—The internal testing begins—

The next day, Albert was somewhat surprised to find that Archie hadn’t arrived at the police station yet.

Though Archie was officially listed as a criminal psychology consultant at the station, he was quite dedicated and usually stayed at the station even when there were no cases to work on, to organize files and such. It was unusual not to see him.

Just as Albert was debating whether to visit Archie’s home to find him, Archie showed up at the station in the afternoon.

“…Why do you look so sullen?” Archie asked, eyeing Albert disdainfully as he slumped over his desk.

“Ranen asked me for your contact information,” Albert said with a plaintive look. “It seems he’s more interested in you than in me. Is it true that people in the same field have more in common?”

Albert intended this as a joke, but Archie’s expression immediately darkened.

Albert was momentarily taken aback and straightened up. “What’s wrong? Was I not supposed to give him your contact information? Ugh, do you really dislike him that much? Who could dislike Ranen?”

Archie barely acknowledged Albert’s complaints, his attention drifting. 

Why did Ranen want his contact information? They barely spoke, and their interactions weren’t pleasant.

Why is it that this comes up just as he is investigating Ranen’s identity…

The anomaly from last night resurfaced in his mind, and Archie felt as if he were standing in a cold cellar, his whole body freezing.

— Unaskable, unmentionable.

“Archie? Archie?”

The faceless figure’s warning flashed through his mind over and over.

“Archie!”

Archie jolted awake and saw Albert, puzzled, waving his hand in front of him. “What’s wrong? You seem a bit out of it today. This isn’t like you.”

“Nothing,” Archie replied, turning his gaze away. “Albert…”

“Hm?”

“The psychological assessment you asked me to do about Ranen.”

“How did it turn out?” Albert’s expression became much more serious when the topic turned to business.

Archie subtly rubbed the edge of his coffee cup. “Indeed, he sustained significant psychological trauma from that incident. It may be a subconscious defense mechanism of his brain that caused him to lose part of his previous memory.”

“I see,” Albert said, frowning.

“…However, this doesn’t affect his daily life. Given the patient’s own resistance to emotional intervention, I would not recommend forcing psychological therapy. Especially since he himself is somewhat of a psychology professional, it might be better for him to naturally recover his memory through more exposure to everyday people and events, rather than through forced intervention.” Archie paused and spoke slowly.

Albert’s furrowed brow gradually relaxed. “If you think so, then I’m relieved.”

“Mm, that’s the conclusion. I’ll get back to work now.” Archie turned, and out of Albert’s view, he clenched his back teeth tightly.

It was as if this would prevent fear from showing on his face.

‘I had been seen through from the very beginning.’

‘He knew he was being tested, that his identity would be investigated. He also knew exactly who was probing him.’

‘Step by step, step by step.’

‘Somehow, I become a puppet in the hands of the other party.’

…

A few days later.

The treatment room still had no visitors, and Ranen was frustrated.

“It’s strange. I even offered the first hour for free, so why is no one coming in?”

Ogre, who had come to help, sat at the door sketching. “Yeah, why is that?”

Passersby would see a large, intimidating figure with a messy hairstyle sitting at the clinic’s door and would avoid getting close even from a distance.

Ranen, whose aesthetic threshold had been raised by all the oddities, was oblivious to the problem right beside him and wondered if he really had to rely on players for a solution.

With nothing else to do, Ranen opened the game forum to check on the players’ situation.

The second round of internal testing was about to begin, and the forum was buzzing with activity. Ranen glanced at the current number of player reservations and was immediately astonished.

The first round of internal testing had 500 spots. In his past life, Ranen remembered that even when the game was nearing its official release, the reservation numbers were barely 5,000.

But now, just for the internal test, the number of reservations had already exceeded 10,000.

Many players who couldn’t secure a spot were lamenting on the forum that the first round of testing had too few openings. Meanwhile, veteran players were complaining that the influx of new players wasn’t even interested in the game itself!

So what are they coming for?

Ranen suddenly had a bad feeling.

