Chapter 6218: Machine Soul Utopia (85)

The efficiency of the cats was quick, yet they didn’t bring good news. They searched all the places that dreams could reach, but found nothing that looked like remnants left by Yog-Sothoth.

Or rather, the cosmos is vast, and using the Exhaustion Method to search is really too slow. Even if a lot of time is spent searching, what if there is a nook or cranny that is missed? That would be troublesome.

Shiller thought that they should start with Yog-Sothoth himself. They can’t sift through the entire cosmos, but if they only search places connected to Yog-Sothoth, the probability of making discoveries would be greater.

“We can’t possibly summon him directly.” Constantine shook his head vigorously, “That guy is terrifying; you never know what he might plant in your mind. Most people cannot withstand looking at him directly.”

“But Henry can,” Shiller said, “When the Dunwich Horror occurred, he should have seen the descent of Yog. Why was he unharmed?”

“That is indeed strange,” Constantine said with a contemplative expression, “Logically speaking, no mortal could have the strength to gaze directly upon an Outer God. Even if they could expel the power of the Outer God through certain means, the best outcome of gazing upon their projection in the Material World would be an exploding brain.”

“Could it be that something protected him? He carries some kind of mysterious powder, perhaps even an old seal,” Shiller speculated.

“Neither of those things could perfectly protect him unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Do you remember, Henry’s dog disappeared for a long time, and later you found it in Mysterious Space.”

“You mean Tibbers?” Shiller was somewhat puzzled, “Did it protect Henry?”

“It’s very possible,” Constantine explained, “The animals in this universe have special Strength, and Tibbers itself has the ability to discern the power of Outer Gods. It can kill the descendants of Outer Gods, proving it has some resistance to this power. If it protected Henry, everything would make sense.”

Shiller recalled, after the Big Dog Tibbers killed the twin brother, it ran away, and Henry couldn’t find it despite searching for a long time. Later, after resolving the Dunwich Horror Incident, Henry returned safely, although the dog was still missing.

Then, could it be possible that Tibbers didn’t actually run away? Perhaps it hadn’t been harmed by the power of the Outer Gods at that time? It might have followed the traces of power to Dunwich, attempting to kill the Dunwich Horror but was unsuccessful, staying in Dunwich until Henry arrived.

Later, Henry did succeed in dispelling the Dunwich Horror but ended up attracting the Outer God Yog. Normally, upon seeing Yog, Henry could have died or gone insane on the spot; however, the loyal dog jumped out and shielded him from this disaster. But perhaps none of this could be observed, so Henry was unaware and simply thought Tibbers ran away.

In the Cthulhu Mythos Universe, this is very likely to happen. The original author loved small animals, and cats and dogs had quite a few scenes, all manifesting bravery. A group of cats once saved a Legendary Investigator, while a dog decisively ended a descendant of an Outer God, with feats verifiable. So the idea that Tibbers valiantly resisted Yog’s pollution isn’t impossible.

Shiller tried to find the dog for confirmation, but Tibbers was just a dog; he didn’t have a human soul. Shiller meowed at it for quite some time, and it just cocked its head, staring at him with a clear yet stupid gaze: “Woof…?”

Shiller sighed. He felt that the key to finding the target might very likely be with Tibbers. The space it wandered into during its disappearance surely held secrets. But he truly couldn’t communicate directly with the dog, and Bat Cat couldn’t either. Its type of translator could only translate languages with structured intelligence, dog barking certainly isn’t among them.

At this time, Shiller remembered, when Tibbers first returned, it underwent a medical examination. There was something in its stomach, resembling some kind of fungus. It had been partially digested by the dog’s stomach acid, making it indistinguishable. That was very likely the clue leading to the place of disappearance.

Shiller realized he might need to go back to Miskatonic University for a look, to see if there were any results from the analysis of the remnants, and also to report the situation from here to Henry to prevent the foundation from taking drastic measures.

Fortunately, returning would be convenient; the Silver Key opened the door for him to go back. However, it was best not to let humans use it, as there was no guarantee it wouldn’t have some bizarre influence. If someone walked in as a person and came out as a tentacle monster, that would be trouble. Humans are still too weak.

Shiller opened the door, returning this time as a cat. Henry jumped in surprise upon seeing him, immediately realizing something might be wrong.

“What’s going on, Shiller? Did something happen?!”

Shiller meowed a response, indicating him to stay calm, and then turned sideways so Henry could remove the hard drive equipped on his waist. Bat Cat was also Batman, his equipment came with cameras, which now served as the best communicative tool.

