Eldritch Horror Theatre

Brother Clown had put on such a splendid show. As a guest, how could he not show his appreciation?

As for the gamble, a merely satisfactory conclusion wasn't enough for Fu Qian. The experience could absolutely be elevated.

For instance, instead of just cheating, he could simply crush the person sitting across the table.

Detonated with the full power of the Mechanical King of the Abandoned Prison, the Calamity Eyes were something even an opponent of the same Rank wouldn't dare test. The clown, lacking even a trace of divinity, was instantly reduced to ashes.

"Hahaha..."

Yet an interesting scene unfolded. Under the scorching heat of the Frenzied Flame, where clearly nothing remained, a force stubbornly tried to piece a human shape back together, even emitting traces of that familiar maniacal laughter.

It was almost nostalgic. The last time the clown had been roasted by Stoss's Frenzied Flame in the bar, he had laughed with the exact same satisfaction.

Amid these musings, the laughter finally faded, plunging as if into a bottomless abyss.

That stubborn resilience against the Frenzied Flame finally gave out. Not only did the human shape slowly dissolve into nothingness, but the very fabric of time and space seemed to be torn apart with it.

A dim radiance—one that genuinely carried the palpable shift of day and night—squeezed through the gap.

It looked like it was time for everyone to wake up.

As he marveled at the sight, the scenery began to shift rapidly, though Fu Qian didn't forget to spare one last glance at the gambling table.

The Spider Silk Queen, who had believed the outcome was settled and everything lay under her control, seemed to suffer a massive shock. In that moment, she actually abandoned the two duelists and fled in sheer panic.

Underhanded tactics were truly effective. It seemed this round had reversed into a draw once again.

...

The eternal night truly seemed to be the intention of Brother Ji Feng.

The clown naturally couldn't withstand the eruption of the Calamity, but there was still someone in the Unseen Hill capable of putting up a bit of resistance.

In the end, the only one frantically trying to maintain the clown's existence amid the destruction was Ji Feng.

The clown had been right. His existence represented Ji Feng's will to plunge the entire Unseen Hill into eternal night—and it was an incredibly strong will at that.

Interesting. After his last treatment, the man's condition had only stabilized for such a brief moment?

Though strictly speaking, He was shifting in a positive direction.

Truth replaced illusion, and the self attained peace.

Returning to the gloomy Warehouse, Fu Qian tapped his fingers against his armrest, silently tallying up his extra harvest.

Completing the task was one thing, but this trip to the Unseen Hill had been incredibly fruitful when it came to gathering information.

Theoretically speaking, the difficulty of this mission hadn't been too high.

Or rather, after incarnating as the Mechanical King of the Abandoned Prison, the difficulty of most missions had become rather forgiving.

That was perfectly logical. As an existence that theoretically stood at the absolute peak of the Transcendent tier with guaranteed Combat Power, continuing to stumble around like he had in the past would actually seem too contrived.

Specifically regarding this mission's Containment Conditions to End the Darkest Night, it hadn't been entirely without the risk of failure.

For instance, if he had single-mindedly locked onto the Angel of Death and blindly focused on killing him, as he had noted earlier.

Under those circumstances, the clown most likely wouldn't have offered that final wager. Instead, he would have quickly steered the situation to steal a victory.

After all, the more intense his actions were, the easier it would be to trigger the appearance of the Ash Descent.

As for slaughtering the entire criminal gang?

It was an idea, but it wouldn't necessarily succeed.

Both the Angel of Death and the clown fundamentally believed they represented Ji Feng's will.

This wasn't a quest chain in a video game. Who was to say that killing a specific target would definitively mean the Darkest Night had been ended?

Fu Qian never harbored such naive optimism. His earlier delay in eliminating the clown had actually been to strengthen the karmic connection between the two of them.

If the Angel of Death died, there was still the clown. And if the clown died, what was stopping Old Man Ji Feng from finding someone else to continue enacting his will?

That was, unless the clown became the absolute symbol of that will, rendering him completely irreplaceable.

...

Simply put, it meant letting the situation play out as far as possible. This allowed the clown, who orchestrated everything, to gradually become synonymous with Ji Feng's obsession with bringing about the descent of the dark night.

Only by executing the clown under those conditions could he strike a fatal blow to the core of the issue and complete the mission.

As the saying went: fatten the pig before the slaughter.

Judging from the mission's outcome and the final scene he'd just witnessed, the execution had been quite successful.

Old Man Ji had exhausted all his strength trying to keep the concept of the clown from being extinguished. Upon his failure, the mission was completed, and the Darkest Night was ended.

The false, chaotic Unseen Hill remained, and it was safe to assume the "sleeping" Natives would gradually wake up one by one.

But to be perfectly honest, right up until the final moment, Fu Qian hadn't been entirely certain if that karmic connection would hold.

After all, whether the concept of the Darkest Night referred to the eternal night plan, Ji Feng's determination to bring about the darkness, or simply the Unseen Hill hidden behind the door, its definition had always been rather vague.

As for why the Warehouse was so unreliable, speaking in riddles to such a degree when issuing missions?

Simple. Fu Qian would be the first to admit that the unreliable one was actually himself.

All along, there had been a potentially simpler solution to this mission, but he simply hadn't chosen it—directly destroying the Unseen Hill behind the door.

Didn't it want the darkness to descend? He could have just amputated the darkness entirely, truly pulling the firewood from under the cauldron.

Moreover, his abilities like the Resplendent Tyrant were practically tailor-made for that sort of task.

Not to mention, that door had been ridiculously easy to find.

In short, regardless of whether it was a professional approach, as long as one possessed his level of brute strength and charged behind the door to slaughter everything in their path, the mission could be easily completed.

The key was that it was simply too easy.

Not only had this mission felt slightly rushed, but the Warehouse's intentions had felt incredibly deliberate. It was practically showing its hand, wanting him to destroy the Unseen Hill behind the door—which theoretically represented Ji Feng's rational side.

...

Why?

Did the Warehouse neither want Ji Feng to be corrupted by the Mother of Gospel and become a conduit for her to shatter the barrier, nor want his will to settle down peacefully, leaving him to just brainstorm inside there every day?

Wasn't this treatment of a former employee a bit cruel? It gave off a hard-to-shake feeling that he was nothing more than a disposable tool.

Back when he had first entered the door, sitting quietly in the darkness listening to the Containment Conditions, that very sympathy had spontaneously welled up inside him.

His second reaction had been immense satisfaction with his own curiosity.

Had he not been curious about the patterns behind the Warehouse's mission objectives, which had prompted him to sit in the dark for a while, would the Containment Conditions still have been to End the Darkest Night?

Would it have simply ordered him to "destroy the place behind the door"?

The vague wording had presented more opportunities for fishing in troubled waters.

Judging by the final outcome, that choice had truly been meaningful.

He had met the requirements without needing to completely destroy the rational side of Brother Ji Feng.

He had the benevolent heart of a healer. Leaving behind a lingering illness might smell of a scam to milk more money from a patient, but it was still vastly superior to a direct frontal lobotomy.

Of course, the specific details would still depend on the Warehouse's summary, which was exactly what he was waiting for right now.

He had been sitting there for quite a while now, yet the Warehouse's summary was suffering an unprecedented delay—

[Mission Evaluation: Dark Knight]

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