Miskatonic University.
In this world, it was a university that enjoyed great fame among players. It possessed world-class departments in archaeology, occult studies, history, psychology, and more. Not only that, but within Miskatonic's library were preserved the most famous grimoires, including the original version of the Necronomicon that players drooled over.
In addition, the Miskatonic Museum also possessed priceless treasures, including jewels from R'lyeh, rare wonders from the Dreamlands, and even Nyarlathotep relics from Egypt.
For players, Miskatonic was not merely a university.
It was more like a treasure vault, a bank!
So many treasures were hidden inside, waiting for them to explore!
That's right—for players, a university with the nature of a bank vault like Miskatonic was simply the most coveted treasure in their eyes!
Not to mention anything else—just the library alone was enough to make players drool.
Did you want the Necronomicon?
Did you want The King in Yellow?
Did you want De Vermis Mysteriis?
Did you want the Pnakotic Manuscripts?
Did you want the R'lyeh Text?
…No, it couldn't even continue. Just looking at the titles made people drool.
The kind you couldn't stop.
Logically speaking, a place like this should have been swarming with players like demons dancing wildly, causing even worse havoc than Innsmouth.
But the reality was not like that, and there were two reasons.
First, Miskatonic's security forces were extremely strong. Once ordinary people entered, they usually couldn't get out.
Second, you might have the life to take those books, but you might not have the life to use them!
Of course, none of this was much of a problem for Duanmu Huai. After all, he not only possessed the genes of the Raven Guard, he even had the Heart of the Blood Ravens.
What was that saying again?
Knowledge is power!
Let us guard it!
That's right—since he had inherited the Heart of the Blood Ravens and was an Inquisitor, what was wrong with Duanmu Huai borrowing a few books?
Can something done by an Inquisitor be called stealing?
However, Duanmu Huai had no intention of doing so.
The reason was simple—just because you had the life to take those books didn't mean you had the life to use them!
After all, Inquisitors already had enough headaches dealing with the Chaos Gods of the Warp in the galaxy. If he also took those heretical tomes to provoke the Outer Gods of the universe, that would basically be asking for death.
Of course, there had been Inquisitors who considered using wolves to devour tigers—for example letting the Changer of Ways fight Nyarlathotep…
But for most Inquisitors, that would only be used as a last resort.
After all, no matter which side won, it wouldn't be good for humanity.
And in fact, strictly speaking, many players believed that if Chaos Gods faced the Outer Gods, they would probably have little chance of winning.
Although the two sides had never fought directly, many investigators who were also Inquisitors thought so.
The reason was simple.
Chaos Gods were fundamentally Warp entities. They could only "indirectly" influence creatures in the real world through the Warp. Simply put, all believers of Chaos were seduced in the real world first, then they willingly began performing evil and blasphemous rituals. Those rituals weakened the boundary between reality and the Warp, and only then could the Chaos Gods send their minions out to have a party.
Outer Gods were different.
Their true bodies existed simultaneously in both the Warp and the real world. That was why many people could sense the thoughts of the Outer Gods through dreams or unconscious mental contact.
Not only that, but Outer Gods didn't care much about followers. Their own power was already great enough—they didn't need to seduce mortals into corruption and harvest their souls like the Chaos Gods did.
Furthermore, the mental influence of the Outer Gods was more like spiritual contamination. Instead of converting firm believers into fallen followers, they simply destroyed their sanity and turned them into fragments of madness.
As everyone knew, destruction was far easier than construction.
A Chaos God might go to great lengths to corrupt mortals and make them kneel at its feet as believers. But if that believer merely looked at an Outer God and instantly went insane—and the Outer God didn't even want the believer, it simply drove him mad—what could the Chaos God do about it?
So compared to the Chaos Gods, people were actually more wary of the Outer Gods.
There had once been an Inquisitor who made a bold statement that if humanity couldn't defeat the Chaos Gods, he would go to the Eye of Terror and summon Azathoth…
Of course, that was just talk.
You still had a slim chance against Chaos Gods. But if Azathoth was truly summoned, everyone could just wait for death together.
Therefore, Duanmu Huai behaved extremely well in this prestigious university. Even though he saw the Miskatonic library not far away, he didn't plan to take a walk inside—now was not the time.
Not to mention that the Miskatonic library had a guard dog capable of biting the offspring of Outer Gods to death…
Better not provoke that.
After the night at the museum, Anthony first called people to take away the monster corpses and completely burn them. Then he and Duanmu Huai went together to Miskatonic University in Arkham to investigate the person named Christine.
"Ah… Christine… I remember her."
Sitting in front of Duanmu Huai and Anthony was the head of the Art Department at Miskatonic University. He looked quite plump, with a shiny bald head. The pipe in his hand added a bit of an artist's aura.
"She was a good girl. Very talented. I remember she once wanted to hold a personal exhibition… I think."
"Sorry, Professor Osborn, we didn't come here for casual conversation."
Anthony interrupted the man rather stiffly as he tried to sink into his memories.
"We came here because this student is related to an incident we are investigating. Could you provide us with any clues? We didn't see her name on the school's graduation list…"
"Oh, that's simple. Because she dropped out."
"Dropped out???"
This answer truly surprised both Duanmu Huai and Anthony. Professor Osborn knocked his pipe and nodded.
"That's right. She didn't graduate successfully. I'm not very clear on the specific details. I only know that for a period of time she went out looking for inspiration. After she came back, she locked herself in the studio and painted a picture. Then it seemed like her spirit suffered some kind of shock… Sorry, I can't say exactly what happened. But later her family handled the withdrawal procedures and took her home. That was five years ago."
"Then why did her painting appear in the Newburyport Art Museum?"
