Chapter 6175 - 5186: Soul Machine Utopia (43)

Under the dim yellow glow of the streetlamp, the fallen leaves were dyed a deep red, like blood. The pitch-black fence stretched forward, until it met the dark gray wall stained wet by rain. The outer wall of the Bell Tower was mottled, its uneven marks made all the more visible by the rain. And the weather vane on the lofty spire was washed bright by the downpour, emitting a slightly piercing, abnormal creak as it turned.

Inside the building, however, was another scene entirely. The lights were rather dim, but the fireplace was blazing. When the door opened, moist cold air surged in.

"Oh, you little fellow, I’ve been looking for you in the banquet hall for ages, and it turns out you’re hiding here." An old man in a black tailcoat, hair gone gray, with two little curls of Little Mustache on his upper lip, picked up a white cat from the soft cushion in front of the fireplace. Yet the cat seemed to be made of liquid—when he tried to pull up its waist, all four paws clung to the edge of the cushion, letting out a meow.

Seeing he couldn’t pick it up, the old man had to abandon the attempt. The instant he let go, the white cat flopped back onto the cushion. The old man rubbed the cat’s head vigorously, and the white cat stretched out its front paws and gave a huge yawn.

The old man seemed tired too. He sat down in the chair by the fireplace, took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and muttered, "If you ask me, Miskatonic’s charity banquets are getting a bit much. Sure, it’s a good thing in a way, pulls in plenty of sponsorships for our research projects, but talking academic matters with that bunch of old gentlemen is always difficult..."

"Meow..." The white cat sounded like it was answering him.

The old man chuckled and reached out to pet the cat again. "You think so too, don’t you? Little fellow? How come your little buddies didn’t come today?"

The white cat rolled over on the cushion and lifted its head toward the window. The old man suddenly understood, then said, "Oh, the rain really is a bit heavy tonight, and the engineering building is a bit far from here. But as it happens, I have something I want to discuss with Professor Frank today. I can take you along. How about it?"

The white cat pricked up its ears, then, after a long moment, lazily pushed itself up and jumped onto the old man’s lap. The old man picked it up and said, "Sometimes I really do think you can understand what I’m saying. Let’s hope it’s not because, when you slipped into the library, you saw something you shouldn’t have."

The white cat meowed again. The old man set it on the cabinet beside him, then began rummaging through a huge pile of odds and ends, muttering to himself as he searched, his white curly Little Mustache twitching. Suddenly he froze, slapped his forehead, and said, "How could I forget—those engineering machinery manuscripts Frank asked me for, I still haven’t taken them out of the stacks. I’ll have to go back again..."

The old man turned to look at the white cat. The cat gave a very Human race-like sigh and meowed once more. Hugging the cat into his arms, the old man stroked its head and said, "Good child, on the third row of the mechanical engineering diagrams shelves, inside that red box, there are several hand-drawn manuscripts. I’ve already tied them up in bundles. Just bring them back for me."

The white cat sprang from his arms, slipped noiselessly through the crack of the door, and padded along the wooden floor of the corridor. Shiller sighed inwardly; the old librarian was fine in every respect except that age had made him a bit forgetful. He’d already lost count of how many times the old man had gone back to his office only to realize he’d forgotten some book, and Shiller had almost become a full-time errand runner.

Down the spiral staircase, then through the long corridor, the flash of lightning imprinted the shape of the windows onto the walls. The cat leapt onto the windowsill and walked along it all the way forward. Outside, the Gothic spires of Miskatonic University gave off a secretive glow in the rainy night.

Shiller wasn’t the least bit impressed. Only after coming here did he realize Miskatonic and Gotham University were like Sleeping Dragon and Rising Phoenix—or rather, Arkham Town and Gotham City were a pair of hard-luck brothers.

As a famous city in the Cthulhu Mythos Universe, Arkham Town’s level of misfortune is in no way inferior to Gotham City. Some even believe Gotham City’s prototype is Arkham Town, because during the period after the master passed away, his works were dug up again and became quite popular, and that was precisely when DC Company was undergoing a major transformation—no doubt it was heavily influenced.

Arkham Town is a fictional small town in Massachusetts, but its history can be called ancient. At the same time, it has two very famous universities. Standing alongside Harvard is Miskatonic University—this school is the legendary Mi Da of the Cthulhu Mythos Universe. It has produced several Legendary Investigators and has resolved many crises of Return of the Old Days and Outer God invasions. You could say everyone here is a master.

But all this had little to do with Shiller and his companions. Because even after coming to Human Society, they were still a bunch of cats.

Thousand Cats Dream hadn’t let them off so easily. Their forms didn’t change when they entered the material world; they remained cats. No matter how many hidden crises lurked in Arkham Town, no matter how many secrets Miskatonic University held, none of it had anything to do with the cats. They merely walked onto campus, got picked up by different Professors and students, freeloaded food around the grounds, and ruled the place.

The Professors and students’ kindness toward the cats wasn’t just because cats are cute. Maybe the shadow of the plague that devastated Europe hadn’t yet completely faded, so many public places liked to keep cats to catch mice, and sometimes they’d even grant cats honorary alumni status. Miskatonic originally had a group of stray cats, but they were no match for Shiller’s group, so the newcomers naturally took over the university territory and became Miskatonic’s campus cats.

