Eldritch Horror Theatre

He had just made a tragic exit, only to be forcefully dragged right back.

His old friend, the Persuader, was truly fraught with misfortune.

At that moment, facing the somewhat dazed figure, Fu Qian let out a long sigh.

What had just happened was obvious. After the Witch listened to his description and sensed his longing for his old friend, she had decisively stepped in, dragging the shelved Persuader back.

And she had done so using the Book of Precepts in her hands.

Given that the tome currently served as the true location of the Toy Workshop, and the Persuader was one of its core elements, this made perfect sense.

The overbearing nature of the move went without saying, but her reaction and methods were also clearly quite flexible.

Strictly speaking, managing to achieve this through the Book of Precepts still relied on the contributions made by The Prisoners.

If they hadn't used the Persuader as a tool, attempting to use his "hometown"—the Toy Workshop—as a breakthrough point to erode that world, this tome wouldn't have achieved such an effect.

"I... you..."

As for the person in question, he looked visibly bewildered.

After a brief struggle, the Persuader was indeed the first to spot Fu Qian, thereby somewhat confirming his own situation.

Truth be told, the Witch's restoration was incredibly accurate. Despite going through a near-dismemberment earlier, the Persuader's body looked quite intact right now.

However, physical trauma was one thing; the effects of a certain Mental Shock were clearly still lingering.

He stared fixedly in this direction, yet beneath that firmness, an overwhelming confusion washed over him, leaving him struggling to even speak clearly.

"We meet again."

Fu Qian greeted him with a smile, not even bothering to ask the rather nerve-wracking question of "whose Persuader are you exactly?"

"That's right, it's him."

The next moment, without waiting for the pitiful party involved to respond, he turned his head to confirm with the Witch.

...

When bewildered, people are highly prone to mirroring the actions of others.

Clearly unsure of how to respond to Fu Qian's greeting, the Persuader subconsciously followed his gaze upon realizing he was talking to someone else.

The moment he saw the Witch, he immediately grew alert, evidently startled.

What kind of look was that? Aside from both being women, their appearances, heights, and styles were completely different, weren't they?

This reaction was undoubtedly strange, but it was all too easy for Fu Qian to understand—this guy must have had a painful memory triggered, one caused by Classmate Su Gao.

In fact, this was also one of the reasons why he had lamented earlier that the Persuader was fraught with misfortune.

He still remembered when he was trapped here, sitting and discussing the Dao with His Excellency Arakiel, as the characters in his mind were dragged into the dream one after another.

As a contestant who should have possessed relatively strong resistance, Su Gao had accepted the invitation without hesitation, preparing to find a chance to lend a hand.

As a top-tier guest star, Brother Persuader was naturally present at the time as well.

His ultimate fate was that, after Fu Qian and Su Gao confirmed he was just a "bystander wasting space," he was directly driven out by the latter using the Power of Echo. He didn't even get to speak a single word the entire time.

It was no surprise that Brother Persuader had been left with a rather profound impression of that event.

The situation was reversed this time, however—he had already retreated into hiding, only to be forcefully dragged back by the Witch.

The method was different, yet evidently just as overbearing, so mistaking her identity seemed somewhat excusable.

In short, the Persuader had clearly mistaken the Witch for Su Gao, though he quickly realized they weren't the same person.

"The current situation is very special. I only know she is here, but I can't pinpoint her. It's possible this special state around us is the reason."

What a pity; the cold shoulder he received remained the same.

The Witch merely cast a single glance at the Persuader. Once Fu Qian confirmed his identity, she turned back and casually discussed their current situation.

"Where we currently are is akin to an extremely special dream, inherently divided into shallow and deep layers.

"You can consider the most superficial layer to be this fog where nothing exists. The deeper you immerse yourself, the more you will see."

Truly living up to the Knight's trust, she had already grasped the situation in just a brief moment.

As for how this situation sounded—

"They want you to immerse yourself deeper."

Fu Qian nodded, indicating he suddenly had a much better understanding of The Prisoners' plan.

The legendary drowned ghost looking for a substitute?

...

The question he had been wondering about earlier: why were The Prisoners so interested in Dark Moon?

To the point of temporarily giving up on retaliation, just to lure people in first.

Now, there seemed to be a perfectly reasonable answer.

They seemingly wanted to drag a sufficiently weighty character down into the water to replace their own roles in the Nightmare Corridor, thereby helping themselves escape.

The trap they laid for this purpose was even an open scheme.

The deeper you immersed yourself, the more you would see. Otherwise, there would only be chaotic fog before your eyes.

One could easily imagine that the deeper you sank into the dream, the closer you got to being completely drowned.

But if you wanted to find something in this corridor, such as Dark Moon, you couldn't resist too much.

As expected of the method used by numerous big shots grasping at straws; the force behind it was quite considerable.

As for why they didn't target him? His Rank was clearly quite considerable as well.

In Fu Qian's view, there were two possible reasons.

First, The Prisoners clearly knew about the existence of the Warehouse. Detaining an administrator was obviously a layer more difficult than targeting an ordinary higher entity.

Second, perhaps after interacting so many times, his own atrocious behavior had left an overly profound impression on them?

"Then it seems we need to be a bit more efficient. After all, time is limited."

Sighing inwardly, Fu Qian continued speaking to the Witch, who hadn't denied the severity of the situation.

Of course, he didn't think the Witch would flinch because of this.

Realizing the severity of the situation was one thing, but saying it out loud was another.

Just like her frankness regarding her objective earlier, if the Witch had finished her assessment and realized the matter was too difficult, retreating would be her best option.

In that case, pretending not to know The Prisoners' plan would obviously reduce resistance to some extent.

Yet, in the end, she had stated this discovery without even blinking, completely unconcerned that The Prisoners' vigilance would be raised to the absolute limit as a result.

Such an overbearing aura revealed a determination—and pressure—evidently stronger than before.

The water ghosts weren't a monolithic block either.

A casual thought made it clear: even if they successfully dragged a victim into the water, there was still the issue of who could seize the opportunity to climb out.

As long as it wasn't a case where everyone could escape, if anyone was too severely injured in the process, they would ultimately just be weaving wedding clothes for others.

In short, after receiving the Witch's determination, Fu Qian didn't mind using equally unrestrained phrasing, continuously outputting pressure.

"Lead the way."

Not only that, but in the very next moment, facing the almost dumbfounded Persuader, he issued a direct instruction.

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