Conan's eyes widened slightly, staring at "At the Mountains of Madness Part 2" in his hand with disbelief.
Yes, Conan was confused.
When he reached the end of the novel, he finally understood what the "Shoggoth" was that the camp inspector accidentally mentioned on the radio in the previous article.
Conan also discussed this Shoggoth with Hattori Heiji.
A name of a person, a place, or the brand name of an item may be an important reminder or something like that.
But I never expected that all reasonable conjectures were shattered, and the Shoggoth turned out to be a weird creature!
In "At the Mountains of Madness Part 2", the protagonist Dr. Dale takes his assistant Danvers deep into a cave with drag marks.
After passing through the cave, the two came to the interior of the black crater and discovered the remains of civilization inside.
The extremely huge city is made of giant rocks as dark as the night. It is full of architectural styles that humans have never imagined. The geometric buildings are so twisted that they give people illusions. They are wild and shocking.
During the step-by-step exploration, the protagonist and his assistant followed the dragging traces and entered the most conspicuous tower in the center of the city.
The corridor below the tower leads to the endless abyss.
After passing through the huge hall occupied by giant albino penguins, the object that had been creating drag marks finally surfaced.
It is the terrifying "old one", a strange spindle-shaped life with two wings on its back, axe-like legs, and a head positioned like a five-pointed star, vicious and nameless.
But without exception, they were all run over by some more powerful force, part of their bodies turned into dark green viscous juice, their spindle-shaped bodies were shattered, and their five-pointed heads were brutally decapitated.
And in front of these horrific corpses is an even deeper and darker abyss.
"Tekeli-li!" screamed from inside, and the same words were repeated in waves, as if they had a terrifying and terrifying magic power.
Immediately afterwards, the owner of the voice emerged from the abyss.
It was a nightmarish black amorphous substance, exuding a foul odor, tumbling forward like a puddle of living slime.
Inside the disgusting body are tens of thousands of shimmering eyes, which are constantly decomposing and reorganizing like swollen bubbles, which is extremely terrifying.
In the protagonist's self-explanation, or a monologue similar to a brain teaser, the story finally reveals the answer to the mystery.
This was the Shoggoth, the grotesque being that people in the camp were talking about.
They were once unintelligent slaves created by the Ancient Ones, and later took over the declining Ancient One cities.
For hundreds of millions of years, the Shoggoths devoured all organisms they could without restraint, even breeding giant penguins like livestock.
The infinitely expanding body lifts the ground, and the uplifted land forms mountain peaks that never cover snow.
There are no black mountains in the world. If you eat too much and get bigger, they become mountains.
In the end, the ending of the story is very standard. The protagonist uses the power of the protagonist's halo and successfully escapes with his assistant.
However, the poor assistant went crazy shortly after escaping and was admitted to Arkham Asylum.
Conan stared at the small black letters at the end of the article. That was the most outrageous stroke of genius.
At the very end, Qin Zhibo actually directly used the author's perspective of God to explain that he got this precious exploration manual from Miskatonic University by chance.
Dr. Dyer, who later became a professor, passed away many years ago, but his assistant Danforth is still alive.
Qin Zhibo found him in the lunatic asylum and obtained his permission to announce this great expedition to the outside world, but had to keep it secret at the time.
Unexpectedly, that very night, bad news came from the lunatic asylum. Danforth suddenly fell into a mad state and died just like that.
——This article is written in memory of Professor William Dale and to express my deepest condolences to John Danforth.
After writing these words, all I have to do is add the sentence "This story is adapted from real events" at the end.
Seeing the magic touch here, the overwhelming sense of reality made Conan's scalp numb and his spine slightly chilly.
If ordinary readers read it, they may be surprised, but they will soon regain their composure. After all, this writing technique to increase the sense of reality was used by Conan Doyle decades ago.
But Conan, who is not an ordinary reader, knows that Qin Zhibo really graduated from the University of Michigan.
Moreover, he actually made a trip back to the United States a while ago, and his destination was Arkham.
If someone else had written such a story, Conan would never believe it even to death.
But Qin Zhibo has some characteristics of believing in mysticism, and with the basic conditions here, it is really possible.
Conan: Uh-huh.
After thinking hard, Conan decided to ask the doubts in his heart, pointing to the magazine page and asked.
"Uncle Qin, are the stories in this novel true?"
"Huh?" Qin Zhibo turned around and replied subconsciously: "Of course, it's all the information I collected during my visits and surveys."
