Chapter 6210: Soul of Machinery – Ideal Land (77)

“I apologize for my deception.” Reck said, “However, I truly had no intention to kill. Your so-called accusations of me attacking the professor and students were because I wanted to talk to them. Those cats inexplicably charged at me, leaving me with no chance to approach you…”

Will-o’-the-Wisp flared in Shiller’s mind. If you’re going to talk, talk without making accusations, would you?

The Bat Cat obviously perceived what was on his mind and said, “You too, without even asking why people wanted to find the professor, just rushed up to fight. What if he genuinely had something important?”

“Can I gamble on that?” Shiller retorted, “Humans are no match for monsters like this; just coming into contact means death. Besides, if he had something to say, why not at the school, why insist on coming to the South Pole…”

“Have you forgotten? After his violation and revelation of those experiments, he was taken for investigation, leaving him no chance to reach the professors?” Bat Cat shook his head, “Moreover, him sneaking onto the ship proves he had no malice toward humans. Otherwise, he would have just killed a student before departure and boarded.”

“Then why did he have to transform into Professor Atwood to talk to him?”

“If he didn’t turn into him, how would he move freely on the ship? The students recognize Reck, discovering him would lead to him being reported, so he has to transform into someone else. Perhaps Professor Atwood is who he’s most familiar with.”

As Bat Cat mentioned, Reck also appeared helpless, saying, “I admit, I didn’t follow the experimental guidelines and created some things that might seem terrifying to you humans. It’s my fault; after all, I’m not one of you, and sometimes I can’t empathize. But the trip to the South Pole is vitally important to me.”

“I went to explain myself to you, but you and Henry were focused on anger, preventing me from conveying the truth, and just got taken away by them…”

Shiller recalled that night when Henry went out late, returning to report that Professor Dale was very angry. Reck most likely went to find them then, only to get a scolding, having no chance to reveal his truth.

“Before, Professor Atwood and I had a good relationship, a kind and approachable guy, so I was thrilled to see him on the ship. I thought about confessing to him and asking him to mediate, but suddenly three cats sprang out and beat me. To avoid scaring the students and professors, I had to run away first.”

“Later, I found your base, thinking perhaps to speak to the students first. They are soft-hearted, and maybe by appealing to them, they’d let me stay. Then again, a pack of cats showed up out of nowhere and beat me up. Those cats are incredible fighters; I couldn’t match them and had to escape once more.”

Shiller squinted his eyes; indeed, Constantine wasn’t dealing with Reck alone with just one cat. But where did he get this pack from? Could he have contacted the Thousand Cats Dream?

“Luckily, I met you here, or something bad would really have happened…” Reck took a deep breath, speaking rapidly, “Listen, whatever you do, don’t head into that mountain, within lies polluted monsters…”

Shiller smirked inwardly. Aren’t you the polluted monster? You’re playing a game of mutual protection among wolves, aren’t you?

“They are creatures with starfish-like heads, massive and bloated, tin-like frames with tentacles below. They once had a prosperous civilization, inconceivably advanced to humans…”

The more everyone listened, the more it didn’t seem right. Reck was talking about the Ancient Ones, wasn’t he?

Shuggos referring to the Ancient Ones as monsters, reversing the heavens!

“Some things can’t be seen on the surface.” said Bat Cat, “To humans, Shuggos may appear uglier than the Ancient Ones, yet both are extraterritorial beings, neither inherently good nor evil to humans.”

Shiller thought and agreed, most importantly, the Ancient Ones ended up being hoist by their own petard. Without a second thought, they used some unknown substances to create life and then resorted to mind control hypnosis, so Shuggos’ rebellion was only a matter of time.

“Really?” Professor Dale showed disbelief, “If they were an exceedingly advanced civilization, how have they never revealed themselves?”

“Because they’ve already gone extinct,” Reck replied, “and it was I who caused their extinction.”

As if fearing disbelief from Professor Dale, Reck continued, “They made the wrong choices and were already polluted, requiring their elimination to ensure the safety of this planet.”

“You’ve got me totally confused,” Professor Dale feigned ignorance.

Reck took a deep breath, then said, “I’ll make it short. This race perhaps had some inherent flaws and, upon coming to Earth, couldn’t adapt to the environment, leading to certain deteriorations. In desperation, they turned to the ominous power of deep in the stars, which you could consider a curse. This not only accelerated their decline but drove some into madness, so I had to kill them.”

Clearly, something clicked in Professor Dale’s mind, for he asked, “So why have you come here now?”

“That terrifying presence hasn’t given up, constantly trying to enter the South Pole to revive these monsters and execute its malicious plan.”

“What evil plan?” Professor Dale asked further.

