Dice In The Darkness: Cthulhu Calls

The situation flipped in an instant.

Without Ghoul’s command, these blood men would have been akin to the Black Hand Barbarians downstairs. Liu Xing and the others would have undoubtedly counterattacked on the spot. However, under Ghoul’s command, these blood men transformed into humanoid beasts, swiftly charging towards them. Liu Xing and the others were well aware that their small group alone couldn’t stop these blood men.

So when Chris ordered a retreat, Liu Xing and Ling Ishikawa, positioned at the rear, promptly withdrew from the corridor without hesitation.

But Liu Xing and Ling Ishikawa weren’t oblivious teammates who only cared about their own escape. Instead, they stood on both sides of the corridor, assisting Chris and Ryuzaki in shooting down the approaching blood men. Meanwhile, Zhang Jingxu and the others wasted no time in running downstairs. Remaining at the corridor’s entrance served no purpose; it was better to retreat downstairs first to inform the stationed squad and prepare for the incoming retreat of Liu Xing and the others.

Gunfire and the clatter of dice filled the air, intertwined.

Soon, Chris and Ryuzaki also retreated into the corridor. However, as Alice had mentioned, firearms only caused minor annoyance to the blood men; they couldn’t even slow their advance.

At this moment, the blood men were merely less than ten meters away from the corridor entrance.

But as the saying goes, experience is the best teacher.

Despite the dire situation, Chris didn’t choose a direct retreat. Instead, he calmly retrieved a hand grenade from his waist and, after pulling the pin, tossed it towards the blood men. He then shut the already perforated iron door, slanting the riot shield in his hand against the doorway to impede the blood men’s entry into the corridor.

After completing these actions, Chris and the others continued to retreat in perfect coordination.

By the time Liu Xing’s group reached the fourth floor, they heard the explosion of the hand grenade on the rooftop. It took another five seconds before they heard the sounds of the blood men surging into the corridor, indicating the ambush’s effectiveness.

Chris then took out another hand grenade, pulled the pin, and threw it at his feet. He turned to Ryuzaki, saying, "Ryuzaki, you’re responsible for the rear guard now. Also, use the riot shield to protect yourself from the grenade fragments."

Without hesitation, Ryuzaki moved to the end of the team, positioning the riot shield towards the direction of the hand grenade.

By the time Liu Xing’s group reached the third floor, the second hand grenade exploded, once again slowing the blood men’s advance.

However, as the explosion occurred inside the corridor, the terrain amplified the sound, rendering it deafening. Even without KP Li Shunchan’s reminder, Liu Xing knew that they were all experiencing ringing in their ears, which would affect their auditory-based judgments.

"Keep going!" Chris said as he took out a third hand grenade.

When the third hand grenade exploded, Liu Xing finally saw the main door on the first floor.

After rushing out of the first-floor main door, Zhang Jingxu, who had been waiting by the door, closed it immediately. Then, Yis People and Yuan Chen placed a large stone in front of the door to block it.

As for the police officers, they had already formed a defensive line ten meters away, ready to open fire.

"Have you notified headquarters?" Chris asked breathlessly.

Yis People nodded and replied, "We’ve informed headquarters. They’ve arranged for all nearby squads to converge towards us. The mobile units are also on their way, equipped with flamethrowers. As for Alice and the others, they’ve already evacuated the wounded."

By this time, the blood men had reached the first floor and started assaulting the main door.

Suddenly, Liu Xing remembered: the second floor had no windows or barriers!

Before Liu Xing could voice his concern, several blood men had already jumped from the second floor!

"Damn it, keep retreating!" Chris continued shooting with his submachine gun while backing away.

However, before the first blood men to land could pursue, they were knocked down by the ones following behind, turning into mincemeat under the relentless force.

This batch of blood men finally suffered casualties.

Seeing more blood men jumping down, Chris decisively chose to continue retreating. He then took out his walkie-talkie and said, "Headquarters, this is Chris. I’m leading the team towards Zone A3 for retreat. Notify the supporting squads to gather at Zone A3. I hope they can arrive soon!"

