[The Key to Changing Miskatonic’s Outcome]

Who… is he?

After meeting those brown eyes, Aldous’s heart tightened, and he instinctively averted his gaze.

Strange. He was certain this red-haired boy looked incredibly familiar—probably a student from Miskatonic University—but no matter how hard he tried to recall, he couldn’t remember exactly who he was.

It was just those eyes… they carried a strange sense of pressure that made Aldous unable to keep looking.

His expression changed. He was about to turn to alert Alexis when a wave of weakness rose from deep within his body and soul—aftereffects of casting a spell.

His eyelids started drooping uncontrollably. In the last moment before losing consciousness, Aldous vaguely saw the red-haired boy walking toward him. For some reason, those brown eyes seemed to flicker—faintly turning emerald green.

At the same time, a terrifying thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

Could it be…

Unfortunately, Aldous didn’t get the chance to finish that thought before his consciousness sank into a bottomless abyss.

…

“Aldous—hey, Aldous!”

A voice kept calling in his ears. Aldous opened his eyes to see Alexis’s old face looming into view.

“Stop shouting—I’m still alive.”

“You scared me half to death,” Alexis let out a breath of relief. “What happened to you? Just now I couldn’t wake you up—I thought I’d have to start preparing your funeral!”

Aldous didn’t speak right away. He asked, “How long was I unconscious?”

“Not long, less than half an hour,” Alexis replied. “Not long after you passed out, quite a few of the volunteers and students whose mana had been drained also collapsed. Fortunately, the anomalies disappeared. Those of us who could still move took the opportunity to destroy that ritual circle. Then the professors from the Potion Department organized the students to care for the injured. They even brought a bunch of potions over from the nearby alchemy lab. Without that, you probably wouldn’t have woken up so soon.”

Indeed, as Alexis said all this, Aldous realized his previously depleted body and mind had recovered quite a bit. Though not back to full strength, he could at least move.

He sat up with difficulty and looked around. The volunteers and students who could still stand were tending to the wounded from the incident. The red-haired boy was among them. He walked over to the blond Albert, and the two seemed to be talking about something.

“By the way, what was that spell you used earlier? Didn’t you say it had major side effects? You were going on about how ‘death is just another journey’ or whatever—I’d even prepared my speech for your funeral,” the old man grumbled.

“I thought I was dead for sure too. But it looks like I got lucky and came back with my life.”

Alexis’s expression turned serious. “Seriously, what happened?”

“I really don’t know,” Aldous shook his head slightly, then half-joked, “Maybe the god was in a good mood and decided not to hold my offense against me?”

Alexis looked thoroughly unimpressed. “You think I’m stupid?”

“Who knows?” Aldous shrugged. “Point is, I’m fine now, aren’t I?”

Alexis stared at him for a long moment. “It’d better stay that way.”

“Come on, there’s something I need to confirm.”

Aldous stood, and the two old friends supported each other as they made their way toward Albert. The red-haired boy and Albert were standing in the center of the hall. Around them lay the bodies of the cultists who had once stood hand-in-hand in a circle. Now, they were shriveled mummies—like they’d been buried under a pyramid for thousands of years. Every drop of moisture had been sucked from their bodies, leaving them terrifying to behold.

The ritual markings carved into the skin on their backs had faded, but even blurred, Aldous could recognize them.

Because part of that ritual overlapped with his own research.

Aldous’s gaze slowly fixed on Albert, who stood in silence. He sighed. “Do you have anything you want to explain?”

Alexis glanced between Albert and Aldous in confusion. Then realization seemed to dawn, and his expression grew grim. “Aldous… don’t tell me…”

Aldous didn’t respond. Albert kept his head lowered. “I’m sorry, mentor.”

Back then, Albert didn’t really have a choice. His mission in coming here had been to infiltrate Aldous’s lab and obtain his research.

In other words, from the very beginning, his motives had been impure.

Especially after witnessing the near-total annihilation of the university’s faculty and students, the guilt in Albert’s heart was almost too much to bear.

“Answer me, Albert,” Aldous’s expression remained stern. “Did you join the cult? Are you connected to this entire attack?”

“I…” Albert met Aldous’s gaze—serious, but tinged with pain—and couldn’t say a word for a moment.

He had indeed joined the “Outsider,” but it was all because of an undercover mission assigned by the Investigation Bureau. As for the attack on the university, that had never been part of the original plan he’d agreed to with his handler from the Bureau.