The hottest post on the forum right now was the one about his time at the hospital.

No way, it can’t be.

Thinking about the prospect of being surrounded by 500 people, Ranen felt a bit nervous. He started considering whether he should just close the clinic today.

No, no, Arkham is so big, with only 500 players, they might not even find him.

Ranen reassured himself and continued browsing the posts.

Aside from the video he would never watch again in his lifetime, the hottest topic on the forum was undoubtedly the experience posts from the last round of closed testing.

Ranen flipped through a few posts casually until one analysis post caught his eye.

“Beginner’s Guide and Game Trends Analysis”

—

Black Cat (lz): This is a friendly guide for newcomers to the game. It combines my own experiences from the closed beta with information from interviews with my game friends to offer practical advice for new players. With the first round of internal testing about to start, I hope this will be helpful to everyone.

In addition, I also share my personal views on the future direction of this game. If I succeed as a prophet later, I hope the official team will give me some recognition~

Firstly, the gameplay of this game is not complicated. Compared to traditional online games, Wheel of Fate retains the rich skill list and dice mechanics of tabletop RPGs. Using a skill involves rolling a die, and success will yield certain effects. For example, if you attempt to steal, a successful roll allows you to steal a wallet or something similar.

Of course, failure just adds to the show.

At the start, you receive a certain number of skill points and attribute points, which you can adjust according to your preferences. There are three initial professions: Thug, Unemployed Youth, and Homeless. These professions lean towards combat, general skills, and survival respectively. Normally, starting as an Unemployed Youth is standard, but you could also gamble on Thug or Homeless if you prefer.

For initial skills, I recommend the core trio of tabletop RPGs: Investigation, Listening, and Library. These are generally useful for almost everything…

—

Ranen read with great interest and scrolled further.

—

Black Cat: After this round of closed testing, most players should have a general sense of the game’s quirks. Although it’s a cosmic horror game, the gameplay offers a high degree of freedom and doesn’t shove the cosmic horror theme in your face.

On the contrary, if you want to explore the other side of this world, you’ll need to seek out unusual events in reality to capture the strange aspects of this world.

I want to say that this approach really captures the feel of the cosmic horror. It creates a seemingly ordinary world that most people live in, where only the investigators understand the cost of maintaining peace. I really like this model, but judging by the closed testing, the mechanism has some issues. The high degree of freedom means most players don’t know what they should be doing.

I think this is something the developers should consider improving in the future. Perhaps they could introduce ways for players to engage in events more reliably, such as a special guiding NPC, or by opening factions for players to join, like a dedicated investigator organization. This could directly assign tasks to incoming players. Otherwise, as the number of players increases, it might become difficult to guide the game’s progress.

—

Since these were all very useful and practical suggestions, the thread quickly filled up with replies like “Thank you for sharing, big boss.”

Ranen found it quite novel. He had not experienced the early stages of this game in his previous life and was learning for the first time that the game had such a naive period.

Moreover, Black Cat’s advice was very accurate. During the public beta, the game indeed guided players to join the Inspection Bureau, but this Inspection Bureau itself was no simple matter.

Ranen was so engrossed in reading the posts that he didn’t notice when the internal test countdown had ended.

It wasn’t until there was no new reply in the thread for a while that Ranen reluctantly looked up.

Then, he noticed a man outside the treatment room, waving his arms and legs as if he should be sent to a mental hospital.

Ranen was stunned for a moment and then realized that the internal test countdown had already ended.

No way? They’ve come knocking so soon?

Seeing that his broadcasting exercises outside had attracted the attention of many onlookers, and before he started to take off his pants, Ranen had no choice but to open the door from inside.

“Hello.”

At this point, as the two came closer, he noticed a white marker appearing on the man’s head.

ID: Baba Hao ^[1]Big Banana. I received feedback that this could be pronounced as “Hi Daddy.” I used the meaning “Big Banana” because of the explanation in the next chapter, so I didn’t … Continue reading

Ranen fell into an eerie silence once again.