Henry quickly took out the hard drive, but he didn’t know how to use it, after all, it was still too early in this day and age. Fortunately, Shiller specially got a small screen and a reader for the hard drive from Bat Cat. After watching their experiences in the South Pole, Henry’s heart was almost jumping out of his throat.

“My God, what are these things!” Henry was clearly shocked, “Mutated krill swarms, alien squids, black mud with eyes…”

Shiller was somewhat helpless, he pressed the screen with his paw and dragged the progress bar to the end. The key was what Professor Dexter said, the foundation was the key.

However, Henry didn’t seem very worried. He said, “Don’t worry, I won’t let the foundation do anything reckless.”

After saying this, he picked up a newspaper from the side and placed it in front of Shiller. As soon as Shiller saw the headline, it was about the Antarctic expedition team. Henry explained, “I contacted more than a dozen news media, including academic newspapers from Massachusetts, the largest newspaper on the East Coast, and the Federal newspaper, and even two European newspapers and an Asian newspaper. News about the expedition team going to the South Pole has spread worldwide.”

Shiller looked over, and there was a focus on the NDP Foundation, full of praise, words like strong logistical support, conscience of the scientific foundation, selfless contributors were written as if they cost nothing, and several technology progress awards are already considering nominating this foundation.

Crucially, Henry leaked the fact that there are supply ships arriving every half month, and even marked the port where the ship departs. Therefore, when the supply ships departed before, there would be many fans coming to send them off, not just hundreds, but tens of thousands, even state legislators came to show face.

After all, the name is really appealing, and they don’t have to spend money, yet can participate in the great adventure of humanity exploring unknown territories and be remembered in history. From top to bottom, everyone wants to hitch a ride on this trend. It’s said that even the president plans to personally welcome the triumphant heroes to boost his support rate in the midterm elections.

Moreover, public expectation for this scientific expedition is very high. In the past decades, the success rate of polar scientific expeditions has not been very optimistic, and there have been many tragedies. People really need a success to boost morale, everyone is silently cheering for the expedition team, and when necessary, they won’t remain silent but will take action to support these adventurers.

“If the foundation plans to stop the sponsorship, their reputation will plummet.” Henry said, “Such foundations have close ties with state and federal governments, Massachusetts state legislators won’t allow them to do so, many federal legislators will probably also oppose.”

“Even if they don’t care about reputation and connections, and are determined to stop the sponsorship, there are many groups willing to take over. At this stage, sponsoring the expedition team is a win-win for fame and profit, if they dare withdraw funding, someone else will immediately step in.”

“And, there’s more good news.” Shiller said. He pulled out some things from his pocket.

Henry took a look and said with some surprise, “A new peak? Could it be the highest peak in Antarctica? And it’s named after the university?! That’s fantastic! State legislators would be ecstatic!”

He immediately put those materials away, seemingly preparing to go talk to the legislators later. This is actually very important because the most attractive thing about Massachusetts is its universities, which include many world-renowned institutions, a strong academic atmosphere, and a strong talent agglomeration effect, which can help state legislators achieve higher status, and they will definitely be very interested.

But at this time Shiller stopped Henry. He wanted to know how Tibbers’ stomach contents examination results were, he directly jumped onto the table and pawed at Tibbers’ physical examination report.

Henry suddenly realized, and then said, “I sent the samples to the chemistry and biology departments, the chemistry department has already sent back the test report, but the biology department hasn’t yet, I’ll go get it now.”

The biology department is not far from here, so Henry soon returned. He flipped through the report, then said, “The biology department concluded that this is likely a special slime mold, this is the cultured colony, take a look.”

Henry took out a small glass jar containing agar. The experimental equipment of this era isn’t as good as in later generations; there were basically no disposable items, either made of glass or iron. Miskatonic University is quite wealthy, and uses good items, the glass has high clarity. As soon as he took it out, Shiller saw it was densely covered with red mycelium.

Alright, after all the detours, we’ve come back around. Upon hearing that Tibbers had something like a fungus in his stomach, Shiller wondered if it might be the red fungus they encountered before, and it turned out to be true.

But if Tibbers accidentally entered the cube where the red mycelium was, why would it go there? Would this have anything to do with Yog?

Shiller thought briefly and felt that the answer was yes. Because, at the scene of the cube damage accident, he saw a golden bubble and observing this bubble led to a time and space jump. This couldn’t be a coincidence; there must be something there.

But if that was Yog’s vestige to be found, then this thing should have been inside the cube he built, why couldn’t he find it?

Shiller doesn’t know the answer to this question yet, but he must figure it out. The entity planning this may be scheming something, and he is also part of this plan, with things he needs to accomplish.

It must be said, participating in others’ plans as a pawn is quite interesting. Shiller increasingly wants to know what can ultimately be turned out.