But the reality was that he had indeed been complicit in the disaster. Looking at the dead volunteers on the ground, Albert couldn’t bring himself to claim he had nothing to do with it.

Surprisingly, the old man spoke up in his defense: “Aldous, calm down. Look closely at his wounds.”

Without hesitation, the old man yanked open the clothes Albert had just straightened. His chest was nearly completely wrapped in bandages, and from the blood seeping through, it was clear the wound nearly split him in two. Beyond that, his body was covered in various other injuries, big and small.

“If he hadn’t fought like hell back there, we’d be counting even more dead students and volunteers,” Alexis said. “I really don’t think a cultist mole would fight to that extent.”

At this point, Ranen—who had been silently watching—suddenly asked, “Senior Albert, did you ever share the lab’s research with anyone else?”

Albert had only shown the data to two groups. Thanks to Ranen’s interference, in this dream-realm he hadn’t handed over the complete and accurate data to the Outsider. Instead, he had given it to…

Wait a second…

In this moment, realization struck Albert. His eyes widened slowly, and his heart sank into an invisible abyss.

…The Investigation Bureau.

Only the Bureau had received the full version of the data. And despite the fact that he had sent them intelligence, there was still no sign of any investigators sent by the Bureau.

Ignoring the others’ eyes on him, Albert immediately pulled a special communication device from his pocket. The moment Aldous and Alexis saw it, they both raised their brows.

Isn’t this Investigation Bureau equipment?

“…No signal.” Albert stared blankly at the device issued by the Bureau. The person who had given it to him had clearly said that as long as he was still on Earth, it would work anywhere.

“Let me see it,” Alexis said, taking the device from Albert. “Yup, definitely Bureau gear. That’s odd—this thing should have signal even in the most remote mountains. Their research into the arcane might be mediocre, but those guys from the Bureau really know their tech.”

“Unless… this place is no longer Earth,” Ranen suddenly lifted his head and said softly.

Following Ranen’s gaze, the others looked up at the sky—what had been a clear blue sky was now gradually turning a dull gray. This wasn’t just a change in the weather, but rather the effect of a faint mist that had begun spreading inside the university at some point.

—-

Half an hour earlier, on the player chat channel—

Baba: [Anyone here? Something big just happened! Where did you all go? Why is no one replying when I tag you?! Did the whole Druid team get wiped out!?]

Black Cat: [No one replied when I tagged either. Judging from the livestream, the fight on Druid’s side is still intense. What’s happening on your end?]

Baba: [Don’t even mention it. They all got caught—probably by some kind of hypnosis spell. None of them can log back into the forum now. It’s super creepy.]

Black Cat: [Then how come you’re still fine?]

Baba: [That’s a long story…]

Dead From Laughing: [I’ll tell it for him! I was watching in this team’s stream. It was hilarious.]

Dead From Laughing: [The story starts when the player teams split up.]

//—-

At the time, the player group had split into three teams: Druid’s and Ranen’s team went to the main hall; Black Cat followed the on-duty teacher to the administration building; and the last group, the Troublemaker Squad, stayed behind with the remaining players to keep watch over some suspicious individuals—and to patrol the campus while they were at it.

Guarding people was boring, so the Troublemaker Squad chose to do patrol duty around the campus instead. It gave them an excuse to stream the university map to their viewers—killing two birds with one stone.

Everything went smoothly at first. Patrols were boring, but the viewers were really interested in the setting of this university. As they explored, it became increasingly obvious that this map was extremely well-developed. Someone in the stream would confidently predict that the university map would eventually become available for players. Otherwise, with this much effort put in, if the story didn’t continue, the programmers and artists would probably hang themselves at the game planner’s door.

Viewers agreed—but the patrols were still boring. So, to keep their audience engaged, the Troublemaker Squad naturally started messing around. Finally, Baba, whose luck seemed especially good that day, rolled a critical success on a stealth check and became the center of attention.

Before the viewers’ eyes, Baba’s previously visible figure suddenly vanished—just like that—completely disappeared from sight.

[WTF, that’s not stealth, that’s straight-up magic!]
[Where did Baba go? Why can’t I see him?!]
[My god, did he stealth into another dimension? This is insane.]

