Chapter 1905: Chapter 1903: The Overlooked Key Point (There’s Another Cthulhu Movie Out Recently)
The expedition team returned to Arkham with their tails between their legs.
Although this expedition yielded no results and many people died, almost everyone had a look of relief. Professor Mike apologized to Fang Zheng when they parted, taking responsibility for the expedition’s failure. However, Fang Zheng didn’t mind. On the contrary, he told him that if there were similar matters in the future, he could come to him again.
After all, Arkham is a place teeming with talented individuals and entities from ancient times, where Ancient Gods and Elder Ones roam the streets. Taking a casual stroll could lead to uncovering an Ancient God instance, and who knows, there might be a hidden instance waiting for Fang Zheng to explore next.
For Fang Zheng, the trip to Antarctica was highly profitable for him.
In just this one "instance," Fang Zheng encountered three races: The Ancient One, Shiges, and the Dog of Tindalos. Among them, the Ancient One and Shiges were burned to ashes by Fang Zheng, while the Dog of Tindalos... well...
"Woof woof!!"
As Fang Zheng pushed open the door, he was met with a chubby husky barking and pouncing towards him, its tail wagging as it leaned against Fang Zheng. Fang Zheng chuckled, reached out his hand, and gently patted the fluffy head.
"Good boy, good boy, hmm... Nymph adjusted you quite well."
The husky, looking as if it had been raised to the size of a pig, was none other than Musesha, the Lord of Tindalos. Across the river of time, Fang Zheng, transformed into the Time Dragon, engaged in an earth-shattering and soul-wrenching battle with Musesha... or not.
To be precise, it was more of a one-sided bullying fight.
The Time Dragon exists beyond time, mastering and controlling time itself, while Musesha was merely a condensation of the concept of time. This was a restraint relationship akin to mortal enemies. When they met, the outcome was Musesha holding its head as Fang Zheng beat it up, half-dead, before taking it as his pet.
By the way, Fang Zheng asked Nymph to adjust Musesha into this round and chubby husky shape due to the concept of Tindalos. In the Tindalos worldview, time is divided into angles and curves. Humans and other races live in the "curves" of time, while the Dogs of Tindalos live in the "angles." This is why they appear by teleporting through an angle.
So Fang Zheng condensed the information to create a round and chubby husky shell to encase Musesha within, acting like a collar to effectively control the Lord of Tindalos. Fang Zheng had no intention of releasing Musesha. The Time Dragon has a strong fascination with anything possessing time traits, akin to humans’ desire for beautiful women. When a being like the Dog of Tindalos, a condensation of time itself, encounters the Time Dragon, which loves collecting time-related items, its fate is sealed.
However, this isn’t entirely good news.
Because when subduing Musesha, Fang Zheng received a system prompt.
Thinking of this, Fang Zheng petted the fluffy head of the husky while opening the system. He browsed the previous system prompts once again.
[Hidden Achievement Acquired 5/?]
[Soul Scroll X3 Acquired]
[You have gained the allegiance of the Tindalos tribe]
[Special Quest "Attention from the Void" Initiated]
[Your battle with Musesha transcended the boundaries of time and space, attracting the attention of a powerful being from the infinite void. Showcase your power to gain its acknowledgment or submission (In the infinite void, a sphere of radiant light quietly watches you)]
No need to ask; Fang Zheng already knew who the system’s prompt referred to.
"Yog-Sothoth..."
Upon seeing the quest, Fang Zheng frowned.
Finally, will he have to face the Three Pillar Gods?
Even Fang Zheng knows the power of Yog-Sothoth, the supreme Outer God only second to Azathoth, omniscient, omnipotent, and all-seeing. Compared to it, entities like Cthulhu, the Ancient Ones, Shiges, and Deep Divers are child’s play.
Catching that entity’s attention is not something to be proud of.
Fang Zheng was uncertain about the outcome if he were to fight Yog-Sothoth. Even though both exist beyond time and space, they are fundamentally different in other aspects.
Just as each deity has its own lifestyle, Fang Zheng’s mode differs entirely from that of Yog-Sothoth.
Yog-Sothoth operates by observing everything within the world from the outside, detached and indifferent. It’s like a player of real-time strategy or simulation games, enjoying the view of small beings bustling about on-screen, occasionally clicking a mouse to create calamities or disasters. Watching these small beings scuttle about is amusing.
Conversely, Fang Zheng is more like an FPS or RPG game player, preferring to actively participate and start slowly changing everything from a corner.
