Chapter 501 Miskatonic University
Miskatonic University.
In this world, this is a university that enjoys a good reputation among players. It has the world's top majors in archaeology, occultism, history and psychology. Not only that, the most famous magic books are also kept in the library of the University of Michigan, including the original version of the "Necronomicon" that players are jealous of.
In addition, the museum at the University of Michigan also has priceless treasures, including jewelry from R'lyeh, treasures from Dreamland and even Naiya artifacts from Egypt.
For players, UM is more than just a university.
It is also a treasure house and a bank!
So many treasures are hidden inside, waiting for them to explore!
That's right, for players, a bank-like university like the University of Michigan is simply the most coveted treasure in their eyes!
Not to mention anything else, just the library at the University of Michigan makes a group of players drool.
Do you want the Necronomicon?
Do you want "The King in Yellow"?
Do you want "Secret of the Worm"?
Do you want the Codex Nachter?
Do you want "Raleye Text"?
.........No, I can't even continue talking. Just reading the title of this book makes me drool.
The kind that can't be stopped.
Logically speaking, in a place like this, players must be flocking to it and the demons are dancing around, causing more harm than Innsmouth. But this is not the case, for two reasons.
First, the security at UM is extremely strong, and most people cannot get out after entering.
Second, you have a life to take these books, but they may not have a life to use them!
Of course, this is not a big problem for Duanmu Huai. After all, he not only has the genes of the Raven Guard, but also the heart of the Blood Raven.
How did you say that?
Knowledge is power!
Let us guard it!
That's right, as a judge who inherited the Heart of Blood Crow, what happened to Duanmu Huai borrowing a few books?
Can the matter of being a judge be called stealing?
But Duanmu Huai didn't intend to take action.
The reason is simple. You have a life to take these books, but they may not have a life to use them!
You know, the Inquisitor has a headache just dealing with the evil gods of the subspace in the Milky Way, and using the evil code to provoke the alien gods in the universe is simply boring.
Of course, it is not that there are no inquisitors who want to drive away the wolf, such as letting the treacherous and Naiya fight...but for most inquisitors, they would rather use this as a last resort.
After all, no matter who wins, it will not be a good thing for mankind.
And in fact, strictly speaking, many players feel that evil gods have basically no chance of winning against alien gods.
Although the two sides have never faced each other head-on, many investigators and judges think so.
The reason is quite simple.
The Evil God is ultimately a subspace creature, and it can only "indirectly" affect creatures in the real world in the subspace. To put it simply, all believers in evil gods take the initiative to perform some evil and blasphemous rituals after the real world is bewitched by them, and then use these rituals to weaken the boundary between the real world and subspace, and then the evil gods can send their own men out. Have a PARTY.
But the outer gods are different. Their bodies are located in subspace and the real world at the same time. This is also the reason why many people can unconsciously feel the thoughts of external gods through their dreams or spirit. Not only that, the outer gods don't care too much about believers, because they are powerful enough in their own right, and they don't need to collect their souls to strengthen themselves by bewitching and tempting mortals to fall, like evil gods do.
Not only that, the spiritual induction of alien gods is more like a kind of spiritual pollution. It will not transform staunch believers into corruption, but directly destroy their minds and turn them into crazy fragments.
As we all know, it is much easier to destroy than to build. Of course you, the evil god, can try your best to make mortals fall and kneel at your feet to become your believers. Then maybe your believer will go crazy after just one look at the Outer God, and they won't want your believer. They just want him to go crazy and collapse. What can you do?
Therefore, compared to the evil gods, what everyone is more afraid of is the external gods.
Although a judge once made harsh words, saying that if humans cannot defeat the evil god, then he will go to the Eye of Chaos to summon Azathoth...
Of course, that's just talk. You still have a chance against the Chaos Evil God. If Azathoth is really summoned, then everyone will just wait to die together.
Therefore, Duanmu Huai behaved very well in this prestigious university. Even if he saw the UM library not far away, he did not want to take a walk - now is not the time.
Not to mention that the library of the University of Michigan has a dog guard who can kill the heirs of foreign gods... You can't afford to offend him.
After the night in the museum, Anthony first called someone to take away the corpses of the monsters, and then burned them completely. Then he and Duanmu Huai came to Miskatonic University in Arkham City to investigate the person named Christine.
"Ah...Christine...I remember her."
Sitting in front of Duanmuhuai and Anthony was the dean of the Art Department of Miskatonic University. He looked very rich, with a smooth top of his head. The pipe in his hand gave him a bit more of an artist's air.
"That's a good girl. She's very talented. I still remember that she wanted to hold a personal exhibition..."
"Sorry, Professor Osborne, we're not here to chat with you."
Anthony's tone was a little stiff, interrupting the man in front of him who was trying to immerse himself in memories.
"We are here because this student is related to an incident we are investigating. I wonder if you can provide us with any clues? We did not see her name on the school's graduation roster..."
"Oh, it's easy because she dropped out."
"Drop out???"
I have to say that this answer did surprise both Duanmuhuai and Anthony a little. Professor Osborne smoked his pipe and nodded to them.
"Yes, she did not graduate successfully. I don't know the specific situation very well. I only know that for a while, she went out to look for inspiration. After she came back, she locked herself in the studio, and then painted a painting, and then she She seemed to have suffered a mental blow... Sorry, I can't say this, but her family later took her back from school and took her home. That was five years ago."
"So why are her paintings in the Newburyport Museum of Art?"
Duanmuhuai stared at the other party and asked, while Professor Osborne recalled for a moment, and then nodded vigorously as if he remembered something.
