Eldritch Horror Theatre

Cross-dimensional breeding?

Excellency Ivan truly possessed considerable attainment, apparently using the concept of reproduction to pierce through the world barrier. He wondered how the man had acquired this inspiration.

Quickly deducing a possibility, Fu Qian clicked his tongue in admiration at the imagined form of the Inverted Tree.

So, the thing inside the boy's head was indeed a Pinecone?

And the seed extracted from it—was that the ultimate goal of this entire series of operations?

He had to admit that as a hand-picked, naturally talented player, Ivan had indeed pushed his artistic creations to a higher degree of Sublimation.

And the next thing Fu Qian needed to do, it seemed, was confirm whether this Sublimation was actually useful.

And then confirm what the two missing persons had truly encountered within this creative vision.

With the picture already in his mind, there was no need to draw it out. Fu Qian ultimately didn't put pen to paper; instead, he searched for some Lighting Equipment and directly entered the passage once more.

Sure enough, his ammunition hadn't replenished either.

Although it was a bit old, the passage was clearly much more suitable for walking than the Inner World.

So much so that Fu Qian could even inspect his weapon while advancing rapidly.

The facts proved that, just like the coins, his three spent bullets were truly gone.

And after searching himself, he found absolutely no replacements.

However, looking on the bright side, if he dragged this out a bit longer, the condition of his finger might just serve as a Transcendent Tier weapon all on its own.

He didn't need it to destroy the heavens and the earth; as long as it could make others experience his current pain, that would be enough.

Indeed, the pain was still intensifying, and the cyan discoloration was truly spreading.

Though it hadn't yet affected his ability to pull the trigger, an ordinary person would likely find it very difficult to resist the temptation to just chop the finger off.

The only comfort was that it wasn't spreading too fast. Considering there was still a countdown ticking away, it didn't seem like much of a threat.

So, had that competitor of his ever visited this place?

Fu Qian looked at the much more orderly passage around him, trying to put himself in the shoes of the Old Hunter he had never met.

Theoretically, he shouldn't have passed up this place.

The traces in the Inner World proved this opponent's Combat Power.

And after a bout of searching with no results, it would be quite normal to come out and search out here again, right?

After all, traces of one of the missing persons had appeared in there—and there seemed to be some here as well.

At a certain moment, Fu Qian stopped in his tracks, scrutinizing a corner of the passage.

While it was still uncertain why such a project had been built beneath the prison, walking through it revealed that the passage's complexity was surprisingly high.

It didn't branch out infinitely, but there were still quite a few forks in the road.

The place Fu Qian was looking at right now was one of them; just a few steps ahead, the path split at a right angle.

A very familiar jacket was crumpled into a ball and tossed there.

...

The boy's clothes?

He didn't even need to pick it up to confirm that it looked extremely similar to the one he had found in the Inner World earlier.

It was equally new and equally free of dust... If he continued forward and found a corpse to match, the scale of this incident would become a bit too large.

This wasn't the Inner World. From what he knew alone, there were two security officers on duty here.

If another murder happened before the missing persons were even found, he could only imagine how tense the atmosphere would become.

He couldn't underestimate this. Judging from his previous experiences, it was best to conveniently fulfill the duties of his current role.

Jean was a prime example. After suffering a minor provocation, she had directly swept him into the Inner World.

If other civilians with Anchor Points started showing similar reactions on a large scale, his movements would become even more difficult.

While lamenting this, Fu Qian picked up the clothes.

A pity.

First of all, it indeed looked like the exact same jacket. Secondly, the pockets were just as empty.

Although he had figured it wouldn't be that easy, a professional never overlooked the details.

When he had picked up the clothes earlier, Fu Qian had immediately patted them down to avoid the blunder of finding the White Key hidden right inside.

Unfortunately, neither piece of clothing had it.

Casually hanging the jacket to the side, Fu Qian felt no frustration and instead focused his energy on his sense of smell.

Besides being meticulous, one also had to be good at learning.

If there was anything he had learned while accompanying Brother Peeker earlier, making good use of one's sense of smell was definitely one of them, even though his nose was far less sensitive right now.

His pace remained unbroken. As Fu Qian sketched his path forward in his mind, he analyzed the air stirred up by his movements.

It seemed to be working.

At a certain moment, Fu Qian silently picked up a rather unpleasant odor and tried to use it as a guide, moving toward where the scent was thicker.

Soon, another familiar object appeared before his eyes.

A body bag?

The lighting was still mediocre, but Fu Qian easily recognized the item lying in the corner.

Brother Ivan was indeed a man of action. To think he was running a similar operation in this world too?

It even looked fairly fresh.

That's right. As he stepped forward, he could confirm that the body bag wasn't empty; the unpleasant smell was coming from inside.

However, it wasn't the girl Brother Peeker had mentioned. On the contrary, the person was visibly older, looking to be of the same generation as Old Man Hake.

The reason he called it fresh referred to the state of the corpse.

Although it wasn't exactly ice-cold to the touch, a single glance made it easy to spot traces of prior freezing, and it hadn't been thawed out for very long.

Otherwise, there would have been far more than just this bit of unpleasant odor.

At the same time, compared to the victimized boy in the Inner World, this corpse's head was practically intact, having suffered no damage.

Still cultivating?

Faced with such a scene, Fu Qian easily arrived at a guess.

Even with pollination, a seed's growth required a process.

If Brother Ivan was doing the same kind of thing as in the Inner World, then exercising a little patience with a new corpse was completely understandable.

This time, even the source of the new corpse seemed to be verified.

It was wearing a hospital gown; this corpse also appeared to have come from some hospital.

...

He had to admit, out of all the people he had encountered along the way, Brother Ivan could be considered quite consistent inside and out.

If given the chance to chat, he wouldn't mind learning about his artistic life—though it seemed there wouldn't be an opportunity for that.

After confirming that there were no keys on the body either, Fu Qian continued deeper.

However, just as he followed the route sketched out in his mind and circled to a position that felt separated from the corpse by only a wall, a much more striking scene appeared—

A corpse without a body bag lay collapsed there, the ground beneath it soaked in piercingly bright blood.

In comparison, this one was even fresher. It had clearly been freshly produced right on the spot.

But it wasn't the boy from earlier; instead, it was a middle-aged man whose attire looked quite stylish.

The cause of death was a hideous slash torn open across his neck.

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