Eldritch Horror Theatre

Only seven days left?

He'd figured time wouldn't be as abundant as he imagined, but merely taking a few steps had already consumed half of it.

At that moment, the Sanitarium was very quiet, and Buyiren beside him was even quieter.

As the culprit who had deliberately provoked him, Fu Qian felt no embarrassment whatsoever; he simply marveled to himself.

This aloof, otherworldly posture of his wasn't just to provoke the man, of course.

In that moment, he was genuinely and carefully sensing the aura of this place.

In all fairness, it really was a nice place. Even the phrase "makes you never want to leave" had found an alternative interpretation through him.

For a task designated as Number 1, there hadn't been any particularly intense conflicts so far, nor any impossibly hopeless dilemmas that stripped away his ability to maneuver.

Yet it was exactly this kind of physically and mentally relaxing place that was silently nourishing all things, guiding everything toward an ultimate, unstoppable destruction.

And that was even with him taking evasive measures.

Beneath their seemingly normal exteriors, almost everyone he encountered carried a sense of brokenness that threatened to drag their surroundings down into The Abyss with them.

Truth be told, this actually aligned much better with Fu Qian's idea of a "mental rehabilitation center."

Some people might instinctively assume that "lunatics" should act hysterical, liable to lash out and hurt someone at any moment.

Or that while they might look normal on the surface, their mental circuitry would be completely mutated, making them feel utterly alien to their fellow human beings.

That was a bit too stereotypical. In Fu Qian's eyes, the people he had met here were actually the more natural type.

Perhaps they each had their own stories, but fundamentally, they were normal people. There was nothing wrong with their cognitive logic, and one wouldn't notice anything amiss during ordinary conversation—until they accidentally stepped too close to a certain Well.

A Well torn open by an unresolvable knot in their hearts... Then, you'd be grabbed by the hand and dragged all the way down.

Of course, he wasn't here today to perform psychoanalysis.

The main reason for this comparison was that he seemed to catch the scent of a much deeper danger hidden within.

...

This place might be fraught with peril, where bumping into anyone could result in being dragged down a Well.

But in theory, there were only so many people in the Sanitarium. As long as his SAN Value was high enough, pure trial and error could root out most of these dangers, allowing him to evade them during his operations.

The truly thorny issue actually seemed to be the existence of the Director.

Dealing with this kind of charlatanesque, "omniscient" player while restricted to a Mortal Body undoubtedly put him at a severe disadvantage.

Especially since the other party's posture suggested they were doing everything in their power to keep him here, precisely contradicting his Containment objective.

But to be honest, this wasn't his first time experiencing such an asymmetrical clash.

At the very least, Fu Qian still didn't feel it was completely hopeless. What he worried about was something far more peculiar...

Could these Wells possibly guide him—the victim—into even more unfathomable circumstances, far beyond a mere loss of SAN Value?

And would the eventual arrival of Judgment Day hold any special meaning?

He couldn't help Overthinking this aspect. First of all, there was the direct certification from the Warehouse—this was a mandatory task.

Even with his All-In authority, he had to grit his teeth and burn his SAN Value here; he couldn't just skip it at the cost of 5 points.

Then there was something even more special: that name he had found in this place.

Lasik, a soul tortured to the point of collapse in endless samsara, suspected of having come here first... Could there be a causal connection between the two?

"Believe me, if you really like it that much, you'll have plenty of chances to stay here."

After Fu Qian had heavily exaggerated the risks of his task, Buyiren finally snapped back to reality and coldly evaluated his words.

His tone even carried a hint of veiled hostility, faintly suggesting he was no longer obsessed with dragging Fu Qian out of there.

"Follow me."

Right as the words left his mouth, he turned and led the way, refusing to waste another second or give Fu Qian any chance to bargain.

...

"Aren't you going to ask where we're headed?"

Naturally, Fu Qian didn't mind this minor rudeness, not to mention that Brother Buyiren was theoretically still helping him.

He had instantly answered the call to follow. Soon, the two were walking along a small path paved with red bricks arranged in floral patterns, rather than heading back the way they came.

However, this overly cooperative attitude actually made their guide look a bit uncomfortable.

Though he kept his eyes straight ahead and focused on leading the way, at one point Buyiren still asked in a casual tone.

"Weren't we looking for a safe place to hide?"

This time, it was Fu Qian's turn to be confused. He looked at him as if to say, You already gave the answer earlier, so why give me an open-book test?

"I mean... where do you think best fits our criteria?"

The escapee's excessively relaxed demeanor almost seemed to inflict a mental blow.

Although Buyiren didn't stay silent this time, he clearly weighed his words carefully to make the question more direct.

"You actually asked the right person. I just recently gathered some intel about the most dangerous yet safest place in the Sanitarium—do you know where it is?"

Fu Qian instantly perked up. Not only was he generous with his guidance, but he even flipped the script and tested him in return.

"Of course I know... but are you sure you want to hide in Servis's Office? We'd have to spend a whole day in there."

Buyiren looked quite shocked at that moment, whipping his head around to stare at him.

"I am indeed quite curious about that place."

Fu Qian, on the other hand, wore an expression of someone who was courting death.

"Even if Servis isn't there, people still go in and out of it occasionally."

Buyiren continued to warn him earnestly, seemingly having forgotten his earlier dissatisfaction.

"That is indeed a problem. It's always impolite to scare people."

Fu Qian appeared to finally take a bit of the advice, nodding slightly in agreement.

Although his angle of concern was quite different from an ordinary person's, actually focusing on the issue of etiquette.

"So you've dropped the idea?"

Buyiren didn't comment further, only confirming with Fu Qian that he had abandoned such a crazy thought.

"Of course not. But that doesn't matter, does it? Aren't you the one leading the way right now?"

Fu Qian simply shook his head, signaling that his curiosity could never be let down.

"Fair enough... So, where do you think we're going right now?"

Finding it hard to retort for a moment, Buyiren was equally stubborn and brought up the old question again.

"Servis's Office?"

Fu Qian blinked.

...

"Answer—correct!"

For a moment, Fu Qian's answer almost brought a silence akin to Suffocation, but fortunately, it was quickly broken.

Turning his head back around, Buyiren seemed somewhat surprised by his persistence, while simultaneously revealing an unprecedented smile.

"But we aren't going there to hide, we're going to meet someone... The game is over, Mr. Fu."

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