Seeing Qin Zhibo's matter-of-fact expression and unthinking answer, Conan was dumbfounded.
What? Is it true?
Are the cities of the Ancient Ones and the Shoggoths as big as mountains real?
At this moment, Conan couldn't help but think of the picture that subconsciously appeared in his mind when he just read the text. His heart suddenly felt cold and goosebumps appeared on his arms.
It was as if the nightmare-like body of the Shoggoths surging forward was about to climb up his back, shouting Teke into his ears.
Just when Conan was thinking this, Qin Zhibo gasped and said: "...with some artistic processing of mine."
Hearing this, Conan was stunned.
Art processing?
"Haha." The expression on Conan's face was immediately relieved, and his laughter was bitter and self-deprecating, "I'm just telling you~ How can there be a 'Shoggoth' in this world?"
Qin Zhibo also put on a smile and echoed, "Ah, yes, yes, anyway, I have never seen that thing with my own eyes."
Conan then asked, "How much of uncle's story is true?"
"Is the case in this camp true? Has the murderer been finally found out?"
Qin Zhibo was silent for two seconds, then suddenly moved his face closer to Conan, and looked seriously at the dazed little face in front of him.
"Actually, uncle, my story is 100% true."
Just when Qin Zhibo was about to say this number, the train suddenly paused, and everyone on the car swayed in one direction due to inertia.
The loudspeaker in the carriage began to broadcast.
"Shizuoka Prefecture, here we are."
When you arrive in Shizuoka Prefecture, you have to transfer to the special train to Mount Tenbe.
Several people bought tickets and continued to get on the bus.
During the first half of the journey, Mao Lilan basically slept, but in the second half she felt energetic.
Bored, Mao Lilan looked at Conan's Literary Times magazine and asked: "Conan, have you finished reading it?"
"Yeah." Conan nodded.
"Then let me watch it. I just happened to have read Mr. Qin's "In the Mountains of Crazy Part 1" and I am very curious about the development of the story later."
Just as Mao Lilan reached for the magazine, Qin Zhibo and Conan said "no" in unison.
Mao Lilan's arms paused in the air, with some confusion on his face.
Conan quickly smiled and explained: "Actually, the next part of this novel is a bit scary, isn't it? Uncle Qin?"
Qin Zhibo nodded, "Yes, the following content may not be suitable for you to watch."
"Terrible?" Upon hearing this adjective, Mao Lilan, who had never been good at this, retreated inwardly and retracted his hand.
"Then I'd better not read it. I'm afraid I won't be able to sleep at night."
Seeing that Mao Lilan gave up the idea of reading, the Qin and Ke duo, who were worried about her sleep quality at night, breathed a sigh of relief.
Conan turned the topic back to the novel itself and asked: "But uncle, why do you want to write such a story?"
"If the murderer is... like that, shouldn't it be considered a mystery novel?"
What Conan said is not unreasonable. After all, normal mystery novels should define the murderer as a human being, not some unknown creature, so that such reasoning is meaningful.
If you set a trap for readers with poor information from the beginning, and use information that has never been explained to the readers to create the illusion of "using the known to predict the unknown," it will be an inferior reasoning work that is destined to fail to arouse topicality.
Of course, when reading this novel, Conan's mind was already attracted by the thrilling and terrifying atmosphere in it, and he ignored the reasoning.
It wasn't until after reading that the weird excitement gradually faded that Conan realized that "the goods were not right."
Faced with Conan's doubts, Qin Zhibo explained calmly: "I never said this was a mystery story."
"Ah?" Conan was stunned for a moment, "But uncle, you are a famous detective."
"Uncle, it's true that I am a detective, but why do detectives have to write mystery novels? Who stipulated it?"
This time, Conan was confused again.
The Blizzard Villa model was so obvious in the early stage, how dare you say that what you wrote is not a mystery novel?
"But if this isn't a mystery novel? That is"
Qin Zhibo replied: "Can't you tell by looking at the category of my novel?"
The types of novels included in Literary Times Magazine are complex, and mystery is only one category. Other types of articles are also included.
Conan looked carefully at the story categories in the catalog and was surprised to find something.
"At the Mountains of Madness" is actually classified as a science fiction novel!
A famous detective who attaches great importance to facts and pursues the truth actually wrote a science fiction novel?
You are not afraid that your character will collapse and no one will come to you for entrustment!
