The Indescribable Diary - Chapter 2

[Thank you for using our company’s product. The instance mission has ended]

[Account information updated]

[Investigator ID: 77842]

[Name: Yu Yi]

[Body values normal, no discomfort detected. Game over. We wish you happiness in life]

[Game offline. Ejecting in 10 seconds]

The game counted down with the scenery and damaged player card gradually disappearing as Yu Yi exited the game. The game’s dark environment was replaced by a bright ceiling as he saw familiar surroundings.

He lifted his hand, clenched it, and then relaxed it. Reality and the virtual world were exactly the same. The only difference was that the level of pain was much lower in game after being wounded.

Yu Yi took off his glasses and tapped on the watch on his wrist. A dashboard appeared.

[Player – Trellis – Dead]

[Player card damaged. Please create a new card]

[Congratulations. You have completed the objective]

[Objective – Shotgun Flying Kick – Passed all checks consecutively in a flying kick attack and dealt the highest possible damage]

[Objective Reward – Skill Card – Shotgun Flying Kick]

[Skill Card – Shotgun Flying Kick: Can fail any two checks when using leg attacks. In case of a hit, the damage value can be chosen based on the failed check. For every failed check, the lowest possible damage would be 8 points. For every two failed checks, the lowest possible damage would be 4 points. If all checks are successful, the dice value would be ignored, and the highest value attack can be chosen immediately.]

I was wondering why there’s such a coincidence. Turns out it’s the Shotgun Flying Kick reference. My appearance isn’t that of a fish-man.

Yu Yi laid down on his bed after turning off his watch.

He didn’t expect it to be Ending 2. The investigator had died without solving the case, which meant that he would only have half of his original reward. Not that there was much reward from a novice mission.

The big guy had a health value of 30 points. He took 4 points from the assault rifle and 24 points from the kick, leaving him with 2 points. This meant that if he took one more blow, Ending 4 could be established. It was a baffling chase without any drama or it could be the precursor to a series of missions. However, as an experienced Dog PC, Yu Yi was able to invent a 10,000-word long backstory even when there was no drama.

Yu Yi was about to close his eyes to rest, but his phone ignored his tiredness.

“Hey.”

[Yu Yi, didn’t we agree to enter the game? Why didn’t you contact me?]

His friend chided him. Actually, he was more of a shitty KP than a friend. Obviously, Yu Yi had met a KP that was even more a Dog than him. That’s right, it was the shitty KP operated by AI in the novice mission.

“I was fighting a novice mission. I was killed in one hit by someone with a knife, so I’m still readjusting my mood.”

[Oh, that’s understandable. When I first started, I was killed in one hit too haha. You rest well. Add me when you come online later.]

“OK.”

He promised his friend before hanging up. His friend was a beta player and was miles better than Yu Yi, who was an amateur. At least, it was so experience wise.

After a short rest, Yu Yi put on his gaming glasses and turned on the watch.

[Welcome, Investigator. You have opened your diary…]

[Detected that your character has died. Please create a new character.]

Finally, I can design my own character.

As compared to allowing the system to create a character randomly, Yu Yi would rather design his own character. After all, with a luck value of 25, wasn’t he guaranteed to die there?

The Indescribable Diary was Yu Yi’s current username. This was a tabletop role playing game (TRPG) which relied on complete immersion, so that players could experience the game as though it was real. The Investigator would be the player himself, and did not require the KP’s backstory invention. This included all events, including the monsters’ spawns and special events.

Although his name was The Indescribable Diary, it was not limited to Call of Cthulhu, which in other words was the COC team. Players could choose the game mode, including Dragons and Dungeons, which was the DND team, or the Infinite Horror team, or even the Holy Grail team. As long as you can think of it, you could suggest it to the game system. If the suggestion was accepted, then you would quickly see the relevant modules.

Not only that, the script of the game was not fixed. Players could opt to choose scripts or leave it up to the system. However, the main point was that the script could either be written manually or generated arbitrarily by the system. However, the player writing the script would be forbidden to take anything for that particular script.

These were the advantages and highlights of the game. However, the game had downfalls as well – to be exact, it was card tearing.

Once the player’s Investigator character dies, the card would be torn up unless the player used a special Ghoul Book, requested revival from the main God of the Infinite team, or prayed for it from the Holy Grail team. Once the character dies, then everything the character possessed, ranging from abilities and items, would disappear. To continue playing, a new character must be created. This character would possess nothing and was known as a whiteboard character. He would have no skill and no notable abilities. The only advantage was a high San value.

However, there would always be exceptions. For example, achievements and rewards would by default be recorded into the dashboard. No matter how many times the player dies or how many times the character’s card is ripped up, the achievements and rewards would always exist. Subsequently, a new character could be established as related to the previous dead character, so at least some relations and items would be inherited.

Now, the new character card that Yu Yi was preparing would not inherit anything from the previous character. There was nothing much to inherit anyway.

“Now, time to create a card.”

There were three chances to create a card, which meant that Yu Yi had three chances to change his attributes. The attributes were randomly assigned by the system the moment the card was generated.

As Yu Yi’s voice fell, a character dashboard appeared.

Strength 16 Agility 10 Intelligence 17

Physique 14 Appearance 11 Willpower 10

Body Type 12 Education 9 Additional Damage 1D4

HP 13 MP 10 San Value 50

Inspiration 85 Luck 50 Knowledge 45

Obviously, this was a character that looked good on paper but was actually abysmal in reality, especially for Yu Yi who liked to play the game in COC mode. Everything else was alright. Education 9 was fine, but damn, an Inspiration value of 85? He would die after any Inspiration play!

“No, no, no! Change!”

The dashboard before him switched immediately. The characteristics changed as well.

Power 14 Agility 13 Intelligence 16

Physique 11 Appearance 5 Willpower 8

Body Type 15 Education 14 Additional Damage 1D4

HP 13 MP 8 San Value 40

Inspiration 70 Luck 70 Knowledge 70

“…KP master! I’m calling you master now! Could you stop cheating me? Appearance 5? You must be kidding me! That would confirm the meme that only fishmen use shotguns! And why is the Inspiration value so high again?”

Inspiration was like inspection – sometimes it was required, but other times one would pray for it not to appear. At these times, it would be hard to decide the desired value.

“Please, a bit more handsome!”

After Yu Yi’s rejection, his last chance to change character was used. His dashboard reappeared and his character was created. It was his last chance anyway. It was a character so good looking that Yu Yi couldn’t believe his eyes.

Power 11 Agility 13 Intelligence 15

Physique 14 Appearance 18 Willpower 15

Body Type 14 Education 10 Additional Damage 1D4

HP 14 MP 15 San Value 75

Inspiration 75 Luck 75 Knowledge 50

Oh my… this extremely good looking guy was a random character? An automatically generated card?

“Whoo, this is good. Although it’s not SSR, it’s at least at SR level.”

At least the eventual characteristics were not bad. Yu Yi agreed that that was better than cashing in money for new characteristics. The very reason he was playing this game was that he had no money to play Dungeon Fighter Online.

“I’ll choose Police Detective as occupation. For the name… since the nationality is Huaxia, I’ll choose… Never mind, give me a random name.”

Immediately, the Investigator’s name was confirmed.

After adjusting the other abilities, Yu Yi looked at his character card happily. It was just that the last characteristic that the system had randomly assigned was a bit annoying.

[Investigator – Yu Xing]

[Occupation: Police Detective]

[Remarks: No interest in women, potentially gay. +20 defense against women, +20 attraction, and -10 defense for men.]