Eldritch Horror Theatre

'Given the current situation, old man, what you just said could easily be misunderstood.'

The surroundings remained completely still. Faced with Kadon's remark, Fu Qian couldn't help but scoff inwardly.

Looking back at the three wishes completed so far, they seemed completely erratic at first glance, but an underlying connection still linked them.

Take the mystery of why he had broken his promise to meet Lucy.

Kadon had stated he had every intention and plenty of time to go, yet he had ultimately never showed up.

The experience at the inn earlier hadn't explicitly explained this, but that incident had almost certainly taken place at night.

Kadon had also mentioned that his decades-long bout of insomnia began the very day he met her.

On the night Mister Dickens fell ill, had Kadon only noticed the commotion because he was awake?

By extension, was it possible that something had happened during that journey all those years ago—something that triggered transcendent changes in Kadon and ultimately caused his broken promise?

He couldn't string them directly together along a timeline just yet, but a subtle connection had clearly emerged between these three events.

This even offered some explanation for why Kadon had chosen such a remote location to fulfill his wishes—this was where his Sublimation had occurred, the very place he had fundamentally separated himself from ordinary humanity.

Adopting this broader perspective, everything was starting to clear up.

However, this also made it very easy to fall into a trap of habitual thinking—namely, assuming that this fourth item was also tied to the previous ones. For instance, since the old man had just been rejected by Lucy's family, one might assume he was preparing to violently compensate for his past regrets.

Fortunately, as a professional, Fu Qian was never so easily misled by such tropes.

A moment later, Fu Qian followed Kadon's gaze, his eyes falling on a white car parked nearby.

......

'So this is what he meant earlier when he said we had enough gas?'

Theoretically, Fu Qian shouldn't have been able to see what was over there either, yet he made no effort to hide his vision.

After all, people had memory. Anyone paying even a little attention could easily recall what was parked in the exact spot Kadon was staring at.

And this advanced fourth wish, which might have sounded easily misunderstood at first, was actually even more straightforward than the previous ones—his target for forceful possession wasn't a person. It was a car.

'Problem-solving really does require a flexible mindset. If your fuel is running low and you can't find a place to get gas, just swap cars.'

"Alright."

Decisive in both word and action, Fu Qian stepped straight out of the vehicle, not forgetting to grab the items he had purchased earlier.

He didn't spare a single glance toward the spot where old man Kadon had dug his hole earlier, striding straight toward the new car.

"Do you know how to start it?"

Looking thoroughly satisfied with Fu Qian's reaction, Kadon followed right behind him in almost perfect sync.

Upon reaching the car, the old man didn't rush to make a move. Instead, he watched Fu Qian with an examining gaze.

"I do."

Fu Qian's reply and the sound of the car door opening occurred in almost perfect unison.

Immediately after completing that first step, he found the wires beneath the steering wheel and started fiddling with them.

"Very good..."

The surprises brought by his driver just kept coming. Kadon truly just stood to the side, completely unbothered by having someone else help fulfill his wish.

"Thanks."

Facts proved his eye for talent was impeccable. A few moments later, the new car's engine roared to life.

"Could you move to the back seat?"

Before Fu Qian could even offer him a seat, Kadon made a new suggestion.

......

'Oh? What an interesting request.'

Fully aware that his performance thus far had been exceedingly outstanding, Fu Qian still had no intention of dialing it back.

Strictly speaking, this assignment was far more troublesome than a standard escort or rescue mission.

Ensuring Kadon didn't drop dead was just the baseline. He also had to guide the man's dying wishes, making sure he didn't abandon them halfway and saw them through to completion.

Furthermore, from the very beginning up until now, Kadon had never once pulled out a yellow sticky note to cross an item off or write a new one down.

It was as if the Checklist existed entirely in his head.

In short, facing the dying old man before him, the role Fu Qian was playing felt almost like that of a ferryman of souls.

Yet, precisely because he was dealing with such a fragile mission target, it was even more critical to control the pacing.

Kadon hadn't "hired" An Ke just to drive, nor was it remotely just to have someone wave a gun around to scare people.

For starters, the old man was perfectly capable of doing all those things himself. He might have looked like he was at death's door—and indeed, he had already "died" once earlier—but this was a genuine Mid Tier.

His excavation of the time capsule earlier was proof enough of that.

Yet, despite the fact that the contents of his Checklist were entirely unsuitable to be shared with outsiders, he had gone out of his way to bring someone along.

The most bizarre part was that his attitude toward this extra person was deeply ambiguous—

He was fine with a gun being drawn, and equally fine if it wasn't...

He was fine with him staying in the car, or getting out...

He had brought a witness along, yet was entirely indifferent to what that witness actually saw...

The situation was undeniably baffling, but one thing was almost certain: Kadon wouldn't do anything meaningless.

His role as the driver was crucial to the completion of the Checklist.

Under these circumstances, Fu Qian didn't mind seizing the initiative and making his own behavior just as bizarre.

It wasn't out of a twisted sense of fun or a need for extra thrills. It all stemmed from his earlier assessment: the odds of completing this mission just by sitting back and watching the show were slim to none.

In other words, not only was Kadon's attitude ambiguous, it made assisting him with the Checklist difficult to execute.

Even if he let the old man's ambiguity dictate the pace, there was still a high probability that the mission would end in failure.

He couldn't just offer casual help here and there. He needed to probe and map out the elements hidden beneath the surface, identify whatever factor would cause Kadon to fail, and truly step into his role as a ferryman of souls.

"Of course."

Fu Qian stepped right out of the driver's seat, letting Kadon claim the result of his fourth wish.

"Thank you. Our efficiency is truly astounding."

And just like that, Kadon declared another item completed, though his face remained entirely devoid of emotion.

"This next item is called Reflection... Do you understand why I asked you to sit in the back now?"

Watching Fu Qian in the back seat, the old man unsurprisingly announced the next item.

"Let me think... From here on out, I'm you?"

Giving a slight nod, Fu Qian still refused to blunt his own edge.

"Excellent... From this moment on, our identities will be completely swapped. We will become each other's Reflection."

Kadon offered a peculiar smile, genuinely confirming the theory.

"Though we may not know each other very well, please, don't hold back."

As he spoke, he removed an item from his hand and offered it straight over.

It was a strangely shaped pendant made of solid metal. It didn't look particularly valuable, but it gave off a bizarre impression—and it looked awfully familiar.

As he reached out to take it, Fu Qian naturally recalled the sight of this very object hanging on that skeleton.

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