Dice In The Darkness: Cthulhu Calls

Chapter 327: Theory of Plot Points

As expected.

KP Green Light expressed some surprise, "Hey, Liu Xing, I never thought you could trigger this hidden plot point. You know, in our real Cthulhu Role-Playing Game Hall, no one has been able to trigger this hidden plot point until now."

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow, smiling, "Oh, so you mean to say that I’ve made history? And from what you’re saying, is this a universal hidden plot point?"

KP Green Light chuckled and said, "Exactly, Liu Xing, as you should know, in every level of the game area, there are thousands of parallel worlds. These parallel worlds are mostly similar, unless some players can make world-altering actions. For example, in a module I once hosted, there was a player whose profession was a popular anchor on a major live streaming platform. This player had some fame. As you can guess, during the module, this player started an outdoor live broadcast and encountered an attack by a group of Ghouls. Although I arranged for the supervisors of the live streaming platform to notice the incident, due to response time, the Ghoul attack was broadcast for five minutes. This led to nearly a hundred million NPCs and players in this parallel world seeing the video through various means."

Liu Xing was somewhat surprised; he didn’t expect such elaborate operations in the Cthulhu Role-Playing Game Hall.

Curious, Liu Xing asked, "So, what was the final result of this? All those NPCs and players should have undergone sanity checks."

KP Green Light sighed again, reluctantly saying, "You’re right. Although I used all my privileges in the module to make all the countries in this parallel world unanimously ban the video, those hundred million NPCs and players still had to undergo sanity checks. As a player, you may not be aware that when we, as KPs, perform various judgments, actual dice drop in front of us. So, when you hear the sound of dice landing during judgments, it’s a real occurrence."

"So, Liu Xing, you can imagine that thousands of dice suddenly fell around me, and it continued for over ten hours. The result of each dice was transmitted to my mind. I felt like my head was about to explode. The final outcome was that hundreds of thousands of NPCs fell into temporary madness, nearly a million of them permanently became lunatics, and the remaining hundred million NPCs and players were in a state of mental trance."

"Most importantly, the various chain reactions that followed led to riots and serious incidents in many regions of this parallel world. Two countries even went to war. Many modules in this parallel world, which were already set, had to be modified. Because of this incident, I was demoted from the Cthulhu region directly to the Ghoul region. It took a long time for me to rise to the Shoggoth Region."

Firstly, it confirmed Liu Xing’s earlier speculation that KPs are also graded, with higher-level KPs having more rights and benefits. The path of promotion for KPs is not simpler than that of players. KP Green Light, an experienced KP who had hosted modules in the Cthulhu region, had to handle numerous modules in the Ghoul region before getting a chance to advance to the Shoggoth Region. Moreover, if a KP’s module encountered issues, the KP would be punished.

Secondly, the issue of KP’s rights in the module. Although KPs can control NPCs in the module, and higher-level KPs can even control most NPCs in parallel worlds, the Cthulhu RPG Game emphasizes realism. Even if KPs react to players’ actions promptly, various reasons may cause delays in implementing KP decisions.

This gave Liu Xing some thoughts, some bold ideas.

Lastly, the issue of module continuity. From KP Green Light’s words, it was evident that many modules were pre-set. This means that while players are in the current module, the system has already prepared the next module for them. As long as players clear the current module, the system arranges corresponding Interlude Growth plots, naturally guiding the player’s character card to the location of the next module.

Of course, there is another possibility: after a player clears the current module, the system may, based on the player’s performance in the current module, interactions with NPCs and related events, as well as relationships with other players, place the player in a suitable module.

Considering these two possibilities, based on his situation, Liu Xing now leaned more towards the second possibility. After obtaining the torn page of "The Secret Scripture of Xuanjun" in Earth Dragon Village, most modules were related to "The Secret Scripture of Xuanjun." After changing the character card, Liu Xing had just come into contact with Zhang Jingxu. Both of them participated in the Fisher’s Village module because they knew the same NPC - Dogo Aige.

While Liu Xing was lost in thought, KP Green Light continued, "Oh, I seem to have gone off on a tangent again. To get back on track, I actually have high hopes for you, Liu Xing, because I feel there’s a kind of Protagonist’s Halo around you. So today, I’ll reveal some information that’s not a secret in the high-level player circles, but it’s unknown to you Shoggoth Region players."

"In reality, each parallel world is not made up of various modules but rather by a large number of plot points. These plot points could be an NPC, a mythical creature, an item, or even a region. Each of these plot points has its own rating. The higher the rating, the more important the plot point is. When a sufficient number of high-rated plot points gather, they automatically form a module. The main quest of this module is naturally determined by the highest-rated plot point among those constituting the module."

"These hidden plot points are more special. Before a player triggers these hidden plot points, they won’t have a rating. In other words, they won’t affect the module, just like the hidden plot point you triggered now. It won’t affect the Fisher’s Village module. However, this hidden plot point will begin to influence the modules you will undertake in the future. I think, Liu Xing, you should understand by now that the hidden plot point you triggered has a very high rating."

Liu Xing nodded, somewhat understanding. After all, this "Theory of Plot Points" mentioned by KP Green Light was something Liu Xing had not encountered before.

