Eldritch Horror Theatre

"What if I open the door after I get out?"

Fu Qian offered little comment on Su Gao's final instructions, looking instead to the future.

Right...

This relatively flexible line of thought seemed to inspire the surrounding audience as well, sending the total pleasure soaring even higher.

"It's no use. The rest of the people are already deeply integrated with this place. Even if the door is open, they won't be able to walk out."

Unfortunately, Su Gao poured cold water on those lovely expectations a moment later, shaking her head to show it wasn't that simple.

Just as expected.

Fu Qian wasn't particularly disappointed. Or rather, he had already known the answer when he asked.

If people could just freely walk out when the door opened, Su Gao wouldn't have needed to go to so much trouble. She could have simply gone out first and opened it herself.

Before Fu Qian could even ask, Su Gao was already shooting down other potential plans.

"On one hand, the Rank here is too high. On the other hand, it comes back to the previous reason—you are all deeply integrated with it. The best possible outcome would be destroying everyone along with it."

That made perfect sense. No matter how you looked at it, this was closely tied to Excellency Stomach; completely destroying it was never going to be easy.

Her explanation once again earned Fu Qian's agreement.

"Then what if you go out, open the door, and then try to rescue me?"

At the same time, Fu Qian continued making technical adjustments, trying to combine his previous ideas.

"That won't work either. I can only provide help in my current state. Once I leave it, I'll lose this ability."

Unfortunately, Su Gao's tone remained firm as she rejected this clever little trick.

...

Very reasonable. You could only produce the Antitoxic Serum if you were poisoned, after all.

Fu Qian once again felt the boiling pleasure from their surroundings, stemming from the despair of being completely unable to escape. Perhaps it should be called claustrophilic joy?

Su Gao's reasoning seemed perfectly logical to him; otherwise, their current predicament wouldn't be much of a problem at all.

But in that case, aside from the final failsafe of sending him out alone, was the situation truly hopeless?

"Then if the door is already open, and you're still inside, could you take me out with you?"

Never one to give up easily, Fu Qian continued to innovate, refining his little tricks.

"Regrettably, my abilities probably aren't enough to escape from here twice."

Showing no signs of annoyance, Su Gao softly noted that Echo had its limits too.

Perhaps she could take Professor Fu away if the door were open, but the wild operation of going out, opening the door, and coming back in was something even she might not walk away from unscathed.

"Understood. So the technical difficulty we need to overcome is how to open the door without you having to go out..."

Looking as if he understood perfectly, Fu Qian quickly drew a conclusion—though it didn't seem like a very useful one.

Through this back-and-forth, the audience clearly shared similar feelings about the results of this brainstorming session.

It sounded like a profound conclusion, but where were they supposed to find someone to help them open the door?

It had already been clearly demonstrated that as long as one was poisoned, the door turned into a sort of law-based barrier.

And right now, everyone here was clearly afflicted...

"You aren't planning to just lie there and scream for help, are you? Hoping some passerby will lend you a hand?"

In the end, leaders simply had more active minds. Chief Yuan, who had been diligently managing his facial expressions this entire time, finally couldn't hold back and offered a bold guess.

It might have sounded a bit absurd, but it was built on the foundation of Professor Fu's own absurd ideas...

"Makes sense. I really am planning to find someone to help."

Who would have thought that a moment later, Professor Fu would actually agree with the idea of asking for help.

Searching his memory for a certain name, his gaze landed on Madam Number Seven.

"Rachel?"

...

Everyone they had encountered so far was an acquaintance, except for the one person strictly addressed by a codename.

Anyone with a sliver of curiosity would inevitably guess at the hairless lady's true identity, and Fu Qian was naturally no exception.

The only problem was that Professor Fu was often rumored to have a messy private life; he simply knew too many women.

With someone like Nepheli right in front of him—the type to get dragged here even after dying—the pool of candidates was even wider.

Fortunately, at a glance, although Madam Number Seven had lost her looks, she still possessed a few rather distinct features.

For example, her strength wasn't very high, she was a bit straightforward, she knew a little about Psychic Type methods... and her face was ruined.

Women naturally possessed some love for beauty. Even to hide her identity, such a method was far too extreme.

So in Fu Qian's view, Madam Number Seven might have already been somewhat disfigured to begin with, prompting her to just lean into it.

And he actually knew someone exactly like that—Rachel, the eccentric girl with a head full of colorful hair from the Containment Object mission involving 'Prosthetic Eye'.

Her strength was a bit on the weak side, she wasn't too bright, and during their first meeting, she had hit him directly with a Mental Shock.

Furthermore, at the very beginning of that mission, he had similarly been handcuffed as a captive.

Of course, that last point was just pure superstition and couldn't serve as real evidence.

Fortunately, he didn't need that much evidence, because it was about to be verified—

"You..."

Faced with Professor Fu's call, Madam Number Seven looked slightly dazed for a moment. Staring at Fu Qian, she didn't deny it.

...

It seemed he was right... it really was Rachel?

Her hesitant demeanor not only confirmed her identity but even helped verify the matter of the mental imprint.

Rachel was indeed as straightforward as he imagined. Her reaction to his question made it incredibly hard to believe she had no connection to that name.

If she had simply been called by her real name, she would have either denied it or admitted it openly; she wouldn't have acted so strangely.

Her reaction looked more like she wasn't surprised that Professor Fu knew her identity, but merely felt he shouldn't have exposed it at this moment.

Which naturally brought to mind the previous matter of 'Professor Fu's instructions'.

So, just like the others, did she also have some unknown secret agreement with Professor Fu?

He could only say that as the exploration continued, the setup for this mission seemed to be getting more and more coherent.

"Could you go over and help open the door? Use your physical strength."

Amidst his marveling, Fu Qian wasted no time at all. He directly put forth this unreasonable demand, his gaze genuinely landing on Rachel's cloth-covered body.

"...Why do you think I can open it?"

Rachel seemed a bit uncomfortable being stared at, but this discomfort was also transforming into pleasure.

"No, I never thought you could open it."

Fu Qian signaled for her not to think too highly of herself, simultaneously recalling a certain head named Li Min.

Actually, there was one more piece of pure superstition he hadn't mentioned. The reason he suspected she was Rachel was that he always felt there should be eight acquaintances here.

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