Dark Magician Isekai: Return and make Fantasy World into a VR Game

Zheng Qingyue hadn't embellished anything in the first short essay she posted on the game forum. She was indeed an ordinary top student from an ordinary college located in the capital of a poor province. While it ranked lower in the national rankings, it still gathered talented individuals from the entire province, and needless to say, there was no shortage of academic talent. Therefore, Zheng Qingyue was not considered a prominent figure on campus.

However, if she were to be placed in the nationwide group of young adults aged 20 to 30 nationwide, she would be considered an exceptionally rare genius…

In any case, Zheng Qingyue, who had both intelligence and initiative, led four other players and explored several underground chambers. Finally, in a well-preserved cellar of a wooden house, she successfully found the second item for the quest. "Letter x1."

"Dear Anna,

On the 151st day after arriving in Taranthan, Yarlyn was successfully elected as the mayor, and my dear friend entrusted the opportunity of being sheriff to me.

I can't wait to share my joy with you, my love, but unfortunately, the merchant caravan only comes once a year. Every day, I eagerly await winter, yearning for its swift arrival.

We have successfully reclaimed the barren land to the south and planted wheat, potatoes, and radishes, which are thriving.

General Charlotte's sheep ranch has also been established, and if all goes well, we can have our own ranch in two to three years.

The goddess of prosperity has blessed us, and we firmly believe that the desolate land of Taranthan will become a fertile treasure that we can pass on to future generations. The climate here is pleasant, rainfall abundant, and the land is even more fertile than we imagined.

When you and our child arrive here, you will definitely fall in love with this place.

Yours, Morris."

Unceasing Entropy passed the parchment letter around for her teammates to read, and after everyone was done, she put it away.

Her team then continued searching for about half an hour, and in another underground cellar, using tools like wooden boards and sticks, they dug out the gravel and mud that players had filled and, to their surprise, beneath the layer of mud about one meter deep, found a dusty wooden door!

"Found it!" Tang Jia exclaimed in joy. She reached out her hands and felt around the dusty surface of the door, finding a latch or something similar, and pulled it up with force.

Study Obsessed, who had also come down to help clear the buried debris, immediately exclaimed, "Holy shit…"

The underground passage, sealed for who knows how many years without any airflow, definitely didn't smell pleasant. However, since the players were all skeletons, their sense of smell and taste wasn't very effective. Players relied mainly on vision, hearing, and touch, with little to no sense of pain. So, it wasn't a significant issue.

The reason Study Obsessed cried out was because there was a decayed skeleton lying on the descending steps of this passage. The skeleton's head was facing upward toward the exit, while its feet pointed downward.

The skeletal remains had turned completely white, but the clothing on it still remained well preserved, seemingly a brown shirt with black trousers. There was also a shoe hanging on one foot, so worn out that only the laces remained.

On the back area of the shirt were three exaggerated claw-like tears, as if a tiger had clawed it.

Tang Jia lifted the wooden door and set it aside, and after glancing into the passage, she teased Study Obsessed, "What was that scream for? You give me a scare! It would be one thing if it were a proper corpse, but we see skeletons all the time, right?"

Study Obsessed. "…"

She didn't really like Tang Jia's manner of saying this, but for some reason, she couldn't come up with a retort at that moment…

The underground cellar was barely two square meters wide and couldn't fit too many people. Tang Jia and Study Obsessed went into the passage first, while Zheng Qingyue went in next, followed by Yang Ying and Brother Lahong.

Zheng Qingyue wasn't in a rush to enter the depths of the tunnel and motioned for everyone to wait first. She crouched down at the slanting entrance of the narrow passageway, which was barely half a meter wide and could only accommodate them standing in single file. Extending her skeletal fingers, she examined the remains lying at the entrance of the tunnel.

"Do you think this corpse could be Morris?" Brother Lahong didn't rush to descend; instead, he squatted beside Zheng Qingyue, watching her intently.

Zheng Qingyue shook her head. "No, this corpse was probably a woman."

Brother Lahong. "??"

"I've studied some forensic books before, and there are distinguishable differences between the skulls of men and women. I first noticed in Vanilla Pudding's video that player character models are independently designed," Zheng Qingyue explained, lifting the skull from the floor and pointing to the temple. "Look, this area appears smoother compared to yours, without any noticeable bulging."

Brother Lahong: "…"

Zheng Qingyue placed the skull back, then reached into the pockets of the corpse's pants and, to her surprise, really found something.

"A gold ring?" Brother Lahong showed a hint of interest as he watched Zheng Qingyue retrieve the item.

"Not gold, it's gold-plated silver. With 'Identify,' I can view the item's information. It's a wedding ring." Zheng Qingyue raised the ring, gesturing for Brother Lahong to use the beginner skill.

Brother Lahong couldn't help but feel fortunate that his Potential had reached 41 points, allowing him to use "Identify." Otherwise, it would have been rather embarrassing.

