Chapter 16: CH 16

After he drew the unknown persona card, Zong Yan didn’t sleep well for the rest of the night.

This caused him to feel sluggish in the morning. The dark circles under his eyes were especially conspicuous.

“Good morning.”

Zong Yan put some French fries on his plate and squeezed some ketchup. Suddenly he heard a clear voice.

He looked up and saw Edward standing next to him with a glass of milk in his hand.

When other people saw this, their faces were surprised.

His Highness the Prince was usually the center of attention and rather arrogant. He might have come to Miskatonic University alone, but the British royal family behind him hadn’t been shy about giving certain benefits to the Spire Council, encouraging them to take good care of the golden prince.

It was well-known that Edward was the favored youngest son of the present king, Lanchester II. In prior years, several newspapers had sworn the king was preparing to skip the first and second heirs and pass the throne directly to his youngest son. Edward had grown up loved by his father and mother. Although the king remarried later, his son’s status in the British royal family hadn’t lowered at all. He was only criticized occasionally for his slightly harsh personality.

It wasn’t unusual for students at MU to come from a distinguished background. 

The university was like a forum for free mingling. A lot of people wanted to use this opportunity to develop a relationship with the almost-official crown prince. Unfortunately, the prince was too proud to give them any face.

When people saw Edward personally greet the school chief, nobody was too surprised.

Worthy of the chief ah.

The crowd sighed with emotion.

Zong Yan wasn’t aware of all this. Although Edward had named him “my only friend” that day, which was quite a moving title, he didn’t take it seriously. He ate and slept as usual and his life went on without a ripple. Occasionally when they ran into each other on campus he’d say hello to the prince, but most of the time Zong Yan pretended he hadn’t seen him.

It puzzled Zong Yan that the more indifferent he acted, the more pleased Edward had become. He even condescended to do certain things sometimes, like taking the initiative to come over and say hello this morning.

Was the crown prince of the British royal family really such a masochist?!

“Morning.”

Zong Yan nodded and noticed the milk in Edward’s hand.

“It was my mother’s habit.” Edward immediately noticed his glance, gave a glib explanation, and quickly changed the subject. “Make sure you get enough rest. The dark circles under your eyes are about reach your cheeks.”

“…”

When Zong Yan returned to his seat for breakfast, he suddenly remembered the whispers he heard the previous night.

Wherever wealth and power gathered, there were always unseen beings. He didn’t have any intention of prying into other people’s private affairs, but Zong Yan still thought Edward was suspicious. He’d been secretly observing him.

Thinking of this, Zong Yan once again concentrated on the white porridge in his bowl.

Here it becomes necessary to discuss the most tangible benefit Zong Yan received as school chief.

""

Which was—he could enjoy the private, custom menu of the MU cafeteria for free.

Food was the god of the people, and MU was in the Dreamlands most days of the week. He could only leave on weekends, so he had to rely on the canteen for all his meals.

Zong Yan decisively chose the entire Chinese food package.

Every time he ate, people would look over at him overtly or covertly, watching him accurately clip rice into his mouth with “two small sticks like Harry Potter wands”, which always made him feel nervous.

—

At the end of the day’s classes, Zong Yan walked to the library with his books in his arms.

He needed to look up the relevant information for the daily disposable persona card from last night.

Consequently, Zong Yan ran into Tawil on the way to the library.

“Hello senior,” he said meekly.

Maybe he was just imagining it, but Zong Yan thought Tawil was in a good mood today. The most immediate indication was that his gaze didn’t make Zong Yan feel so uncomfortable.

“Have you finished the book?”

“I finished it.”

It was strange, but every time Zong Yan faced this senior he had a very weird feeling, like he was standing in front of the teaching director.

“En.” Tawil nodded without much expression, and his golden eyes fell lightly on Zong Yan. “How was it?”

This question succeeded in making Zong Yan flashback to his memories of doing something bad and being hauled to the office for criticism and education and being forced to make a verbal confession.

“He’s a very powerful being,” Zong Yan said cautiously.

Suddenly he felt the same sense of danger he had in the library that day. His hair stood on end. His skin went cold and a heart-throbbing feeling crawled down his spine out of the base of his brain.

At this point, even a fool had to notice there was a problem with this “Senior Tawil”.

But even though Zong Yan was able to realize this person might be the source of everything, he was still unable to produce any feeling of vigilance against him.

What was human consciousness? How does it exist?

After so many years of human progress, this remained an unsolved mystery.

Obviously, more powerful beings were able to tamper with memory as well as consciousness. They could even cause people to lack any feelings of resistance or alarm.

If fear came from the unknown, the greatest fear of all must be that human beings wouldn’t even realize they were in the presence of the unknown, but mistakenly believe that everything was well.

Zong Yan felt like he should say something more, because cold sweat began pouring down his back.

“Yog-Sothoth seems like a really excellent god.” Zong Yan reached for the political papers he had to write in his first year of high school, saying in all seriousness, “He’s quite generous and unpretentious.”

“Oh?” Obviously, the senior hadn’t expected the conversation to develop in this way. He was stunned.

“As long as someone’s able to please him, he’s very generous. He gives endless knowledge in return.” Finally detecting a more authentic expression on the senior student’s face, Zong Yan’s heart filled with a sense of accomplishment. “In China it’s called ‘reciprocating grace’, ah, no… being kind and charitable!

“And he’s so considerate of his followers. As long as they prepare a high tower for him, they don’t even need to provide the sacrifices. He’s merciful toward his believers and accepts their worship.”

The more Zong Yan said, the more he felt he had a point. “It’s hard to find such a good God these days, right?

