Eldritch Horror Theatre

Going backward, moving against the grain.

As a participant who had once received a SAN Value deduction warning for a passive slowdown, Fu Qian naturally wasn't running away just because the mission environment was overly harsh.

Granted, as mentioned earlier, the heavily story-driven prompt and highly specific setting made the mansion at the end of the road an absolute must-visit.

However, as a man of broad interests, Fu Qian was equally familiar with another crucial element of any adventure story: forming a party.

Exactly. Walking in the opposite direction wasn't an attempt to scour the corners of the map for hidden items; he was doing it because someone was over there.

A woman.

A woman even stronger than he was.

Of course, he only phrased it that way not because she was above Tier 2, but because he had fallen from grace.

In the most literal sense.

He had actually reverted to his exact state right after finishing his digestion of the Thug.

Yes, even though he had started the mission as a Tier 2 with his skills and items fully configured, Fu Qian was absolutely certain that, right now, he wasn't even a Blank-Slate Demigod.

No matter how he looked at it, he was back at the level he had been at when he first entered the Academy and came into contact with sword heart.

What was even stranger was that while his skills and items were indeed usable, their quantity and variety were similarly frozen at that specific point in time. Everything he had acquired afterward was completely gone.

For a moment, it almost made him wonder if the server had lagged and rolled back his save data.

...

Truly worthy of a mission designated Number 1. Each of them brought its own unique twists.

Naturally, he didn't actually believe it was a server rollback. While he couldn't confirm the exact details, it was easy to deduce that this was some sort of special restriction imposed by the current scenario.

In fact, Fu Qian found this bizarre situation somewhat enjoyable.

There were countless geniuses along the path of the Transcendent Tier; shooting up the ranks at light speed was nothing rare.

But the experience of one's Rank dropping in reverse? That had to be exceptionally rare.

Take the person staring at him from over there, for example. Fu Qian was very curious if she was experiencing the same thing.

"Halt."

The next moment, a guarded, frigid voice abruptly brought Fu Qian's unhurried footsteps to a halt.

From this position, he could see her much more clearly. She was the first living creature he had encountered since entering this eerie place.

She wasn't tall. A somewhat baby-faced woman dressed in luxurious formal attire, she was currently revealing half her body from behind a tree trunk.

Although her light-blue, floor-length gown had been slightly hitched up to allow for movement, it still looked completely out of place amid the wet mud and bushes.

Naturally, the woman herself didn't seem to care about that. Right now, a dagger-like, icy glare stabbed steadily toward him from her exquisitely made-up face.

If his guess was correct, she must have spotted him the very second he appeared.

Because by the time he turned back to observe her, she was already in this posture.

The rollback effect was incredibly thorough; it even included his perception.

Right now, as far as he was concerned, her Demigod Might was terrifying to this degree.

Furthermore, he had already reached a conclusion: she hadn't been rolled back like he had.

He was certain of this not because a demigod would still be overly terrifying even after dropping in level, but because Fu Qian recognized that face.

While she was observing him, he had been doing the exact same to her.

And after searching his memory banks for a moment, he had genuinely recalled a name: Aike.

...

During the firefighting operation at the Unseen Hill, she had been a member of the Night Watchers rescue squad—the female demigod who had sneak-attacked him more than once.

Truly, where in life do paths not cross. Running into her in a place like this wasn't actually all that strange; what was strange was the outfit she was wearing.

It was obviously expensive at a glance, and highly impractical for moving around. Had Demigod Aike really come here to attend a banquet?

In contrast, his own getup was far better suited for action.

"Who are you?"

Seeing his cooperative behavior, the demigod's stance finally softened just a fraction as she spoke to confirm his identity.

"Why are you disguised as security personnel?"

...Actually, she hadn't softened at all. That question was clearly a bit sharp and hard to answer.

Fu Qian raised a hand and touched his own face.

He had already noticed it earlier. Not only was he dressed head-to-toe in a well-tailored but understated shirt and uniform, but his face currently belonged to an entirely different person.

Short hair, deep-set eyes, gaunt but fierce—he definitely looked the part of a professional security guard.

The only problem was that it didn't come with the slightest effect to conceal his Transcendent Tier aura, making him wonder if the Warehouse was running out of funding.

Hiding his identity like this was truly pointless if he ran into an expert, as his mismatched Rank would only make him look even more suspicious.

"That is a good question. Unfortunately, I can't answer it because I don't know, just like I don't know why I appeared in this kind of place."

Fortunately, when he resolved to look for a teammate, Fu Qian had already decided to treat people with an appropriate level of honesty.

Hesitating for only a single second, he answered truthfully and immediately followed up with a question of his own.

"What about you, Excellency Aike?"

...

"You know me?"

Answering a question with another question wasn't polite behavior in most situations.

However, Fu Qian's follow-up question seemed to have saved him from disaster.

Demigod Aike was extremely aggressive, likely due to whatever she had recently encountered. The moment Fu Qian showed even the slightest hint of noncompliance, a palpable killing intent instantly boiled over from her.

Naturally, the attack she had been brewing was instantly interrupted by how he addressed her.

"Of course. I once had the honor of gazing upon your heroic bearing."

Fu Qian didn't hesitate to validate her surprise.

"While you might find it hard to believe, I truly have no idea why I am wearing these clothes, nor why I am in a place like this."

Naturally, he couldn't forget to keep expressing his sincerity.

Demigod Aike was clearly on edge right now. If she felt he was trying to change the subject or hide his origins, it would undoubtedly cripple the efficiency of their communication and might even trigger a violent stress response.

If they actually started fighting, it would be far too much of a waste of time.

"You don't know anything... you just suddenly appeared here?"

Facts proved that this conversational strategy was indeed effective.

Even though his explanation for how he knew her was incredibly vague, his even vaguer self-introduction surprisingly didn't enrage the demigod again. Instead, it left Aike briefly lost in thought.

"Yes. Including why I look like this."

Fu Qian nodded while pointing at his face.

The last time he met Demigod Aike, she had been a joke-cracking, approachable higher-up among the Night Watchers.

Yet right now, despite her gorgeous outfit, her aggressiveness had spiked dramatically—just like the standard reaction of many animals when cornered in a perilous situation.

In other words, rather than believing Demigod Aike wore this outfit for a pleasant outing in the woods, Fu Qian leaned toward the idea that, beneath her calm facade, she was just as clueless about their current situation as he was.

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