Eldritch Horror Theatre

Fu Qian's parallel questions weren't particularly scathing, but to the current Su Gao, they were undoubtedly devastating.

After that barrage of soul-searching questions, Su Gao fell completely silent, entirely at a loss for words.

Her mind had already been struggling to keep up, and now it was on the verge of short-circuiting.

That was enough. Good medicine tasted bitter, but he wasn't an actual demon.

Seeing this, Fu Qian stopped his psychological assault.

He could clearly feel Su Gao's turbulent emotions; the fire of her will flickered like a candle in the wind, threatening to snuff out at any second.

It wasn't just that. Fu Qian looked up at the space outside.

As Su Gao's mental state grew increasingly unstable, something in their surroundings grew more active, even causing the full moon in the water to shine a fraction brighter.

Something was indeed watching her. They were surrounded by danger!

The area of this current floor was much larger, ringed by a protruding platform.

Even though she was teetering on the edge of complete confusion, Su Gao subconsciously followed his lead and came to a halt.

"Sometimes, in the pursuit of pure self-acceptance, people tend to deny a part of themselves."

The next moment, under Su Gao's bewildered gaze, Fu Qian took her hand and led her onto the platform.

"Unfortunately, the core of that behavior is nothing more than masturbatory entertainment."

"Denying yourself doesn't lead to Sublimation; acceptance does."

Bathed in the moonlight, Su Gao seemed to be glowing. She offered no reaction to Fu Qian's words.

Unbothered, Fu Qian let go of her icy hand and casually sat down beside her.

"You like sweets?"

"Yeah."

Faced with this massive leap in topic, Su Gao finally showed a flicker of a reaction.

"Cake?"

"...It's delicious."

"No surprise there. So, did those names I mentioned earlier jog your memory at all?"

"They're very familiar, but I—"

"Don't force it."

Fu Qian turned his head to look at the moon in the sky.

"What fairy tales do you like?"

"I..."

Su Gao's voice was dazed.

"I don't remember."

"That's fine. I know plenty. See if any of these ring a bell."

Fu Qian's tone was incredibly casual.

"For example, Seven Snow Whites Looking for Mother, or Does the Youthful Mouth of Truth Dream of an Armed Pinocchio?"

Both titles were undeniably deranged, but the effect was unexpectedly good.

"Snow White, looking for Mother, Pinocchio... I think... I remember..."

Su Gao reacted quickly, clutching her head, her voice pained.

"And now? Where did they go? These memories in your head."

"They—"

Su Gao managed only a single word before she froze, finally realizing something was wrong with her.

"Whether it's a delusion or an illusion, the most it can do is confuse your perception. How do you explain the missing piece of your soul?"

As Fu Qian spoke, her body began to tremble again.

"Zhuangzhou dreaming of a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming of Zhuangzhou—who can really tell the difference? Are you truly so certain that you're trapped in an illusion?"

Fu Qian traced the shape of a 6 in the night sky, smiling at her.

"Can a number that even I know really guide you?"

...

Could it not?

Su Gao looked down at the Bloodstained Die, consumed by an unprecedented wave of confusion.

Logically, in a situation like this, she should have used the Hidden Thread to verify things once more. But the information she had received within this bizarre illusion seemed to be dissolving that very urge.

Indeed. Was a number that lacked any secrecy, one that could be casually blurted out, really that reliable...?

A dead silence filled the air. Fu Qian said no more.

"You're right. I remember now. This isn't an illusion."

After a long while, Su Gao slowly raised her head, her voice sounding as if she had just awakened from a deep dream.

"I really almost lost myself. Thank you, Mr. Fu."

For some reason, Fu Qian felt like she was smiling.

"Violetta, Soufflé... everyone. I remember them all."

Are you sure?

Hearing this, Fu Qian wasn't pleased; instead, he was alarmed.

He had never been an overly optimistic person.

His decision to try fighting poison with poison earlier was simply based on intuition. He figured the only slim chance of helping Su Gao return to normal was to first snap her out of her obsession.

But Fu Qian wasn't idealistic enough to believe that a quick bout of provocation could instantly heal her shattered mind.

"Six is wrong. It points down the wrong path."

"Oh? What wrong path?"

Fu Qian played along casually.

"What a terrifying opponent. I can't afford to let my guard down for even a second!"

Su Gao ignored his question, continuing as if talking to herself.

"From start to finish, I was only misled once, and I fell for it long before we even got inside. That time I nearly caught the target—he did it on purpose."

She pinched the Die between two fingers.

"The misdirection was very simple. It directly involved its properties, completely inverting them."

"In reality, when using the Hidden Thread, the locked number is the one that shouldn't appear. Rolling it during a test is what indicates a problem with your mental state."

"However, I was misled, and every judgment I made after that was completely backward."

Was that true?

The more Fu Qian listened, the more wrong this sounded.

"The target is even more cunning than I imagined. He not only knew I was carrying an item that countered him, but he was also completely familiar with the nature of the Hidden Thread. So he didn't attempt any deep interference to turn me into a puppet, because I definitely would have noticed that."

"Under extremely covert circumstances, he implanted a psychological suggestion that altered my understanding of the Hidden Thread's properties. And I didn't realize it right away."

"Later, when we came here, he used illusions to feign an attack, making me worry that my mind had been tampered with so I'd use the Hidden Thread to verify my condition."

"By then, too much time had passed. Under his subtle influence, the Hidden Thread was no longer able to trace back to that flawed perception, so the number I rolled appeared normal."

"But to the misled me, rolling anything other than a 6 made me naturally assume that I had fallen victim to his trick."

"The intense obsession spawned by my self-doubt, combined with the Hidden Thread, eventually caused me to splinter into different personalities and ruthlessly kill them off one by one. That was the real trap."

"Violetta and the others were born from that situation. Their names all came from the fairy tales Mother used to tell me."

He had to admit, she had quite the imagination, and logically, it even made sense.

Looking at Su Gao speaking with such assurance, Fu Qian felt as if he could see the mental tug-of-war happening inside her mind. He sighed with deep emotion.

"So, what should I call you?"

It was obvious that this version of her, much like the other five, was yet another split personality. She represented a different perspective on Su Gao's current predicament.

The difference was that she hadn't fallen into the lower-level consciousness cage like Violetta and the rest. Instead, she had been coexisting right here on this floor all along.

Thanks to his relentless psychological assault, the original Su Gao's condition had deteriorated, allowing this new personality to temporarily seize control.

"My name is naturally Su Gao, but if you want to differentiate us, you can call me Mousse."

I fucking knew it!

Fu Qian wasn't the least bit surprised by the name of this sixth persona.

Based on their past experiences, it was clear that Su Gao's Mother was a massive foodie. It made perfect sense for all her fairy tale characters to be named after food.

"Hold on. There are already five people down below, plus you, and the one who was just talking to me... If you were all split off..."

Fu Qian counted on his fingers.

"So, how many times has the Hidden Thread been used so far?"

"Nine times."

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