Eldritch Horror Theatre

A body bag, but empty.

The presence of such specialized equipment undoubtedly complicated the situation.

He had originally assumed that the people Brother Peeker swallowed were likely Art Prison staff, gathered here by some machination of Ivan's before ultimately running into his opponent.

Now, it didn't seem quite that simple.

Had frozen corpses actually been packed into body bags and specifically transported here?

He grew even more curious about what exactly had been going on inside this tree hollow.

"I've been here..."

Given the complex situation, it was gratifying that Brother Peeker had finally learned to answer preemptively. Taking in the sight before him, he quickly seemed to recall more.

"Was it the best-tasting one?"

"No... it was another person. Not as cold..."

The conversation was rather macabre, but Brother Peeker's tolerance seemed to have finally improved. He answered quickly, his tone certain.

So they had been transported here in batches?

As the saying went, never doubt those you employ. Even though it was a one-sided claim, Fu Qian naturally followed this line of deduction.

It seemed the current situation was no isolated incident. More than one frozen corpse had been brought in, arriving at different times rather than in a single batch.

But here was the problem: why was the girl's corpse the coldest? Because it was the most recent?

It was an easy conclusion to reach.

According to Brother Peeker, the two missing people had only arrived here yesterday.

Given his mental state, that timeframe wasn't necessarily reliable, but if they really had been turned into corpses, they would in all probability be relatively fresh.

This even aligned with his earlier concerns—the sense that the two missing people had met an unpredictable end.

"Try to recall the location of the best-tasting one."

Without wasting time on mourning, Fu Qian directly continued the previous topic, issuing the order quite naturally.

...

The best-tasting one...

Fill-in-the-blank questions were always harder than multiple-choice. The somewhat calmed Brother Peeker almost instantly plunged back into his struggle.

Being forced to recall such inhuman details clearly put his will to the test. His inner torment manifested in a much more visceral way—

He practically groveled on the ground, his entire body breaking out in unnatural spasms. It was a sight almost too gruesome to bear.

But only almost.

Fu Qian immediately observed him closely, focusing on the changes happening to that body.

However, upon noticing that the faces on the torso remained like lifeless masks without any extra animation, he quickly lost interest and withdrew his gaze.

They didn't seem to have inherited a single shred of the other people's memories; it was nothing more than a crude amalgamation of flesh.

On one hand, this meant he couldn't squeeze out more information from other perspectives. On the other hand, it also meant there would be no conflict of wills to exploit for a chance to escape.

After quickly evaluating the situation, Fu Qian turned and started walking back.

Even as he brushed right past Brother Peeker's body, he still hadn't drawn his gun.

Instead, he casually plucked the slightly damaged oil lamp from the small hand on the other's shoulder.

Yet even such a minor action, coupled with the shift in lighting, greatly shocked Brother Peeker.

"We need to head back..."

At that moment, the spasms seemed to be forcibly suppressed, leaving behind only the sheer terror of becoming useless.

With this tiny bit of 'help,' he surprisingly managed to push past his limits once more and provide an answer.

"Alright."

Without questioning him, Fu Qian raised the lamp a little higher to illuminate the way, gesturing for the other man to take the lead.

...

Good, it was only one fork away.

Brother Peeker had indeed accepted the suggestion, taking the lead and heading back up the path they had come from.

Looking at it from this angle, the tunnel felt increasingly like a living creature.

Tributary after tributary converged, surging steadily upward to ultimately pierce through Ivan's stomach and bloom into the void...

But here was the question: if these really were the roots of a colossal plant, then what was that spherical space where the corpse had been placed just now?

A bulb? A tuber? It couldn't possibly be a mole's nest, right?

Whatever it was, he had a feeling the corpse hadn't been placed there simply because the space was large.

As he pondered silently, Brother Peeker came to a halt up ahead.

They hadn't had to backtrack far. This was clearly the previous fork.

Never naive enough to think they could just walk all the way back out and find a chance to escape, Fu Qian was undoubtedly glad to see such efficiency.

Facing the waiting Brother Peeker, he didn't rush him. He simply stepped past and took the lead.

...

As expected, the principle to never doubt those you employ proved correct.

With footsteps quickly following behind him, Fu Qian stopped at another fork.

This time, there wasn't even a door. He could clearly see that one side opened into another spherical space, just like the last.

And sure enough, another body bag had been tossed on the ground, clearly the exact same model.

"It's here..."

Before Fu Qian could ask, Brother Peeker reassuringly beat him to the punch again, confirming this was the place.

The only pity was that this space also looked impeccably clean, as if it had been licked from top to bottom. There were no traces of a corpse—but there were traces of something else.

Faced with such a rare delicacy, Brother Peeker seemed to have savored his meal rather than swallowing it whole; surprisingly, a piece of clothing had been left near the entrance.

Its appearance was a bit too classic: a hospital gown?

Did the corpse come from a hospital?

Fu Qian stepped forward and picked it up. Unfortunately, aside from a few scattered bloodstains, there were no other markings on the garment to indicate its origin.

But it didn't matter. In a place that couldn't even sustain a prison, medical resources were likely highly concentrated. There wouldn't be many options.

Furthermore, this discovery seemed to slightly increase the probability that the girl was still alive.

After all, being murdered, frozen, and dragged all the way in here was one thing. But being murdered, deliberately dressed in a hospital gown, and then frozen seemed a bit superfluous.

Then the next question was: what about the boy?

Tossing the hospital gown aside, Fu Qian chose the adjacent path and continued even deeper.

...

This place was likely beyond Brother Peeker's previous range of activity.

The footsteps behind him continued to follow closely. It wasn't until the next fork appeared that Fu Qian silently reached a conclusion.

The reason was simple: both sides had doors, and both doors had Keys in them. They hadn't been plucked away like the previous ones.

Besides that, there was an even more compelling reason. A distinct scent—one that could even be described as a fragrance—was wafting thickly from behind one of the doors.

Creak—

Fu Qian pushed one of the doors open, revealing yet another spherical space.

And though there was no body bag this time, there was a corpse sitting right out in the open.

That was right, and it was visibly emaciated.

It seemed the boy hadn't been so lucky.

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