Mystery: Survival from the Secret Doll

Chapter 203 202 'Monster'

Inside Miskatonic University.

As evening approached, the lights in this city standing on the wasteland began to shine brightly, making the people living there mistakenly believe that they were still feeling as if they were in the sun.

Celia, Archer, Regulus and Celia's roommate, Alice Jane Catherine from Ruentingen, had a hearty breakfast and then toured the Miskatonic University according to a map of the university that came with their admission notice.

"It really is... this place... it's really, surprisingly big."

As a hunter, Celia felt physically tired after a day of wandering around after gaining extraordinary powers to improve her physique.

She rubbed her forehead and stretched her legs, stretching her sore thighs so they were less stiff. However, her excitement from the day was not diminished at all by her physical fatigue.

They walked together into the school cafeteria, which was built with blue-gray stone bricks and had a sense of history. They randomly found a corner and then placed their food there.

The delicious food awakened the taste buds of several extraordinary people who had been tired all day. While enjoying the food that was difficult to eat in the outside world, they talked about their visit experiences and some strange associations.

"Rather than asking what university it is, I think it's more like a city centered around a university. This place is big enough... Alice, does Tingen City have such a university? I remember Hoy University and Tingen University. I've heard of their reputations, even in Intis."

Tingen City in the Kingdom of Loen was the first city to initiate the university system. Since the governor of that city established these two universities over three hundred years ago, many revolutionary and epoch-making things have been transmitted and transformed from Tingen to Loen and the entire Northern Continent.

Among these, medical reforms, land cultivation, and various unique inventions—all of these changes affected many middle and lower-class people, and the corresponding knowledge they generated allowed Loen and the entire Northern Continent to improve their living conditions in a very short period of time, increase grain production, and promote the development of the textile and industrial industries...

This also led to certain positive changes in countries such as the Feysac Empire, Intis, and the Feynaport Kingdom. The countries of the Northern Continent recognized the rationality of the university system, and new schools were built in various places to attract talents and provide more support for those with bright minds.

This has saved the lives of many people who had to do the lowest-level jobs and work hard all their lives in vain due to family poverty, food shortages and other reasons. The research results of universities have promoted the emergence of emerging industries, and emerging industries have driven the demand for labor. All of this has given the middle and lower classes more and more valuable ways out.

But even so, the rise and establishment of every university in the countries of the Northern Continent, their achievements in the past three hundred years, the things they have created, the laws they have summarized, and the things they have studied, are almost impossible to compare with the two universities in Tingen City.

Tingen, under the jurisdiction of Ahowa County, is a very special city even in the Kingdom of Loen.

When Alice heard Celia mention her city, she looked up at her roommate and said in a vague, ethereal voice, "Yes."

"As far as I know, many professors at Khoy University and Tingen University have other positions or assume corresponding, more important responsibilities in Tingen's city government, chamber of commerce, church, and so on. They are not just professors at Khoy or Tingen University, but university professor is their most important identity."

"And those upper-class people in Tingen City. Even if they are not temporary employees of these two universities, they still have close ties with them."

In Tingen, whether it is medical care, trade, policy, church or education, most of the city of Tingen serves the existence of the two universities. The establishment of the port, trade exchanges, the latest medical plans in the hospital, and various security and welfare systems for the citizens of Tingen are all inextricably linked to these two universities.

It could be said that without these two universities, all functions of Tingen City, including the city government that should be controlled by the Backlund Royal Family and the churches of the two major churches in Tingen City, would be paralyzed in a very short time.

Therefore, the city of Tingen is also known in Loen as the 'University City'.

The fact that the church and the Backlund royal family allowed a city developed around a university to exist and continue to develop was a completely incomprehensible exception for many historians and economists.

"From what Alice said, this place does look a bit like Tingen."

Celia picked up a piece of carrot cake, took a bite, and said vaguely, "Apart from the lack of a church and city government, and the lack of many people working in other fields, the area and facilities here are no different from a normal city, I think."

Celia came from the metropolis of Intistril, and her experience was far beyond that of the gang member Archer and the former country boy Regulus from Feysac.

Perhaps only Alice, whose ancestors were High-Sequence Beyonders and who lived in a 'university town' like Tingen, could have a broader understanding.

There was a hospital that looked very grand, vast tracts of farmland, textile mills, cloth factories, docks, an entire wasteland and various strange buildings, which were far beyond their imagination.

"Although I haven't really understood the specific situation of this university..."

Celia took another bite of carrot cake, feeling amazed and overwhelmed by this new delicacy. She couldn't help but sigh, "But this university may exceed everyone's imagination. I can't wait to study here."

Perhaps, they really won that gamble back then?

There were only a few scattered people in the bustling cafeteria, people from the north and south continents. The entire Miskatonic University was larger than one could imagine, and the people were scattered throughout the university. Even in the not-so-large cafeteria, after being separated like this, there were not many people.

Archer casually looked around the building, which also looked quite old, and suddenly his eyes fell on the entrance of the cafeteria.

He seemed to have seen something impossible to see, his pupils suddenly dilated, and his body suddenly stiffened.

"Archer, what's wrong?"

Celia, who was sitting opposite Archer, followed his gaze and looked towards the cafeteria entrance. At the same time, the remaining two companions also followed Archer and Celia's gaze, and forgot to look past them out of curiosity.

Their pupils all dilated for a moment.

The atmosphere in the cafeteria suddenly became as quiet as if it had fallen into an ice lake. There was a suffocating atmosphere of silence that seemed to dominate the place all of a sudden.

A lot of people were walking into the cafeteria.

