Eldritch Horror Theatre

Even the weakest party in a trio act had ways to seize the initiative.

For example, by making the others lose track of where he was in the act, or whether he was still performing at all.

Although many things remained unconfirmed for Fu Qian, he could draw one near-certain conclusion: whether or not he entered the Head Physician's Office was incredibly important to the other two.

Didn't that leave room to maneuver?

So far, both the Director and Servis were playing as if they had full vision of the board.

His every move was under surveillance, every twist and turn well within their control. Even the choice of whether to open the door had become part of the game.

That was where the term "Director" came from, and now he was dealing with two of them.

But no matter how many Directors there were, what if they couldn't see what the actor was doing at all?

Few people would have the guts to cut something like that straight into the final film and submit it for review, right?

Not only had Buyiren been sent away, but not a single living creature was left on this entire floor.

And he didn't stop there. While mentally sketching out the layout of Underground Layer 1, Fu Qian went along the corridor, shutting off every light and closing every door.

Buyiren had evidently taken his task very seriously. Once he agreed, he truly took everyone away, leaving no one behind.

Since this was the Underground portion of the building, losing artificial lighting caused visibility to plummet, plunging the area into physical darkness.

In an environment like this, unless the two Directors had installed hidden cameras—equipped with night vision, no less—they shouldn't be able to catch any movement inside.

Of course, this was based on science. Once Transcendent elements were involved, it would be a completely different story.

But that didn't matter. He could use this opportunity to see if these two exceptionally capable players truly relied on Transcendent elements to pull off their prophetic maneuvers.

In short, one must always be good at identifying their own advantages.

Having pinpointed the shared pain point of the other two players, Fu Qian had settled on this strategy in an instant, and he was highly anticipating their reactions.

Of course, there was a minor operational issue here—observation was mutual.

Just as they couldn't see inside, he couldn't see outside either.

If he wanted to turn this place into a Black Box to the greatest possible extent, he couldn't afford to be careless.

Given the sheer weirdness this place had displayed all along, even without obvious signs of Transcendent power, Fu Qian wasn't about to play any clever tricks, like poking an inconspicuous peephole to secretly observe the outside.

In the gloom, he had once again circled back to the front of the Head Physician's Office, even bringing a wooden chair along with him.

At the spot where the stairwell connected to the Corridor, there was an iron gate that could be pulled shut.

Despite its exquisite wrought-iron patterns, however, it did nothing to block the line of sight.

As a result, not only did Fu Qian lock it completely, but he also went out of his way to fetch two privacy curtains from the nearby diagnostic room, hanging them on the inside of the gate to block the view.

Having finished all this, he faced the unlocked office door, yet he still didn't walk inside. Instead, he sat back down on the wooden chair and waited quietly in the darkness.

...

He had to admit, there was a sudden sense of déjà vu, as if he had returned to the past.

It was dark and silent. Even though his body wasn't physically restrained, he had theoretically trapped himself in this tiny corner in a rather unconventional manner.

It was comparable to the confinement room at the very beginning of the mission—a perfect case of different tunes played with equal skill.

So much so that it made him look forward to whatever intense excitement might erupt before his eyes this time—Tap.

As it turned out, he didn't have to wait long. A moment later, a faint sound answered his expectations.

The sound was so familiar that he could easily tell someone was walking down the stairs, step by step.

The pace wasn't fast, but there was a resolute firmness within the slowness.

It was as if they would never turn back, even if the path ahead was completely blocked.

Tap, tap, tap...

His senses hadn't failed him. The footsteps approached steadily until they finally stopped right outside the retractable gate, followed by dead silence.

With the path ahead clearly blocked, the person not only refrained from turning back, but they didn't even knock on the gate. It was as if they were just standing there, stiff and straight.

'Interesting.'

Still sitting motionless, Fu Qian grew intensely curious about whatever lay on the other side of the privacy curtain.

In fact, even if the person had directly called out for someone to open the door, he wouldn't have naively assumed it was just someone who had gotten lost.

That was the level of faith he had in the Directors.

They had demonstrated an astonishing degree of control over the Sanitarium the entire way, so why would they give up at such a sensitive moment?

Not to mention, there wasn't just one Director right now, but two.

Even if the person outside the door was completely clueless and had genuinely come for a medical check-up, the only explanation was that the Directors had deliberately let them through. It was still their countermeasure against his Black Box strategy.

Moreover, the current situation was already visibly bizarre.

Anyone who frequently watched horror movies would know that someone standing in absolute silence was far more terrifying than someone banging on the door or screaming.

Especially if accompanied by an unblinking stare.

Although he couldn't see the other side, based on Fu Qian's judgment, the probability of that exact scenario playing out was extremely high.

Tap—

It wasn't even over yet. Just as Fu Qian was imagining the scene of them staring at each other through the curtain, another set of footsteps rang out.

And it didn't sound like the person outside had finally lost their patience and was stepping forward to kick the door down.

The source of the new footsteps was distinctly farther away; someone else was walking down the stairs.

...

'Another expert?'

Fu Qian was quite confident that the first person hadn't silently tiptoed upstairs just to sneak back down and scare him.

After all, aside from the different frequency of the strides, simply listening to the creaking of the wooden steps revealed that this newcomer was much heavier.

The only similarity was that after arriving behind the privacy curtain at a near-constant pace, this person also stopped in silence, making no aggressive moves whatsoever.

'Are they really this civil, quietly lining up without making a fuss?'

Fu Qian clicked his tongue in wonder. The scene outside the door had suddenly become twice as bizarre.

For this to happen successively went far beyond the realm of coincidence. The Directors' fingerprints were becoming more and more obvious.

And this undoubtedly proved the success of his Black Box strategy.

The Directors were indeed highly focused on this place. Furthermore, up to this point, they hadn't displayed any obvious signs of Transcendent Perception that would allow them to confirm his status from a distance—Tap, tap!

It still wasn't over.

Just as Fu Qian was feeling rather flattered by the pilgrimage-like stance outside, the number of pilgrims continued to increase.

This time, it wasn't just one person. A dense cluster of footsteps echoed from the top of the stairs. Maintaining that exact same posture, they walked down one by one, gathering outside.

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