of its relentless pursuit of prey, similar to a hunting dog.
Because the Hound of Tindalos could travel through time and space, and its speed was extremely fast, there were very few eyewitness accounts of it, and the descriptions of its appearance were often vague and varied.
However, in the Cthulhu Role-Playing Game Hall, the image of the Hound of Tindalos had been roughly outlined, and it was described as a monster with four legs, a mouth similar to a crocodile, and a slender body, with a layer of white mist surrounding it.
These descriptions were similar to some of the "hunting dogs" in the painting.
It seemed that the Magic Spells recorded in the thread-bound book were indeed used to summon the Hound of Tindalos.
This was not good news for Liu Xing, as the Hound of Tindalos was extremely difficult to deal with, and Liu Xing didn't know if his current situation counted as "time travel."
In the Cthulhu RPG Game, players could use various methods to travel through time, but after doing so, they would often encounter the Hound of Tindalos' attacks, which was why it was called the "time traveler's killer."
Liu Xing suspected that if he was targeted by the Hound of Tindalos in this module, it might go after "Watanabe Ryuusei" or "Liu Xing"...
At that time, it would be difficult to deal with, as the Hound of Tindalos would not give up its pursuit, and it couldn't be defeated with ordinary methods.
After closing the safe and hanging the painting back up, Liu Xing and Jill returned to find Leon and Wesker, and told them about what had just happened, including the phone call with Miss Wang.
"It seems that Ithaqua was trying to create chaos to get the thread-bound book, which is very important to them," Wesker said, frowning. "We need to be careful from now on. Chris, you did the right thing by not continuing to chase Ithaqua in the alley, as you wouldn't have been able to defend yourself with just a police baton."
After sending the rioters to the police station, Liu Xing and the others went to find Sergei at the police station.
Sergei had already finished the autopsy and found that the victim had been torn in half while still alive, with severe damage to internal organs and excessive bleeding.
However, Sergei did find something suspicious in the previous day's corpse, which was that the victim had been given a Sleeping Potion, and according to Sergei's detection, the potion was strong enough to knock someone out for about five hours.
This was strange, as it didn't make sense for the Ghouls to give the victim a Sleeping Potion before killing them.
"Could it be that the victim wasn't killed by the Ghouls, but by organ traffickers?" Leon asked, his eyes wide with excitement.
Sergei shook his head, saying, "Leon, this is just an urban legend. Only matching organs can be transplanted, and the matching rate between non-relatives is extremely low, so it's unlikely that someone would randomly take organs from people."
Liu Xing thought for a moment and proposed his own theory, "So, at first, someone used a Sleeping Potion to knock the victim out and then abandoned them at the subway station, and then the Ghouls came and finished them off?"
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