Warning: This chapter contains scenes of violence that may be disturbing to some readers. Reader discretion is advised.

[Who wasn’t?]

And so, for every ritual array the Outsider members set up, the players destroyed one.

The players didn’t have any ulterior motives. Their current character cards ensured they were completely ignorant of occult matters, meaning they shouldn’t know about the Outsider’s conspiracy. But as cleaners, wiping away graffiti wasn’t too much, right?

It was perfectly reasonable! This was also the only way the players could sabotage the Outsider without being kicked out of the dungeon.

Soon, however, the Outsider members noticed something was wrong—mainly because the players weren’t exactly subtle. One sharp-witted member turned back to check and, sure enough, found the ritual arrays destroyed in various ways.

A flash of hostility glinted in the short-haired man’s eyes as he glared at the players who had ruined the arrays. “What are you doing?”

Who could’ve predicted that the players’ attitude would be even more brazen than his?

“Huh? Isn’t it obvious? We’re cleaning the campus! What are you guys doing? Three people, and only one’s holding a broom?” Ye Ye shot him a glare. “You call that working? You’re probably just here to mess with us!”

Clearly, the NPC didn’t get the joke. The short-haired man was about to step forward to argue, but the woman held him back. “Don’t stir up trouble!”

“They’re doing it on purpose!” the short-haired man gritted his teeth. “I noticed people watching us earlier. They must’ve figured something out and are deliberately sabotaging our setup!”

The woman hesitated, glancing at Ye Ye, who was squatting on the ground, muttering while using cleaning tools to scrape away the array they’d drawn. “What are you, a grade-schooler? Drawing magic circles? That’s hilarious.”

[Hahahahaha!]

[OMG, I knew the Troublemaker Squad wouldn’t let me down.]

[How to perfectly annoy the villain NPCs without meta-gaming.]

[I also loved drawing magic circles with the tip of my broom while sweeping the campus… this college student feels called out (dog emoji).]

[Me too, me too!]

The short-haired man: “…Don’t stop me, I’m gonna beat him up!”

“Shut up, you idiot!” the woman snapped coldly. She glanced at Ye Ye, who seemed defenseless while squatting, and at the subtle gazes from the surroundings. Unobtrusively, she slipped her hand into her pocket and pressed a button on her communicator, signaling to Soren that the plan had failed. “We don’t know their goal. Let’s go.”

“Professor, over here! I noticed them drawing some strange arrays on the ground,” the red-haired boy said, leading a middle-aged man toward them. His voice carried from a distance. “The volunteers here took photos and showed me. It’s not just regular graffiti—it feels suspicious.”

A Miskatonic student? And he brought a professor?

The three Outsider’s members’ faces changed instantly. The short-haired man immediately pulled out a gun. The players had been waiting for a justifiable chance to take them down, and Ye Ye shouted, “Go!”

The surrounding players swarmed forward. With the advantage of their numbers and a fearless mindset, they quickly blocked the Outsider’s members’ escape. The short-haired man’s gun misfired in the chaos, and the scene erupted into pandemonium. The duty professor, who had only been mildly suspicious before, now hurried toward the commotion.

Realizing that more and more people were watching, the younger Albert knew the plan had failed.

It’s all because of this group of red-vested volunteers who have appeared out of nowhere. Where do they come from? He has never heard of Miskatonic having a tradition of hiring people to decorate for Christmas.

Regardless of their purpose, the priority now was to get out of here as quickly as possible.

Taking advantage of the commotion, the younger Albert quietly backed away, heading in another direction. He had only taken a few steps when the angry shouts of the Outsider members being pinned to the ground echoed behind him. The blond youth didn’t pause, his expression unchanged as he continued walking.

But he couldn’t leave directly—someone blocked his path.

“Senior Albert?” The red-haired boy approached enthusiastically, hands behind his back. “In such a hurry—what’s wrong? If there’s anything I can help with, just let me know.”

Who is he…?

Albert had no recollection of the red-haired boy and frowned. “It’s nothing. I was just rushing to the bathroom earlier.”

“Oh, my mistake then. But those people back there—they’re the ones you brought in, right?” Ranen pointed curiously behind Albert. “They seem to be causing trouble. Aren’t you going to stay?”

—-

“Albert’s side has failed,” Soren said calmly.

Beside him, a man with shoulder-length black hair chuckled softly. “Has he decided to turn against us?”

“No, not yet,” Soren asserted. “That little wolf won’t bare his fangs until the very last, critical moment. Something else unexpected happened.”