"Understood, support is on its way!" came the swift response from the walkie-talkie.

Subsequently, Liu Xing and the others began their retreat towards Zone A3. Along the way, they didn’t forget to turn around and shoot at the pursuing blood men, occasionally managing to knock down a few leading blood men, causing trouble for those behind them.

Soon, they arrived at Zone A3.

Zone A3 was also a commercial street dominated by cafes, interspersed with several small pubs.

At the intersection, two squads had already arrived and set up a temporary shelter using wooden tables from the café.

"Liu Xing, hurry to the nearest pub and fetch some high-proof alcohol, like vodka. Take as much as you can, but make sure to grab the cheapest ones. I don’t want to burn through tens of thousands of pounds with just one blaze!" Chris instructed.

Although Liu Xing wanted to retort about Chris’s frugality given the circumstances, there was no time for it now. So he quickly dashed towards the nearest pub.

Leading the charge, Ryuzaki directly shattered the glass door of the pub with the butt of his gun, then went straight to the bar and handed the high-proof alcohol to Liu Xing and the others.

By the time Liu Xing and the others returned with the bottles of alcohol, the blood men were only about a dozen meters away from the makeshift defense line.

Without needing Chris’s reminder, Liu Xing and the others hurled the bottles of alcohol, smashing them into the midst of the blood men.

Then, bullets deliberately aimed at the ground sparked, igniting the spilled high-proof alcohol.

A wall of fire erupted amidst the ranks of the blood men.

In the end, although these burning blood men continued to advance amidst the hail of bullets, they eventually fell one by one.

This wave of attack had significantly depleted the blood men’s forces.

The diminished numbers of blood men significantly reduced their threat.

Chris immediately decided to switch from defense to offense and began pursuing the remaining blood men. Of course, Chris also made sure to finish off the blood men lying on the ground.

By the time the reinforcements arrived, all the blood men had been killed.

Chris leaned against a lamppost and said, "Thank goodness, aside from a few injuries, there were no fatalities. This will make my report much easier to write. After all, these blood men won’t be mentioned in any official reports."

Liu Xing nodded. So far, mythical creatures still couldn’t be acknowledged officially.

However, Miguel brought some bad news. "Just now, the Cult of the Cadaver uploaded another video on sites like Oil Turtle. It shows the blood men chasing us from the rooftop until we killed them. It seems the Cult of the Cadaver used drones to film it."

Liu Xing furrowed his brows and looked up at the sky.

In the air, several drones hovered without any sign of evasion, almost mocking them.

"Chette, will the Cult of the Cadaver ever stop? Do they intend to document our every move?" Chris couldn’t help but complain.

Liu Xing shook his head and turned to Miguel. "Miguel, can you take out those drones quietly?"

"No problem!"

As soon as Miguel spoke, the drones in the sky began to falter and fall like drunken birds.

"This is electromagnetic interference. I can control these drones for about half a minute at most. You guys need to destroy them quickly," Miguel said seriously.

Upon hearing this, Liu Xing and the others immediately went to smash the drones.

Better late than never.

Liu Xing thought so.

Wait.

Liu Xing suddenly realized a problem: Where had Ghoul, the one controlling the blood men, gone?

"Damn it, where did that Ghoul go?" Chris threw his walkie-talkie to the ground.

"What’s wrong, Mr. Chris? Didn’t you find that Ghoul?" Ling Ishikawa asked.

Chris nodded, saying helplessly, "Exactly, that Ghoul is nowhere to be found now. We’ve completely lost his trail."

Liu Xing furrowed his brows, and a daring speculation emerged in his mind—perhaps Ghoul intended to cause trouble elsewhere, creating another batch of blood men for another "film." And this time, the video Ghoul wanted to shoot might involve blood men preying on people!

Thinking of this, Liu Xing immediately turned to Chris and shared his thoughts.

