Daily Disposable Persona

Nyarlathotep got a very bad feeling from Tawil’s smile.

There had to be something behind it. Everyone knew Yog-Sothoth presided over time, which meant he could see into the past as well as the future, and also control events.

While Nyarlathotep liked mixing it up with humans, Yog-Sothoth’s true form existed eternally outside all planes of existence. He overlooked the boundless universe with complete indifference and detachment.

Even Shub-Niggurath, who was another of the three pillars of the original gods, would visit the Earth every once in a while to enjoy the attention of the ants and his believers. Yog-Sothoth was the most Buddhist among them.

“I should get a new look.” The black-haired girl returned her eyes to the stage.

This body wasn’t Nyarlathotep’s favorite, but when in female form he preferred to be a black-haired cheongsam beauty with a fan. Therefore, after doing away with the high priest of the Order of Feasters, he couldn’t resist returning to his preferred image.

“I’m afraid this show won’t go the way you wish.” Only then did Tawil finally speak.

“Oh?” Nyarla drew another folding fan from the void. The patterns on this fan were even more intricate and gorgeous. If someone stared at it too long, they might get lost in the design.

Tawil’s words had multiple meanings.

As a certified troublemaker, Nyarlathotep had made sure nothing would go wrong with tonight’s events. At one point there was the possibility that something might happen, but when the little prince of the British royal family came to the door of his own accord, that variable was extinguished.

“It doesn’t matter. But if there’s a variable even you can’t observe, should I assume it’s related to our Lord?” Although she giggled, her eyes didn’t smile at all. Instead they gleamed with the dark light of the abyss.

Azathoth was the King-of-All, the origin of the universe.

From Azathoth were born Darkness, the Nameless Mist, and Chaos.

Darkness had spawned Shub-Niggurath, one of the three pillars of the original gods. He was master of fertility and reproduction, and gave birth to almost the entire pantheon of gods. From the Nameless Mist was born Yog-Sothoth, also one of the three pillars, who was omniscient, omnipotent, and the master of time and space. The remaining Chaos had transformed into Nyarlathotep.

Nyarlathotep was the spokesman and messenger of the Outer Gods. His duties were similar to those of Hermes in Greek mythology.

He wasn’t subservient to anyone but Azathoth, the Lord of the Universe, and carried out his will.

Aside from the Outer Gods themselves, very few races were crazy enough to directly worship Azathoth. And while the Outer Gods were essentially subservient to Azathoth, the Supreme Lord and Creator of All Things, Nyarlathotep was the most fanatical of them all.

Unfortunately, the cosmic Primordial Nucleus was also known as the Blind Idiot God. He remained in his palace day after day, listening to the mindless, decadent, almost sickening piping of a flute.

However—not long ago, about a month past, all the Outer Gods had felt the summons of the Lord of Heaven.

That was why Nyarlathotep had sent his avatar to London in such a hurry.

He was charged with carrying out the will of Azathoth, so naturally he was closer to the Lord than any other Outer God.

He’d sensed that this consciousness, which faded before it fully awakened, was hidden on Earth.

A presence that even Yog-Sothoth couldn’t scrutinize… such a thing was almost impossible, even for his Lord.

“Who knows,” Tawil answered briefly. No matter what was about to happen, he had no intention of continuing the conversation.

Forget it, trying to pry information out of this guy was almost as difficult as waking the Lord of Heaven.

Nyarla put away the other fan. “Well, I still have to take care of the Yellow Sign, so I’ll be on my way. Have fun watching the show, gege.”

All the lights of the theater had dimmed, and a symbol was once again projected on the rear curtain of the stage, slowly rotating.

The first row of seats was empty, but the back was full.

Shadows covered almost the entire theater, so Zong Yan was able to emerge from the stairwell with ease. With a black umbrella in one hand he cautiously walked into the auditorium.

The theater gave Zong Yan a very bad feeling, especially now that he’d used the Night Watchman card.

Although he couldn’t see the dead right now, his ears were filled with the low-pitched howls of the fallen. It was as creepy as the tower above the side hall of Buckingham Palace.

Zong Yan’s hands were sweating but he couldn’t run away, so he had to summon all his courage.

After he activated the Night Watchman persona, his night vision was maxed out. But as he looked around, he couldn’t find any trace of Edward or Wang KeMing in the audience.

That wasn’t right. Were they in a box on the second floor?

Zong Yan felt more and more anxious. As he desperately scanned the seats for any sign of them, the gray-haired man in the first row suddenly turned around. His eyes directly met Zong Yan’s.

Zong Yan: …

Crap, MU really sent over that spy! London was doomed.

Just as Zong Yan was about to look away like nothing happened, Tawil suddenly hooked his finger with a smile, beckoning Zong Yan to approach.

That was really strange. Obviously he’d changed his clothes. Even his hairstyle was different. How was he discovered so far away?! Was this the power of a Great Old One?

And that’s a threat, right?! That’s a threat!! That’s definitely a threat!!!

If he didn’t go over and the big guy’s mood took a sudden turn for the worse, he might shapeshift into something else. Then London really would end tonight.

In order to save the world, Zong Yan had to endure his humiliation and walk over. “What is it?”

Even though he knew there was an unfathomable higher-dimensional god in front of him, Zong Yan’s tone was a bit impatient. The jar was already broken, so it might as well break again.

The severed threads in his mind suddenly connected.

Why would a Great Old One suddenly show up at school, and why did he appear at the scene of the crime at the exact right time? Could it be that the person behind the scenes was actually—

Zong Yan’s expression changed. He stared warily at the gray-haired man.

