Eldritch Horror Theatre

Isn't this a bit too aggressive?

Even in a video game, shouldn't they give you a little reaction time? Let you smell the scent of the living first, or something?

Fu Qian certainly knew what was attacking him—those hair-thin plants creeping everywhere. In fact, they practically were hair.

One of the classic features of the Furnace was its total lack of actual plants.

Its ecosystem consisted entirely of abstract, conceptual creatures.

Fingers sprouting more fingers, a Skull Centipede formed by skulls biting onto each other, or the nutritional essence blood tofu.

In short, any living creature that died here would quickly be broken down into similar concepts, reassembled, and granted new life. A true great melting pot of existence.

But right now, it seemed these newborn conceptual lifeforms were even unfriendlier to an outsider like him than before.

Crack—

Coming to an abrupt halt, Fu Qian kicked out, landing a square hit on a vat-sized sphere.

Like a tumbleweed, the thing rolled through the fog, emerging from among buildings packed as tightly as the Spring Festival travel rush.

Even its interior was a dense, crisscrossing tangle.

However, a closer look revealed that those stem-like structures were far too pale and orderly.

They were actually curved ribs, spliced together in a specific pattern.

When it had crashed toward him just a moment ago, its rapid rotation made its edges saw-sharp. Some of the ribs had even unfurled to embrace him, fully intending to let him experience the warmth of a collective hug.

Sadly, such enthusiasm was met with a cruel rejection.

A Peak Tier 4 kick sent enough bone material to create over two dozen Eves flying into the distance.

The sphere, now caved in on one side, flew right back the way it came.

Smack, smack, smack—

And this was far from over. Almost the instant he pulled his foot back, Fu Qian raised his right hand and flicked his five fingers in succession. They landed on five bald skulls one after another, striking up a crisp rhythm.

As mentioned, these things were highly aggressive. They had even learned to launch a pincer attack, allowing a Skull Centipede to quietly sneak up behind him.

Unfortunately for it, five silky-smooth flicks to the head left it frozen in place, seemingly lost in deep thought.

...

Hmm... this was looking more and more familiar.

Although the area wasn't small, a professional's memory was just as good.

He had, after all, slaughtered his way back and forth through this place a few times. After just a brief trek, Fu Qian spotted a seemingly familiar route, and even pinpointed the location where Old Man Feng Yunhong once stood.

Of course, during this process, causing some disruption to the local residents was inevitable.

Considering the operation's theme of revisiting an old haunt, Fu Qian hadn't adopted a strategy of rushing at top speed and dragging a massive aggro train behind him. Instead, he took a leisurely pace.

The end result was a trail of severed limbs and broken parts left in his wake.

Today, this group of things was clearly somewhat crazed; their desire to attack was exaggerated to the extreme.

Naturally, this wasn't entirely without benefits. For instance, it further expanded the local bestiary, giving him another eye-opening experience.

Beyond that, it effectively demonstrated a noble righteous energy of remaining fearless despite being trapped in peril.

At a certain moment, Fu Qian took his final step. He stood with his hands behind his back, looking down from above.

The crowded buildings finally gave way at his feet, sloping downward to form a deep pit.

Indeed, he had reached the central region of the Furnace.

At the center of the deep pit was the very blood pool where Old Man Feng had struck a pose all those years ago.

It was just a pity that, as mentioned before, things remain while people change. The heroic figure standing tall with a halberd was nowhere to be seen—Clang!

A crisp sound of collision rang out beside him. Still gazing downward, Fu Qian casually threw out a backhand slap, meeting an attack from behind head-on.

Similar situations had occurred countless times along the way, but what made this one special was that the clashing sound was far too sharp to be organic.

Clang!

With another resounding clash, Fu Qian simply grabbed the incoming murder weapon directly this time—

Indeed, it really was Old Man Feng's Long Halberd.

...

As expected, a mere thought was enough for something interesting to instantly appear.

Unfortunately, it ultimately proved the phrase "things remain while people change" yet again.

The attacker was clearly unwilling to give up their weapon, and as Fu Qian examined it, he finally turned around.

A slightly chubby build, average looks, somewhat sparse hair.

Naturally, it wasn't Old Man Feng. However, this much younger face also carried a sense of familiarity.

'Let me think—Zhao Ran?'

Scanning that vigilant face, Fu Qian searched his memory and finally recalled a name.

That's right, it was none other than the assassin brother he'd had a chance encounter with.

Back in the day, Classmate Liushuang in their team had actually been constantly watched by a pair of malicious eyes.

This very guy in front of him had even actively revealed himself to apply pressure, forcing Fu Qian to send a signal to draw away Li Weixuan in a scheme of luring the tiger away from the mountain.

However, the reason he knew this person's name wasn't because the other party had been honest during their interaction, but because the Warehouse summary had stated it.

Of course, those were all experiences from the first mission, which ultimately ended with the assassin brother having his kidney ripped out.

Later on, he had even used his corpse to test the properties of this place. All in all, it couldn't be considered any sort of deep-seated grudge.

In the true history where the mission was completed, he hadn't even met this guy from start to finish.

One consequence of that was that the assassin brother failed to piggyback on Classmate Liushuang's coattails, making it highly probable that he had remained in this place.

The current situation could be said to prove exactly this point.

At the same time, it also once again proved that Old Man Feng's talent was truly mediocre.

He still remembered that when the assassin brother clashed with his Tier 6 self back then, the guy didn't hold any obvious advantage.

But right now, according to the readings from his Vision Radar, the guy should already be a notch stronger than Old Man Feng had been back then.

As expected, to cultivate true skill, one absolutely had to endure loneliness.

Back then, he had almost completely wiped out all those stubborn resentful spirits. This meant that unlike Old Man Feng, the assassin brother likely didn't even have anyone to talk to.

"You... are?"

The very next moment, the person in question faintly proved this point. Gripping the halberd tightly with both hands, his enunciation was rather dry.

Moreover, as his killing intent gradually faded, the assassin, Zhao Ran, stared intently at Fu Qian's face and furrowed his brows.

"And who are you?"

Fu Qian certainly understood the source of this confusion. Just because he hadn't seen the other party didn't mean the other party hadn't seen him.

Based on the circumstances of the first mission, the assassin brother had most likely been tailing the group from behind; it wasn't at all strange that he recognized his face.

"I haven't seen you before."

But this didn't stop Fu Qian from telling the truth.

Shh—

However, the other party didn't reply to the questioning.

Facing Fu Qian's reply, the assassin brother simply let go with one hand, made a shushing gesture, and vigilantly looked around.

"Don't make a sound. They're watching us."

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