The livestream chat exploded with laughter. The rest of the Troublemaker Squad laughed too, playing hide and seek with Baba, trying to see if a successful stealth roll made someone completely untraceable.

And that was when it all went wrong.

Just as they were joking around and looking for Baba, the rest of the squad suddenly stopped. Under the stunned gaze of the livestream viewers, their expressions went blank—and they all turned toward the same direction.

The mist had thickened, and within it, the sound of many footsteps began to echo.

Then, a white-haired man who looked eerily familiar appeared before the Troublemaker Squad. The moment he appeared, the Troublemaker Squad’s livestream channel exploded in chaos.

[WTF!!!]
[The final boss just appeared out of nowhere!]
[With no warning at all!]
[Not a single sign!]
[You just walked into my world like that]
[Enough, upstairs— I was already freaked out, now your dramatic lyrics killed the mood.]
[Soren ahhhhh what the hell, he scared the crap out of me showing up like that!]
[What do you mean face-sitting boss moment—Ye Ye, get in there already!]
[Wait a second, doesn’t something feel off about the Troublemaker Squad?]

Something was off—Ye Ye and the rest, along with all nearby players, stood eerily still in front of the suddenly materialized boss. No one reacted. No one even flinched.

They didn’t fight back. They just stood there, stiff-faced and blank-eyed.

When Soren waved his hand, the players obediently followed him, blending into the ranks of the Outsider as they marched away.

[WTF, what’s going on with Ye Ye and the others?]
[They look like they’ve been mind-controlled or something!]
[What the hell, the boss just showed up and the fight’s over before it began??]
[Dammit, Soren feels even stronger than before. Or are the players just too weak because they’re using pre-gen characters now?]
[No idea, but I’m seriously worried now. Wait—where’s Baba??]
[LMAO is he still stealthing in another dimension and Soren didn’t even notice him?]
[That’d be hilarious. Imagine being mind-controlled into submission except the one dude the boss couldn’t find because he’s accidentally phased out of existence.]
[Baba: You guys are the worst.]

—-//

Back to reality.

Player Channel

Black Cat: [So wait… are you seriously saying the only reason you survived is because you got forgotten?]

Baba: ……

Black Cat: [HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!]

Wants To Sleep: [AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!]

Baba: [Quit laughing already! (black lines of frustration) If it weren’t for me, none of you would even know where Soren is right now!]

Baba: [But yeah, that’s basically what happened. Tch. I regained consciousness a while after they moved out, and now I’ve been tailing them. The good news? They’re not in a hurry to kill the players. Which means they probably need them for something.]

Black Cat, done laughing, resumed analyzing the boss’s motives: [Judging by what happened in Arkham City, Soren’s ritual to open the gate requires live sacrifices and stepping stones to activate the dream-entering array. That must be why he kept the players alive. Good thing we’ve got Baba—now that we know their location, we can do something about it. We need to stop them, fast!]

Baba: [Oh right—this instance is time-limited. Do you guys know the exact time it ends? Do we still have enough time? (nervous)]

Black Cat: [That was bothering me too, but I think we finally figured it out.]

Black Cat: [Look at the sky.]

Baba looked up in confusion. “…Nothing looks unusual—wait, why the hell is the moon that big?”

Black Cat: [Unless something goes wrong, there’s supposed to be a lunar eclipse tonight. I already confirmed this with the teacher on duty. Remember? In Lovecraftian worlds, most rituals are tied to special astronomical phenomena. The ritual in Arkham also happened on the night of a lunar eclipse. This one is set to begin at 5:45 PM.]

As soon as Black Cat finished speaking, a system notification popped up for all players:

[Instance End Time: 4:10:11]

Baba: [That means… we still have three hours left?]

Black Cat: [What are you thinking? That countdown is probably to the end of the eclipse. It’s already 5:30.]

Baba: [Then there’s only fifteen minutes left?!]

Black Cat: [Exactly. It’s urgent—we don’t have time to regroup. Send your coordinates. We’ll head there separately!]

—-

On Ranen’s side, the players also received the system prompt. After reading Black Cat’s analysis in the player chat, they shouted:

“Only 15 minutes left!”

Aldous frowned. “What do you mean, 15 minutes?”

Ranen, sweating nervously, explained for the players: “It’s like this—based on what we found, these cultists didn’t come to Miskatonic University just for revenge. We have evidence they’ve been drawing all sorts of ritual circles around campus. I think they’re preparing for some kind of ritual. And rituals like this usually need special astronomical events, right?”

