Cthulhu Panel: One organ mutates every day

"One good news, one bad news," Matthew said, glancing at Wayne.

A moment of silence fell over the room.

Noticing Matthew's gaze, Wayne understood and suggested casually, "Then I'd like to hear the good news first."

Matthew's tone was flat:

"Our team deserves credit for discovering the facial recognition symbol. Headquarters has awarded our Michigan City Division Investigation Team 2 a third-class merit, and everyone will receive a bonus. Moreover, Wayne's contribution this time is significant. After we finish this Bob case, I will report to the chief and request special approval for Wayne to be promoted to full investigator ahead of schedule."

Lillian rested her elbows on the table, propped her chin on her hand, and listened attentively.

Ethan nodded in agreement.

Wayne, however, sensed something was amiss. The fact that the facial recognition feature had been so useful meant that headquarters valued it highly, which didn't that mean...

Matthew continued:

"The bad news is that the face symbol may be related to the coming of the Great Old Ones."

As soon as Matthew finished speaking, the department fell silent.

The Great Old Ones?

Wein was very familiar with this title, but only with the Cthulhu Mythos system he knew from his previous life.

His understanding of the Old Ones of this world was based solely on the information Ethan had revealed during their last visit to the Silver Gallery cabaret.

Creatures that can cause a reality deviation of more than 50% are often associated with the Great Old Ones.

Ethan frowned, recalling something unpleasant.

Lillian's gaze was unfocused, as if she were deep in thought.

Wayne asked, "Team leader, what exactly are the Great Old Ones? You've never explained it to me directly."

Matthew paused, then sighed:

"We didn't tell you much before because we knew you were just a trainee investigator."

How could you miss such exciting information?

"Team leader, I'll be a full-fledged investigator soon, no need to hide anymore, I'm all ears," Wayne said.

"Yes, this is indeed a good opportunity to tell you the fundamental reason for the existence of the Special Affairs Bureau."

Matthew explained:

"Over the past few thousand years, every hundred years or so, a great being would descend upon this land, and people would call them the Great Old Ones. Each time a Great Old One descended, it would bring with it an extremely high level of reality bias, or contamination, which would bring immeasurable disasters to an area within a hundred miles."

Wayne absorbed the information:

"Hmm, it can't be that simple. If it were just going to continue like this, humanity would have gone extinct long ago."

Matthew nodded and began to explain:

"It is said that several hundred years ago, when the human situation on the Western Continent was at its worst, for some unknown reason, some Great Old Ones who were benevolent towards humanity began to intervene in human organizations, forming the prototype of the Special Administration Bureau. This greatly reduced the human mortality rate after each Great Old One's descent and prevented the extinction of humanity on this land."

Wei En listened and thought at the same time.

The history of the Union is only a little over 200 years old, and the history taught in high school classrooms makes no mention of the period before the establishment of the Union.

Did these things happen before the establishment of the federation?

Matthew continued his sermon:

"For hundreds of years, although humanity has not known the origins of those Great Old Ones, they can be roughly divided into four categories according to their attitudes."

"The first category is those who are benevolent towards humanity. The second category is those who are malevolent towards humanity. The third category is those who are conscious but remain neutral. The fourth category is those who lack consciousness."

About thirty years ago, some scholars proposed that the arrival of each Great Old One would significantly increase the world's anomaly index. The higher the overall anomaly index of the world, the shorter the interval between the arrivals of the Great Old Ones. From the initial arrival once every hundred years, it gradually became once every few decades, and now it is once every few years.

"Moreover, the scholar also pointed out that in addition to the arrival of the Old Ones, a number of unusual events, both large and small, are also increasing the world's anomaly index."

"After extensive verification and summarization, a generally accepted conclusion has been reached."

"The coming of the Old Ones cannot be prevented or resisted, but humanity can slow down the growth of the world's anomaly index by resolving some anomalies within its capabilities, while also collecting as many clues and information as possible about the coming of the Old Ones and making sufficient preparations to reduce the disasters caused by their arrival."

