Eldritch Horror Theatre

True professionalism meant making people believe what you were doing, rather than actually doing it.

Rick Weasley—the wealthy former luminary of the medical world—was missing.

As for Grimshaw—the man with mysterious motives currently playing the psychic—he had appeared at both Weasley's home and his former hospital after his initial scheme was exposed.

He was investigating and searching for something with the momentum of a thunderbolt.

This mysterious figure didn't just employ bizarre methods; he was also suspected to be a Demigod.

Furthermore, he didn't seem to care in the slightest about clashing with the Night Watchers.

His goals were clear, his will was resolute, and he treated every obstacle in his path equally.

Having a figure like this roaming around Loss was undoubtedly extremely dangerous.

As the official guardians of the city, the Night Watchers had an obvious choice in front of them if they wanted to restrict this unstable element as much as possible: they had to use the only target he was currently interested in.

They needed to find Rick Weasley as quickly as possible, restrict his movements, and verify their information.

That included finding out whether he possessed any Transcendent power, why he had fled, and exactly what kind of grudge existed between him and Grimshaw, allowing them to maximize their control over the situation.

This time, Fu Qian had even sent the Old Lady over to assist in their investigation.

He was confident he would be hearing good news from the Night Watchers very soon.

Pondering this, Fu Qian walked forward and sat right where the Old Lady had just been sitting.

Without rummaging through the cabinets, he simply picked up the documents scattered across the desk.

...

She had certainly been working hard.

A quick glance revealed they were professional materials, with handwritten annotations visible in more than one place.

The Old Lady's claim that she had been so engrossed that she walked into the wrong room actually held some credibility.

Furthermore, his senses revealed absolutely no traces of Transcendent activity inside the room.

But this brought up a question of timing.

Aside from the Old Lady, Fu Qian was also inclined to believe everything Rick's young wife, Claire, had mentioned earlier.

For instance, that special room her husband used for his feasts had already existed over three years ago, right when they were newly married.

The fact that his former colleagues like the Old Lady had also been corrupted was further proof.

But the degree of corruption seemed lacking.

Judging by the infectiousness of the corruption inferred from indirect contact, even if Mr. Rick was the sole source, such a long period was more than enough to poison a considerable area.

However, the situation he had encountered was nowhere near that severe.

The only explanations he could think of were either that Mr. Rick had completely isolated himself after his retirement, secluding himself without poisoning the masses—

—or his high infectivity was a recent mutation, and the previous spread of corruption hadn't been nearly as easy.

Fu Qian clearly leaned toward the latter possibility, which was exactly why he was here now.

Something had caused Mr. Rick's hobby to spiral out of control—something like the source of the sin plague.

Mr. Rick might be a key figure, but he wasn't his mission objective.

This was actually a thought Fu Qian had very early on.

It stemmed from how any form of contact with Rick seemed to result in corruption.

Yet, under those circumstances, he still needed to kill him—an overly obvious paradox.

The sharp claws and giant maw from just now seemed to corroborate this once again.

Using the dreamscape as a channel, the power that seeped out through the Old Lady seemed to originate from some special creation dormant within it.

If it was the source of the sin plague—his target for this trip—everything seemed to make a lot more sense.

Of course, it also made things a lot more troublesome.

How to eliminate a target that seemingly lacked a true physical form, and could even roam about using the concept of dreams, was undoubtedly a topic worth studying.

Kill all the infected?

It was certainly an obvious attempt to make.

...

When Fu Qian left, Mr. Rick's office remained almost exactly as it had been.

On one hand, the dedicated Night Watchers wouldn't leave him with the time to leisurely rummage through everything.

On the other hand, as a magnanimous professional, Fu Qian preferred using such a scene to leave the Night Watchers plenty of room to let their imaginations run wild.

Compared to a complete mess, such a scene undoubtedly made it look more like he had already found what he wanted.

...

At noon, the scorching sun beat down.

Inside the Wesley Family Mansion, although the master of the house had yet to return, the previous chaos had gradually subsided.

"Winona, can you please tell me what is going on? Don't worry about me, I can handle it."

Of course, the chaos in a person's heart was not so easily quelled.

Looking at her overly dutiful friend, who had been following her around almost like a personal bodyguard, Claire finally couldn't help but ask.

It wasn't that Winona hadn't left her side at all; every time she needed to coordinate with the Night Watchers internally, she would excuse herself and deliberately change locations.

The resulting change was that every time she opened the door and returned, her expression looked a bit grimmer.

By this last time, she couldn't even maintain a perfunctory smile.

Although she knew her friend just didn't want her to worry too much, Claire still couldn't help but ask.

"Have you found Rick?"

"...The situation is still under control."

Gazing at her determined friend, Winona hesitated briefly before finally giving a somewhat vague nod.

"But you had better prepare yourself mentally. Judging by the current signs, there is definitely something wrong with his situation."

"Is it because... of the things he eats?"

Over this past period, Claire had clearly followed Master Grimshaw's instructions, sharing his previous observations and analysis of that wall of boxes with Winona.

Yet even so, when bringing up the word "eat", Claire still found it hard to suppress the urge to vomit.

"That's only one aspect. There is something even more unusual... People who had contact with him previously are already exhibiting Transcendent signs."

However, despite her brave front, Winona still shook her head.

"Your husband is very likely not just dealing with a simple dietary fetish and delusions."

Transcendent signs...

Even after thoroughly bracing herself, this answer still set Claire's heart pounding, and she immediately reached up to touch her face.

Her earlier intoxication had long since faded. Her skin felt a little cold to the touch, but fortunately, it remained soft and smooth.

The moment the word "Transcendent" reached her ears, her first reaction was the image of her husband licking her all over.

Fortunately, for the time being at least, she didn't seem to have turned into some non-human monster.

"So Rick is actually... very dangerous right now?"

Having confirmed this, Claire hesitated for a moment and asked an equally ambiguous question.

It sounded as much like asking about her husband's predicament as it did about the threat he posed.

"All I can say is... there are things much more dangerous than him, such as—"

"Such as the person he's trying to hide from."

Winona had only gotten halfway through her sentence when a sudden voice chimed in from the side.

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