Eldritch Horror Theatre

When Fu Qian pushed open the glass door, less than a minute remained until nine-thirty.

Almost instantly, eyes from across the upscale office darted his way.

Judging by their expressions, however, his colleagues were already accustomed to his habit of clocking in at the very last second.

"You're ten seconds earlier than yesterday!"

Someone even called out with a laugh, their tone teasing.

Fu Qian did not respond. He knew the remark wasn't directed at him, but at the female colleague who had walked in alongside him.

Clearly, the woman beside him drew far more attention than he did.

She had just pulled off her mask to reveal carefully applied makeup; at a glance, she was an undeniable beauty.

In response to the teasing, she merely huffed through her nose, shooting Fu Qian a seemingly casual glance.

Withdrawing her gaze, she walked straight over to an empty desk and sat down.

Yet from beginning to end, absolutely no one seemed to notice her abnormality.

Everyone in the room remained completely blind to the bloody gash across her neck.

In reality, right before walking through the door, the woman had still been adjusting the angle of her head.

What a harmonious corporate culture.

Marveling inwardly, Fu Qian didn't break his stride as he walked toward another vacant cubicle.

The moment he walked through the door, he had already taken stock of his surroundings.

Beneath the bright, warm lighting, neat and tidy white-collar workers sat quietly at their desks, engrossed in their tasks while the rich aroma of coffee drifted through the air.

Judging by their hair colors and facial features, the staff hailed from a diverse mix of ethnicities.

No matter how he looked at it, this was the picture-perfect image of a high-end corporation.

Amid this harmonious scene, exactly two fully equipped workstations happened to be vacant.

Though, based on the assortment of low-calorie snacks piled on one of the desks, Fu Qian could already make a solid guess.

Regardless, the female colleague who had carried her head to work had effectively eliminated the wrong option for him.

As for the empty private offices lining the perimeter of the room?

Based on everyone's reaction when he walked in, he could easily deduce that he wasn't part of management, meaning he almost certainly didn't rate a private office.

[Current task has been updated.]

The moment he sat down, the task completion notification chimed in his mind.

Done!

Fu Qian raised his hand to check his watch. Only a few seconds remained.

3, 2, 1...

He didn't rush to lower his arm, choosing instead to count down silently.

The instant the countdown ended, a deafening crack of thunder boomed.

Fu Qian's desk happened to sit right next to a window. He glanced outside on cue, finding a torrential downpour already battering the building.

This rain sure has a high level of awareness. It only soaks latecomers.

Fu Qian clicked his tongue.

That was just a joke, of course, but the rain's punctuality was genuinely bizarre.

Even though it was daytime, everything outside was shrouded in a hazy gray fog. Amid the violent thunderstorm, the surroundings looked like a ghost town.

[Hold your post until the police arrive.]

A new task prompt suddenly appeared, leaving Fu Qian pensive.

The police were coming? Had an incident occurred here?

The woman from the elevator certainly counted as an incident, but it was hard to imagine the police handling a case where someone's head was literally falling off.

As Fu Qian mulled this over, he looked around and found the office as harmonious as ever, completely undisturbed by the weather outside.

"Morning! Rarely see you arrive this late!"

Just then, a pleasant-faced middle-aged man to Fu Qian's left nudged the floor with his feet, swiveling his chair around to offer a familiar greeting.

"You always show up at nine o'clock on the dot. We all thought you took the day off."

Oddly enough, despite the concern in his words, the man's expression was visibly gloomy and stiff as he spoke.

By the end, the middle-aged man was practically staring dead at Fu Qian, his features twisting in a way that defied description.

"I overslept."

Appearing completely oblivious to the man's eerie demeanor, Fu Qian smiled back at him.

"You actually overslept?"

After a two-second pause, the middle-aged man seemed to process Fu Qian's response. The bizarre look on his face instantly vanished, his expression springing back to life.

At the same time, his tone shifted as if he had just heard something absurd.

"Could it be because of that botched shipment? That's not like you at all. I thought you never let your worries drag on into the next day?"

"Besides, it wasn't even your fault. It was clearly his mistake."

The middle-aged man glanced toward a nearby glass office, lowering his voice.

"But you need to be careful."

"I heard Tadashi Sato is looking for a scapegoat. Be careful not to let him pin this on you."

There was actually hidden drama here? Did "holding his post" mean he was supposed to play out some corporate intrigue?

Unfortunately, judging by the man's earlier demeanor, things probably weren't that simple.

Listening to the man's earnest warning, Fu Qian simply gave a slight nod.

"Thanks for the heads-up. I'll keep that in mind."

"Come here for a second."

Just then, as if on cue to prove the man's point, the door to the glass office across from him was pushed open from the inside.

A heavy-set figure poked his head out and pointed a stern finger at Fu Qian.

This had to be Sato.

Glancing at his coworker, who had immediately shrunk back in his seat, Fu Qian thought for a moment before standing up and walking over.

"What is wrong with you? Why haven't you submitted this month's statistical reports yet?"

Sato barked angrily the moment Fu Qian stepped through the door.

"And you knew I needed them for a meeting later, yet you deliberately show up this late?"

"That is naturally because I am a man who pursues inner peace, which requires a guaranteed eight hours of sleep every night."

Faced with his supervisor's criticism, Fu Qian spouted nonsense with a deadpan expression.

He couldn't help himself. The persona of a thirty-three-year-old corporate drone was such a bizarre classic that he couldn't resist leaning into it.

"What do you mean by that?"

In that instant, the same eerie expression the middle-aged man had worn earlier surfaced on Sato's face.

And compared to his coworker, Sato's expression was significantly more vicious.

It even gave the faint impression that something else was lurking beneath his human features, staring at Fu Qian, ready to awaken at any moment.

"I mean that I have zero interest in taking the fall for your mistakes, and I refuse to waste any more energy explaining this to you."

Fu Qian stared directly into Sato's face, deliberately steering the conversation toward the information he had just gleaned from his coworker.

"What did you just say?!"

Sato froze for a second before predictably flying into a rage, slamming his hand hard against his desk.

However, that wasn't what Fu Qian was focused on. He keenly noticed that amid Sato's fury, the eerie expression on his face had completely vanished.

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