Eldritch Horror Theatre

'I have lived my entire life without a single regret!'

Though it was still early in the day, Fu Qian stepped out of the school gates with the dramatic flair of a man whose shadow was being stretched to infinity by the setting sun.

The gears of fate had finally begun to turn on this seemingly ordinary day.

In a mere instant, you would find you could never return to your former self, not even to your own name—wait a minute, what was his name right now?

His footsteps, which had practically been accompanied by their own background music, came to an abrupt halt. Fu Qian frowned slightly, realizing an important problem.

The slip of paper didn't say who it was for. He didn't seem to have any business cards on him, and the mission description hadn't mentioned a name at all.

Even today, the Warehouse's diligence hadn't improved in the slightest.

But that didn't matter. Becoming a Hunter for a Deity meant severing all ties to the past anyway.

With a cold scoff, Fu Qian looked down at his hand.

After briefly trying to get his bearings, he realized he had absolutely no idea where this address was.

"Hello there."

But how could such a minor setback possibly halt his grand expedition to the sea of stars?

Fu Qian exited his Heaven's Great Responsibility Mode in a split second to greet a kind old lady.

...

Wasn't this a bit far?

Had it been anyone with less willpower, their hot blood would have cooled halfway through the ride, and they would have given up on being a Savior just to go home and watch anime.

Sitting in his rather uncomfortable seat, Fu Qian stared out the window in silence, calculating the remaining distance.

The old lady had been incredibly enthusiastic. After hearing the address and puzzling over it to no avail, she had even gone out of her way to ask a younger woman for directions.

The slightly abnormal twist was that the female student, who looked only a few years older than him, had shot him a rather bizarre look—but she actually knew the place.

Was it tied to some urban legend?

Taking in the dense sprawl of buildings outside his window, Fu Qian felt he finally understood the meaning behind her gaze.

It clearly wasn't the gaze of someone looking up to a hero; it was pure pity for a severe case of chuunibyou.

In a thoroughly modern metropolis like this one, it really was hard to imagine what legitimate door such a retro key could possibly open.

It really did have the flair of an urban legend...

A little while later, the chosen one—having encountered zero obstacles on his journey—stepped off the bus and followed the directions to his destination, only to fall into deep thought as he stared at the bizarrely styled building before him.

Narrow windows, high walls, peculiar stone reliefs, and a color scheme so bleak it felt instantly oppressive to look at.

Just across the street stood modern skyscrapers. This desolate building looked entirely out of place in its surroundings—yet it matched the Key in his hand perfectly.

At the same time, it was easy to tell that despite its retro aesthetic, this wasn't an actual historical building. It looked more like a theme park abandoned right after construction.

Of course, none of that mattered. Fate's summons could take many forms, and it certainly wouldn't be constrained by location.

The only problem was that the place was massive. Where exactly was he supposed to find the lock that matched this Key to enter the Workshop?

...

A gloomy, abandoned building like this was exactly the sort of place that bred urban legends, so it made perfect sense that it was well-known among local thrill-seeking youths.

Under these circumstances, receiving a retro key and directions to this exact spot felt overwhelmingly like an elaborate prank.

But that was only true for ordinary mortals. For someone who had long since resolved to become the Lord of the Rings, this was nothing but a flimsy illusion.

The main doors were locked tight. In the fading evening light, Fu Qian did a quick sweep of the area before hopping over a warning sign and heading up a narrow exterior staircase.

He soon found a half-open window on the side of the building.

Judging by the marks, this was clearly a well-used entry point to the building.

And so Fu Qian, having refrained from using his Blood Crusade to phase his way inside, followed local custom and slipped sideways through the window into the darkness.

The window opened into a small hall with three doors.

Like most abandoned structures, the interior was incredibly empty. Only a few items too inconvenient to move had been left behind to rot and mildew—such as the doors, which looked perfectly suited for the Key in his hand.

However, as previously noted, this building had a complex structure and multiple floors.

It was also incredibly easy for Fu Qian to confirm that there wasn't a single other person nearby.

In this absence of markers, finding the way into the Workshop seemed to require a tedious process of trial and error.

But that was only how it seemed.

As the chosen one, how could he possibly be the same as young thrill-seeking explorers?

Fu Qian took a couple of steps forward, running his fingers across the patterned wall.

...

High-end design was often found in the details—such as these somewhat unrefined patterns.

But upon closer inspection, one would realize that none of the patterns on any of the walls, or even between them, had a single exact repeat.

Even the doors, without exception, featured faint patterns that corresponded to them.

Of course, this all fell under the scope of design. A normal person would simply give the designer a thumbs-up.

But the real point of interest was... Fu Qian blinked, tracing his finger along the slightly dizzying lines to outline a specific pattern.

And then another...

In mere moments, the originally chaotic patterns were deconstructed into various stylistically distinct combinations.

And more importantly than their clashing aesthetics, they actually looked slightly familiar, as if he had seen them somewhere before.

'This place really isn't simple at all. The world truly is calling to me.'

More certain than ever that this was no prank and that the legendary power to hunt deities truly awaited him, Fu Qian scoffed coldly. He pulled out the Key and matched the patterns he had just isolated to the engravings on its tail end.

There was absolutely no connection.

Fu Qian had his result soon enough.

'Saving the world really isn't that easy,' he thought. 'No wonder they say there are trials.'

Neither dwelling on it nor feeling discouraged, the ever-confident Fu Qian directly pocketed the Key, tried pushing open one of the doors, and stepped through to the other side.

As expected, the slightly narrow corridor beyond the door was covered in similar chaotic patterns, though at a glance, they were entirely different from the ones in the previous room.

Of course, normally speaking, considering the corridor didn't have a single window, an ordinary high schooler shouldn't have been able to see a single thing at a glance.

Click!

A beam of light flared from Fu Qian's hand, as the power of technology instantly banished the shadows.

After confirming the long distance with the old lady and the student, and facing the possibility of night work, he had made preparations along the way that perfectly fit his current persona.

As it turned out, fortune truly favored the prepared.

Making his way down the corridor, Fu Qian finally found a pattern in a certain spot—one that hadn't been in the previous room, and one that looked even more familiar.

It was a pattern he had seen before, back when he explored the Underground Ruins alongside that group of Saints.

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