Eldritch Horror Theatre

The information revealed in the mission summary was far from simple.

First, it explicitly confirmed his theory.

The communication achieved through that special gesture was a ritual to form a covenant.

This kind of ritual could directly transform a person into a special state, bypassing the bottleneck for advancement.

To some extent, this method could be considered cheating. After all, compared to those painstakingly feeling their way along the path of the demigod, it was far too easy.

Of course, the price was permanently losing any hope of becoming a God.

As for why, Fu Qian had a theory.

The essence of the ritual was a transcendent and a Deity using a covenant to merge into a single, specialized concept.

In the process, the transcendent gained a framework that was incredibly easy to advance, but sacrificed their intrinsic completeness.

William could increase his own power by collecting sin without suffering any of the backlash.

That was because he was nothing more than a tool for the Goddess of Sins.

Like a murderer's knife: no matter how many people it slaughtered, the guilt of the crime would never fall on the weapon.

To improve efficiency, the murderer could simply hone the blade.

But no matter how sharp it became, the moment one chose to be a tool, their potential as a person was forfeit.

No wonder this thing needs to be contained. If it were allowed to run rampant, the fallout would be staggering!

Fu Qian sighed deeply.

Besides that, there was another vital piece of information in the summary: the very last sentence. Alongside the path to becoming a God, there were many more traps like this one.

This sentence all but confirmed that this wasn't the only covenant pathway.

In Fu Qian's initial theories, a transcendent's progression pathway was a series of branching roads.

Upon reaching each node, they would use a specific ritual to choose a branch and delve deeper.

They would keep walking that path until they stood on par with a Deity.

Now, it seemed that alongside those elusive branches, the road was littered with massive pitfalls—the kind you couldn't climb out of once you fell in.

I'll have to be extremely careful going forward.

Having tallied the gains from this trip, Fu Qian contentedly activated the Imprint on his wrist.

His shift was over. It was time to go home.

The scenery blurred, and Fu Qian found himself standing in his living room.

It was noon outside, and everything indoors was exactly as he had left it.

So the battery really did die?

Like any modern young man, Fu Qian's first instinct was to grab his phone from the side table, only to find the screen completely unresponsive.

It wasn't surprising; by his count, he had been gone for days.

Fortunately, thanks to his tidy habits, Fu Qian never left leftovers sitting out.

So despite the passing days, the air held no strange odors.

He skillfully plugged his phone in and booted it up. Soon, a dense barrage of notification chimes began to sound.

Is it really that serious?

Fu Qian frowned, scrolling through the texts and missed calls from various people.

The earliest was from Young Master Qin, who had called him on Sunday.

Judging by the subsequent logs, Qin hadn't thought much of the unanswered call at the time.

But two days later, the missed calls from him had spiked, coming in every few hours and accompanied by voice messages demanding a callback.

The day after that, when the phone was clearly dead, he had been bombarded with a dense slew of text alerts.

On top of that, several other numbers had tried to reach him.

Wu Qingyu, Tan Ying, and this one is... Pei Yanqing?

Fu Qian flipped through the call logs, matching the numbers to his memory one by one.

Looks like things got a little out of hand!

I've disappeared for a few days occasionally before; isn't Young Master Qin overreacting a bit this time?

Fu Qian took a breath. Instead of rushing to return the calls, he turned toward the front door.

Click!

A faint mechanical click rang out; someone was trying to turn the lock cylinder.

"Where did you learn this trick?"

The next moment, Wu Qingyu's hushed, sneaky voice drifted through the door.

"Funnily enough, Xiao Qian taught me. Never expected I'd be using it to open his own door today."

Young Master Qin answered in an equally suppressed voice, the scratching of the lockpicks never ceasing.

"Alright... but are you sure you want to do this?"

Wu Qingyu sounded at a loss.

"I have no choice. The guy's been MIA for days without a word, and his phone is dead. I won't be able to rest easy if I don't check on him!"

"But what if he turned off his phone to get busy with a girl? It's going to be awkward if we walk in on that."

Wu Qingyu still sounded a bit hesitant.

"For three days? Are you sure? Is she made of titanium alloy?"

"...Just do it!"

With Wu Qingyu's go-ahead, Qin Mingze began working the lock cylinder faster.

However, he clearly hadn't mastered the craft. Only after a full five minutes of tinkering did the final click of the unlocking mechanism sound.

Click!

In perfect synchronization, Fu Qian pressed his hand against the inner handle and pulled the door open.

"Got it!"

Completely unaware of the timing, Young Master Qin let out an excited cheer—only to lock eyes with Fu Qian the very next second.

Six eyes met, plunging the scene into profound awkwardness.

As eloquent as Young Master Qin usually was, getting caught picking a lock by the homeowner himself was enough to short-circuit his brain.

"Looking for me?"

A few seconds later, Fu Qian was the first to break the silence.

"You've been home this whole time?"

Qin Mingze finally recovered. He exchanged a bewildered glance with Wu Qingyu before asking in disbelief.

"Then why didn't you answer your phone? I even came and knocked on your door earlier!"

"If I hadn't remembered that you hate dealing with the police, I would've called the cops by now!"

"Come inside."

Facing Young Master Qin, who was aggressively demanding accountability, Fu Qian gestured for him and Wu Qingyu to enter.

"Go in? Is it... convenient right now?"

Both Qin and Wu instinctively peeked inside the apartment.

"You're overthinking it."

...

"I went out of town for a couple days. Just got back a little while ago."

Sitting on the couch beside the two men, Fu Qian waved his phone in explanation.

"I forgot this at home, so I missed all the messages."

What kind of emergency would make a modern young man leave his phone behind? For several days, no less?

The expressions on Qin and Wu's faces didn't relax; if anything, they looked even more doubtful.

"I am incredibly grateful for your concern, and deeply ashamed of the worry I've caused."

Fu Qian declared with absolute seriousness.

"But with that out of the way,"

he pivoted, staring at Qin Mingze.

"You came to pick my lock, and you specifically brought an accomplice? Did you know your skills were so rusty it would take forever, so you needed him to stand lookout?"

Uh...

Faced with Fu Qian's interrogation, Qin Mingze's expression shifted awkwardly, unsure of how to reply.

"Standing lookout was secondary. Brother Qin said he needed to borrow my professional expertise."

Beside him, Wu Qingyu sighed and answered on his behalf.

Professional expertise?

Fu Qian frowned, pondering for a moment.

"He asked you to examine the place for signs of foul play?"

"...Right!"

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