Eldritch Horror Theatre

‘Prevent unauthorized intruders from breaking in?’

To Fu Qian, this phrasing seemed perfectly in line with a guard's duties, but it actually carried a massive amount of information.

"Something is infiltrating through this method? Similar to the corruption you need to purge?"

He didn't hide his thoughts, directing the question to Amira beside him.

As someone who had just revealed his true face, showing a stark contrast to his previous behavior would actually make him less suspicious.

"You're smarter than I thought. I suppose that explains your prior acting to an extent."

Although her mask hid her face, her tone betrayed a hint of surprise. Still, she didn't deny Fu Qian's guess.

"That's right. Given the current situation, we really can't rule out such a risk."

"But you don't need to worry. Excellency Reginald and I are more than capable of ensuring your safety in here."

Fu Qian replied casually, his gaze drawn by a noise not far away.

Metal hinges whined as the third door on the left ahead of them opened. A woman in a dark uniform, looking like a nurse, stepped out.

Pushing an intricate medicine cart, she turned directly toward the three of them.

"You'll know when you need to know."

Amira clearly wasn't always accommodating, naturally refusing to answer.

She lowered her voice as she spoke, but she didn't motion for Fu Qian to step aside.

Sure enough, with crisp footsteps, the nurse swiftly approached the three night-shift guards and walked right past, completely ignoring them.

"The mask allows our presence to be ignored to a certain extent."

Only then did Amira softly explain.

"Only to a certain extent, of course, so try your best to stay out of the way."

"Understood."

Fu Qian nodded, his mind recalling what he had just seen.

In the metal tray atop the cart sat bloodstained gauze and several distinctively shaped metal tubes radiating a scorching heat.

Combined with what Amira had mentioned earlier, it seemed the Nightmare victim yearning for peaceful sleep was suffering from no simple torment.

"The scope of this Nightmare is incredibly small, encompassing almost nothing but this hospital area. In comparison, very few people are troubled by it."

Amira started walking as she spoke, motioning for Fu Qian to follow.

"So that nurse just now wasn't one of them?"

"No. Though, in this Nightmare, she is a stable presence."

‘A Nightmare Native?’ Fu Qian mused. Honestly, she looked quite normal.

He finally understood why cases like his, where the victim couldn't distinguish between dream and reality, were relatively rare.

No normal world would consist solely of a single hospital.

If most Nightmares were like this, one could easily tell the difference upon waking up.

"Shouldn't we go in and take a look?"

As he pondered, the three of them reached the room the nurse had just exited.

The door was merely ajar, not locked. Seeing that Amira and Reginald had absolutely no intention of stopping, Fu Qian asked casually.

Considering it was relatively abstract corruption and evil, the fact that the nurse had just left the room clearly didn't make it an immediate write-off.

...

"You want to take a look? Go ahead."

To his surprise, it was Reginald who spoke. The cleric was remarkably agreeable, stopping in his tracks and gesturing for Fu Qian to push the door open.

The patient inside clearly hadn't fallen asleep; standing right there, the hoarse groans were loud enough for even an ordinary person to hear.

The hinges whined again as Fu Qian readily accepted the professional's advice.

The room's furnishings were quite sparse, with just three beds separated by heavy cloth curtains. The single window was barely larger than the one on the door.

The nurse had turned off the lights on her way out. Only faint starlight filtered in now, making visibility even worse than out in the corridor.

Yet, amidst this gloom, Fu Qian acted extremely professional. He strode forward and stood before the middle bed—the only one currently occupied.

This obviously wasn't the victim who had brought them into the Nightmare, because even with his body heavily bandaged, the patient's gray hair and withered face marked him as an old man well past fifty.

Though he wasn't asleep right now, he was clearly in a delirious state. His agonized groans carried a faint trace of relief.

Fu Qian noted the placement of the bandages, which were concentrated on the wrists and various venous plexuses.

Those tools on the cart really had been for bloodletting.

Fu Qian had some understanding of this classical medical treatment.

Right now, within this Nightmare, his perception was clearly somewhat suppressed. Even so, the equipment on the nurse's cart had already allowed him to guess the situation in this room.

In fact, the other two beds were also stained with heavily set blood that would be nearly impossible to wash out.

The frequency of this treatment seemed to be rather high.

"Is the person who sent us in here suffering from this same torment?"

Fu Qian glanced back, earnestly keeping his voice low so as not to disturb the patient.

"In fact, the vast majority of patients in this entire hospital are suffering from this torment."

Amira seemed entirely immune to the grim sight, her tone completely flat as she answered.

"It's called boiling blood disease. A single drop of the patient's blood will suddenly turn boiling hot, just like a bead of molten metal. It circulates with the rest of their blood, causing immense agony."

"As time goes on, they will even continue to multiply."

"And the only way to treat it is to find a way to drain it out."

"I see. So, this is a manifestation of the corruption?"

Fu Qian nodded slightly.

"No, it's a manifestation that the corruption might exist."

Reginald corrected the phrasing from the side.

"This is merely the most basic symptom. A final judgment still requires deeper and more careful screening."

"That makes sense."

Fu Qian really did lean in for another look.

The man was a bit haggard, but at least he hadn't grown anything strange.

Of course, that wasn't why Reginald and Amira hadn't even bothered to look.

"He's the same as that nurse?" he asked directly the next moment.

"Yes."

Amira glanced at Reginald. Seeing that he didn't answer, she confirmed it in his stead.

Just as he thought. Their logic was still quite clear.

The unauthorized intruder they had mentioned earlier was definitely tied to this strange boiling blood disease.

The key was that the definition of intruding probably didn't refer to entering the Nightmare, but rather entering the Real World where The Order operated.

In other words, their objective was to prevent the corruption from descending into reality through this conduit.

They probably had a specific method of determining whether a character in the Nightmare was a patient from the Real World, or a Native like that nurse.

Thus, even if the old man on the bed transformed right then and there, it wouldn't fall within the scope of their work.

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