Upon using "Identify," the information of the ring was displayed:

[A gold-plated silver wedding ring with the 'Anna' inscribed on the inner side.]

"Anna? Oh my!" Brother Lahong got excited. "Could this be the wife that Morris was writing to in the letter?!"

"Probably." Zheng Qingyue put the ring in her waist pouch. "If a wedding ring is gold-plated silver, it means a gold one couldn't be afforded. This suggests that the owner of the ring was financially strained, which aligns with the concept of Morris, the husband, leaving his wife and child behind to join the pioneer expedition to an undeveloped land."

Brother Lahong, despite being a man, was quite a sentimental person and couldn't maintain the same level of composure as Zheng Qingyue. With a gasp, he blurted out, "Hold on, could this quest be a sentimental one? Even the wife, who was far away at home, came to Exile Town and died at the entrance of this passageway… Does this mean that the one who wrote the letters, Morris, has already died before that?!"

Zheng Qingyue made a downward gesture with her finger, signaling the ones in front that were blocking the passageway to proceed forward. She continued to explain rationally to Brother Lahong, "Think about it carefully. This town was chosen by Black Mage Yang as the resurrection site for the undead race controlled by us players. We appeared in the game by emerging from underground… and considering the nature of this quest, it's clear that the planners are suggesting that not a single resident of the original Exile Town managed to escape. They were wiped out long ago."

Brother Lahong. "…"

On the other side, the group led by Blossoming Strokes, who also found a complete letter, now discovered a passage leading into the underground after searching through several cellars that had been cleared out by players.

There weren't any corpses inside the entrance of the descending passage, but a crumpled sheepskin parchment was lying on the stairs.

Jiang Wei, who entered the passage first, picked up the crumpled parchment and glanced at it before passing it to Blossoming Strokes who was behind him.

The contents of this letter, also made of sheepskin, were a complete mess. Most of the characters written resembled scribbles that even the system didn't provide a translation for. However, a few disconnected words were discernible and translated by the system: "forgiveness," "it," "craving."

"This is clearly one of the five letters players are required to find according to the system," said Blossoming Strokes, who handed the letter to her other teammates for perusal. "If we consider this letter, for the time being, as one of the letters written by 'Morris,' whom we know of, we can at least conclude that something happened to this 'Morris.'"

"Could his hand be crippled, or perhaps he went crazy?" Qin Guan suggested after glancing at the multitude of indecipherable characters on the sheepskin parchment and shook his head before passing it to the next person.

"It's more likely to be madness or severe psychological trauma," said Blossoming Strokes, rubbing her chin as she gazed into the depths of the passageway. "The appearance of this letter at the entrance of the tunnel, which hints at the writer's descent into madness, indicates that the 'underground world' of this town plays a significant role."

Jiang Wei had spent the night grinding the Lord's reputation with the two ladies. While he didn't get along well with the top-ranked player, Ou Huang, he was still alright with the other two.

Neither Blossoming Strokes nor Unceasing Entropy had the sort of demanding attitude of wanting special treatment because they were women. On the contrary, it seemed like both of them were women that wanted to prove their strength. They were the sort of people that made others feel comfortable interacting with them.

When Blossoming Strokes said this, Jiang Wei chimed in, "While doing the Lord's reputation quest, I guessed that unless the designers had twisted taste, the art style of the Great Leaf Vine didn't fit. But if it is actually the normal art style of the game, then it's possible that the game background isn't the fantasy style that we all imagined it to be."

"Are you suggesting that it's Cthulhu Mythos?" Blossoming Strokes probed.

"Yes." Jiang Wei nodded. "If the game background is Cthulhu Mythos, then the bizarre art style of the Great Leaf Vine makes sense. Moreover, the advanced NPCs often mention a place called the 'Kenyan Empire,' a prosperous country with many factories and large ships that the NPCs aspire to go to. With factories and large ships, there can't possibly be a feudal, medieval setting, which in turn fits the Cthulhu setting."

"Ah!" Qin Guan, who was walking behind Blossoming Strokes, exclaimed. "Speaking of it, the weirdest of the advanced NPCs, Warrior Instructor Charlie Rex, often behaves like a half-mad investigator of Cthulhu games!"

In the Town Hall, Yang Qiu, who was monitoring the two groups of players, couldn't help but exclaim, "Impressive, Earthlings! There are quite a few remarkable individuals even among just 300 players."

Cthulhu Mythos, created by Earth writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft, actually didn't surpass the limits of human imagination when it came to "fear of the unknown," according to the standpoint of non-enthusiasts. Born in the late 19th century, Lovecraft associated the most fearful imagination of Cthulhu Mythos with the deep sea, believing that the depths of the ocean were filled with the utmost fears of the unknown.

In the Cthulhu Mythos universe, created by countless enthusiasts or through various derivative works, game novels, comics, and role-playing scripts, these elder gods had made numerous appearances. Many acclaimed Cthulhu-style games and movies featured scenes where these gods manifested themselves before people, above the sea.

