Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The next day, when Albert arrived at the police station, he was surprised to find Archie had not yet come in.

Although Archie was nominally the police station's criminal psychology consultant, he was quite dedicated to his job. Even on days without cases, he would often be at the station organizing case files, making his absence today unusual.

Just as Albert was debating whether to go to Archie's house to check on him, Archie showed up for work in the afternoon.

"...Why the long face?"

Archie looked disdainfully at Albert, who was lounging on his desk.

"Lann asked me for your contact details," Albert said with a plaintive look at Archie. "I think he's more interested in you than me. Is it because you're in the same field?"

He intended it as a tease, but Archie's expression changed dramatically.

Albert was taken aback and straightened up, "What's wrong? Should I not have given him your contact details? Hey, do you really dislike him that much? That doesn't seem right; who could dislike Lann?"

Archie ignored Albert's continuous chatter, even feeling the voice fading away in his ears.

Why would Lann want his contact details? They had barely spoken a few words and didn’t even get along well.

Why, just as he was investigating Lann's identity...

The anomalies from last night resurfaced in Archie's mind, leaving him feeling as if he were standing in an ice cellar, cold all over.

—Forbidden to ask, forbidden to mention.

"Archie? Archie?"

The faceless entity's warning from last night echoed repeatedly in his mind.

"Archie!"

Archie jerked awake to see Albert waving his hand in front of him, puzzled: "What's wrong? You seem out of it today. That's not like you."

"It's nothing," Archie averted his gaze, "Albert..."

"Yes?"

"The psychological assessment of Lann that you asked me to do last time."

"How did it go?" Albert's expression became serious as the conversation turned to business.

Archie absently fingered the rim of his coffee cup: "Indeed, he suffered significant psychological trauma in that incident. It might be his brain's subconscious way of protecting him, leading to the loss of some past memories."

"Is that so," Albert frowned.

"…However, this doesn’t affect his daily life. Given the patient's resistance, I don’t recommend forcing psychological intervention. Especially since he is somewhat versed in psychology himself. Instead of forced intervention, perhaps letting him naturally interact with people and everyday life to gradually regain his memories would be better." Archie paused for a moment, then slowly continued.

Albert’s furrowed brow gradually relaxed: "You think so too? Then I feel relieved."

"Yes, that's the conclusion. I’ll get back to work now," Archie turned away, biting down on his back teeth where Albert couldn't see.

As if by doing so, he could prevent his fear from showing on his face.

He had been seen through from the very beginning.

He knew that he was being tested, that his identity was being investigated, and he also knew exactly who was conducting the investigation.

Step by step, one step at a time.

Unknowingly, he too had become a puppet in the other's hands.

……

A few days later.

The therapy room remained devoid of clients, leaving Lann in a state of worry.

"Strange, I even introduced the first hour for free, why is there still no one coming in?"

Ogler, who had come to help, was sketching at the door: "Yeah, why is that?"

Passersby, catching sight of a large, intimidating figure with disheveled hair sitting at the clinic's entrance, steered clear long before they got close.

Lann, whose aesthetic threshold had been skewed by the bizarre, failed to realize that the root of the problem was right beside him, and fretted about whether he really had to resort to appealing to gamers.

With nothing else to do, Lann opened the gaming forum to check on the players' current status.

The second round of closed beta testing was about to begin, and the forum was buzzing. Lann glanced at the number of player reservations and was immediately shocked.

The first round of beta testing had opened with 500 slots. In his previous life, Lann remembered that even close to the game's public testing, the reservation count barely reached 5,000.

But now, just the reservations for the beta testing exceeded 10,000.

Many players who didn't get a slot were wailing on the forum about the limited number of openings for the first beta test. Veteran players complained about the influx of newcomers who weren't really interested in the game itself!

So what were they coming for?

Lann suddenly had an ominous premonition.

Because the hottest topic on the forum at the moment was about his incident in the hospital.

"No way, it can't be."

Imagining the scene of being surrounded by five hundred people, Lann felt a bit intimidated and considered closing for the day.

"No, no, Arkham is so big, with only five hundred players, they might not even find their way here."

Lann comforted himself internally and continued browsing through the forum posts.

Apart from a video that Lann vowed never to open again, the hottest topic on the forum was undoubtedly the experience posts from players in the last round of closed beta.

Lann casually browsed through a few posts, then was drawn to an analytical one.

"Newbie Guide and Game Direction Analysis"

Black Cat (poster): This is a newbie-friendly game guide, combining my own experiences from the closed beta and information gathered from interviews with my gaming friends. It offers practical advice for new players entering the game. The first round of closed beta is about to start, and I hope this can be of some help.

Additionally, I've included my personal opinions on the future direction of the game. If my predictions turn out to be true, I hope the officials will highlight my post~

Firstly, the gameplay isn't complicated. Compared to traditional MMOs, "Destiny's Spiral" retains a rich list of skills and dice mechanics from tabletop roleplaying. Using a skill rolls a dice; success leads to a specific outcome, like successfully stealing a wallet if you attempt theft.

Of course, failure would be quite the spectacle.

Initially entering the game, you receive certain skill and attribute points to adjust according to your preference. There are three starting professions: Thug, Unemployed Youth, and Homeless. These professions lean towards combat, general skills, and survival, respectively. A normal start would be with Unemployed Youth, but taking a gamble on Thug or Homeless is also viable.

Recommended initial skills are the classic trio of tabletop roleplaying: Investigation, Listen, and Library Use. Basically, these are useful for almost everything...

Lann read with great interest, scrolling further down.

Black Cat: After this round of closed beta, most players should have a good grasp of the game's nature. Though it leans towards a Lovecraftian style, the game offers a high degree of freedom and doesn't just throw its main selling point in your face.

On the contrary, if you want to explore the other side of this world, you need to actively seek out unusual events in reality to catch a glimpse of the world's strange other side.

I think this approach really captures the essence of Lovecraftian horror – a world that seems ordinary and suitable for most people to live in, but only the investigators know the cost of maintaining this seemingly peaceful normalcy. I like this model, but just based on the closed beta, this mechanism is somewhat flawed. The freedom is too high, and most players don't know what they should be doing.

I think the officials should consider improving this aspect, perhaps by introducing ways for players to consistently engage in events, like a special guiding NPC or opening up factions for players to join, such as a dedicated investigator organization. This could assign tasks directly to new players, otherwise, if the number of players increases later, it might not be conducive to guiding the game's progression...

As these were very practical and useful suggestions, the comments section quickly filled up with posts thanking the 'big brother' for sharing.

Lann also found it very novel. He hadn't experienced this early stage of the game in his previous life and was learning for the first time about the game's more naïve period.

Moreover, Black Cat's suggestions were spot on. Indeed, during the public test, the game did guide players to join the Bureau of Investigation, although the Bureau itself was not that straightforward.

Lann was so engrossed in reading the posts that he didn't notice the countdown for the internal test had already ended.

It was only when there were no new replies in the posts for a while that Lann looked up regretfully.

Then, he noticed a man outside the therapy room, dancing and acting in a way that seemed more fitting for a mental hospital.

Lann was taken aback, only then realizing that the countdown for the internal test on the forum had ended.

"No way, they found me this quickly?"

As the man's broadcast gymnastics outside began attracting the attention of many passersby, and just as he seemed about to strip, Lann reluctantly had to open the door from the inside.

"Hello."

As they drew closer, Lann noticed a white tag appearing above the man's head.

ID: Baba Hao.

Lann fell into an eerie silence once again.