Eldritch Horror Theatre

That was more like it.

The footsteps were just as hurried, and judging by the sound, they were heading upstairs.

Fu Qian was quite satisfied with this sudden change.

Given the unclear situation, he had incorporated as much diversity as possible into that brief, less-than-half-minute attempt to strike the grass to startle the snake—

Ordinary footsteps, running for one's life, fear, a monstrous silhouette, a chase, shredded clothes, erratic movements...

It was all about an omnidirectional bombardment.

The results looked ideal. A fish had actually been blasted to the surface.

It even seemed to be a fish with the physique of an ordinary person. The footfalls were heavier and louder than his own, betraying a fair amount of panic.

Even the direction they chose made it seem as if they had been startled by him.

Fu Qian remained seated, continuing to wait in silence.

It truly was a lively place. Just a moment later, a new set of footsteps rang out.

Although these were also heading up from below, they weren't quite as hurried or loud, and they were clearly coming from a lower floor than his current position.

So, were there already two humans in this dark game?

For a moment, Fu Qian felt as if the transcendent elements had been nerfed while the sheer insanity index steadily climbed.

Once the second set of footsteps passed his floor, he finally stood up, opened the door, and plunged into the darkness.

Even though Eva was just downstairs, it was highly unlikely to be her.

No matter how unbearable her curiosity might be, if she chose neither to flee nor to stay in the storage room, instead wanting to come up and see what was happening, she wouldn't have gone out of her way to put her shoes back on.

However, that frantic chase really did sound like it had raced all the way up to the top floor she had just come down from.

Listening silently, Fu Qian slipped his own shoes back on and adjusted his attire in the dark. A moment later, he resumed his journey with calm, unhurried steps, arriving at the stairwell once again.

He had already applied one driving force to this dark game under the theme of "chaos and fear in the dark," and the response had been quite positive.

Now came the second: "Mister Wolf's Visit."

An external high school student known for being "calm and wise" was quietly walking into a place that seemed to harbor numerous secrets.

How would the people—or ghosts—in the dark react?

...

The danger index was soaring.

He didn't deliberately control his force, so while the sound wasn't piercing, every footfall still raised an echo.

With every step up the stairs, it felt as though another spotlight had swung over to focus on him.

In light of this, Fu Qian deliberately adopted a runway-like poise, maintaining the frequency of his footsteps without the slightest intention of stopping.

The ceiling height of this building was rather unusual, but a moment later, the fourth floor was right in front of him.

"It seems someone heard the commotion and came all the way up to the top floor to check."

By now, this message had been somewhat broadcast, though it was still hard to determine what kind of reaction it had provoked.

During his walk up, he had heard the sounds of the chase rapidly vanish one after the other, right around this very floor.

Even so, Fu Qian still had no intention of speeding up to give chase.

He needed to keep his thoughts clear. The purpose of this action was to introduce a normal person with unfathomable motives into this bizarre situation.

Changing tactics on the fly when the situation was still murky would only scramble his own thoughts.

As for what to do now?

Taking the final step, Fu Qian recalled the terrifying scene Eva had mentioned earlier—blood seeping out of a bathroom stall?

Without breaking his stride, he soon stood in a long corridor. As he walked, he used the moonlight to confirm the floor's layout and the location of the elevator they had taken earlier.

...

This was the place.

Comparatively speaking, the top floor's layout was noticeably simpler.

Relying on his understanding and deduction of the structure, Fu Qian found his way to a specific door without having to double back even once.

Although there was no sign, the spacious layout and massive mirror visible through the window explained everything.

It wasn't even far from the elevator.

He could easily imagine Eva practicing inside.

Generally speaking, a place like this would have a restroom or even a changing room nearby.

Without a hint of hesitation in his steps, Fu Qian passed another room before smoothly pushing open a door to the side.

Hmm... That was the one.

Although the visibility in this confined corner left much to be desired, the achievement of breaking into a women's restroom at night was successfully unlocked.

Considering the distance, there was a very high probability that this was the place Eva had talked about. The next step was to find that legendary stall—found it.

Without the lights on, the bloodstains weren't particularly obvious, but pairing them with the footprints made things much easier.

A quick glance at the slightly damp floor revealed the bloody imprint of half a shoe sole. The prints went from light to dark, trailing all the way to one of the open stalls.

Of course, they led backwards; the footprints were actually pointing outward.

Given that the shoe size hardly looked like a woman's, it probably wasn't the bleeding victim who had stood up and walked out—and indeed, it wasn't.

While pondering this, Fu Qian arrived at the stall and saw a figure slumped there, perfectly motionless.

She was wearing a stretchy, form-fitting bodysuit designed for mobility, outlining her exquisite curves at a glance.

However, that outfit was currently soaked with large patches of blood, which flowed all the way from her chest down to her feet.

That wasn't the only wound. Beneath her long hair, her face was a crisscrossed mess of lacerations, her features practically slashed to pieces.

...

The murder weapon had been extremely sharp.

Since the lighting was dim and he didn't want to turn on the lights, Fu Qian practically had to press his mortal eyeballs right up against her to confirm further details.

It definitely wasn't shards of glass or anything similar. The cuts were deep and smooth, clearly carved out by a proper blade, and likely from the same weapon that had inflicted the chest wound.

But beyond that, there was one most important point: despite the relatively rich network of blood vessels in the face, surprisingly little blood had flowed out from such devastation. No matter how he looked at it, she had been slashed a while after she died.

That made the situation truly bizarre.

Murdering someone and then purposely waiting a while before slashing their face?

To cut it up to this extent—one could practically feel the infinite resentment within it—how could the killer still possess such patience?

Furthermore, it was hard to imagine who would have such a deep-seated grudge against such an approachable female classmate.

Indeed, despite her face being mutilated beyond recognition, Fu Qian was fairly certain of the victim's probable identity based on her hair and nail polish—Salma.

The drink attendant at the party, who had brewed him a rather nice cup of coffee.

To think that in the blink of an eye, she would be murdered in such a tragic manner.

Even the killer's identity and motives seemed heavily shrouded in mystery.

Ah—

Just as Fu Qian backed out of the stall and turned to look at the moon out the window, another bloodcurdling scream suddenly shattered the silence, followed by the heavy thud of something crashing to the ground.

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