Eldritch Horror Theatre

"You knew it was faking?"

To keep the fallen team member from tearing himself to pieces, Lane kept a wary eye on the fishmen and finally found a chance to have the man's limbs pinned down.

The man was clearly beyond saving, but they at least had to keep morale from taking any further damage.

Yet Fu Qian's response regarding the fishman struck Lane with another wave of shock, forcing him to speak up again.

"Of course. I've always had perfect control over my strength."

Fu Qian looked as if this were the most natural thing in the world.

"I might have kicked up a huge splash just now, but this one only suffered a mild concussion. With skin that thick, losing all ability to resist after a single hit would be a bit of an exaggeration."

"Yet you still tossed her onto the deck. My man didn't have to die..."

Lane's voice was laced with anger.

Fu Qian shot him an utterly unapologetic glance.

...

Lane was instantly left speechless.

The fishman's sneak attack had been far too sudden, the angle incredibly tricky. Even if his man had been paying full attention, there was no guarantee he could have dodged it.

But by saying that, Fu Qian was emphasizing something else entirely—the fully armed team member had kept his focus locked squarely on Fu Qian, which was why the attack had caught him completely off guard.

The problem was, it was true.

As one of the crewmates who had worked with Lane the longest, the man currently thrashing on the deck really had been standing behind Fu Qian, keeping a close eye on him at Lane's own signal...

"As for tossing a dangerous captive onto the ship, all I can say is that while the capable often do more work, you're all adults. You should know how to handle your own business."

As Lane struggled to find a response, Fu Qian stopped paying attention to him, turning his focus back to the wary fishman.

He got the feeling she had understood what he meant, but unfortunately, she didn't look very cooperative.

"How did you all get here so fast?"

But Fu Qian was never one to be easily discouraged. He continued his questioning.

...

"How long have you been trapped in here?"

...

She really could understand him.

Seeing that she remained completely silent but wore a faint trace of mockery on her face, Fu Qian came to a conclusion.

"How do we get out of here?"

At that moment, Lane finally couldn't hold back anymore and cut in with a question of his own.

Too bad the fishman only glanced at him, her mocking smile deepening.

Yet given her overly gorgeous face, Lane fell silent, surprisingly not looking all that angry.

It really was a world that ran on looks!

Fu Qian sighed inwardly. I certainly didn't see you guys holding back when you were slaughtering the other fishmen.

Surrounded by powerful enemies, the fishman had fully recovered her wits and looked completely fearless.

A moment later, accompanied by a sharp shriek, she even struck a highly provocative pose directed right at Fu Qian.

Paired with that face of hers, she truly gave off the vibe of a deranged beauty.

And that shriek successfully riled up the emotions of her kin out in the water.

The fishmen, who had initially been somewhat intimidated, began to screech in response, growing restless once more.

She truly had the bearing of a general. Even completely surrounded, and even after her sneak attack had been seen through, she showed no sign of embarrassment.

Amid his silent praise, Fu Qian reached out and grabbed her hard skull.

He had to admit, these hair-like tentacles actually had a rather unique feel to them.

With a crisp crunch, the fishman's madness froze on the lower half of her face.

...

There really is a mutation.

Bringing a shard of bone to his nose for a sniff, Fu Qian kept his eyes fixed on the mangled brain inside the cranial cavity.

The overlapping folds of brain matter were actually squirming like snakes.

It wasn't just a physical deformity on the outside; the internal state of this thing was highly abnormal, too.

Fu Qian sighed to himself.

To some extent, this once again confirmed Li Min's claim. The mutations inside the Shattered Crown seemed to be widespread.

Unfortunately, what he was looking for was never just a mutation, but an abnormal mutation.

"You killed her?"

Seeing the exquisite face of the fishman—who had just been the picture of unbridled madness—crushed directly into lifelessness...

The anger in Lane's heart seemed snuffed out by that single grip, replaced by an uncontrollable surge of fear.

He hadn't thought this guy would care about such a simple provocation. Yet one second he was patiently asking questions, and the next he was casually tearing her apart.

This guy was far crazier than this pack of fishmen.

"I don't understand you. There were plenty of other methods we could have tried to make her talk. Why go through all that effort to catch her?"

"Intimidation. Didn't I say that before I jumped down?"

Yet faced with Lane's confusion, Fu Qian looked even more baffled than he did.

...

For a moment, not only Lane fell silent, but even Rachel beside him looked as if she wanted to speak but held back.

Like Lane, she remembered clearly that this guy had indeed said exactly that before jumping in.

However, the live capture and the subsequent questioning had made them overlook that point, naturally leading them to assume he had simply brought back a subject for interrogation.

"A person's value is multifaceted. It doesn't necessarily lie in providing information."

"Considering the viewing angle, I felt that executing her up here would offer much better visual impact."

Fu Qian wiped the mess from his hands and continued explaining.

Visual impact... well, that's certainly true... What you just did was far more brutal than simply snapping her neck down in the water.

Rachel dragged her gaze away from the still-twitching corpse and looked toward the fishmen giving chase behind them.

The momentum that had just been roused by the dead fishman was completely snuffed out by that single grab. Right now, most of them were frozen in place, seemingly unable to believe what they had just witnessed.

From the moment he dove into the sea to this execution, every single move this guy made had pushed impact to its absolute limit.

But did you ever consider that if the intimidation failed, it might just backfire?

Rachel didn't even have time to voice her concern before long, mournful cries erupted all around them, instantly merging into a unified howl.

Even with zero talent for music, she could still hear the overflowing fury within the sound.

In her field of vision, every single fishman charged at them in an even more frenzied state.

"Throw this thing overboard."

Tearing his eyes away from the fishman's corpse with great difficulty, Lane once again ordered his men to push the ship to maximum speed, fleeing for their lives.

"Do you have any other suggestions, Mister Fang?"

"None. I just finished a task, so I need to take a break."

Fu Qian naturally stepped back, his mission accomplished, completely unbothered by the fact that his intimidation tactic had backfired.

Of course, that was only how it looked to Lane and the others.

To Fu Qian, his strategy had never changed: apply maximum pressure, and collect any anomalies that arose from it.

As a newly arrived special subject, how could he not give the Shattered Crown a suitably warm greeting?

...

As it turned out, the Shattered Crown's reaction came even faster than expected.

Before they could even charge out of the rainstorm's reach, a melodious, lilting, yet completely different song drifted out from the depths of some unknown direction, echoing across the entire sea.

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