Reck hesitated for a moment and then said, “Well, it’s a bit complicated. In short, you know, whatever the gods from deep in the stars want to do is definitely nothing good, we can’t let their plan succeed.”

“If he’s so powerful, why doesn’t he come himself?” Professor Dale asked again.

Shiller was also interested in this question. Reck’s implication was that the Ancient Ones had contacted Nyarlathotep before, got him summoned, and he likely wanted to use them for something, but ended up being wiped out by the Shuggos, so the plan was not completed at that time.

Now, Nyarlathotep still wants to target the Ancient Ones, but something in the South Pole is blocking him, preventing him from coming personally, so he uses the NDP Foundation to convince the expedition team to come, hoping to revive the Ancient Ones this way.

Then the question arises, what exactly is stopping Nyarlathotep from coming to the South Pole to target the Ancient Ones directly?

“Because of me.” Reck replied, “I am a kind of creature you can’t understand. Unfortunately, I am not native to Earth either. To be precise, I also originate from deep in the stars, a descendant of a certain god, which is why I say this matter is a bit complicated.”

Shiller immediately perked up his ears. The certain god Reck mentioned wouldn’t be Iron Man, would it?

The result came when Reck said, “You should still remember the person bitten to death by Henry’s dog, right?”

Professor Dale nodded. This matter was well-known to everyone, and he knew a bit more than the other professors, which was, the person who was bitten to death had a brother, and they were both descendants of a certain horrific existence.

“In terms of blood relations, that guy was my brother.” Reck spoke shockingly, seeming a bit helpless, “I am also one of the offspring of that existence.”

Shiller was puzzled. Wait a minute, whose offspring are you?

Isn’t the Dunwich Horror supposed to be a descendant of Yog-Sothoth? How could Shuggos be related to Yog?

But suddenly, Shiller remembered that there were many golden eyes inside the glob of black slime, and although Shiller had never seen Yog’s true form, the original text described Yog as being comprised of endless golden eyes. Looking at it this way, there was indeed some blood relation between the two.

Moreover, it seems likely that the blood relation between Shuggos and Yog is closer than that between the Dunwich Horror and Yog, because obviously, Shuggos retained more characteristics of Yog and was stronger than those two brothers.

One twin brother was bitten to death by a dog and the other was subdued by Henry, while Reck worked right under the noses of so many professors at Miskatonic University, much akin to Brand serving as the attending doctor at Arkham Asylum back in the day.

Professor Dale also seemed a bit incredulous. Reck scratched his head, seeming somewhat irritated, “Whom I was born from is not something I can decide, you should understand that feeling, Dexter?”

He looked towards Dexter, apparently seeking some resonance from this Black professor who had been discriminated against. But Dexter merely took a silent step back. He was, in fact, Black, but only differed in skin color, and this peculiar Outer God offspring shouldn’t try to claim kinship.

“Then you…” Professor Dale hesitated but then continued, “Why do you do this? I mean, why live among the Human race?”

“Of course because Nyarlathotep loves to live among humans!” Reck said with raised voice, “And I’m also here to guard against him!”

Professor Dale wanted to say more, but Reck interrupted him and then said, “The old seal in Henry’s hand… that small badge he gave you, it was brought by me. If it weren’t for that thing, everyone at Miskatonic University would have been his puppets.”

Professor Dale frowned slightly. He also seemed to realize that this was two Outer Gods using humans to clash. It looked like the one called Nyarlathotep and the one called Yog-Sothoth were not on friendly terms, they were wary of each other, constantly battling.

But Reck’s statements sounded absurd to Shiller. How could Nyarlathotep and Yog come to blows? Not mentioning how they truly had no fundamental interest conflicts, Nyarlathotep didn’t demolish buildings, on the contrary, Yog established order, and Nyarlathotep would live more comfortably, after all he used corridors and elevators the most, they should be solid allies.

Most importantly, Yog was completely uninterested in humans, he had no reason to stop Nyarlathotep from doing anything in human society, he was indifferent to anything that connected to humans. Otherwise, when his offspring were killed before, he surely would’ve acted. In fact, he merely glanced and returned to his own work, completely indifferent to whether he had a presence on Earth, nor did he care about humans’ attitude toward him, so how could he possibly engage in scheming around the South Pole with Nyarlathotep?

“However, regarding the South Pole matter, it has nothing to do with Yog-Sothoth. Although Outer Gods don’t have gender like humans, I am indeed born from two existences.” Reck explained again, “It’s my other blood relative who wants to prevent Nyarlathotep.”

Shiller widened his eyes again. Wait a minute, another blood relative? It wouldn’t be Iron Man, would it?