Eldritch Horror Theatre

In the room, Liang Yuntian was visibly shocked by Fu Qian's actions.

He had seen people self-mutilate before, but never anything this ruthless.

Yet under his disbelieving gaze, Fu Qian smiled.

To his senses, the terrifying agony lasted only a split second before vanishing.

In its place came an indescribable sense of relief.

Fu Qian was absolutely certain this wasn't the feeling of death.

The next moment, the scene before him abruptly shrank. Everything rushed backward, ultimately vanishing into a single point.

"You have arrived."

A drawn-out sigh echoed, sounding close enough to be right beside his ear.

...

When his vision returned, Fu Qian found himself standing in a long Corridor, facing a towering figure.

Behind the figure, a reddish-brown door was set into the wall, covered from top to bottom in mysterious patterns.

The door was already open, revealing a darkness so thick it was almost tangible. Nothing inside could be seen.

The towering figure slowly turned around. This was clearly the one who had just spoken.

In truth, whether this entity could even be defined as human was highly debatable.

For one, it possessed a human head with the typical features of a middle-aged man—quite handsome, even.

Below that head, however, its body had absolutely nothing to do with humanity.

Razor-sharp limbs, a grayish-white carapace, and fine bristles covered it entirely.

A bloated abdomen dragged along the ground, while the long wings folded on its back shimmered with oily iridescence.

At first glance, it looked almost like a giant flea.

"This is not a place you should be."

Seeing Fu Qian looking its way, the entity spoke again.

"Oh? Why is that?"

Honestly, hearing a giant flea with a human head speak was inexplicably bizarre.

But Fu Qian was vastly experienced by now. Such minor mental pollution was nothing to him, and he shot back his question without a change in expression.

"This is the Prison of Souls, where Nightmares wander. Twisted dreams couple here; it is an extremely dangerous place for any existence."

"I see."

Seeing the entity's deadpan seriousness, Fu Qian gave a solemn nod.

"May I ask your name, Excellency?"

"I have spent too much time here. Names no longer hold any meaning to me. If you merely want a title... you may call me the God Corroder, or the Persuader. Actually, I prefer the latter."

"Alright, Persuader. Can you tell me what all that was just now?"

"Merely a little help. As a wandering ghost, I simply used a bit of my power to help you leave this place."

"No one has come here in a very, very long time. You cannot imagine how surprised I was to discover an intruder, so I offered some passing assistance."

"And your way of helping was to blind my perception, then graft on other senses to mislead me?"

Exactly. At the final moment of fusion, this was the exact problem Fu Qian had realized.

He hadn't been able to figure out why he was different from the others—why his consciousness resided in the pest rather than the host.

The degree of fusion wasn't even that high. A mere difference in species was hardly a convincing explanation.

"Your sharpness exceeds my expectations."

For the very first time, the Persuader's tone wavered.

"How did you find out?"

"I guessed."

Fu Qian answered with utmost honesty.

Because he really did just guess.

Thanks to the sensations he'd felt at the very start of the mission, he had assumed the identity of the pest for a long time without any suspicion.

But his final conversation with Liang Yuntian had suddenly sparked a strange idea.

Liang Yuntian firmly believed that he was the chosen one.

A physique different from ordinary people, the ability to stay awake amidst the weirdness, and even the urge to devour—he was convinced that all of these stemmed entirely from himself, uninfluenced and uncontrolled by anything else.

To Fu Qian, who knew the truth, such thoughts were undoubtedly foolish.

But looking at it from another angle—he had concluded that he was the parasite based on those initial sensations and the persistent disharmony in his body. Was it possible he had been fooled too?

Was it possible those feelings weren't his at all, but had merely been transmitted over to override his own perception, making him implicitly believe them?

Once the thought sprouted, it quickly took root in his mind and refused to fade.

Therefore, at the final moment of fusion, Fu Qian slammed on the brakes and decided to use this chance for some trial and error.

His initial thought was that the pest might be using this method to mislead him, tricking him into accepting it without reservation and submitting to its control.

Thus, Fu Qian's very first action was to rip 'it' out and see if anything special happened.

The results proved that something indeed did—something even more extreme than he had imagined.

He had actually arrived in a completely unfamiliar place and encountered a giant human-faced bug.

A guess...

Fu Qian's answer caused the Persuader to fall silent for a moment.

"Well, since I'm already here, could you explain this 'help' in detail?"

Fu Qian pointed at the room behind the Persuader.

"And what is this supposed to be?"

He had already observed his surroundings. From here to the corner of the Corridor, there were five rooms within his field of vision. Each door bore a different color and pattern.

"This is the Nightmare Corridor."

Faced with Fu Qian's questions, the Persuader finally spoke.

"You don't need to know its origin. You only need to understand that it is extremely dangerous."

"As for these rooms... they are passages out of this place."

"Just from what I can see, there are five doors. Are they all passages?"

Fu Qian looked at him with a frown.

"Isn't your prison a bit too well-connected?"

"The two are not contradictory."

"Behind each door is a convergence of Nightmares from special existences. They do indeed contain paths out of here."

"As long as you go inside and satisfy certain conditions, you can find a way out."

"But there is a reason they are called Nightmares. They are far more twisted and perilous than you can imagine, and not easily traversed."

"And there is a reason I am called the God Corroder..."

The Persuader reached out a sharp front claw and pressed it against the wall.

The next moment, centering on the spot it touched, the smooth wall suddenly turned chaotic, continuously bulging and caving in like a shifting mosaic.

"This is Divine Corrosion. In principle, I can distort anything."

"You were in this room just now. What I did was very simple: I used this ability to grant you a blessing, increasing your chances of finding a way out."

"As for the specific manifestation of Divine Corrosion within the Nightmare, that is not something I can control."

"If you are displeased by this, I can apologize."

"However, I must say your actions were entirely too reckless. You have made things complicated."

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