Liu Xing glanced at the untouched plate of Stargazing in front of him, debating whether he should finish it just for the one Willpower bonus...
Liu Xing was silent for a moment, then silently shook his head and sighed.
It still didn't work...
As for Wang Qi and the others, like Liu Xing, after a mental struggle, they decided to give up. After all, Willpower was valuable, but SAN was even more valuable. If they wanted to eat Stargazing, they could give up both...
After lunch, Liu Xing and his group returned to the large guest room. Everyone looked at Baihe Cheng with admiration, for only a true warrior would dare to finish Stargazing.
Baihe Cheng, however, said with some regret, "Hey, why didn't you guys eat Stargazing? I think it tastes great, and it also increases willpower."
Everyone shook their heads in agreement.
After resting for a while and clearing the tableware, Old Wayne walked into the room and said, "Everyone, I'm going back to my room now. You can choose to rest or explore the castle on your own. Unfortunately, the second floor is the bedroom of the lord and his family, so it's not open to the public. Please forgive me."
At this point, Old Wayne deliberately glanced at Baihecheng. After all, Baihecheng had a history.
Chen Ling, who was sitting by the door, immediately replied, "Understood. We definitely won't go to the second floor. As for our curious friend, we'll keep him under close watch and won't let him wander off!"
Wang Qi, standing nearby, nodded silently, looking at Baihecheng with a stern look.
After receiving Chen Ling's assurance, Old Wayne smiled and nodded, then left.
After waiting for a moment, Chen Ling took a stroll outside. After confirming that Old Wayne was indeed not in the main building, he returned to inform everyone, and they began their exploration as planned.
First, Liu Xing and his group arrived at the locked room on the first floor and discovered it had an iron door, while all the other doors in the main building of the castle were wooden.
Something unusual must be wrong.
However, a bit of a complication: only Chen Ling, due to his role as a retired scout, had a 30-point Lockpicking skill. The others hadn't yet mastered the skill, so their Lockpicking skill only had a one base point.
So, it was time to gamble again.
"KP, we all have to pass a Lockpicking check."
Liu Xing, 1/1, a great success.
Baihecheng, 88/1, a failure.
Chen Ling, 47/30, a failure.
Wang Siyi, 14/1, a failure.
Wang Qi, 65/1, a failure.
What Liu Xing didn't expect was that he had the blessing of the dice goddess and rolled a great success.
"You just randomly poked the keyhole with your fingernail a few times, and the door opened. And the alarm connected to the main door, due to disrepair, didn't sound the alarm." KP004 said this with a tone of resignation. It was clear that KP004 hadn't expected Liu Xing's luck to be so good, as to roll a perfect hit.
Rolling a 1 on various checks signifies a perfect hit. After receiving the proper reward for success, there are also certain additional rewards. For example, Liu Xing had just unlocked the door without triggering the alarm. This alarm was supposed to require the unlocking player to pass a difficult Luck check (a difficult check requires the player to roll with the corresponding value reduced by half, and an extremely difficult check requires the player to roll with the corresponding value reduced by one-fifth). Success would prevent the alarm from being triggered. If he failed, Old Wayne would hear the alarm and come to investigate.
Additionally, because Liu Xing's Lockpicking skill was tested using his base score, he gained a skill growth marker. After this Cthulhu game, Liu Xing will roll 1d100. As long as the roll is greater than 1, he can roll 1d20 again (originally, the rulebook indicated a 1d10 growth, but this book has changed it to 1d20 due to plot requirements, and similar changes apply). The resulting value will be added to Liu Xing's Lockpicking skill.
For the first time, Liu Xing realized that he was actually of European descent.
"Liu Xing, you're incredibly lucky!" Chen Ling looked at Liu Xing enviously. After all, in other games, luck is only a part of skill, but in Cthulhu, luck is arguably the entirety of skill.
Liu Xing chuckled, shook his head, and said, "It was just a fluke. Let's go in."
The locked room was filled with a pile of miscellaneous items and covered in thick dust. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a long time.
Because the dust was so thick that even a single step would leave clear footprints, Liu Xing and the others didn't dare enter the room. They could only observe from the doorway, and thus found nothing.
But now, it was time for a check.
"KP, I need to pass a reconnaissance check," Liu Xing said to KP004.
Reconnaissance, 83/60, failed.
As expected, the law of conservation of character is no joke; failure came so quickly.
"After carefully observing the room, you found nothing," KP004 said gloatingly.
Chen Ling and the others also began their own reconnaissance checks.
Baihe City, Reconnaissance, 55/40, failed.
Chen Ling, Reconnaissance, 84/75, failed.
Wang Siyi, Reconnaissance, 91/79, failed.
Wang Qi, Reconnaissance, 68/65, failed.
. . .
Everyone failed.
Even KP004 was momentarily at a loss for words. This was supposed to be a simple check, given the players' high Spotting stats, yet everyone failed.
"Well, you all think this room is nothing unusual; it's just an ordinary storage room," KP004 said quickly, then fell silent. Liu Xing felt KP004 pondering the next plot development.
It was obvious that this locked room couldn't be an ordinary storage room. After all, how could a storage room have an alarm? And if nothing unexpected happened, there was a very real possibility of a secret room inside, crucial to the main storyline.
And now, since everyone had failed their spotting checks, there was no reason to continue searching, and this plot line was effectively cut short.
Liu Xing had to admit, this might just be a prank by the Dice Goddess.
Liu Xing shook his head and led everyone out of the room, preparing to search the first-floor hall again.
Liu Xing and others went to the hall and glanced around casually, but found that there was nothing worth searching for. So, Liu Xing came to a place where jumping judgment could be made. Because in the setting of the Cthulhu role-playing game, humans have a maximum jumping height. Liu Xing vaguely remembered that it was about two meters and four, so if the height exceeded two meters and four, a jumping judgment could not be made.