Eldritch Horror Theatre

One's thinking must never become rigid. Although he was well-acquainted with the tradition of traveling incognito—acting with kindness toward others while choosing to endure humiliation and shoulder heavy burdens, only revealing one's true identity at the very last moment for a dramatic reversal—Fu Qian had no intention of imitating it.

After all, the identity this seat revealed at the end was usually just another fake one anyway.

And just as he had said before, to keep distinct matters separate, Fu Qian truly had no objections to the current project's pricing standards, but the issue of upcoming expenses still needed to be resolved.

When traveling away from home, food, clothing, housing, and transportation all required money.

And in terms of efficiency, volume, and influence... what place could be more suitable than here?

Ah—

The customer had actually returned immediately, and he had ordered a far more thrilling service.

It was clear that the operating staff rarely encountered this kind of situation.

After freezing for about three seconds, the nearest man finally reacted and stepped forward, a folk-style short dagger faintly visible at his waist.

The exposed short dagger remained in its sheath for less than half a second before Fu Qian pulled it out.

It wasn't even sharpened, showing just how skilled this gang was at skirting the edges of the law.

However, this still wasn't a problem for Fu Qian. Without even needing to display strength beyond an ordinary person's, he used the short dagger to nail the arm pressing down on the money to the table.

Ah—

When the blood appeared, the screaming became contagious, spreading from person to person.

"Hurry up."

Fu Qian ignored the noise, simply reminding the man to pay attention to efficiency.

At the same time, he casually nailed another man who lunged at him to the table, using the attacker's own weapon.

"You won't get away... the police will be here soon!"

The previous assessment was indeed correct; Glasses Bro had clearly dumped most of his stat points into his appearance.

Even though precise control had perfectly steered that earlier stab away from blood vessels and nerves, he was now exhibiting symptoms similar to fainting at the sight of blood, his mind growing muddled.

Fortunately, while this hindered communication, it was also easy to deal with.

Without any intention of explaining the situation with words, Fu Qian pulled the dagger back out.

Amidst another drawn-out scream, he dragged over the now-unarmed thug who stood rooted to the spot in confusion. In the next moment, the two men's hands were nailed together.

"Here, take it all—"

The body language was instantly effective. The second half of the screaming duet was forcefully swallowed back down, and Glasses Bro began frantically pulling things out of his pockets.

"Thanks."

Without standing on ceremony, Fu Qian gathered this pile, plus his own stack of cash, along with the two bills from the Woman in White Dress. He offered a polite farewell, wrapping up the entire business transaction in under a minute.

"Nice dancing."

Before leaving, he even turned around specifically to acknowledge the Dancer's professional skills.

...

"Why did you do that? You could have gone to the police, but now you're the one asking for trouble."

It was evident that although the Woman in White Dress had little experience in the jianghu, she at least wasn't stupid.

When Fu Qian walked out the door unimpeded, she didn't try to stay put and clear her name; instead, she ran out after him.

She looked around as they walked, and after covering quite a distance, confirming that no one was following them, she finally breathed a small sigh of relief. A moment later, she expressed her incomprehension at Fu Qian's actions.

"True."

Fu Qian didn't question her judgment, but he had no intention of explaining himself either. As he spoke, he nodded in another direction.

It was Brother Zhang, sitting on a wooden bench by the street, looking over in confusion.

Up until now, the route Fu Qian had chosen was simply the way he had come, so running into this guy was completely normal.

And just like he said before, to keep distinct matters separate, this man had perfectly served his purpose in helping to efficiently locate the Dancer, so Fu Qian naturally had no issue with him.

"You don't trust the police here..."

As they shared a passing smile, the Woman in White Dress seemed to grasp something from Fu Qian's reply.

"And you don't think they'd be able to help you recover your losses... It's true, and then you also don't think they'll actually call the police—"

"Not necessarily. I'm just a tourist, so I'm not familiar with the legal environment here."

Casually interrupting her increasingly cynical speech, Fu Qian signaled for her not to be so absolute.

"...Then were you actually just bluffing? Making them think you aren't afraid of the police, just like you made me think? Because actually doing that would only invite greater danger?"

The woman beside him had a strong capacity for reflection. Upon hearing Fu Qian's statement, she quickly reasoned out another line of logic.

"Not quite. It's just that it doesn't matter even if the police do come."

Unfortunately, Fu Qian denied her again.

...

Only when you didn't mind facing any consequences could you truly be fearless.

The art of deception was, in the end, about unorthodox ways and heterodox paths.

Expecting someone else's line of thought to follow yours was a method that consumed an excessive amount of resources.

The correct and orthodox path was ensuring that even if the other party rebelled, your gains would be even higher.

For instance, if Glasses Bro actually did call the police.

Strength, speed—although he hadn't displayed any inhuman stats in those areas just now, his overwhelmingly crushing behavior and imposing aura would inevitably lead people to make some extra assumptions.

And a conflict between a transcendent and ordinary people had always been a massive taboo for the Night Watchers.

Theoretically speaking, if this matter was escalated to the authorities, it would indeed be quite troublesome.

But on one hand, it wouldn't be easy for Glasses Bro and his crew to pull that off.

First, they would have to overcome their own psychological hurdle of fearing retaliation, then use their imagination to connect the dots to a transcendent, then convince the police, and finally, the police would need to convince the relevant Night Watchers.

At the same time, on the other hand, if a group of exceptionally competent people really did come together and bring about such a situation, it would actually play right into his hands.

This mission seemed simple, but in reality, just dealing with a city-wide scope was already quite excessive.

Even if there were no special hidden circumstances behind it, dealing with them one by one would be overly time-consuming and labor-intensive no matter how you looked at it.

Under these circumstances, drawing in a faction capable of covering the entire city would, at worst, simply mean he could no longer act like a standard tourist. And at the right moment, they could clearly be used as convenient pawns.

"All right..."

Unfortunately, this kind of twisted, evil-god mentality was clearly beyond what the woman beside him could keep up with. After a long silence, the Woman in White Dress finally spoke again, offering a casual remark of agreement.

"Sorry, I still haven't introduced myself. You can call me Clara. I heard them call you Anke?"

While making no attempt to distance herself from this extrajudicial lunatic, she seemed to have finally remembered something, an apologetic look on her face.

Even though the name provided... Anke?

Fu Qian sighed deeply in his heart, his gaze seemingly fixed on the infinite distance.

So was it true that just shoving him in here had exhausted all their strength, and they even had to recycle name materials?

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