Eldritch Horror Theatre

So the script was five acts in total?

And though the timeline had been scrambled, looking at the big picture, it had stuck closely to the theme.

Walking at an unhurried pace through the vast, dark night, Fu Qian reached out. A single snowflake drifted into his palm.

At that exact moment, the mission completion prompt echoed in his ears.

Before the snowflake even had a chance to melt, the highly peculiar mission came to an end.

Still silently evaluating the experience, Fu Qian materialized inside the familiar Warehouse.

He had to admit, he was growing to appreciate such a clean, decisive wrap-up.

With the professional dedication of a committed cast member, he let the series of events flash through his mind, quickly arranging them into a coherent timeline.

Since the scenario had concluded this way, those final lingering questions could now be explained.

Just as he had suspected, the two assistants had brought him there after the party.

Moving a corpse with such a burly physique was no easy feat.

Mister Wolf's car had broken down again, and he had refused to help them transport it.

Given Butters's usual style, counting on him was highly unlikely.

In fact, the two assistants probably hadn't wanted to rely on him anyway.

Dumping the body by the roadside or contacting his family were clearly not viable options.

All in all, the high-nosed student and Passerby B proved to be incredibly loyal friends.

Not only did they refuse to abandon him, but when faced with a deadlock, they eventually resolved to haul him all the way to the nearby school.

With the weekend just around the corner, the campus actually made for a quiet, deserted location.

They found a spot to stash Joshua, perhaps propped him up as if he were sleeping, and quietly waited for his "resurrection."

To avoid drawing too much attention, they must have managed to change his clothes and then taken turns keeping watch.

Unfortunately, their luck ran out. Just as Passerby B stepped away from his shift for a moment, a certain soon-to-be-dumped boyfriend from another school happened to come looking for Salma.

Wen seemed fully aware of his own predicament. The moment he spotted his romantic rival, murderous intent surged, and he simply grabbed something and bludgeoned the guy with it.

As for why a high schooler would resort to such brutal methods?

The answer was simple: withdrawal.

Wen's volatile temper was one thing, but as Eva had mentioned earlier, she didn't think even their worst arguments should have escalated into such a horrific conflict.

Fu Qian believed this to be true. But one couldn't forget the underlying theme of the Bloodletting High School act: the aftermath of the holiday.

The anomalies, the Dislocation, and the loss of control had all been triggered by the sudden disappearance of the transcendent elements associated with All Fools' Day.

And while Wen appeared completely ordinary, he had a nearly confirmed identity: a captive of the Saliva Succubus.

It might sound pitiful, but it had very likely altered him, making him different from a normal person.

This might even be why, during the Old House exploration, he had bizarrely managed to cut his losses in time and escape unscathed.

The temptation of the Jellyfish Vampire was certainly intoxicating, but the power of the succubus was ultimately stronger, compelling him to throw the Items to Butters at the very last second and sprint away.

From that perspective, Salma had actually saved his life.

In short, once the night of All Fools' Day passed, Eva became radical and deranged because her notebook stopped responding, and Salma lost the charm she used to captivate people.

Under those circumstances, it was entirely possible that Wen's yearning and affection warped into something else. Stripped of its transcendent support, his burning love could easily have slid toward the complete opposite extreme.

When he showed up at the school, his mental state must have already been profoundly twisted, leading to his subsequent killing spree and fatal plunge.

By the same logic, this also explained why Joshua's time of death didn't add up.

It was simple: the unusual vitality in his flesh had vanished alongside All Fools' Day.

Originally, thanks to that transcendent power, his physical state had been completely different from an ordinary person's.

Whether he could truly resurrect was hard to say, but he had certainly looked remarkably lifelike in death.

Then that miraculous property vanished as well, utterly shattering his plans to "rise from the dead."

All things considered, even if it was a bit niche, it certainly made for a lively holiday.

...

[Task Evaluation: Rational Curtain Call]

[Fooling others is a dangerous game.

Even if the process is full of joy, and the victims might even end up helping you in return, not everyone can withstand the sudden disparity when the curtain finally falls.

The victims cannot, and neither can the perpetrators.

Incomplete transcendent powers, which can only exist by attaching themselves to the concept of the holiday, grow clamorous in the winter days.

To ordinary people, they are so dangerous yet enchanting, easily causing them to become helplessly intoxicated.

And this itch within human nature reaches its absolute peak at midnight on All Fools' Day.

Only to fade into absolute silence a single second later.

The hollow void left behind by this sudden disparity is perhaps the true meaning of the holiday.

As a special spectator, you scrutinized everything with a cold eye, tested it all, and ultimately guided it to complete the curtain call in the most rational manner possible.

Aside from a few more holiday urban legends, no extraordinary elements were left behind.

Jealousy, impulse, love, and sex were already enough to explain it all.

Furthermore, there remains the legend of a Scavenger.

It is said that in one's foolish youth, upon making a colossal mistake, simply calling out a name will summon him to your aid, bringing a derailed life back to reality.

Unfortunately, everyone has already forgotten.

Perhaps he will only reappear on a snowy All Fools' Day night.]

[Kills: None]

[Reward: SAN Value +20]

[Special Reward: Blood and Wine and Blood]

[Current SAN Value: 126, Current inspiration: 99]

[Play event recap?]

This evaluation... why did it feel like it was deliberately dodging the main points again?

As he pondered, the task evaluation appeared right on cue, though listening to it made Fu Qian frown.

There weren't any major issues with the contents themselves; they aligned quite well with the deductions he had made along the way.

However, hadn't it completely ignored some core elements—

Why did the mission take the form of this script, even going so far as to scramble the chronological timeline?

Why did a level-3 mission specifically restrict his abilities and Items?

Fu Qian had been hoping to glean at least a few clues about these two questions from the mission summary.

Instead, beyond all the lavish praise, the content was actually devoid of substance, utterly ignoring the most bizarre aspects of the scenario.

And what was with that final line, "Perhaps he will only reappear on a snowy All Fools' Day night"?

Providing false intelligence, disregarding objective difficulties, and writing a summary report so stingily—did they really expect him to do this all over again next holiday?

Weren't they afraid that he would feel unjustly treated and give them an insane curtain call next time?

Theoretically, if one didn't mind sacrificing a few points of SAN Value to replay it a few times and figure out the situation, parsing out such a timeline from the countless possibilities wasn't impossible.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!