He reached up, plucking an eyeball from his socket and tossing it high into the air. The eyeball exploded midair, and above Miskatonic, an invisible eye appeared, taking in everything below.

“A third-party force has emerged,” Soren concluded. “They’re posing as cleaners, running rampant across Miskatonic. Albert and his group were likely discovered.”

“That’s a bit troublesome,” Amos, the man beside him, said. “If that vice-principal realizes someone’s targeting Miskatonic, they might activate the university’s final defense.”

Miskatonic’s final defense was a massive ritual, like a shield that enveloped the entire university, protecting the students and faculty inside.

Amos spoke, but then noticed that Soren’s expression didn’t change at all. Realization dawned. “You already had a plan?”

“I never put all my eggs in one basket,” Soren said coolly.

“What about these people? The first phase of the ritual arrays wasn’t set up. Should we find another way to infiltrate Miskatonic?”

Soren: “Let them be. The more fuel, the better. As for the ritual arrays…”

“It’s about time I sent a Christmas gift to Miskatonic’s students and faculty.”

—-

The blond youth’s expression stiffened. His gaze carefully scanned Ranen’s face but found no trace of anything unnatural, as if Ranen had genuinely just happened to see Albert with those people.

“…Fine, let’s go take a look.”

The younger Albert knew that leaving now would look even more suspicious, especially with players nearby looking eager to act. Reluctantly, he followed Ranen.

The players had already subdued the Outsider members. One player, shot multiple times in the abdomen, refused to let go, excitedly pinning down his target. After the players tied up them, the duty professor, seeing the player’s blood-soaked clothes, frantically pulled several potions from his pocket in a panic.

“Let me go! What are you doing?!”

“Don’t play innocent! We all saw you drawing suspicious symbols on the ground!” A-Long shouted, pinning one of the cultists down.

The cultists were clearly panicking. The fat man struggled to lift his head, looking at Albert standing beside Ranen. “We’re innocent! You have no right to do this! Hey, kid, help us out!”

Idiot, the younger Albert thought. Under the players’ scrutiny, he said coldly, “I don’t know them. I was only with them earlier because they were asking for directions and kept pestering me.”

“You—!” The fat man was about to curse but was abruptly silenced by a sharp elbow to the chest from the wild-haired woman beside him.

At this point, it was undeniable that the cultists had been exposed, but the younger Albert’s identity was still valuable to the Outsider.

It was the same for Albert. He didn’t want to blow his cover yet. The most critical pieces of the Outsider’s plan—Soren’s location and the coordinates for opening the gate—were still unknown. His role as a double agent was still useful.

If the situation descended into chaos, Soren might even rely on him more, giving Albert a chance to infiltrate the inner circle.

As for this group of people, Albert didn’t know whether they were intentionally or unintentionally sabotaging Soren’s plans. With too little information, he couldn’t fully trust them yet.

The duty professor squatted on the ground, examining the array they’d drawn, but Ye Ye had already destroyed most of it, making it hard to discern anything. He could only rely on the photos.

“Professor, what’s this array for?” Ranen asked, feigning curiosity. “It looks complex. Is it a nested ritual type?”

“Possibly. I can’t be certain of its purpose yet. We’ll need to inform the other professors to study it,” the duty professor said, glancing at the cultists pinned to the ground. “And these people—clearly up to no good. Tie them up. If we can’t figure it out, we’ll have to interrogate them.”

“What if they’re setting up a conspiracy against Miskatonic?” Ranen asked with a worried tone. “It’s Christmas, and there are already so few people on campus. If it weren’t for the volunteers noticing something off about these guys, they might have already succeeded in setting up their arrays.”

His words were clearly meant to alert the duty professor, whose expression shifted. “I recall there are warning spells set up around Miskatonic. Why don’t these people have the mark?”

Like many foreign universities, Miskatonic didn’t have walls and was generally open to the public, which was why these people had been able to enter so easily. However, due to its unique nature, Miskatonic wasn’t entirely open. The campus was surrounded by warning spells that would place a special mark on anyone entering with malicious intent.

Ranen, of course, knew who was responsible for bypassing those spells. He continued to guide the professor subtly. “They managed to bypass our school’s spells. These people don’t seem ordinary. And they specifically chose a time when Miskatonic has the fewest people…”

He needed to make Miskatonic aware of the Outsider’s presence, as Ranen, in the guise of the red-haired boy, couldn’t directly intervene in the events.

