Eldritch Horror Theatre

"Not simple at all!"

Fu Qian sighed deeply, his mind growing even clearer in the darkness.

Ever since he appeared in this world, the information he had gathered had been remarkably consistent. The situation seemed very clear—

The many citizens under the protection of The Order, using a painting as a medium, had been swept into a shared dream during an unprecedented wave of Nightmares. After experiencing a long passage of time within it, they woke up.

Unlike other Nightmares, this cold dream didn't continue to torture them. It completely dissipated the moment the last person woke up.

The victims each started beautiful lives, unwilling to ever bring up that experience again.

This was a completely different story from what he had heard before—of the world collapsing and people taking refuge in the Painting World.

It was also a story that made his rescue mission seem hopeless: the Painting World was just a Nightmare, and one that had ended long ago.

But now, the existence of this Pocket Watch added a discordant note to the narrative.

If its essence was just an item from the Real World, it was hard to imagine how it could be affected by the Nightmare just like Resen and the others.

A damaged Pocket Watch entered the Nightmare, realized it was actually a lady... returned after a long time, achieved complete enlightenment, and reverted to its original form, leaving only a few fragmented words to record this legendary journey?

Wasn't that a bit too much like a myth of an inanimate object attaining enlightenment?

In contrast, it made much more sense if the world was chaotic and beyond saving, causing the Countess to flee to the Painting World for refuge. Helpless in the face of sudden changes, she anchored her soul to the Pocket Watch as her consciousness faded. After spending seven years there, the Painting World suddenly lost its magic, and she arrived at a new place along with the others.

Not only did the others have perfectly logical memories of the Nightmare, but so did she. Because of her special state, however, hers manifested as text.

That made much more sense.

The reason Reginald and the others couldn't figure it out was because, limited by their mindset, they would absolutely never look at a Pocket Watch and see a person.

...

In short, the Pocket Watch and the words on it caused the authenticity of this Star Law World to plummet.

The state of The Rayson Couple and the others could easily be interpreted as falling from reality into a Nightmare.

And to make itself realistic, this Nightmare perfectly bestowed logical experiences upon everyone.

Unfortunately, the Countess's half-dead state made the process seem a little too deliberate—even a Pocket Watch had awakened.

And this discordant detail, thanks to his repeated efforts, had finally been delivered right to his doorstep.

But that brought up a question: how was he supposed to return to "reality"?

The exaggerated effects of the Star Law and the complete lack of news from the Pope both proved that the power supporting this Nightmare from the shadows was not simple.

That painting had also completely lost its Transcendent properties.

Directly unleash his ultimate move and try shattering the void?

Judging from the fact that the dream couldn't exceed one minute, the commandment's degree of control over this "Nightmare" was quite high. It might not be any weaker than the Blazing Rainbow's control over the Sacred Night Capital back then. The probability of violently brute-forcing his way out was likely very low.

Should he, like the Baroness Pocket Watch, carefully explore the loopholes of this world and look for an opportunity?

That was the proper path, but it was too slow. He was here to mount a rescue, not offer condolences.

Destroy the order of the Nightmare, forcing it to produce more loopholes under intense pressure?

This was actually a viable line of thought.

From the current looks of it, the Celestial Sphere Cult was the absolute maintainer of order in this city.

Without them, he believed everything would be a completely different scene...

His train of thought rapidly cleared up. He smoothly finished packing away the Pocket Watch, snapped it shut, and skillfully spun it around in his palm.

Of course, this didn't mean he was going to chase after those two right now, finish them off, and wipe out the Celestial Sphere Cult along the way.

Squeezing value was a technical job. Beating them to death and throwing them in a juicer was the laziest possible approach.

As long as they were guided properly, the destructiveness this group could cause to the order would be far greater than if they just died and were done with it.

Besides, regardless of whether it was real or not, Fu Qian quite appreciated the behavioral style of this group from The Order.

If possible, he didn't mind guiding them to truly expel the Nightmare and liberate the people.

Of course, all of this was predicated on maximizing efficiency.

For example, right now.

Putting the Pocket Watch away, Fu Qian stood up. Instead of going to rest, he walked over to the door and reached out to open it.

...

"Anke... you're not asleep yet?"

The silver-haired Mrs. Harper didn't even have time to change her eavesdropping posture, blurting out the words subconsciously.

"I'm not sleepy. Did you need something?"

Fu Qian sized up his landlady with a smile, seeming completely oblivious to her eavesdropping.

Caught red-handed, even someone as shrewd as Mrs. Harper looked visibly unnatural for a moment. Under his scrutiny, her expression shifted several times as she rapidly thought up an excuse.

"When I was sorting through the mail tonight, I found an envelope with your name on it..."

She certainly didn't disappoint his expectations. Mrs. Harper spoke up again in less than five seconds.

"I was originally planning to give it to you tomorrow, but after I woke up just now, I suddenly thought about what you've been through these past two days. I was worried it might be something important, so I came up to check if you were asleep."

Her speaking speed became visibly more composed; it was obvious she had already straightened out her train of thought.

"If you still have the energy to read it, the letter is downstairs."

There was such a thing?

Although coming upstairs to deliver a letter and saying the letter was still downstairs was somewhat contradictory, Mrs. Harper's quick thinking was still commendable.

Most importantly, the Old Lady had brought him an unexpected piece of information.

It seemed his sigh just now hadn't been in vain.

That was right. Just as he had said before, squeezing value was a technical job.

He had intentionally muttered to himself just now precisely to provoke Mrs. Harper—who had long since noticed his return—into coming over for an inquiry out of sheer curiosity.

Now, the value had been squeezed out. The letter, which originally wouldn't have been delivered to his hands until tomorrow morning, had arrived at least six hours early.

"Sounds good. Thank you so much."

Fu Qian thanked her with a smile and actually followed her all the way downstairs.

...

"It only has your name on it. I'm not sure how it appeared in the mailbox."

Mrs. Harper had completely calmed down, even subtly observing Fu Qian's reaction.

Naturally, she couldn't observe anything at all.

Fu Qian took the thin envelope, still smiling and thanking her.

Although the Old Lady was highly curious and even harbored some conspiracy-theory-like suspicions about him, she clearly still had her own principles. The red wax sealing the envelope showed no signs of tampering.

Of course, that didn't mean the seal was neat. In fact, it didn't even have a stamp pressed into it; it was just a blob smeared right there.

The sender seemed to be intentionally hiding their identity, or—

After thanking the Old Lady again, Fu Qian returned to his room, opened the envelope, and pulled out a thin piece of paper.

[Warning: Containment Breach]

[Today's work content has been updated. You may choose whether to enter the Containment Scenario and complete the Containment again.]

[Abandoning the task will incur no penalty. Each entry will consume 1 SAN Value.]

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