Eldritch Horror Theatre

What a ruthless kid. So she had actually checked them all one by one?

While a teenager's reasons for rebelling were often baffling, the sheer power of that rebellion was not to be underestimated.

Fueled by her imagination, she had tracked him straight to a place like this, and even wedged herself into a pitch-black cabinet without making a single sound.

Ever since she jumped out, Fu Qian had suspected this young woman possessed some serious drive.

He was right on the money. Not only had she sneaked in to observe whether any sinister deeds were taking place, she had actually gone in and checked them one by one.

If Dennis was in danger largely because of her, then she at least possessed the courage to take responsibility for it.

"You..."

Unfortunately, not every adult was so tolerant. The final detail the young woman revealed had left Tina completely dumbfounded.

"So, do you want to call the police? What's your name?"

Nodding repeatedly at the young woman's story, Fu Qian helpfully tied it right back to his own official duties.

"Huh?"

The young woman looked visibly startled.

She had clearly been prepared to be treated like a lunatic when she made her earlier claim, yet this man actually seemed to believe her?

"Since I happen to be here, I can investigate this malicious incident directly. I can even get the entire hospital moving to help search for your companion's whereabouts."

Seeing that she hadn't responded, Fu Qian continued to stress the benefits of following proper procedure, and even his own identity.

"I'm Emily. Are you a police officer?"

The young woman had clearly understood his implication, though she didn't seem to entirely buy it. She gave her name with a look of deep suspicion.

"I am. Do I not look the part?"

Fu Qian displayed the weapon holstered at his waist.

Besides, the name matched the information Hake had mentioned on the way over.

He really didn't look like one...

At that moment, not only Emily, but even Tina wore a similar expression of doubt.

"I hope you aren't lying to me."

This didn't stop Emily from making her decision, however.

Her patience had clearly reached its limit; she couldn't wait any longer.

"Wait a minute, this is absurd! Just because of some wild theory you came up with in your head... the entire hospital will be paralyzed."

Seeing the situation advance so efficiently to this point, Tina could no longer sit still.

"Didn't you just say we wouldn't wait here anymore, and should ask the hospital for help?"

Unfortunately, the young woman merely sneered, too lazy to even respond. It was Fu Qian who answered her, directly throwing her own earlier words back at her.

...

How could those two things possibly be the same...?

Looking back at Fu Qian, Tina remained silent, but a deep sense of powerlessness washed over her face.

One was a search for a corpse and a negligent supervisor, while the other was a straight-up murder investigation...

"Besides, have you considered that doing so might actually put Dennis in danger?"

Given their earlier communication experience, however, Tina clearly had zero confidence in her ability to persuade the new officer. In the next moment, she didn't even answer Fu Qian's question, zeroing straight in on the young woman who wanted to call the police.

"Even if a situation like you described really exists, 'they' would definitely silence your friend to destroy the evidence. They'd absolutely never give him a chance to speak... Wouldn't it be better to just use a simpler excuse to search—"

"A simple excuse will only get simple results."

Unfortunately, her earnest advice fell entirely on deaf ears.

The young woman sneered again, having clearly seen through the essence of this delaying tactic.

"I was the one who brought Dennis to this place, and I'm taking him away today no matter what."

And this subsequent flat declaration laid her absolute resolve bare.

Very impressive.

Faced with this scene, Fu Qian couldn't help but offer a word of silent praise—

For an Old Hunter to disguise themselves as a rebellious teenage girl, his competitor had really gone all out.

And if he guessed correctly, his own life at this moment was truly like a candle in the wind.

...

That was right. Fu Qian didn't quite believe that the person in front of him was the real Emily, one of the two missing youths.

Even though he had never actually seen her.

Neither in the Inner World nor the Surface World. Neither dead nor alive.

The story the young woman told sounded fairly logical.

Two moody teenagers had been wandering aimlessly together, only to part ways after getting into an argument.

The boy had the misfortune of running into a lunatic, while the girl, unable to shake her worry, began searching for her companion with the stubbornness typical of youth.

It was a smooth narrative, and it even lined up perfectly with some of his own discoveries—

The discarded jacket, the gradually thawing corpse. And there was indeed no sign of Dennis's body in the underground passage of the Real World.

As for Evan? The latter's corpse was fresher. If she had left early enough, it was entirely possible he hadn't been there at the time.

Furthermore, if the young woman had emerged from the exit he had found, it would also line up with the information Brother Peeker had provided—that he had only seen people go in, but never come out.

There had even been a set of footprints by the window in that room, left by someone gazing out into the distance.

Everything seemed to fit. But... preconceptions were a dangerous thing.

His core motivation for choosing the hospital as his next destination was the assumption that his competitor might expect him to come here.

He had walked right into the lion's den on purpose, so he couldn't rule out the possibility that whatever he encountered was a carefully orchestrated setup.

Even his earlier agreement to let Rachel stay behind and bring only Tina along had been to increase the probability of the trap springing.

In comparison, the former was clearly far more likely to have lost her Anchor Point to the Inner World, which was why he had selected her as his world-shift detector.

But just as he had lamented earlier: one who is too critical has no followers.

If he kept his detector with him at all times, how could he unknowingly step into the Inner World?

Exactly. In Fu Qian's estimation, there was a significant probability that—just like back at the Art Prison—they were already located in that world containing Transcendent Tier elements, having crossed over the moment he and Tina stepped inside this place.

And judging from the previous situation, his competitor seemed to possess the ability to change their appearance while in that plane.

Taking all of this into account, this was an equally logical possibility.

Just like "Emily" had asked earlier—it was outrageous, but could you deny it?

...

Both were hard to deny.

Even with his preconceptions, he had to respect the facts. While Fu Qian was leaning toward his own theory, he wouldn't deny that the young woman's reactions were incredibly convincing, and he didn't have enough evidence to falsify her claim.

At the same time, one thing was easy to determine: if this truly was a trap set by his competitor, the danger of his current situation could no longer be described as merely dancing on a knife's edge—yet Fu Qian had chosen to let the music play and keep right on dancing.

He had played his role the whole way, patiently guiding the conversation until he offered his final suggestion.

Unfortunately, while the young woman Emily's performance had been incredibly convincing the whole time, her final choice had still exposed a slight flaw.

What was it that Old Man Hake had said? That he found it harder and harder to understand what young people were thinking nowadays.

It seemed there was some truth to that.

Stubborn, rebellious, and fiercely restless—his competitor had put a lot of effort into playing a teenager.

But perhaps this Old Hunter was simply too far removed from that age, unable to realize one crucial thing: no matter how awkward they acted on the surface, or how much they hurt one another, the core driving force for two young people of the opposite sex doing something this reckless together would always be mutual affection.

Faced with his plan that would put poor Dennis at even greater risk, the real Emily almost certainly wouldn't have remained so stubbornly unyielding.

Or rather, it was merely an adult's imagination of teenage hysteria.

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