"Oh, by the way, I remember that the Newburyport Museum asked us for paintings, and then we selected some of the students' paintings and gave them to them. Maybe it was at that time that her paintings were mixed in."
"………………"
Hearing this, Duanmuhuai and Anthony looked at each other with serious expressions. Then, Anthony turned his head and looked at the old professor. "Can you tell us the address or phone number of Miss Christine?"
"Of course there is no problem."
Professor Osborne took the pen and wrote a series of addresses and phone numbers on the paper, then handed it to Anthony, and then he looked at Duanmuhuai with surprised eyes.
"Oh, by the way, I have a favor."
"What happened?"
"This gentleman is truly one-of-a-kind regardless of his figure or appearance. His exquisite human body proportions are even more exciting. I hope to hire him as a mannequin for our art department. What do you think?"
"……………………I will consider it."
Facing Professor Osborne's enthusiastic invitation, Duanmu Huai twitched the corners of his eyes - he finally understood why the professor's eyes had been curiously wandering around him since he entered the office.
Sure enough, there are not many normal people who can be professors at the University of Michigan.
Professor Osborne was not impressed at all by Duanmuhuai's reaction. On the contrary, he enthusiastically left his phone number for Duanmuhuai and said that if he was willing to come to the University of Michigan to be a mannequin, he would get a job. A generous reward. Considering that there was no harm in establishing a good relationship with the professor at the University of Michigan, Duanmuhuai bit the bullet and reluctantly accepted the other person's business card.
Of course, whether he wants to be a mannequin or not is another matter.
By the time the two left Miskatonic, they had sorted things out.
According to the information provided by Professor Osborne, the female student named Christine was a talented painter five years ago. At that time, she went out to look for inspiration. After returning, she painted this painting "The Empty Ghost" , and after the painting was completed, Christine suffered a mental breakdown, was taken away by her family and applied to drop out of school.
Whether by coincidence or something else, Christine did not take the painting with her, so shortly after that, when the Newburyport Museum of Art sent a request to Miskatonic University , the other party packaged the painting together and gave it to the Newburyport Art Museum as a student work.
And it was this painting that summoned those evil creatures living in subspace and hid in the museum to attack humans. This eventually led to a series of tragedies.
Okay, now the context of the matter has been basically understood, and there are only two questions at the moment.
One, whether Christine is still alive.
Second, what happened to her that led her to draw such a painting that can summon monsters from another world?
These two questions are very important. If Christine was still alive, would she have painted a second "Empty Ghost" or similar paintings. By then, things will only get worse. Likewise, the "inspiration" that allowed her to draw such a terrifying monster was also a problem.
But no matter what, they can be sure that the focus of all this is on the woman named Christine.
Sheriff Anthony dialed the number above based on the information provided by Professor Osborne. To be honest, for a moment, he was a little worried whether the other party had left or the phone had been abandoned. Fortunately, the other party answered the call, and when Anthony asked about Kristen, she said that she was indeed still at home. Although Kristen's parents were a little uneasy about Anthony's request for a visit at first, they finally agreed. met Anthony's request.
Then the two of them rushed to the home of the woman named Christine without stopping again, and saw Christine in the living room.
It has to be said that Duanmuhuai and Anthony were both shocked after seeing this woman with their own eyes.
They had seen Christine's photo in the student file given by Professor Osborne. She was a girl with brown curly hair and a sweet smile.
However, what appeared in front of them now was a skinny and skinny man with completely lost all his hair. He looked like a cancer patient who could only linger and wait to die after several rounds of chemotherapy.
According to her parents, she has been like this since she dropped out of school. She can't even hold a pen steady, let alone drawing. In fact, she now even dares not to look at anything related to painting, whether it is a brush, paint or canvas. Whenever she sees it, she will fall into a state of hysterical panic.
Even her parents don't know what this girl has been through.
Duanmuhuai stood in front of the woman and stared at her. Her eyes were as dull as those of a dead fish, and even when she saw Duanmu Huai, her expression did not change at all. Her dull eyes seemed to have completely passed through Duanmuhuai, but were looking at a certain position in the void.
"Hello, Miss Christine."
Duanmuhuai coughed, squatted down and stared at Christine, who was just sitting in a wheelchair, swaying like a patient in a mental hospital, muttering something unclear that no one could understand. .
"We are here for your paintings, you should remember..."
As he spoke, Duanmuhuai stared into Christine’s eyes.
"That's what you painted, that 'empty ghost' painting."
"………………!!"
Hearing Duanmuhuai say the word "empty ghost", Kristen suddenly trembled, and her eyes seemed to regain some light at this moment - like the charcoal that had been extinguished resurfaced again. Like a few rays of fire.
“Ah…………Ah………………”
She opened her mouth and let out an indistinct cry, while Duanmuhuai stared into her eyes and slowly released a trace of fear.
"Tell me, where did you get the inspiration? How did you draw that painting?!"
"No, it's not me... That's not me..."
At this moment, in the living room, not only Kristen was trembling, but even Anthony and Kristen's parents felt the fear coming from Duanmu Huai. They wanted to step forward and stop him from asking about his daughter. However, the aura of fear firmly fixed their bodies, preventing them from moving.
"Tell me what's going on!"
"Ah...Ah..."
Facing Duanmuhuai's inquiry and eyes, at this moment, Kristen seemed to finally regain her consciousness. That fear saved her from nothingness and numbness. At this moment, she seemed to have completely recovered her original reason. She reached out tremblingly, took out a diary from under the blanket covering her knees, and handed it to Duanmuhuai tremblingly. At the same time, she stared at Duanmuhuai with her eyes wide open, opened her mouth, and spoke. A place name.
"Dun...weizhi!!"
(End of chapter)