Eldritch Horror Theatre

This was no simple arithmetic within ten.

Although Brother Sanxun had a habit of coming and going like a ghost, his sudden appearance didn't surprise Fu Qian.

Going by the time, his cooldown was probably over anyway.

The problem lay in the discrepancy between the other party's True Word Technique: Madness and the actual system prompt Fu Qian had received.

Some invisible variable had clearly been factored into the calculation.

Without a sound, Fu Qian turned to face the damp wall.

Brother Sanxun had told the truth earlier: in this place, he didn't need to rely on mirrors to manifest.

The thick, foul-smelling mud could reflect a faint watery gleam, but it was a chaotic mess compared to a true mirror.

Even so, that didn't stop the familiar face from showing itself.

Heh...

Even now, facing Fu Qian, he didn't follow up his attack. Instead, he faded away with a burst of laughter, playing up the mystery to its absolute limit.

Judging by how hearty that laughter sounded, he had successfully worked through whatever frustration he'd built up during their earlier clash.

"What is it? Have you discovered something?"

Meanwhile, Fu Qian's sudden movement had clearly caught everyone's attention.

Before Sha Ming could speak, Huang Leji immediately asked the question.

"There was someone in there just now."

As always with the teammates sharing his hardships, Fu Qian displayed his characteristic honesty.

Someone?

Plunging deep into the oppressive, sewer-like Road of No Return had already placed the team under immense mental strain. Startled by Fu Qian's answer, they immediately looked toward the wall.

Naturally, they saw nothing.

"I'm afraid I didn't see a thing. What did he do?"

As the person in charge, Huang Leji snapped his gaze back to Fu Qian and stated the facts.

"He attacked me, then laughed quite happily."

Fu Qian remained perfectly candid.

"Heh. Are you sure?"

Huang Leji laughed, the sound grating like sandpaper as he looked Fu Qian up and down.

"It's a shame I don't see any injuries on you—nor do I have any. Isn't that a little too strange?"

...

Indeed.

Huang Leji's expression practically screamed, "You're full of shit," but Fu Qian didn't mind in the slightest. In fact, he silently agreed.

The SAN-draining technique of the Third Follower truly possessed a bizarre purity.

He had already proven that any damage, whether rule-based or direct, could be reflected onto the others through their bond.

Old Man Logan's past experience was also proof enough that when confronting higher-tier powers, even native transcendents could not escape mental and physical distortion.

Yet right now, not only had this group failed to hear a peep from Brother Sanxun, but they also showed absolutely no reaction to the ensuing psychic impact.

This was undoubtedly a very meaningful test result.

Yes, long before Brother Sanxun showed up, Fu Qian had been looking forward to seeing how the group's bond would react to his SAN-draining attack.

As for the first aspect, it made perfect sense that Huang Leji and the others hadn't heard a thing.

Brother Sanxun's voice and image could only be perceived by the one person who had established a special connection with him: Fu Qian himself.

After all, his very form of existence was incredibly abstract.

But the second aspect contained an enormous amount of information.

He had lost 5 points of SAN Value, yet the others showed no reaction. There seemed to be only two possible explanations.

First, the connection Sanxun established with him was simply too unique; just like his words and actions, the attack could only be received by Fu Qian and wouldn't transmit to anyone else.

But for that to be true, a major prerequisite was denying the absolute nature of the "bond" rule.

Meaning it wasn't a supreme law, but rather one with exceptions.

For the sake of getting out of here, this wasn't bad news.

Because if the law wasn't absolute, it meant that anyone with a high enough Rank could likely resist the bizarre phenomena of this place and easily control the situation.

But that wasn't what Fu Qian wanted to see most.

The Law, commandments... naturally, the main priority of this trip to West Plain was to investigate these relatively unique forms of power.

At the same time, some of the elements displayed so far were perfectly suited to test another specific concept: the true nature of SAN Value.

...

By using the "Emissary" to sync himself into this world, Fu Qian carried a few fundamental differences from the native transcendents.

Fu Qian had always known this.

But SAN Value, inspiration... what role did these attributes—which the Warehouse had only ever explained in the briefest terms—actually play? That was a question Fu Qian had never stopped asking.

Aside from acting as a resource during missions, it had long been established that if his SAN Value ever hit zero while walking this world, he would also be reduced to an idiot.

But why?

What kind of power was it that turned him into an idiot the moment it hit zero?

It was a genuinely good question.

And today's unique predicament seemed to offer an opportunity to probe and map out the underlying logic.

Because of that, Fu Qian sincerely hoped the "bond" was indeed an absolute, unbreakable law.

Operating on that assumption, the group's lack of reaction pointed to a very natural conclusion: unlike the loss of rationality or the annihilation of the mind, SAN Value was a purely abstract concept that applied exclusively to administrators.

To a certain degree, it might even exist entirely as a product of their connection to this world.

To put it simply, Huang Leji and the others hadn't reacted because they were natives. They didn't have this attribute at all.

Maintained by some currently unknowable mechanism, the SAN Value that tethered his consciousness to this world functioned as an alternate kind of Health Bar.

The moment it hit zero, it triggered an instant-death effect on his consciousness.

Although this conclusion was only a tiny glimpse of the bigger picture, it was easily his greatest harvest so far.

And that wasn't all.

Brother Sanxun seemed deeply bound to this place, yet he was intimately aware of this SAN Value Health Bar. He even possessed highly specific methods to deplete it.

His earlier suspicion—that the man was a former colleague—was looking more and more like fact.

If that theory held true, then finding out how he had ended up in this state was definitely worth investigating, as it would highly likely help clarify the true nature of the Law.

All in all, the logical chain flowed quite smoothly.

Of course, no matter how brilliant a theory was, it still had to withstand verification.

"SAN Value -1."

Living up to his expectations, even as the rest of the team glared at Fu Qian and before he could reply to Huang Leji, the Third Follower reappeared on a square pillar behind him.

Without a word of nonsense, he launched his attack and immediately vanished.

[SAN Value -5]

Ignoring it, Fu Qian simply watched the group as the pleasant notification chimed in his mind.

Everyone, including Sha Ming, remained completely unfazed. They still didn't seem affected in the slightest.

Very nice.

Securing yet another piece of supporting experimental data, Fu Qian marveled internally before abruptly turning around without warning. He faced another wall, locking eyes with Brother Sanxun, who had just shifted to appear on it.

"SAN Value -1..."

Halfway through his attack, the man seemed to hesitate, but he gritted his teeth and finished casting it anyway.

[SAN Value -1]

And this time, the notification ringing in Fu Qian's ear returned to normal.

Hmph. An evil deity's actions were always about achieving multiple benefits with one move.

He had seemingly pinpointed that invisible variable: attacks launched from behind became significantly more vicious.

Staring at the figure—who hadn't immediately faded away this time—Fu Qian offered him a terrifying smile.

Brother Sanxun's attempts at concealment really couldn't be considered clever.

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