Duanmu Huai stared at him and asked. Professor Osborn thought for a moment before suddenly nodding as if remembering something.
"Oh right. At that time, I remember the Newburyport Museum requested paintings from us. So we selected some works from students and donated them to them. Perhaps her painting got mixed in during that time."
"..."
Hearing this, Duanmu Huai and Anthony exchanged glances, their expressions somewhat heavy.
Then Anthony turned back to the professor.
"Could you give us Miss Christine's address or phone number?"
"Of course."
Professor Osborn took a pen, wrote down an address and phone number, and handed them to Anthony. Then he looked at Duanmu Huai with curiosity.
"Oh right, I have a small request."
"What is it?"
"This gentleman's physique and appearance are truly one in ten thousand. Such exquisite human proportions are extremely captivating. I would like to hire him as a figure model for our art department. What do you think?"
"…I'll think about it."
Facing Professor Osborn's enthusiastic invitation, Duanmu Huai twitched the corner of his eye.
He finally understood why, ever since he entered the office, the professor's gaze had been circling curiously around his body.
Sure enough, there weren't many normal people who could become professors at Miskatonic.
Professor Osborn didn't mind Duanmu Huai's reaction at all. Instead, he enthusiastically left his phone number for him and said that if he was willing to be a model for the university, he would receive a generous payment.
Considering that maintaining good relations with a professor at Miskatonic wouldn't be a bad thing, Duanmu Huai reluctantly accepted the business card.
Of course, whether he actually wanted to be a figure model was another matter entirely.
When the two of them left Miskatonic University, they had basically sorted out the situation.
According to the information provided by Professor Osborn, the female student named Christine had been a highly talented painter five years ago. At that time she went out searching for inspiration. After returning, she painted the work "Empty Ghoul." After completing that painting, Christine suffered a mental breakdown and was taken home by her family, who also arranged for her to withdraw from school.
For reasons unknown—perhaps coincidence or something else—Christine did not take that painting with her. Not long afterward, when the Newburyport Art Museum sent a request to Miskatonic University, the university packaged the painting together with other student works and sent it to the museum.
And it was precisely this painting that summoned those evil creatures living in the Warp and allowed them to hide within the museum to attack humans.
Ultimately causing a series of tragedies.
Alright, now the chain of events was basically clear.
At present there were only two questions.
First, was Christine still alive?
Second, what exactly had she encountered that allowed her to paint such a picture capable of summoning monsters from another world?
These two questions were extremely important. If Christine was still alive, then could she paint another "Empty Ghoul" or a similar painting?
If that happened, the situation would only become worse.
Likewise, the "inspiration" that allowed her to paint such a terrifying monster was also a problem.
But no matter what, they were certain that the key to everything lay with the woman named Christine.
Sheriff Anthony dialed the phone number provided by Professor Osborn. To be honest, for a moment he worried that the family might have moved or that the number was no longer in use.
Fortunately, someone answered.
When Anthony asked about Christine, the other party confirmed that she was still at home. Although Christine's parents were initially uneasy about Anthony's request to visit, they eventually agreed.
Soon afterward the two hurried to the home of the woman named Christine and met her in the living room.
To be honest, after seeing her in person, both Duanmu Huai and Anthony were shocked.
They had seen Christine's photo in the student file provided by Professor Osborn. It showed a girl with brown curly hair and a sweet smile.
But the person sitting before them now was nothing like that.
She was so thin she looked like skin and bones, her hair completely fallen out, looking like a terminal cancer patient who had undergone several rounds of chemotherapy and was barely clinging to life.
According to her parents, after leaving school she had been like this all the time. Not to mention painting—she couldn't even hold a pen steadily anymore.
In fact, she now couldn't even bear to see anything related to painting. Whether it was brushes, paint, or canvas, the moment she saw them she would fall into a hysterical state of terror.
Even her parents had no idea what the girl had experienced.
Duanmu Huai stood before the woman and stared at her.
Her eyes were as lifeless as those of a dead fish. Even when she saw Duanmu Huai, there was no change in her expression. Her empty gaze seemed to pass straight through him and stare into some distant point in the void.
"Hello, Miss Christine."
Duanmu Huai coughed lightly and crouched down to look at her. Christine simply sat in her wheelchair, swaying slightly like a patient in a mental hospital, muttering incoherent words that no one could understand.
"We came because of your painting. You should remember…"
As he spoke, Duanmu Huai stared into Christine's eyes.
"The one you painted—the painting called 'Empty Ghoul.'"
"...!!"
When Duanmu Huai spoke the words "Empty Ghoul," Christine suddenly trembled. In that instant, a faint light seemed to return to her eyes—like dying charcoal that suddenly revealed a few sparks again.
"Ah… ah…"
She opened her mouth and let out an indistinct cry. Duanmu Huai stared into her eyes and slowly released a trace of his aura of fear.
"Tell me. Where did you get your inspiration? How did you paint that picture?!"
"N-not me… that wasn't me…"
At that moment in the living room, not only Christine was trembling. Anthony and Christine's parents could also feel the terrifying aura emanating from Duanmu Huai.
They wanted to step forward and stop him from questioning their daughter.
But that fearful aura locked their bodies in place, making them too afraid to move even a single step.
"Tell me what happened!"
"Ah… ah…"
Under Duanmu Huai's gaze and questioning, Christine seemed to regain her sanity for the first time. The fear pulled her back from the emptiness and numbness she had been trapped in. For that brief moment, she seemed to regain her original rationality.
Trembling, she reached under the blanket covering her knees and pulled out a diary. She handed it to Duanmu Huai with shaking hands.
At the same time she widened her eyes, staring at him, opened her mouth, and spoke the name of a place.
"Dun… wich!!"
(End of Chapter)