Chris frowned and quickly picked up the walkie-talkie to inform headquarters, ordering all advance teams to retreat immediately.

"Let’s go, we need to return to headquarters now. Then, we’ll evacuate all the residents in the northern area. I’m afraid the Cult of the Cadaver might target civilians now!" Chris said in a deep voice.

So, after a brief cleanup, Liu Xing and the others returned directly to the temporary headquarters outside the northern area.

At this moment, Alice approached Liu Xing.

"Ryuusei, it’s great to see you back safely. When we were carrying the wounded back here, we heard about the blood men controlled by Ghoul chasing you. It really scared us," Alice said with a smile.

Liu Xing put down his weapon and took off his bulletproof vest. "Fortunately, Chris is experienced and knows how to slow down the blood men’s pursuit. Fighting while retreating. Otherwise, if we were alone facing the blood men, I’m afraid none of us would have escaped."

Alice nodded and handed Liu Xing a bottle of water. "By the way, here’s the latest news. After hearing that Baruka would solve the Thick Fog problem, the higher-ups toughened their stance. They’ve decided to reduce concessions to the Cult of the Cadaver. Or you could say they’re just paying lip service, temporarily yielding to the Cult of the Cadaver. As long as the Thick Fog dissipates, the British government will launch a comprehensive crackdown on the Cult of the Cadaver."

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised. "Oh, that’s good news. But the situation in Manchester is still not optimistic. From what we’ve seen so far, the Cult of the Cadaver seems determined to create a major news event in Manchester. Just these two videos alone are enough to make people think that Manchester has become the real-life Raccoon City. People in other parts of Manchester must be in panic by now."

Alice shrugged and said helplessly, "That’s right. The entire Manchester is now shrouded in panic. Many ordinary people have started fleeing Manchester by car, and there have even been large-scale disturbances in some neighborhoods. However, because most of Manchester’s police force has gathered in the northern area, the suppression of those disturbances is progressing slowly. Therefore, while you were away, the temporary headquarters decided to withdraw half of the police force to deal with the chaos."

Half of the police force?!

Liu Xing furrowed his brows, feeling worried. "Isn’t this playing into the Cult of the Cadaver’s hands? Are they trying to create chaos in other parts of Manchester, forcing us to abandon the siege of the northern area?"

Alice shook her head, smiling. "The people at the temporary headquarters also thought so. But because they have the support of the higher-ups, although they withdrew half of the police force, they also plan to commit the remaining force to a thorough sweep of the northern area. They aim to completely clear the northern area within three hours, showing the Cult of the Cadaver our determination."

Although it sounded good, Liu Xing couldn’t shake off the feeling that the Cult of the Cadaver wouldn’t sit idly by and let themselves be wiped out from the northern stronghold.

So, what did the Cult of the Cadaver really intend to do?

When in doubt, resort to Judgment.

After some consideration, Liu Xing decided to contact KP Li Shunchan proactively. "KP, can I make an inspiration Judgment now? I want to guess the Cult of the Cadaver’s next move."

After a while, KP Li Shunchan replied, "Of course, but because your Judgment request is rather difficult, I’ll temporarily adjust your inspiration value to 5. If your inspiration Judgment succeeds this time, I’ll give you some very useful information. But if your inspiration Judgment fails, I’m sorry to say you’ll receive misinformation, which could potentially lead to your party’s downfall."

Liu Xing raised an eyebrow, not expecting this inspiration Judgment to be such a high-stakes gamble. Only a major success could yield useful information, and if he received false information, the chances of winning for his side in this module might plummet.

A five percent chance—should he gamble?

A phrase suddenly popped into Liu Xing’s mind: "Win, and you’ll have models to accompany you; lose, and you’ll have to find work at sea."

After a minute of contemplation, Liu Xing ultimately decided to take the gamble. Considering the current situation, they were too passive, completely led by the nose by the Cult of the Cadaver. Therefore, he needed to know the Cult of the Cadaver’s next move to have any chance of turning the tide!

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