However, Liu Xing quickly grasped the essence of this "Theory of Plot Points."

In simple terms, plot points are like building blocks, and modules are models constructed from these blocks. The appearance of the model is determined by each block constituting it, with the largest block being the main body of the model.

So, the content of the module is collectively determined by these plot points, and the highest-rated plot point naturally becomes the most important part of this module. Other plot points are there to serve this highest-rated plot point.

As for this hidden plot point, it’s like a spare building block left on the side. If you can find it, you can assemble it into the next model.

Thinking of this, Liu Xing couldn’t help but feel a sudden enlightenment because this "Theory of Plot Points" provided him with another perspective on viewing modules.

"Alright, let’s stop the chit-chat here. Liu Xing, now you need to undergo a Lucky Judgment to determine if this Energy Storage Unit can operate normally. However, due to the special nature of this hidden plot point and your acquaintance with NPC Ancient One Sirius, understanding the internal structure and usage of this Energy Storage Unit, your Luck attribute value will temporarily increase to 80 points," KP Green Light said with a smile.

Liu Xing, 23/80, Success.

As expected.

Liu Xing breathed a sigh of relief. It seems his luck was quite good in this module.

So, Liu Xing sat on the Identity Verification Device, groped for a while, and finally turned on the switch.

As the Identity Verification Device started running, a virtual display screen appeared in front of Liu Xing, prompting him to enter his ID and personal password.

Of course, Liu Xing directly entered the administrator interface, using the administrator account and password mentioned in the letter.

The main interface for the administrator had two options: Ancient One Identity Verification and Non-Ancient One Identity Verification.

From the letter, Liu Xing learned that Ancient Ones had formed an alliance with some other mythical creature races. Therefore, in the Ancient One’s territory, there were many other mythical creature races. The most important thing was that the other mythical creature races that followed the Ancient Ones to Earth were mostly talented. Hence, the Identity Verification Device had the option of "Non-Ancient One Identity Verification."

So, Liu Xing had the idea to create an identity for himself. Currently, although Liu Xing had learned the language of the Ancient Ones, he was not an Ancient One and did not have the unique ID that the Ancient Ones had, their "ID card," so he couldn’t use the "Ancient One Identity Verification" function.

Liu Xing clicked on "Non-Ancient One Identity Verification," entered its sub-interface, and saw three options: Military, Political, and Temporary.

After some thought, Liu Xing decisively chose Military because, in the book "Fifty Thousand Shades of Gray" he had glimpsed earlier, it mentioned that mythical creatures of other races in the Ancient One’s territory could only hold lower-level civil positions. After all, in political matters, the Ancient Ones were not willing to let outsiders intervene.

In the military aspect, Ancient Ones appointed a batch of generals from other mythical creature races. However, these generals from other mythical creature races were deployed to the border regions of the Ancient One’s territory, the front line of war. This "thoughtful" arrangement by the Ancient Ones was quite apparent.

As for the temporary identity, it granted permissions for certain individuals, like journalists and writers, to access specific places. For example, most areas in the Ancient OneFort required certain permissions to enter. The Shoggoth control room at the bottom required the Fort Commander’s permission to enter. However, temporary identities could only maintain their validity for a day and required corresponding document numbers. So, Liu Xing directly ignored this option.

In the military identity interface, due to the level of this Ancient OneFort, the highest rank that could be conferred was the precursor to the Fort Commander. According to the nine-grade military officer system implemented by the Ancient Ones in the past, this precursor to the Fort Commander belonged to the fifth-grade military officer, a position neither high nor low.

Therefore, Liu Xing naturally chose to confer upon himself the title of precursor to the Fort Commander.

The moment he clicked confirm, Liu Xing felt his vision darken, and then some new information appeared in his mind. In simple terms, congratulations, Liu Xing became the new precursor to the Fort Commander. The message also explained the rights and responsibilities of being a precursor to the Fort Commander.

In these pieces of information, Liu Xing saw the information he wanted the most—Ancient One and non-Ancient One military personnel under the military hierarchy would unconditionally obey the orders of higher-ranking military officers. When necessary, military officers could also give orders to civilians and slaves.

This was the reason why Liu Xing came to get the identity verification. This way, when he encounters Ancient Ones later, he can use his identity to command them to serve him.

Of course, Liu Xing also knew that he might be overthinking it a bit. After all, the appearance rate of Ancient Ones in the Cthulhu RPG Game’s modules is very low. Fortunately, according to the "Theory of Plot Points" that KP Green Light just told him, there is hope for him to encounter other Ancient Ones in the future.

Unfortunately, Liu Xing was sure that Sirius’s position in the past was also a precursor to the Fort Commander. Therefore, he and Sirius were at the same level, and he couldn’t command Sirius to provide him with more items.

After solving his "identity problem," Liu Xing decided to take advantage of the remaining half an hour to leave the command center and head towards the leftmost passage to see where it led.

Most importantly, the Ancient OneFort’s floor plan Liu Xing saw before did not include this leftmost passage. Therefore, it can be inferred that this leftmost passage appeared after the Ancient OneFort was attacked by Star Kin and Deep Ones.

Entering the leftmost passage, Liu Xing quickly arrived at a black wooden door.

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