"The Special Administration Bureau thus established its fundamental principles and organizational goals, and expanded its scale year by year, eventually forming a complete system."

silence.

Wayne slowly processed the information, then asked, "Are all those important figures who sent the tokens considered Great Old Ones who harbor benevolent intentions towards humanity?"

"Not necessarily," Matthew said. "It's more accurate to say that it's mostly true. Moreover, even the smallest act of kindness from the Great Old Ones can be catastrophic for ordinary people."

Wayne thought of the little girl who gave the pocket watch to the original owner and asked, "If you encountered those Great Old Ones when receiving the token, would you see their true forms?"

"What do you think?" Matthew said with a wry smile.

Wei En was speechless.

Indeed, it certainly couldn't be its true appearance.

Even a mere 1% deviation from reality can almost cause sensory distortion, while around the Great Old Ones, the deviation from reality could exceed 50%, meaning that any scene seen with the naked eye may not be real.

But if the deviation from reality reaches 100% or even exceeds 100%, does it mean that the illusion and reality are completely misaligned and distorted?

As Wayne thought of this, a cold sweat broke out on his back.

Is my time travel real?

Is everything we are experiencing right now real?

Is it possible that they are all products of a distorted and misplaced reality?

Am I already living in a complete reality skewness?

Wayne shook his head, stopping his thoughts. At present, there seemed to be no clues to support such an exaggerated conjecture.

However, if the Great Old Ones were to descend upon Michigan City, the consequences would be...

"Even with humanity's current level of development, is there still no possibility of resisting the past?" Wayne wanted to explore the limits of this world's pollution characteristics.

"Generally speaking, only the Old Ones can fight against the Old Ones, but there are exceptions." Matthew's face darkened as he gazed out the window, his eyes filled with sorrow. "About 20 years ago, the former Federal President implemented the 'Artificial Old Ones Project,' but it failed."

"Can the old days be artificially created?" Wayne couldn't help but think of his own control panel.

Matthew withdrew his gaze: "I don't know the specific details of that plan, but it was absolutely audacious, and of course, the ending was also tragic, almost sacrificing an entire city."

Sacrifice the entire city?

In the original owner's memory, there was indeed a large city that had experienced an unknown disaster. That city was called Pierce.

News of that incident was kept strictly confidential, and only upper-class families like the Weber family knew some of the information.

The original owner was still young at the time and simply thought it was a rumor or fabrication.

From the original owner's perspective, that incident did not cause any stir in high society, and it didn't even generate much buzz.

In retrospect, those secret and exaggerated rumors were all true. A city could be wiped out by some unknown event. The dark side of this world is far more terrifying than I had imagined.

Those who know about this incident are either people from the Special Affairs Bureau or eyewitnesses.

Although it's reasonable for Team Leader Matthew, a veteran of the Special Affairs Bureau, to know this information, his eye muscles always twitch and his expression turns sorrowful whenever he talks about the past. Could he be a witness to it all...?

[Perception Lv.1 - Observation of the Microscopic] Progress 27.0%

Ethan spoke, his tone somewhat heavy: "Team leader, what are the chances that the human face symbol is related to the Great Old Ones?"

Matthew laid several documents and reports flat on the table and explained:

"Previously, our head of the investigation department went crazy. A face symbol was found at the scene, but there was only one case, so we couldn't make an accurate judgment. We could only confirm that the pollution characteristics behind the face symbol were very strong."

Matthew glanced at Wayne and continued:

"But this time, Wayne discovered another hidden facial symbol at the primary crime scene, and drew it at the secondary crime scene. Due to unknown factors, this triggered anomalies at the secondary crime scene. I summarized the facial symbols and the scene conditions from both incidents, and with the help of professionals from headquarters, we came to the following conclusion:"

The human-faced symbols may be related to the Great Old Ones and their retinues, with a 20% probability of a direct connection to the Great Old Ones.