Well, as expected of you
Just when Conan didn't know how to evaluate Qin Zhibo's bold and innovative attempt, an old woman suddenly sat down next to Qin Zhibo.
The old woman was wearing a blue and white nun's uniform, with age spots evenly distributed on her wrinkled skin, and her sunken lips exposed her only two teeth.
Although she looks like a monk, her kind facial features and kind eyes seem to have nothing to do with this old woman, and her whole temperament is somewhat closer to that of Grandma Rong.
"You guys are from Tokyo, right?"
No one talked to her, but the old woman took the initiative to find the topic.
The enthusiastic Mao Lilan immediately responded, "Yes, we plan to go to Tianbu Mountain."
Hearing this reply, the old woman smacked her lips and said in a gloomy tone: "A tourist? Huh, I guess you are going to see the statue of the Goddess of Heaven in Tianbu Mountain, right?"
"The Goddess of Heaven of Tianbu Mountain has been regarded as the most pious faith by the villagers at the foot of the mountain for hundreds of years, and has always protected the villagers in leading a peaceful and trouble-free life."
"For hundreds of years, any heresy that offends the Venerable Goddess of Heaven never ends well in the end, and there is no exception to this."
"But now there are some damn bastards who dare to dig a tunnel in the rock mountain where the Goddess of Heaven is and let the cable car pass through."
"This is simply a crime that cannot be tolerated by heaven! You will definitely be struck by lightning from heaven in the future!"
The old woman's tone suddenly became high-pitched, and her temperament moved closer to Grandma Rong. Mao Lilan was so frightened that she shrank her neck as if being pricked by a needle.
Conan's willpower is relatively high, and his immunity to this old woman is relatively high, so he is not afraid.
Qin Zhibo originally thought that when the old woman heard that he was a tourist, she could introduce the local tourism features as well as the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, but the result was completely opposite to what he expected.
"By the way, where do you guys plan to go to Tianbu Mountain?" The old woman suddenly thought of this key question.
Qin Zhibo was worried that if he revealed that he and the others were planning to attend the opening ceremony of the cable car, the old woman would go berserk, so he casually said, "We are just walking around casually, there is no fixed destination."
"Oh." After hearing this, the old woman stopped and said no more.
However, after listening to the old woman's words, Qin Zhibo roughly understood what kind of conflict he would face next.
When financial interests and spiritual beliefs collide, something unpleasant will always happen.
And my family paid twice the commission fee, maybe because I wanted to ask myself to settle the matter.
But faith is something that is difficult to break easily.
Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many fanatical believers in this world.
The half-hour journey passed quickly, and Tianbu Mountain arrived.
When the three of them walked to the exit of the station and Qin Zhibo was looking around, a woman took the initiative to greet them.
"Excuse me, are you Mr. Qin Zhibo?"
Qin Zhibo looked at the woman up and down. She was wearing lavender workplace clothes and light makeup on her face. Her flowing long hair was neatly combed, giving people a very comfortable feeling.
"Exactly." Qin Zhibo replied.
"Hello, I have been waiting for you all for a long time." The woman bowed and introduced herself: "I am the secretary to the vice president of Domoto Tourism Company, Yoshino Ayaka. Please give me your advice."
Qin Zhibo glanced at the information above his head. Yoshino Ayaka, professional secretary, 23 years old, the basic information was correct.
After learning about possible conflicts in the area on the train, Qin Zhibo had to be on guard against troublemakers impersonating him.
But now it seems that it should be true.
Next, Mao Lilan and Conan also introduced themselves, and they were considered acquainted.
After walking out of the station, Secretary Yoshino took him to the Toyota Century parked on the side of the road. The stretched luxury car looked like a boss.
"It is really our honor to have the famous detective Qin Zhibo personally come to the opening ceremony of our company's aerial cable car tomorrow."
Yoshino was driving in the front seat, speaking compliments to keep the atmosphere in the car from being too quiet.
Qin Zhibo waved his hand and replied calmly: "Don't be so polite. The main reason is that Detective Maoli has a greater reputation, so I can come here."
Hearing this, Secretary Yoshino couldn't help but smile awkwardly.
After all, the company hired Mouri Kogoro at the beginning, so it’s really embarrassing to say this now.
And Qin Zhibo is also making his position clear. He can come to the rescue not to give their company face, but mainly to Mouri Kogoro.
No, it's Conan's face.
In the vast world, Conan has the greatest reputation.
This chapter has been completed!