The observing Albert understood Ranen’s intentions. “You’re trying to drag Miskatonic’s students and faculty into the Outsider’s conspiracy?”

“Not dragging them in—they have a right to know,” Ranen mouthed silently to the observing Albert. “What I don’t understand is, with so much power around you, why didn’t you use it?”

This was the biggest question Ranen had harbored while watching Albert’s memories for so long.

Come on, this is Miskatonic! A breeding ground for elite investigators, where even the janitors are like hidden masters! Why didn’t Albert seek their help or find a way to leak the Outsider’s conspiracy to the professors?

“…You think I didn’t want to?” Albert said expressionlessly. “Do you know how I got into Miskatonic? There are only two ways to enroll: passing the entrance exam or getting a recommendation letter from within Miskatonic.”

“Which path do you think I took?”

A Miskatonic recommendation letter? Ranen froze, his mind struck as if by lightning.

There was another Outsider mole inside Miskatonic!

The duty professor said, “This could be serious. I’ll notify the vice-principal right away…”

Before he could finish, the campus loudspeaker suddenly crackled to life:

“Merry Christmas, Miskatonic students and faculty! The university has prepared Christmas gifts for you, placed in the auditorium. Please come to collect them as soon as possible.”

“The announcement will be repeated…”

Ranen looked at the duty professor. “Does Miskatonic have a tradition of giving out Christmas gifts?”

The duty professor looked bewildered. “No, this is the first I’ve heard of it.”

No need for Ranen to say more—the players’ eyes instantly sharpened. Druid decisively declared, “We’ll split into three groups! One-third will go with the professor to find the vice-principal, one-third will head to the auditorium, and the remaining third will split again—some will stay to guard these people, and others will patrol the campus to prevent suspicious individuals from entering!”

“Got it!”

“No problem.”

Without even waiting for the duty professor to respond, the players had already organized themselves. Black Cat pushed the utterly confused professor forward. “Professor, let’s hurry!”

Duty professor: …? Hold on.

Why do these people seem more anxious than Miskatonic’s own students and faculty?

“Senior Albert, let’s head to the auditorium,” Ranen said, not giving the younger Albert a chance to refuse. He grabbed Albert’s hand and ran toward the auditorium. Albert narrowed his eyes.

Did his earlier actions arouse the junior’s suspicions?

He didn’t resist, allowing Ranen to pull him toward the auditorium.

The auditorium was already filled with students and faculty. Several carts were piled high with various Christmas gift boxes, and a few staff members were even dressed as reindeer, making it look like a genuine Christmas surprise prepared by Miskatonic.

At this moment, A-Long noticed someone grabbing a gift and trying to leave. He shouted anxiously, “We can’t let them leave! If these gift boxes contain the Dream Entry Ritual, taking them out of the auditorium will spread it across the entire campus!”

Ranen’s pupils constricted. Without hesitation, he tackled the younger Albert to the ground, his hands quickly searching him. Soon, he found something hidden in Albert’s inner lining.

A small revolver.

“You?!” Albert was caught off guard, his face full of shock. “How did you know…?”

Albert had never told anyone about secretly carrying a gun, and he’d hidden it so well that, for three years, not a single professor had noticed.

Seeing several students already leaving the auditorium with gifts, Ranen gritted his teeth and, without hesitation, fired three shots at the auditorium’s ceiling.

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

In an instant, the room fell into a deathly silence. Some people instinctively dropped to the ground, others scanned for the shooter, and some drew their own concealed weapons.

In this frozen moment, Ranen climbed onto a table and shouted, “Everyone who’s taken a gift, don’t leave! The gifts are a trap!”

“But isn’t this a surprise from the school?” the disheveled head of the Monster Studies Department asked, confused.

“No! The school doesn’t have a Christmas gift event! Someone has invaded Miskatonic and is carving ritual arrays across campus. The gifts likely contain ritual arrays. Please come back and check them!”

[? Who’s this guy?]

[A new NPC? He scared the hell out of me pulling out a gun like that.]

[Now that I look closely, he’s kinda cute. Not on my wife Ranen’s level, but definitely a sweet little snack.]

[Holy crap, I thought this guy was just a random NPC in the dungeon. How’d he suddenly get so badass?]

[This guy… could he be the dungeon’s protagonist?]

Many students hesitated but returned to the auditorium, opening their gifts on the spot. Inside each gift box was a uniform disc.

Engraved on it was a nested ritual array composed of two magical circles.