“No. I’m not as bored as Nyarlathotep.” Tawil guessed what was going through this human’s mind.

But he was in a good mood today, so he decided to be a kindly evil god. “Sit down.”

Zong Yan: “Sit down for what?”

“The play is about to begin.” Tawil said patiently, “If I were you, I wouldn’t try to interrupt the performance right now…. Besides, destiny has already been decided. There’s no time left to change it.”

Tawil At-U’mr was far more compassionate than his other avatar, Aforgomon.

After all, there was something about this human that was of great interest to Tawil.

For one thing, the Lord of Time and Space couldn’t see this person’s future or past. Even his present could only be glimpsed indirectly from the present timeline of others.

Also, this tiny human was one of the few intelligent members of his species. He possessed great curiosity and thirst for knowledge.

Yog-Sothoth was quite tolerant of inquisitive humans who pursued knowledge. He was generous in granting wisdom to those who pleased him and answering the call of his human believers.

As he faced this human, he actually felt some interest.

He decided this human would make a suitable follower.

“How do you know that?” Zong Yan asked with great suspicion. “Aforgomon is the God of Time among the Great Old Ones. You have to at least lie to me a little. I’m not a fool.”

No, you are, Tawil thought indifferently. 

The faint appreciation he felt for the human in front of him immediately evaporated.

“Use your brain.” He glanced at Zong Yan with a slightly pitying look. “You dare speak of the Lord of Time and Space in such a way. You’ve really learned nothing from your biology class at MU.”

Hey, hey, hey! How can you, an evil god, sit around complaining about the level of instruction at MU? Or is the reason you came to teach at MU because you couldn’t stand it?

Zong Yan wanted to throw the black umbrella in his hand and run away, but he knew there was nowhere to go. Besides, the etiquette of the Night Watchman refused to permit him to act so rudely, so he took off his top hat and sat down elegantly in the seat beside Tawil.

But Tawil’s next sentence almost made Zong Yan jump out of the chair.

“If you don’t give me a better answer within one minute, not only will I ruin your graduation, but you may find yourself facing the displeasure of a god.”

The gray-haired man hooked up the corners of his mouth, and a flash of darkness glittered in his golden eyes.

On stage the play had just begun. The Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign, clad in black robes and wearing masks on their faces, began to sing.

No, no, he wasn’t joking at all.

Although there was a “human” smile on Tawil’s face, there wasn’t a trace of warmth in those golden eyes. It was like a bucketful of cold water that completely woke up Zong Yan.

If he couldn’t give a satisfactory reply to the god within a minute, it was very possible that—

The consequences would be unimaginable.

Zong Yan was half furious inside, as well as half scared.

You didn’t give me many clues. Do I fcking have to guess your name out of thin air?!

Wait a minute…. The Lord of Time and Space?

Suddenly Zong Yan felt a flash of lightning in his mind. He remembered when the evil god in front of him was still called “Senior Tawil” as well as the book he basically compelled him to read.

“You have twenty seconds left,” the evil god was kind enough to say.

But that name—that was an Outer God—one of the three original Outer Gods—

Even the weakest ancient god could easily destroy humanity, let alone an Outer God who stood above the entire divine system, let alone one of the three pillars of the original gods, who stood above all other Outer Gods.

Zong Yan felt that his throat was incredibly dry. He slowly opened his mouth to speak the forbidden, supreme name: “You are… Yog-Sothoth.”

The moment he revealed that name, Zong Yan seemed to feel that his vision had expanded in an instant.

In the darkened theater, behind the gray-haired man, there seemed to be billions of iridescent globes slowly emerging from cracks in space, each of them bearing a stupendous light.

Now that was a bit more like a future believer.

The god, seeing he hadn’t misjudged this human, felt a bit pleased again.

The generous evil god narrowed his eyes and revealed a smile that most humans would interpret as ‘pleased’. 

“Good. What do you want as a reward?”

—

The author has something to say:

Zong Yan at the beginning of the next chapter: (Suddenly excited) How about letting me graduate?

Although I said before that the romantic subplot of this story is unorthodox, I have a vague hunch that the gong will be the person with the strongest presence _(:з」∠)_

I just love Bubbles (YaYa wags head.gif)

TL Notes:

The pronouns in this chapter were either directly specified by the author or based on what was previously used for the characters. Nyarla seems to use “she” (她, third person female) when acting out a human female disguise, but the rest of the time switches between “he” (他, third person male / unspecified / unimportant) and “divine third person” (祂, usually translated “He”). As mentioned in Chapter 17 notes, I’m currently reserving “He” for specific situations involving Azathoth.

Many sources use “she” for Shub-Niggurath. Here the author used both “he” and “divine third person”. Chinese is pretty relaxed about pronouns or leaves them out entirely, but English makes you choose, and to make things even more interesting, the author literally switches between “he” and “divine third person” in the same sentence for the same character. If I figure out there’s some sort of system behind it later I’ll go back and edit. Anyway, these are beings that transcend human existence and can reproduce by fission, everything’s an approximation, and hopefully you can enjoy the story regardless.

gege – 哥哥 – gēgē – older brother

summon all his courage – 硬着头皮 – harden his scalp – brace oneself to do sth; braving all rebuffs; put a bold face on it

the jar was broken… – 破罐子破摔 – An idiom which means that when something has gone wrong, to let it go without correcting it or deliberately allow things to worsen. For example, if you get a bad grade in English and stop studying because of it.

Transliterated names, titles, and places—new in this chapter:

Aforgomon – 亚弗戈蒙 – Yàfúgēméng

Shub-Niggurath – 莎布·尼古拉斯 – Shābù Nígǔlāsī, an Outer God