The "resurrection of the elder gods," which sent shivers down many powerful beings standing at the pinnacle of intelligent life in this dark and magical plane, actually had a significant gulf… compared to the Earth's understanding of it.

Elder gods weren't in the depths of the ocean.

It was impossible for material worlds, where intelligent life thrived, to harbor the elder gods. Not even a fragment of their essence could exist here; otherwise, this material plane would have long been conquered and no intelligent life would remain.

It was also impossible for elder gods to "manifest themselves before humans" or intentionally bestow their "seeds" upon specific individuals.

Elder gods merely viewed humans and all other life as insignificant creatures, nothing more than ants. In the same sense, would humans occupy an anthill and choose a single ant as their "representative"? Certainly, no god would engage in such foolishness.

Nevertheless, despite the considerable gulf in knowledge, Yang Qiu had to admit that the "Cthulhu-inspired imagination" on Earth contained fragments that reflected the truth about elder gods.

Yang Qiu speculated that the Cthulhu Mythos born on Earth might have been influenced by a fleeting trace of the elder gods' will. When the elder gods projected their consciousness onto this material dimension, there might have been an inadvertent crossing through temporal and spatial rifts, resulting in it entering the earthly plane.

However, as the will of the elder gods was incapable of existing in a magicless plane, it faded away quickly. But before it completely dissipates… the tiny fraction of the elder gods' would resonate with the soul of the author who created the Cthulhu Mythos, leaving behind… something relating to it.

The primordial rulers isolated beyond dimensions and the twisted wills lost in the boundless void actually no longer possessed the conscious desire to invade or conquer material planes.

Their spiritual influence projected onto certain material dimensions was merely a remnant of their former divine existence, an inertia preserved from when they were still gods, and the remaining chaos turning into genuine catastrophes.

Insane humans devoid of reason could bring about immense calamities upon all of humanity, much less gods who had lost their sanity.

Yet, Yang Qiu wasn't concerned about Earth being overtaken by genuine elder gods. The primary reason being that on Earth, magic did not naturally regenerate, nor could it be absorbed. The dimensional rules of Earth's universe denied the existence of magic.

"Rules" were something immensely powerful.

Even rules created, maintained, and enforced by humans themselves were exceedingly difficult to eliminate, regardless of whether positive or negative.

Take, for example, the recent anti-vaccine movement, which emerged merely as an anti-intellectual activity orchestrated by certain Western populist ideologies. To rational individuals, these people appeared as fools, yet even the power of nations would struggle to suppress this tide of anti-intellectualism once it took hold.

And that was why it was much more inconceivable for dimensional rules, guided by the will of a universe, to be eradicated.

The elder god's tentacle that ensnared Yang Qiu only started brewing up something after dragging him to this plane…

"While there is a vast chasm in terms of knowledge, with a foundation of 'Cthulhu-inspired culture,' Earth's players will find it much easier to comprehend the background setting of this 'game world,'" mused Yang Qiu as he continued to monitor the two groups of players.

His confidence in the resilience of fellow Earthlings allowed him to release the Great Leaf Vine herb for this bunch of players to take care of, which would usually make any normal person's sanity fall! Earthlings, who were even the ones who popularized the concept of Cthulhu Mythos, wouldn't have their sanity drop so easily.

After progressing in the underground passage for 10 minutes, the group led by Unceasing Entropy was suddenly jumped by a low-level thirteen-legged spider-like monster hanging from the tunnel ceiling.

"What the f*ck!"

"Motherf*cker, ahhh!"

Study Obsessed, Unceasing Entropy, and Brother Lahong screamed in panic as they fled.

The low-level monster swung its suction cup tentacles and grabbed Study Obsessed, lifting her skeleton, which weighed only 40% of a normal person, into the air.

"Arghhh!"

"Take this!"

Yang Ying grabbed a wooden stick she found in the tunnel, while Tang Jia, in a defensive stance, swung a broken shovel she had picked up. Side by side, they tried to rescue Study Obsessed.

"Damn it! Stop hitting me, I'm going to be shattered!" Study Obsessed screamed after receiving several blows.

Unceasing Entropy, who had regained her ability to think rationally after running away, shouted out, "Don't aim for the tentacles! Hit its body!"

"I can't reach it!" Yang Ying yelled.

"You can lift Tang Jia up!"

Yang Ying quickly dropped her wooden stick and lifted Tang Jia by her legs. The players' skeletons were light enough to carry and run at the same time.

As expected, the body of this spider-like monster with thirteen tentacled legs wasn't really resilient. After being struck several times by Tang Jia's shovel, it dropped Study Obsessed and fled deeper into the tunnel.

"It's wounded and running away! Chase after it!"

Brother Lahong, who had initially been frightened away, immediately reverted to his veteran player instincts and quickly called for everyone to pursue…

"Mm… Understanding the true nature of this world from a game's perspective does make things much easier." Yang Qiu felt a sense of satisfaction witnessing the brave pursuit of these players.