“I won’t lie to you, if my physics grade doesn’t improve before the college entrance exam, I might start worshipping him myself.”

Tawil: …?

“Professor Darwin said we should firmly walk the path of atheism as investigators, but he also said it’s better to believe in God rather than an evil god.” The black-haired boy suddenly lowered his voice to a near whisper, “So here’s my foolproof plan. After Yog-Sothoth grants me physics knowledge, I’m going to defect.”

After he said this, he didn’t know why, but the feeling of danger not only didn’t decrease, it became more and more urgent.

Zong Yan nodded rather complacently. “Senior, don’t you think this is a genius idea? Make sure not to tell anyone else.”

Senior Tawil gave him an eerie look.

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Zong Yan felt as if he’d been scanned up and down by an X-ray, and the feeling was both frightening and thrilling.

Zong Yan even thought he might have been transformed into the miserable white human skeleton at the door of the biology classroom. Something inexplicable had brushed across him, like he was meat on the barbecue evaluated by an emotionless diner.

At the critical moment, when the air was scorching and something was about to happen, the man with gray hair and golden eyes suddenly smiled.

In an instant, all the pressure disappeared into thin air, as if it had never existed.

“You surprise me at every turn.” His voice was low. “A genius idea indeed. Maybe you can prepare to practice it.”

Zong Yan hunched his shoulders and felt a chill.

—

After saying goodbye to the other student, Zong Yan continued to the library.

Now that this burst of excitement was past, he felt like he’d come back from the edge of death.

Fortunately, at the moment of extreme danger just now, Zong Yan had finally rescued a scrap of his own sanity.

He realized something was wrong with him.

This was an incredible thing. For example, an ant would always follow the rules of behavior for an ant. If an ant was trampled to death one day, even if it somehow managed to survive, it would never realize that an existence called a “human” had stepped on it. This was the unbridgeable gap between different levels of consciousness.

Zong Yan, however, had broken free from this supposedly insurmountable law.

But he still found it impossible to raise his guard. Whenever he saw Tawil, he took it for granted that the other person was an intimate friend.

… Or he wouldn’t have said what he said just now.

God knew after saying those words, Zong Yan was sweating all over.

Based on what Professor Darwin said, he was pretty much certain he was under some kind of mental suggestion, and this suggestion was so impenetrable that he was afraid it was from an evil god himself.

He hurried to the library, took down 《My Understanding of the Great Booke》 from the shelf, opened it in a hurry, and noisily rifled through the pages.

Zong Yan was looking for a name.

The name written on the persona card he pulled out yesterday.

The next second, the pupils of the black-haired boy shrank.

He found it.

【He is the foremost of the Outer Gods—the Blind Idiot God—the Primordial Nucleus.】

【He is the originator of the universe, the source of all rules, the master of all things, and all-powerful.】

【He dwells at the center of boundless infinity, above the dimensions.】

【Although he is supreme and mighty, he is also blind and foolish. He exists in a deep state of slumber. All that exists, material and spiritual, emanates from his thoughts.】

【The universe is a dream created by his slumber. If one day he were to awaken, the universe will exist no longer and everything will return to him.】

【He is the true Lord of the universe, above the three pillars of the original gods, the King-of-All whom they worship.】

【His name is—Azathoth。】

Just last night, Zong Yan had drawn a daily disposable persona card with an unknown level.

The above text had been projected into his mind and told him plainly: This card is called “Azathoth”.

If it really was what the Necronomicon described…

Zong Yan gulped down his nervousness. He involuntarily took out the card, hesitated, then suddenly crushed it.

When a card was destroyed, there was a confirmation dialog.

Zong Yan would discover the San value to be paid for this persona card, and then decide whether he wanted to keep it.

But this card, which shouted “I’m different!” from beginning to end, clearly had no such protection.

【Daily disposable persona card “Azathoth (incarnation)” requires SAN value =? ? ? Current SAN value = 40】

【Warning. Your SAN value is insufficient】

【Warning. Your SAN value is insufficient】

【Warning. Your SAN value is insufficient】

【… Your SAN value has been reset to zero】

Brother, you didn’t even give me a chance to cancel.

That was his last thought before he fainted.

—

The author has something to say:

Zong Yan: I’m going to join him and become a heretic (whisper) 

Bubbles: Uh—?

—

For the guesses about Bubbles, the protagonist’s superpower has nothing to do with Bubbles, and he’s not behind it, either

The plot hasn’t unfolded yet. Right now, as far as Bubbles is concerned, the MC is probably just a slightly special ant

Outer Gods cannot communicate with human consciousness. He doesn’t understand the concepts of like and love

I said at the beginning that the romantic subplot probably isn’t an ordinary people type of love (because the gods of this system experiencing sweet love is very ooc when I think about it, personal opinion only, maybe the original Lovecraft gave me too much of a shadow)

But when the romance subplot arrives, everything that should be there will be there!

TL Notes:

reciprocating grace – 这知 – kindness map

being kind and charitable – 乐善好施 – be happy in doing good; always glad to give to charities; be always ready to help in a worthy cause; be prodigal of benefactions

incarnation – 分/身 – 分身 – split / body, clone, bilocation, split, doppelganger, alter ego. The Japanese equivalent is “bunshin” if you’re familiar with Naruto….

Transliterated names, titles, and places—new in this chapter:

His Highness the Prince – 王子殿下 – wángzǐ diànxià

Brother – 大哥 – dàgē – Not sure whether to translate these or not. But for a term that only gets used once or twice, I think suddenly seeing “Dage” in the text would be more confusing for most people.

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