After all, Cthulhu role-playing games have a relatively small audience in China, so no developer is willing to invest the effort and capital to build a platform for them. Furthermore, Cthulhu role-playing games only require a piece of paper, a pen, a suitable set of dice, and a mouth to play, so there are no in-app purchases. Therefore, there's no such thing as "no gain, no early rise." Cthulhu role-playing games have never had a dedicated online platform, as online groups have typically used messaging tools like QQ or the only domestic platform for online role-playing games: Duodong Tofu.
Now, Liu Xing was naturally delighted to see a dedicated Cthulhu role-playing game platform. After all, this is something that Chinese Cthulhu role-playing enthusiasts have long dreamed of.
Liu Xing glanced at the time in the lower right corner of his computer. It was only around six in the afternoon, plenty of time for a quick group run. So, with a certain degree of selfishness in mind, he planned to wait until he could try out the Cthulhu RPG Arcade before recommending it to his friends. After all, if it turned out to be a rip-off, Liu Xing would definitely be criticized if he promoted it too early.
So, Liu Xing clicked on the icon on his desktop with considerable interest. Suddenly, a black hole appeared in the center of the screen, and an avatar of Mr. C (Cthulhu enthusiasts' nickname for Cthulhu) emerged from it.
"What a cliché!" Liu Xing, already prepared for this, couldn't help but grumble.
Then a registration page appeared, requiring Liu Xing to fill in his personal information and phone number.
"Don't I even need to set up an account and password? Or can I just bind it and log in with my Painxun account?" Although Liu Xing had a lot of questions, he filled in his information truthfully. After all, Liu Xing didn't bother to come up with false information.
"Registration successful. Welcome to the Cthulhu Game Hall." Mr. Ke's avatar transformed into a blood-red text before disappearing.
The special effects were nice.
Liu Xing nodded, becoming even more interested in this game hall, or rather, in the people who ran it. In Liu Xing's opinion, this Cthulhu Game Hall was a complete loss-making scam.
The black hole in the middle of the computer didn't disappear along with Mr. Ke's avatar. Instead, it spread across the entire screen. Then, the Cthulhu Game Hall interface finally appeared.
The Cthulhu Game Hall's borders were all Mr. Ke's signature forgiveness-colored tentacles, interspersed with a few skeletons. This gave Liu Xing a strange feeling of awe. It was very Cthulhu.
"Please enter your game ID." A young woman's electronic voice suddenly rang out, and the game lobby automatically switched to the profile page.
"I'll just use my old ID." Liu Xing had trouble coming up with names, so all of his game IDs were essentially the same.
"Welcome, Old Chinese Medicine Practitioner, to the game. Please claim your newbie gift pack." That's right, Liu Xing's game ID was "Old Chinese Medicine Practitioner." Since Liu Xing had been studying Chinese medicine with his grandfather since childhood, he was considered a veteran practitioner.
"Newbie gift pack, there should be something good in it." Liu Xing clicked on it and opened it.
"Congratulations on getting 10 points!"
Liu Xing stared at the computer screen in amazement, at a loss for words.
"Are you kidding me? The newbie gift pack only has 10 points?!" Liu Xing exclaimed in disbelief.
Resisting the urge to curse, Liu Xing clicked on the store, hoping those 10 points would buy something good.
Liu Xing glanced at the first section of the store and instantly realized how conscientious this game was.
Points can be exchanged for RMB, with each point worth 10,000 RMB. No wonder the previous advertisement boasted, "Come play and get 100,000 RMB."
Seeing this, Liu Xing, thinking he'd just play around while he had nothing else to do, just in case something happened, simply clicked on the exchange option and converted all his remaining 10 points into RMB.
However, at this moment, Liu Xing suddenly sensed something was amiss. It seemed he hadn't entered his bank card number, so would this exchange even work?
Before Liu Xing could react, his phone, which had been set aside, began to vibrate.
"Your bank card has RMB transferred to it today." Liu Xing carefully checked the sender, confirming it wasn't a scam!
"This is real! Tengxun is awesome." Liu Xing remembered that his QQ wallet was linked to his bank card, so he assumed this Cthulhu role-playing game lobby was under Tengxun's purview.
However, Liu Xing hadn't noticed that a new app had suddenly appeared on his phone.
"Since I've taken your money, I might as well check out how your game lobby is doing." Although Liu Xing was still a little confused, he happily put down his phone, believing he'd owed a debt of gratitude. He prepared to embark on his first Cthulhu group play adventure.
"I wonder how many people are online in this lobby right now," Liu Xing thought as he clicked the start button in the lobby.
Liu Xing successfully entered the secondary interface and found it was divided into four areas: Ghouls, Shoggoths, Hounds of Tindalos, Cthulhu, and Azathoth.
The five levels clearly correspond to beginner, intermediate, advanced, epic, and hellish difficulty levels. Ghouls are the lowest-level mythical creatures, while Shoggoths are servants of higher races, but through continuous evolution, their combat power surpasses that of some common mythical creatures. The Hounds of Tindalos are a special type of undead creature. Simply put, they will endlessly hunt those who travel through time, and are known as the time traveler's lifelong enemy. Cthulhu, needless to say, is a major deity of the Old Ones. And Azathoth is the origin of all things in the Cthulhu mythos, his power is self-evident.
"Do I have to enter before I can select a specific room?" Of the five areas, only the Ghoul area showed unlocked, so Liu Xing could only click on it.
"Since this is your first time entering the game, you will automatically be placed in the novice room."
The same electronic synthesized female voice sounded again, and Liu Xing was immediately placed in a so-called novice room. The room had four slots in total, and besides his, the other three were already occupied by players.
"Looks like this is a four-player raid. If it's a beginner's room, the process shouldn't be long." Liu Xing stretched and clicked, "Ready." "Looks interesting! My first Cthulhu raid should be a good experience."
"The game is about to begin. Please be prepared. I hope you make it back alive." It was the same electronic synthesized voice, but Liu Xing had an inexplicable feeling that this synthesized voice had a gloating quality.
"Why do I have such an illusion?" Liu Xing rubbed his nose.
Game, begin!
Thanks for the recommendations, brothers.