Eldritch Horror Theatre

[Kill: The Serpent of Destiny behind the door]

[Reward: SAN Value +28]

[Special Reward: Eternity]

[Current SAN Value: 177]

[Playback event recap?]

As the scene faded from his eyes, a familiar series of prompts finally sounded.

'So the mission summary was really just skipped like that?'

That was Fu Qian's immediate inward complaint.

Theoretically, this was indeed a form of leveling up, but he couldn't shake the feeling that the Warehouse was using it to dodge sensitive information—slacking off while pretending to work.

Following the Warehouse's announcement that it was powerless to help him recover his state, he finally had visual confirmation.

He was completely shattered.

Taking down something like that was no simple feat, especially since the Warehouse had practically handed the enemy a pile of free revival coins.

Right now, he had returned in the exact condition he had been in the moment the task ended, without a single drop of health restored.

Moreover, the reason he concluded that the Serpent of Destiny's rebirth was tied to the Warehouse's Containment actually stemmed from his confidence in the latter's authority.

Even though the Serpent of Destiny didn't know its own honorific name, out of all the higher entities he had encountered so far, the Warehouse seemed to be the only one possessing pure timeline authority.

For instance, he hadn't seen cunning beings like Blazing Rainbow or Patches attempt to gather similar authorities to oppose the Warehouse.

As for this Serpent of Destiny, the fully automated defense it initially displayed did seem to transcend the concept of time.

Reverting to an earlier point in time after taking a hit—altering its form to boost its resistance—could even be considered a classic application of time authority.

In Fu Qian's view, however, it likely still fell short of directly rewriting the past the way the Warehouse did.

There was one detail that seemed highly impressive but was actually rather bizarre: even from the perspective of the King of the Abandoned Prison, there had been no process to the opponent's form change.

At first glance, this might have made it seem much harder to deal with, but to Fu Qian, it actually weakened the possibility that time authority was involved.

Not to mention, he had a reference point—the Third Cause.

He had come into contact with that special authority back in Lanphilai.

While it wasn't strictly equivalent to destiny, it provided a clear example of violating the laws of cause and effect.

There was also his subsequent task reward, the Body-Slaughtering Talisman.

All of these proved that in this world teeming with Transcendent might, a tree without roots and water without a source could truly exist.

Fu Qian leaned toward the idea that Excellency Destiny Serpent's immunity scales belonged to a similar category.

Forcibly introducing such an "effect" at a critical moment to steer destiny in an advantageous direction.

Perhaps it could be considered the ultimate manifestation of luck?

Though his tests immediately proved that it actually had limits.

...

Returning to the initial question, if Excellency Serpent of Destiny didn't possess the authority to change the past, where did its ability to resurrect from the dead come from?

First of all, it couldn't be infinitely loading past saves. Otherwise, as previously mentioned, this task wouldn't exist.

Was it completely unreasonable like a cat, naturally born with nine lives?

That was undoubtedly the simplest scenario, and the easiest to deal with—just chop them down one by one until none were left.

But beyond that, as the incarnation of destiny, even if it couldn't change the past, was it really completely incapable of grasping those false histories that had failed to come true?

Assuming so would be underestimating it a bit too much.

And if it could grasp those destinies, was it possible to draw power from them?

It wasn't infinitely loading a past save, but loading its non-dead self from a different timeline at the exact same point in time.

Putting it that way made it much easier to picture.

But don't forget, the foundation for achieving this was the existence of multiple timelines—which required the Warehouse's cooperation.

The final conclusion was that if it hadn't made so many discarded attempts, this task wouldn't have been nearly as difficult.

The title of 'terrible teammate' was truly well-deserved.

Of course, the Warehouse was as utterly shameless as ever; earlier, it even seemed to be dodging the task summary.

He would just have to see if there was any indication in the rewards.

[Name: Eternity]

[Type: Special Item]

The format of the reward was no different from last time; he still couldn't see any inspiration.

Fu Qian skipped the previous sections and went straight to the special reward.

[A white key forged in the shape of two pinky fingers hooked together.

Elegant and slender, yet indestructible, symbolizing the preservation of eternity.

The key is pieced together from two parts, but can only be opened once.

Upon opening, it automatically records the destiny within a certain radius and turns it into an absolute, unknowable secret.

The moment the key is closed again, this destiny will be released, returning to its owner.]

[Note: The key of destiny does not need a lock, for destiny itself is a lock everywhere.]

...

'Oh? Is it really that fitting for the theme of this task?'

After carefully reading the description of this special reward, Fu Qian clicked his tongue in wonder, closely examining the object in his hand.

He had spent the first half of the task searching for the White Key, and the reward actually gave him one?

It was indeed a rather beautiful key, just as the description said.

Pure white all over, it was made of a material that was neither metal nor jade, with lines as elegant as a work of art.

Looking closely, one could see that the head of the key was actually shaped into two fingers hooked together, exactly like children making a pinky promise.

There was a clear boundary between the two fingers, however—they were simply locked together by a clever mechanism and could be easily pulled apart.

As for the effect after pulling it apart... the first thing Fu Qian thought of was his earlier sharp critique of Excellency Destiny Serpent.

A readable save file? Granting a chance at rebirth?

Based on Fu Qian's reading comprehension, he leaned toward it being able to achieve exactly that.

And if that was true, didn't that mean the Warehouse had used its own authority and the entity's residual ashes to successfully create the very thing Excellency Serpent of Destiny had failed to achieve?

Even if it was only a one-time use, one couldn't forget its indestructible nature; its stability was clearly quite impressive.

Furthermore, there was the aspect of it being an absolute secret, which meant this backup plan likely possessed very strong concealment.

'Is this the power of a pinky promise?'

Even if the oath appeared to have long since faded, it contained an unknown eternity within.

Considering the danger level of this world, he had to admit that the Warehouse's move here was somewhat worthy of the intensity of this task.

Giving a slight nod, Fu Qian felt considerably satisfied with this reward.

Even with its design.

However, as he casually played with it in his hand, he didn't rush to use it. Instead, he cast his gaze around.

In truth, this wasn't even the final harvest of this trip.

Everything around him was exactly as it had been, indistinguishable from the end of any previous task—but that was exactly the problem.

'Am I back?'

During the previous task with the Witch, the rewards had just been thrown directly at him; he never even had a chance to touch the Warehouse.

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