Those people didn't look like students who had just arrived yesterday. They exuded an icy aura that was hard to look at, as if they stood out from the innocent and romantic people around them, enjoying the unique atmosphere of the university. They wore a uniform, slim-fitting, yet somewhat tattered and worn combat uniform, which made them look completely out of place. They were clearly seasoned professionals, but that wasn't the reason this group of misfits instilled fear in the surrounding crowd.

Because, among those who came in, almost no one had normal human appearance!

Five people walked into the cafeteria wearing combat uniforms that were probably tattered due to fighting. They were talking and laughing with each other, but some of them had sticky, tentacle-like things growing on their bodies, some had cracks on their foreheads with things like eyes constantly wriggling inside, some had scales growing on their faces and deformed wings growing on their backs. At first glance, they did not look like humans, but some monsters circulated in folklore that had walked into reality.

The five "monster"-like humans walked to the window and seemed to want to take out coins from their pockets. However, Celia, who was a hunter and had good eyesight, saw that one of them stretched out his hand and suddenly broke it when he put it into his pocket. Dark red blood flowed out from the broken wrist and fell on the clean and tidy ground.

The handless monster didn't seem surprised by this action. He muttered something to the scaly person beside him for a moment, then the scaly monster took out the gold coin. The handless monster, beaming, used his broken hand to hammer the scaly monster on the back, causing it to burst open and spurt out more blood...

“Scary?”

A gentle voice was heard from the side without anyone noticing.

Celia Archer and the others were startled, and their gazes immediately shifted from those people not far away who looked like "monsters" rather than humans. They saw a young man who had appeared at the dining table at some point in time. He was wearing a black top hat, a matching slim-fitting robe, and a crystal monocle in his right eye socket.

When Archer saw this person, he immediately realized that this seemed to be the extremely powerful extraordinary person he saw last night who walked against the crowd and to the side of the steam train!
As if noticing Archer's gaze, Nicolas Flamel smiled at the young man who had taken the assassin's potion last night, pinched his monocle, and then asked again:
"Looks scary?"

"Yes, a little bit..."

Celia, known for her outspokenness, spoke softly. Seeing the monocled gentleman's gaze fixed on her, she quickly explained, "I don't mean to mock. I know that in the world of mysticism, people who take potions will experience signs of 'losing control' due to certain factors. Their condition is very similar to those..."

Her explanation proved that she was not a complete novice in the world of mysticism, and she did understand some extraordinary knowledge.

Nicholas did not do anything to the little girl because of this sentence. He nodded and said calmly, "You are right, Miss Celia."

"They've been contaminated by something and are therefore experiencing symptoms of being out of control that they can't easily shake off."

Celia was stunned, a little surprised: "Is it really because of loss of control? But I think their mental state is not bad."

In addition to physical changes, those who are out of control usually show more changes on the spiritual level. If they were kind and righteous before, then after losing control and suffering the backlash of their extraordinary characteristics, they may become evil and crazy.

But the way those people were talking and laughing didn't look like they were losing control.

"Some external factors can also cause Beyonders to inevitably fall into the abyss of madness and pollution," Nicolas Flamel said. "As 'Investigators,' they have always faced the forerunners of heresy and pollution. Before they lose all reason, they bring more stability to us and to this world, constantly fighting against darkness and evil, against danger and madness..."

"Investigator?"

"Mr. Flamel." Someone interrupted the questions of several new extraordinary people who had just arrived at the university. He was one of those monsters that looked more like monsters than humans. There were many slippery tentacles growing on his body. Just seeing him and just getting close to him made them feel so nauseous, both physically and psychologically, that they wanted to vomit.

This is not a normal phenomenon; it is a pollution with divinity.

The one who had undergone the uncontrollable mutation was a demigod.

Celia's roommate, Alice, managed to suppress her nausea and raised her head.

But the young man called Flamel took off his hat and placed it in front of Alice's eyes. The hat obscured the illusory, eyelash-less eye that had appeared at some unknown moment, preventing her from seeing the monster's true form.

"Don't listen to what you shouldn't listen to, don't look at what you shouldn't look at. Yalin should have written about this in her notes, right?"

Alice suddenly fell silent when she heard the voice. She looked at the young man who had put away his hat in disbelief, but saw him and the man covered in tentacles walking away. She could only faintly hear a few words:

"Mr. Flamel, the corpse resurrected in the Himalayas has a new situation..."

-

The Never-Ending Theater, third floor, Crimson Campus.

Tang stood in the middle of this campus filled with countless strange stories, monsters, and pollution, and stretched out his hand as if trying to pull something.

The next moment, the entire crimson campus shook, and the core of the theater suddenly appeared in the sky. It looked at Tang from afar, and just as it was about to make a move, a final, powerless counterattack and struggle, it was knocked unconscious by the system and dragged into a small dark room.

The core of the theater stretched out Erkang's hand, signaling his secret puppet to save it!

It can still be saved, don't give up on it!
Nicola, the Time Worm who was in the same area, pinched his monocle: Oh.

War Bishop Brutus silently shifted his gaze and quietly prepared to be promoted to a weather warlock.

Tang Ze didn't care at all about the core of the theater that was dragged into the small dark room and confined by the system. He was pulling the entire crimson campus and overlapping it with the Euclidean space.

At this moment, the entire Crimson Campus began to gradually upgrade its dimension. The Never-Ending Theater, a "0" level sealed object, was passively and unstoppably accepting the gift of the "Supreme One" and merging with the entire Euclidean space.

The Most High has cast his gaze upon you, and He has fixed your destiny—

(End of this chapter)