The Professors and students all noticed that these new cats were very attuned to Human race behavior, and seemed to understand what people were saying. As for Shiller, he was caught several times by the current Head Librarian, Professor Henry Amity, when he tried to sneak into Miskatonic’s library.

Speaking of this Professor Henry, he’s a Legendary Investigator. He repelled the horror during the Dunwich Horror Incident, one of the very few to drive off an Outer God and still walk away intact. At the same time, he’s able to keep secure watch over a library that still preserves partial original-page fragments of the Necronomicon, with four Enchanted Old Seal talismans in hand. Frankly, even if Dumbledore showed up, he’d be about on this level.

Shiller spent his days wandering the library mainly to collect more materials. Since he was here, he had to bring back some local specialties. However, Dr. Henry was very careful about storing dangerous items, and so far Shiller hadn’t found any texts directly related to the Outer Gods.

Slipping into the reading room, Shiller glanced around. The bookshelves here were stacked layer upon layer, seemingly endless, yet everything was neatly sorted by category. He padded over to the mechanical engineering section, jumped onto the shelf, and indeed saw the red box. Looking down, he saw bundles of tied-up papers—doubtless the manuscripts the PhD needed.

But there were still some other papers in the box. Shiller first took out the tied-up bundle he was holding and started looking at the other drawings. These were conceptual diagrams of large machinery—some looked like cranes, some looked like drills—but they all seemed quite normal, the kind of engineering equipment that ought to exist in this era.

The current year was roughly around 1930. America was already a relatively developed modern society, and basically every kind of industrial product could be found here. Miskatonic University’s engineering department wasn’t exactly top-tier, but it still ranked among the best in All America. Shiller had visited the engineering teaching building once; the series of precision machine tools inside were not much different from those of the twenty‑first century.

Shiller clenched that roll of manuscript in his teeth, went through the corridor, and returned to the tower. The moment he slipped in through the door, he saw Dr. Henry holding a towel and wiping down a few cats. Seeing him come in, Dr. Henry said, "Your little buddies came looking for you. In weather like this, they’re all soaked through."

The one currently being rubbed into puffed-up fur in Dr. Henry’s arms was Little Superman. He shook the water off his body and splattered Dr. Henry’s glasses with grime. Bat Cat and Peter were over by the fireplace, baking themselves; their fur was already mostly dry.

Shiller jumped onto the sofa and tossed the manuscript into Dr. Henry’s arms. Dr. Henry praised, "You’re much smarter than my graduate students. If cats could go to university, I’d definitely write you a recommendation letter."

Shiller chuckled. If cats could go to university, many Professors would certainly prefer teaching a cat, because even if a cat couldn’t understand the books, it would still be adorable—Humans, on the other hand, not necessarily.

"What made you come out in the rain?" Shiller asked.

"Didn’t we agree to meet up today?" Bat Cat said. "We saw you still hadn’t gone over to the biology building, so we came to find you."

"I was going to go. The director said he needed to see Professor Frank about something. How are things over in the biology department?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary," Bat Cat said. "Honestly, it’s much safer than Gotham University. We haven’t had any incidents all week."

"I’m going to find Frank." Dr. Henry suddenly said. "Are you coming with me, little guy?"

"Wait for Constantine to come over and then ask him about what’s going on in the Psychology department." Shiller jumped onto the cabinet by the door, indicating he would go with Dr. Henry, and before leaving he didn’t forget to warn the others, "Don’t wander around in the library. It’s really not that safe here."

Henry picked up the white cat, tucked him into his briefcase, put on his coat and hat, and stepped out into Mi Da’s rainy night. Shiller lay in the box and dozed for a bit, waking up when he felt the box being set down on a table.

Henry didn’t take out the manuscript immediately, but began to exchange pleasantries with Professor Frank. Shiller could vaguely hear their conversation.

"...The NDP people haven’t contacted you?"

"That’s right, that’s what they said at the banquet just now. They’ve been preparing for this expedition for a long time, and Miskatonic is their best partner... I also think this is a great opportunity. Our exploration of the Arctic has stagnated for far too long; it’s just that I feel a faint sense of unease..."

Dr. Henry’s tone was laden with worry. He said, "In the plan they shared with me, there’s exploration into the depths of the Arctic, and even an unprecedented level of deep drilling. I think that’s very risky, but they don’t seem to care."

Then another, somewhat rougher male voice sounded: "If you want a breakthrough, you have to take risks. According to our previous investigative research, the secrets buried in the South Pole may be far greater than we imagined. However, the difficulty of investigation is so high that many research teams shy away. If NDP is truly willing to sponsor us fully, then I think we can afford to take this risk..."

"I admire your spirit, Frank, but I think you also need to understand that geological surveying is not such an easy thing..."

"I have to show you this," Frank said. With that, he seemed to take something from somewhere and pass it to Dr. Henry, then continued, "A new type of drilling machine. I got the inspiration from my North Pole trip. The effectiveness of this thing will definitely astonish you."

The two fell silent for a while; Dr. Henry seemed to be studying the diagrams. After a long moment, he said, "I didn’t expect you to have made such considerable progress. I was actually planning to show you a manuscript I found in some ancient texts."

Just then, the box popped open, and Shiller was the first to leap out. He saw Professor Frank—a middle‑aged man with black hair and a thick beard—looking at him with a gaze that was slightly disapproving.