“You’re talking about tonight’s lunar eclipse?” Aldous frowned deeper. “That’s very possible. The eclipse is about to start. But how do we figure out where on campus they’re holding the ritual? The grounds are huge.”

Just then, Druid spoke up: “One of our teammates ran into Soren while patrolling earlier. He’s tailing him right now. I think we might be able to track them down.”

He spoke rather vaguely—mainly because he had originally planned to say they could use electronic communication to coordinate, but that had just proven useless. No signal at all.

Yeah… vague was definitely safer right now.

Sure enough, given how urgent the situation was, the two professors didn’t question it. They simply nodded.

“Then let’s go.”

“…Huh?” Druid stared at them, surprised.

“What’s with that reaction?”

“Uh, I mean… shouldn’t we go instead? We’ve still got people on that side,” Druid said as tactfully as possible. “It’s really dangerous. As teachers, maybe you should focus on organizing the students to evacuate.”

Aldous looked at him calmly, eyes narrowing in slight confusion. “Shouldn’t you be the ones evacuating? This is Miskatonic University. We’re responsible for protecting it. You aren’t.”

…Fair point.

Druid opened his mouth but couldn’t figure out how to respond. He scratched his head awkwardly.

Come to think of it, isn’t this instance supposed to follow character-role rules?

…Crap. He might’ve just seriously broken character.

Is he gonna get booted out of the instance?

Druid, trying to salvage the moment, said cautiously: “Um… because we admire Miskatonic and want to enroll here? Would that work as a reason?”

Aldous, face deadly serious: “Of course not.”

[Noooo, don’t tell me someone’s getting kicked from the instance…]
[Honestly, I expected it. The players were acting way too pumped up earlier. It was moving, sure, but it didn’t make sense based on their pre-set roles. Most of them were just regular civilians—not exactly the self-sacrificing type.]
[Excuse me, but you need a reason to kill someone—not to save them.]
[Exactly. Kindness doesn’t need logic. Even someone at the very bottom of society has the right to give fifty cents from their living expenses to someone even poorer than them.]

“At the very least, I’ll need your names, and then you should come take next year’s entrance exam,” said Aldous, his face full of serious wrinkles—but for once, smiling. “There are too many of you for me to write recommendation letters for everyone. But don’t worry—Miskatonic University has a special credit system. It awards bonus points to students who have participated in unnatural investigations or made outstanding contributions to the university. I think you all qualify.”

The players around him were stunned for a second—then burst into cheers.

[Whaaa?! I—I—I’m so jealous!]
[I’m dying of envy (face twisted) AAAAA let me in!! If I can’t get in, I’m going to turn into a vengeful ghost!!!]

“So let’s go,” Aldous declared. “Let’s defend our university from those damn cultists!”

“WOOOOOO!!”
“CHARGE AAAAA!!”

Aldous’s speech had reignited the players’ fighting spirit. Druid even boldly announced in the livestream: “Once this battle’s over, I’ll be going to school at Miskatonic! I’ll stream daily campus life for you guys!”

[Aww the streamer is so cute lmao, totally hyped up now]
[That kind of bold claim… kinda feels like he just raised a death flag]
[Druid’s like a war veteran on the stage, covered in flags]
[Sigh… I almost don’t have the heart to remind him that Miskatonic is just an illusion.]

Whether the players had forgotten or were deliberately ignoring the truth, at least in this moment, the ones who had lost their drive after finishing the auditorium instance had found it again. Re-energized, they charged toward the coordinates Baba had sent.

Of course, not everyone at Miskatonic was heading out—some stayed behind to care for the wounded. Originally, Druid had wanted Professors Aldous and Alexis to stay back as well, considering their age and injuries. But in the face of their stubborn determination, he had no choice but to let them come along.

As the group marched forward, Ranen cast a discreet glance at the boy Albert—expressionless and dazed.

As for the adult version of Albert, for some reason, he had completely disappeared after the auditorium instance ended. Not a single word, no sign of him. Who knows what got into him? Maybe he was too embarrassed about how reckless he had acted earlier and didn’t dare show up again?

But no matter what, the final showdown was sure to bring him back. As expected, the battle against Soren was the final key point in Albert’s memory.

At the same time, it was also the crucial moment that would determine whether Ranen could change Miskatonic’s fate.