“Oh,” the head of the Monster Studies Department smacked his lips, pulling out an already-opened gift from his pocket. “I thought this ritual was Miskatonic’s surprise for us. You know, inject some magic, get some intuition or something.”

Seeing their plan exposed, the staff pushing the carts tried to flee but were quickly apprehended by players who had been waiting near the auditorium’s entrance. The crowd then gathered all the gifts together.

“How are we supposed to destroy so many of these?” Druid asked, troubled.

At this moment, Professor Stoth from the Ancient Potions Department was examining the discs with a skeptical expression.

“Professor, what’s wrong?” a nearby student asked.

“Nothing, it just feels odd,” Stoth said, rubbing his chin. “Remember what I said about the locations for carving rituals?”

“I remember. First, it has to be a place rich in magic.”

“Exactly. The best choice is unique terrain, followed by the earth itself, since the ground naturally carries magic. The worst option is carving it on another medium, which would need to be a material capable of holding magic.” Stoth tapped the disc’s surface. “But this—it’s plastic, isn’t it? This wouldn’t work at all.”

“So it’s just a prank?” the head of the Monster Studies Department asked, puzzled. “If a cult was really trying to cause trouble, why wouldn’t they use a better material for the ritual?”

“Well, materials capable of holding the magic needed for rituals are expensive,” Stoth said. “But looking at the patterns of this ritual, it’s the real deal. It doesn’t seem like a prank either.”

The Miskatonic students and faculty buzzed with discussion. Students who had planned to leave the auditorium, seeing the commotion, decided to stay and gathered around the suspicious staff, speculating.

“The ritual arrays are real, but the material’s no good.”

“Someone’s actually trying to take down Miskatonic? Why? Did someone out there stir up trouble?”

“I feel like there are probably plenty of people at our school worth holding a grudge against.”

Ranen furrowed his brows, pondering what Soren was really up to, while still holding onto the younger Albert’s wrist to prevent him from slipping away.

The younger Albert: “…Junior, is this really necessary?”

Albert continued, “You’re holding onto him because you want to get a professor to undo the spell Soren placed on him, right?”

Ranen ignored him, but Albert didn’t mind and went on. “Indeed, there are three ways to stop Soren: prevent him from carving ritual arrays at Miskatonic, find the coordinate, or capture Soren himself. If you can’t achieve the third, no matter how many times you stop him, Soren can always come back.”

“So your best option is to find Soren, but his whereabouts are hard to pin down. He’ll only show up at the most critical point of the ritual, and only someone who worked on Soren’s research—like Albert—would know where that is.”

“In other words, if a professor can undo Soren’s spell, the ‘me’ from this time period would realize the Inspection Bureau can’t be trusted, join your side, and quickly deduce Soren’s location. He might even know what coordinate Soren is searching for.”

“But I’m telling you, you’re wasting your time,” Albert said flatly. “You know why I said fate can’t be changed? Because these events are already reality. In this dream, no matter what changes you make, the outcome is predetermined.”

“Miskatonic is destined to vanish from reality, and Soren’s plan will succeed.”

“Quiet, I’m busy,” Ranen said, brushing off Albert’s words and staying immersed in his own thoughts.

The fact that Soren’s trap was unraveled so easily gave him an unreal feeling.

Something felt overlooked.

“Isn’t there some kind of cheap, readily available material that can hold magic?” a student asked curiously.

Readily available…

Bearer…

Ranen’s pupils slowly contracted as he instinctively shouted, “Get away from them!”

“Huh? Me?” A-Long pointed at himself, confused. He was one of the players tasked with tying up the cart-pushing staff.

In the next moment, the previously dejected staff members expressionlessly raised their heads and joined hands, faintly forming a circle.

In magical arrays, a circle represents stability, which is why most arrays are circular.

*Boom!*

The auditorium’s entrance doors slammed shut. The staff members—no, they were cultists—bled from their seven orifices. Their bodies were drained dry, yet their faces bore blissful smiles, as if ascending to paradise. Strange light glowed from their backs and arms, their clothes slowly disintegrating to reveal freshly carved, blood-red patterns on their skin.

In an instant, the energy gained from the sacrifice activated the first layer of the ritual. Those near the ritual arrays in the auditorium experienced heightened intuition, glimpsing grotesque anomalies in the gap between dreams and reality.

The moment the anomalies sensed human gazes, they transformed into killing machines.

A-Long stood frozen, not because he didn’t try to dodge, but because the scythe was too fast and too sharp. A flash of the blade lingered in his mind, and then his vision spun as his arteries sprayed blood onto the surrounding Miskatonic students—their bodies, their faces.

