Eldritch Horror Theatre

"Don't move!"

Instead of answering Loretta's question, Fu Qian snapped at her and gestured for her to stay put.

Loretta looked bewildered at first, then froze, clearly realizing something.

Fu Qian, however, was no longer looking at her. He had already turned his gaze out the window.

The night sky was clear. The moon had regained its brilliant glow, and light spilled from the neighboring houses.

"I'm back?"

Fu Qian looked down at his hands, speaking in a tone of utter disbelief.

He was spouting nonsense, of course.

The moment he saw Loretta, he knew the world had shifted once more.

His little performance was simply to reinforce his persona.

After all, he had to look the part of a normal person plagued by a Nightmare.

Seeing the wary yet faintly overjoyed look on his face, Loretta instantly understood.

"It's all right. You're safe now."

She hurried forward, completely unfazed that Fu Qian was sitting on her desk, and studied him closely.

"Tell me honestly, when did you start experiencing this kind of torment?"

"Depends on how you define torment."

Fu Qian offered a relieved smile.

"Theoretically, over a month. In reality, twenty-five days."

As for the two timeframes, the "month" naturally referred to the duration of this current task, according to his medical records.

The twenty-five days referred to when he had received a certain Black Work Credential.

"It's been such a short time, yet it's already so frequent!"

Loretta looked genuinely shocked. Whether it was twenty-five days or a month, the timeframe was much shorter than she'd expected.

"Is it not like that for you?"

Fu Qian played along, furrowing his brow.

"Of course not."

His words seemed to stir up painful memories for Loretta, and she slowly shook her head.

"Didn't Bernard tell you? It seems he truly hates bringing up the past!"

"No, these days he only seems interested in cigarettes and alcohol."

"I understand. I was the same way for a very long time."

Yet Loretta didn't show the expected disgust toward tobacco and alcohol. Instead, she blinked at Fu Qian and gave a faint smile, seemingly unbothered by her own dark history.

'Aunt Loretta really is a woman with a past!'

Fu Qian clicked his tongue in silent admiration.

"But there's a reason we turned out like this."

A soft sigh escaped her lips.

"When I first met Bernard, he was about your age."

"He was actually a lot like you—a very proud man. Of course, I was the same back then."

"Because we both seemed to possess some innate gift."

"A Transcendent power?"

Fu Qian asked.

"We had no proof, but we both believed it."

"As for me, I was absolutely certain that whatever I wished for would come true. The things I wanted would always appear before me in the most unexpected ways, so I called myself the Lucky Girl."

"Bernard, on the other hand, claimed to have an extraordinary gift for observation. No disguise could escape his eyes, and he would even receive occasional prophetic revelations."

"The best part was that these gifts didn't require any training. As we grew older, they seemed to constantly strengthen on their own."

"So back then, we were endlessly confident in our futures. We firmly believed that we were different from everyone else."

"That pride was exactly what made us such good friends. But—"

Loretta smiled at him.

"You probably know what I'm going to say. One day, that pride was completely crushed."

"It all started when, for a brief period, I felt like my luck was completely unstoppable."

"I couldn't be entirely sure, but I had this faint feeling that my gift was breaking through to a new stage. I was so excited for it."

"But to my shock, as I silently waited and felt myself finally cross that threshold, I discovered that my gift had vanished!"

Even after all these years, a slight twitch still marred Loretta's expression as she recalled it.

"I couldn't believe it. I frantically tried everything to test it. Then I realized it hadn't disappeared at all—it had just taken on another form..."

"I see. Something like what I'm going through now?"

"Exactly."

Loretta nodded.

"I started getting thrown into unbelievable, chaotic worlds against my will. They were bizarre, indescribable places, twisted and confusing to the extreme."

"I almost went insane back then. I tried every possible solution I could think of."

"I was terrified to sleep, dreading that I might open my eyes to find myself in a sewer crawling with rats. But it was useless. It often happened in the blink of an eye."

"The worst part was that you didn't always come back. You'd just plunge straight into another Nightmare."

"A lot of the time, they seemed no different from the Real World at first glance—until their horrifying true nature was revealed."

"By the end, I couldn't even tell which world was real anymore!"

"At first, I thought it was karma for abusing my gift. Then, one day, I ran into Bernard in one of those chaotic worlds."

"He was exactly the way you see him now."

"When he recognized me, he laughed like a maniac and told me he was absolutely sure it was all fake. Even our previous world was essentially no different to him."

"He wouldn't have cared if I gouged my own eyes out right in front of him."

"That was when I realized he had been tormented by the same Nightmares for months."

"He even managed to blow his own head off once, but it only resulted in him waking up in a deep valley flooded with blood!"

"I see."

Fu Qian's expression grew solemn.

"But it looks like you've managed to escape that torment?"

"I did, but only many years later."

Loretta let out a long breath, a profound, uncontrollable sense of relief evident in her voice.

"Enduring that endless cycle of torment, I started trying out things I'd previously looked down upon, desperate to find some inner peace."

"At first, it was still useless. But then I moved here, and after some time, things finally began to turn around."

"I was no longer the Lucky Girl, but that didn't matter. I was no longer being tormented by those Nightmares..."

Loretta's voice was incredibly sincere.

"After hearing your story, I understand why Bernard is the way he is."

Fu Qian nodded, looking as though he had learned a great deal.

"I actually managed to contact him after that to give him the good news, and I invited him here to Fenghou."

"But he was unbelievably stubborn. He seemed convinced that this was just self-deception—that I was merely clinging to an illusion. He never came."

"So, I understand your pain. In fact, I'm amazed you managed to return so precisely."

Loretta looked at Fu Qian with sympathy.

"But you might not be so lucky next time."

Loretta frowned, lost in thought.

"If you're willing to take a risk..."

A moment later, she gritted her teeth, appearing to have made up her mind.

She turned and closed the door again, then carefully pulled an exquisite little box from her clothes.

"Perhaps you could give this a try."

'It really is a needle!'

Staring at the open box she slid toward him, Fu Qian drew a sharp breath.

'Isn't the size of this thing a little too ridiculous?'

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