Eldritch Horror Theatre

He was sleeping soundly.

Without greeting Rob and the others, Fu Qian silently evaluated the discovery before him.

It was definitely Professor Ah Kai, and he even looked to be in good condition.

His breathing was steady, his complexion rosy.

It was as if he had simply been too exhausted and lain down in his clothes to catch up on sleep.

He was even starting to wake up, disturbed by his uninvited guests.

"What's going on—"

"What's happening here?"

The questions rang out in almost perfect unison. The moment Ah Kai opened his eyes, he and Boyd's group stared at each other, sharing identical expressions of disbelief.

"Looks like you fell asleep."

Instantly the center of attention, Fu Qian kept his tone as calm as ever, gesturing to indicate he was just here to wake him up.

...

He really was just waking him up.

As for Professor Ah Kai's situation, Fu Qian figured he had pretty much grasped it by now.

It ultimately proved to be related to Melia, just as expected. This was a victory for logical thinking.

If he had abandoned that theory after a minor setback, or wasted the remaining time searching elsewhere in the Academy, he obviously would have found nothing.

As for the exact method of this wake-up call—

Amid the group's silence, Fu Qian looked down at his own hands.

The leaves and the mushrooms were both still there, though they had undergone a radical transformation.

For instance, the former had returned to a tender green, while the mushrooms looked incredibly clean and wholesome—practically safe enough to eat raw.

'I controlled my strength rather well.'

Fu Qian was highly satisfied with this outcome.

What he had just done was actually quite simple: he had targeted the Melia modules visible under his Chan perspective and unleashed the Tyrant's Calamity Power upon them.

The final results proved incredibly precise. It had directly stripped the concept of Melia from these items without damaging their physical bodies—and the same applied to the room itself.

Yes, the specific method used to wake Professor Ah Kai had been targeting this very location and locally stripping away its attribute as the Land of Melia's Kin.

This was undoubtedly delicate work. Chasing the rest of the group out had been a calculated precaution against the risks.

As a newly ascended Tyrant, his control might not have been perfectly precise. If they had been caught in the crossfire, their fate wouldn't have been pretty.

But the facts proved that the Calamity Authority was as precise as a scalpel.

It was far more than just targeting physical entities. So far, he had seemingly manipulated abstract concepts like the starry sky, fate, and connections...

And its performance displayed an astonishing sense of equality.

No matter the state of existence, no matter how abstract, as long as he had the patience to lock onto it, it would all be annihilated.

It truly was an awe-inspiring power. There was a reason the Tyrant boasted such a stellar combat record back in the day.

In short, regarding the situation at hand, the absence of the Land of Melia's Kin attribute had caused Ah Kai to suddenly pop back into the otherwise empty office.

And the reappearance of this missing person served as powerful proof of his earlier theory—whatever Ah Kai had been messing with right before his accident was a Miracle related to Melia.

"I fell asleep? What time is it now..."

Fu Qian's words clearly carried a lot of credibility with Ah Kai, but precisely because of that, the professor looked utterly baffled in that moment, muttering to himself as he checked the time.

"How did I not feel a thing? One second I was running a test..."

Realizing that the time didn't match his expectations, his gaze naturally fell upon the few ritual Items at his feet.

...

Oh? Was it like sleeping under general anesthesia?

Fu Qian didn't question Ah Kai's claim; instead, he felt a brief moment of empathy.

Many people misunderstood anesthesia. True general anesthesia didn't just put you to sleep normally; it was closer to total unconsciousness. You closed your eyes, opened them, and an entire chunk of the timeline was simply skipped.

Fu Qian held a similar view on Death.

Of course, frankly speaking, the difference might not seem that huge to an ordinary person—but one couldn't forget that transcendents were not ordinary people.

Take his current self, for example. If he wanted to experience sleep, he absolutely could.

It was just that during the process of sleeping, he wouldn't neglect his vigilance, his thinking, or performing other tasks.

As a transcendent, Ah Kai might have a different degree of proficiency in this regard, but he should essentially possess a similar level of lucidity—yet this time, there was absolutely none.

It was a state of complete general anesthesia. One moment he was running tests yesterday, and the next he found himself surrounded by a crowd of onlookers.

For a transcendent, this was a genuinely dangerous situation.

"I came here looking for you yesterday, but you weren't around. There were only these traces on the ground... Later, I went to find Professor Fu."

Regardless, the rescue operation appeared to be a success.

Faced with Ah Kai's confusion, Rob breathed a sigh of relief and immediately helped explain the situation.

"Professor Boyd and the others have also been helping ever since they found out. We've been looking from yesterday right up until now."

Naturally, Rob didn't forget the other three, even going out of his way to emphasize that they hadn't rested at all.

"Unfortunately, we weren't of much help... We only made a breakthrough once Professor Fu arrived."

Exchanging glances, Boyd and his two companions felt somewhat at a loss.

They had just found him like that? Had he actually been here the whole time, completely invisible and untouchable?

It was obvious that this development challenged their understanding of reality.

At the same time, they retained their intellectual integrity. They had no intention of claiming credit, openly stating that it was all Professor Fu's doing.

...

"Thank you to every professor for your help."

From those few words, it naturally wasn't hard for Ah Kai to imagine the process they had gone through, and he immediately expressed his earnest gratitude to everyone present.

Though his wording was plain, his sincerity was palpable.

Some things were terrifying upon deeper reflection.

Being completely oblivious without even experiencing darkness before his eyes, to the point where the outside world couldn't even capture traces of his existence...

Putting himself in that perspective—if not for this external rescue, couldn't he have blinked and found himself thousands of years in the future?

Or even more likely, his consciousness would have been permanently frozen right there.

It was exactly like falling into a Well on the timeline. At this moment, he felt an overwhelming sense of having narrowly escaped with his life.

"I'm still not entirely sure what happened, but it should be related to my previous attempts...

"I didn't expect it to lead to such an extreme situation. I apologize for my lack of foresight and for troubling all of you."

His academic mindset came to the fore once again. Ah Kai quickly suppressed his fear and quietly analyzed the cause.

"It's fine. Look on the bright side—it seems you succeeded."

Professor Fu's optimistic guidance continued despite the somewhat heavy atmosphere, as he gestured toward Ah Kai with his chin.

"Haven't you noticed? It looks like you've crossed that threshold."

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