And onto the fragile hearts of the livestream audience.

[AHHHHH! That scared the hell out of me!]

[Why wasn’t there a high-energy warning?! Why no warning?!]

[Because it’s a livestream!]

[It happened so suddenly, there was no time to react!]

[A-Long—!]

Under the threat of death, the students, already sensitive to intuition, also saw the anomalies.

The souls of the dead would then turn into energy, absorbed by the Dream Entry Ritual, further amplifying people’s intuition. This allowed them to see even higher-dimensional, more powerful anomalies, which in turn killed more students, creating a vicious cycle.

The only solution was to escape—flee the auditorium!

But the one who set this trap had anticipated this. The auditorium doors were tightly sealed from the outside. The only way out was through the windows.

Some students, in a frenzy, tried to smash the windows, only to find them unnaturally sturdy.

“What’s going on?”

“A few years ago, a lunatic came onto campus and started shooting everywhere,” another student replied numbly. “The principal replaced all the windows in the dorms, auditorium, and lecture halls with bulletproof ones.”

“…”

“We still have to break them! It’s the only way out! The doors are reinforced with steel!”

[Damn, what kind of hyper-realistic campus is this? Daily shootings abroad or what?!]

[I get it now—this is so insidious!]

The barrage in Druid’s livestream chat scrolled rapidly.

[Soren’s plan was like this: he deliberately emphasized the Christmas gifts in the broadcast, and with that pile of gift boxes, he completely distracted everyone from the low-key staff. At first glance, you’d think the Dream Entry Ritual would be carved into the gift boxes, right? But no—the real material bearing the ritual is living humans.]

[In the previous main storyline, it was: see the anomalies, get killed, and the souls of the dead are converted into energy by the ritual to activate the second phase, which was when everyone in Arkham fell unconscious. But here, the effect seems slightly different: first, humans are used as material to enhance intuition, allowing people to see anomalies, and then they get killed.]

[That’s normal, right? Maybe they refined it later.]

[If that’s the case, as long as cultists enter Miskatonic, wouldn’t they automatically trigger this ritual? No need to carve anything in advance?]

[No, there’s something off about this ritual. The one on their backs—I screenshot it—it’s slightly different from the pattern Black Cat and the others uploaded before, and it’s also different from what the Outsider members were carving on Miskatonic’s campus. It might be an earlier version. I suspect this one’s designed to screw people over, with no dream-entering function—just a loop of repeated killing and seeing more anomalies.]

[…Yeah, that’s probably their goal.]

[Remember, this is Miskatonic! Based on Soren’s earlier reactions, he’s clearly wary of Miskatonic’s power. So he wants to kill all the students and professors here. The broadcast luring everyone to the auditorium was for this exact purpose!]

Ranen wiped his face, clearing away the blood. He let go of the younger Albert and grabbed the two nearest professors.

By chance, they were the head of the Monster Studies Department and Albert’s mentor, Aldous—both elderly men. While everyone else screamed in panic, these professors remained relatively calm, standing their ground.

Probably because they’d seen plenty of big scenes in their youth, they could stay composed in a crisis.

“Professors, do you have a way to destroy that ritual?” Ranen asked.

The Monster Studies professor said, “Hmm, if I can get close to the center, I’d say there’s a 20% chance.”

“I’ve got a 50% chance,” Aldous said, stroking his white beard. “But there’s not enough time. Casting the spell will take at least 20 minutes, and during that time, I can’t move or take any damage.”

The younger Albert couldn’t help but say, “20 minutes? We can try to hold out.”

Aldous glanced at the anomalies rampaging among the students. “But I can hold them off alone for 10 minutes. My students, giving it their all, would need just 10 minutes to break the glass and escape.”

Under the stunned gazes of Ranen and the younger Albert, the refined old man patted their shoulders. “You’re still young. You can live longer than this old man, save more people, or explore the unknown. That’s the point of my teaching.”

“I can’t let my students die in front of me.”

With that, he walked against the flow of panicked students, heading toward the anomalies. Alexis, the Monster Studies professor, walked shoulder-to-shoulder with him.

“You’re not leaving?”

“You old geezer, all you do is brag in front of the students!” Alexis cursed. “Without me, could you even last 10 minutes? Don’t forget, just last week you were sent to the infirmary for a herniated disc.”

Aldous snorted, “So what if I’m old? Back in my day, I was an ace investigator.”

The little old man flashed an international gesture and rolled his eyes. “Who wasn’t?”