In summary, these are distinct gaming modes and methods.
However, this doesn’t imply any superiority or inferiority.
It’s like when two people are competing in a game; even if one is not the other’s rival, when someone throws down the keyboard in frustration and picks up a chair to strike the real-life opponent, the winner could be entirely different.
Now, what Fang Zheng is worried about is where the limits of what Yog-Sothoth calls "omniscience and omnipotence" truly lie. After all, omniscience and omnipotence are just a lower civilization’s praise for a higher one. Take Fang Zheng’s Heavenly Dao Palace, for example—if it were brought to the Middle Ages or modern Earth, it would be considered an omniscient and omnipotent civilization. Yet, against chaos, it remains helpless. The dimensions of battle with chaos are simply too advanced for lower civilizations to perceive at all.
For instance, the Kingdom of the Holy Church in the Main World also praises the Goddess of Order as "omniscient and omnipotent," so they would never imagine that the Goddess of Order is someone who enjoys watching BL films and has some indescribable aesthetic tastes.
Moreover, from the many failed experiments observed by Fang Zheng at other coordinates, it is evident that the Goddess of Order falls far short of being omniscient and omnipotent. Of course, there’s no need to specifically point this out to the people of the Kingdom of the Holy Church.
However... if my hypothesis is correct and this world is also an experimental site of the Goddess of Order, then Azathoth must have some connection with the Goddess of Order as the "setting" core of this world, much like the Golden Nightmare King of the Third Coordinate Point...
Wait, could it really be like that?
At this thought, Fang Zheng was suddenly taken aback.
He suddenly remembered something.
If Fang Zheng remembers correctly, Azathoth also has the nickname "Core of Primordial Chaos," which according to its setting, should belong to chaos.
But it was created by the Goddess of Order?
Wait, when exactly did the incident with the Golden Nightmare King happen?
It was only then that Fang Zheng realized he had overlooked a key point. Back then, he was only concerned with how the Third Coordinate Point shattered, but he forgot one thing.
That is, when did the explosion and the chaos invasion at the Third Coordinate Point occur?
Judging from the time elapsed in the several worlds of the Third Coordinate Point so far, it should have been tens of thousands of years ago, so based on the same timeline assessment, the Goddess of Order must have still been alive at that time. That is to say, the Goddess of Order at that time likely personally observed the core invasion within the Third Coordinate Point and the subsequent revival of the Golden Nightmare King!
Will and Order born from Chaos!
Could it be that the Goddess of Order was attempting to create a being similar to the Golden Nightmare King in this world?
What exactly does she want to do? Completely merge order and chaos? Or find unity in the fusion of chaos and order?
Anyway, by now, Fang Zheng has finally come to a judgment about the world he is currently in.
Assuming this world only emerged after the Goddess of Order witnessed the destruction of the Third Coordinate Point and the birth of the Golden Nightmare King, then it is evident—once again, this is another experimental site of the Goddess of Order.
As for the content of the experiment, perhaps only Yog-Sothoth or Azathoth would know...
"Knock, knock, knock."
Just as Fang Zheng was stroking the dog’s head and pondering, there came a knocking at the door, followed by Ryoko Asakura walking in.
"Master, a telegram from Master Francis."
"A telegram?"
Fang Zheng, puzzled, reached out to take the telegram, only to find it was sent last week. But at the time, he was on the way back to Arkham with Nymph and the others, so he was completely unaware of the situation—the outdated communication methods in this world are truly frustrating.
"Okay, let me see..."
As he spoke, Fang Zheng unfolded the telegram, which stated that Francis and Valentine had discovered traces of a meteorite impact in a small town in New Orleans. Based on their observations over the past few days, the town seemed to gradually exhibit some unusual characteristics, which they were still investigating...
In the subsequent telegrams, it was noted that the local environment had changed, the water from the wells had a strange taste, and many plants had started to become deformed. Moreover, the local residents seemed to be becoming irritable and easily angered...
"Is there more?"
Having read through three telegrams, Fang Zheng looked at Ryoko Asakura, who shook her head.
"No, these are the only three telegrams I found in the mailbox."
"So something did go wrong over there."
Fang Zheng sighed, stood up, and stretched. Only three telegrams were sent before losing contact; this is not a good sign. Although Fang Zheng is confident they should be fine, who can say for sure? After all, he did give them crowbars—they should still be... alive, right?
"All right, tell Nymph to get ready; we’re also going over there to check things out."
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