Eldritch Horror Theatre

Self-growth required self-destruction, though tearing oneself down to rebuild anew was a daunting process.

That was why Fu Qian was considering whether he should charge young Emily a fee.

The process had been extremely concise, but Fu Qian was confident that during their brief exchange, the foundation of her unshakeable worldview had been shaken to its core.

Even with less than a fifty percent chance of firing, Emily had still been unwilling to pull the trigger on that first shot.

In the end, some things were simply more important than self-righteous feelings.

Clack!

She hadn't said another word after delivering that line. Instead, she pushed the car door directly open and stepped out, not sparing Dennis a single glance.

At the same time, Fu Qian withdrew his gun, no longer bothering with a deliberate threatening posture.

One had to maintain standards in this line of work, especially when Emily's immediate actions looked so interesting.

The key had actually been thrown down here?

Watching Emily search down below, Fu Qian found it easy enough to imagine the twisted, amusing chain of events:

The bickering pair had walked through the Underground together. Then, the clueless Dennis had taken off his jacket for Emily, only for her to lose her temper and throw it straight onto the ground...

Yet before she threw it, she had secretly kept the key that brought them there—so smoothly that Dennis hadn't even noticed...

Then she had forbidden him from following her, leaving him nowhere to turn but deeper down, where he encountered Ivan—this was true in both worlds.

As for Emily, she had eventually reached their damaged vehicle. At some point, after waiting for someone who never arrived, she had thrown the key away again in a fit of anger... only to be picking it back up now.

That was the progression of events in the Real World, of course, likely missing a few minor details in between.

As for the corresponding Inner World, their respective circumstances would have obviously been much more miserable, so the details should have differed slightly as well.

For instance, Emily might not have successfully made it back here, and the key might have been thrown somewhere else entirely.

"Here."

She clearly remembered exactly where she'd thrown it, returning in under a minute.

At a glance, the object Emily handed over was clearly quite old.

It wasn't rusted, but the wear was so severe that, let alone any trace of white, the entire thing was completely grimy.

"Thank you."

Fu Qian reached out to take it, not forgetting his manners.

[Current mission updated: Confront and execute the Serpent of Destiny Behind the Silver Door.]

Almost instantly, the pleasant notification chimed.

And that wasn't the only change. The agony that had spread through his entire arm quietly dissipated in that exact moment.

It made perfect sense.

Flesh and blood might be weak, but the Mechanical King of the Abandoned Prison had already liberated his true power.

...

It really was exactly that. The White Key was literally "a white car's key."

Was this the so-called supreme vulgarity is supreme elegance?

Having returned to the constitution of the Mechanical King of the Abandoned Prison, Fu Qian studied the highly meritorious object in his hand.

It still looked remarkably ordinary. Some of the bitting was almost worn away, and even through the perspective of his Vision Radar, nothing stood out—there truly was nothing special about it. It had simply been defined as a "Key."

The key to lifting the Real World's absolute ban on his Transcendent Tier abilities.

To put it bluntly, it was the physical manifestation of the game rules for this mission.

In Fu Qian's view, if something was capable of suppressing him to the state of an ordinary human, thereby threatening him in reality or the Inner World, then there almost certainly had to be a way to lift that suppression.

Otherwise, it would be a dimensional strike in the truest sense—a pure, overwhelming crushing of power.

The Warehouse's first mission directive had been to find this exact method of release.

And if he wasn't mistaken, the entity that had coupled with the Warehouse to formulate these rules was exactly who he was about to meet: the Serpent of Destiny.

He had to admit, it was an incredibly domineering name. It carried the aura of a higher entity, to say the least.

Combined with the words "confront" and "execute," the whole thing felt exceptionally wonderful.

"Are you done?"

While he stood there assessing the grand scheme of things, the two teenagers on the other side were under immense pressure.

Watching Fu Qian meticulously scrutinize a broken, dirty key, Emily had finally lost her patience.

"I am. Get in the car."

Fu Qian's tone remained mild as he gestured toward the vehicle behind him.

"...Are you still going to arrest us?"

This time, Dennis had actually gotten out of the car as well, unable to hold back his question upon hearing this.

Compared to on the way here, he was still pale, but the spirit in his face couldn't just be called an improvement—it was more like a total rebirth.

It wasn't surprising. Even the most oblivious person could glean something from Emily's recent actions.

Dennis's earlier state had merely been a stress reaction from believing he had been abandoned, stacked on top of committing a murder.

"You can also stay here."

To their surprise, the police officer before them displayed an astonishing degree of law-enforcement flexibility.

Smiling, Fu Qian didn't even wait for their reaction and walked toward the car.

"I'm going with you."

Almost the moment he got into the car, the rear door was pulled open.

True to her straightforward nature, Emily had quickly made her decision.

It was perfectly normal.

Perhaps after this ordeal, certain things had been affirmed between them, but that didn't mean they could calmly sit alone together right now.

One only had to imagine the awkwardness of that scenario.

Emily's initiative really was leagues ahead of his.

Clack!

Though when Dennis quietly followed and opened the door to get in as well, she didn't stop him.

They even both sat in the back seat.

...

It was a rare feeling, acting as a chauffeur like this.

Not bored enough to actually observe the two teenagers through the rearview mirror, Fu Qian clearly focused more on his own sensations, driving as leisurely as if he were shuttling someone to their honeymoon.

This relaxed posture seemed to be particularly infectious. By the time they drove deep into town, not only had the breathing of the two in the back gradually smoothed out, but they even remembered something else.

"Is that shop open?"

At a certain point, Emily spoke up, gesturing at a building outside.

"It is, and more than one person regretted that you didn't visit."

As he spoke, Fu Qian slowed down and pulled into the exact same parking spot from that morning.

Indeed, it was Old Man Hark's Dedicated Breakfast Shop.

In a town like this, only selling breakfast would clearly lead to starvation, so it was naturally still open for business.

As for the two teenagers getting out of the car, it was hard to imagine they had eaten anything today, making this an obviously suitable first stop.

The only problem was that his own reputation around here wasn't very good.

"Hake is looking for them. Put it on his tab."

Even though Jean pulled a long face the moment she saw the commotion outside, Fu Qian pushed the door open anyway. He walked straight up to Maggie, who wore a somewhat odd expression, and introduced the two teenagers.

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