Eldritch Horror Theatre

Under normal circumstances, this shouldn't have happened.

Noticing this slight anomaly, Fu Qian didn't open the second book. Instead, he quickly ran his fingertips down the stack.

He soon confirmed that this stack of exceptionally well-preserved books was indeed arranged alternating face-up and face-down.

Logically, this was just a trivial detail, but upon closer thought, it was far from normal.

Although he had only caught a fleeting glimpse when he went home earlier, Fu Qian remembered seeing a bookshelf in the living room, though it had looked rather empty.

Judging by Brother Jigsaw's tone, there was a good chance these books had been taken from that very shelf.

However, this presented a problem. The excellent condition of the books showed that their owner cherished them deeply, and someone who regularly maintained their collection would never make the mistake of placing a book face-down.

In other words, these misaligned books were most likely Brother Jigsaw's doing.

And he obviously wouldn't do something meaningless.

Fu Qian muttered to himself, glancing at the door at the end of the passage.

He had counted them just now; the tallest stack was exactly twenty books.

The next moment, the orientations of the twenty books rapidly translated into symbols, lining up in a sequence before his eyes.

If grouped in sets of five, with face-up and face-down representing dots and dashes, that would make exactly four numbers.

But since he couldn't be sure which orientation represented a dot and which a dash, there were two possible combinations.

1629 and 6174.

As he calculated, Fu Qian quickly checked the other stacks of books.

They were all normal, with no alternating placements.

So, was this what it meant by whether the books could help him?

He had to admit, it was a fairly simple puzzle, and not too hard to figure out.

The only prerequisite was that he actually had to open the books and look.

Even when faced with a deadly predicament, he had to be willing to turn the pages, rather than just weighing them as tools based on their thickness.

Who would have thought Brother Jigsaw had such a Zen side to him? Still, this requirement was a bit too harsh.

Fu Qian shook his head, gathered all the books together, and quickly mapped out a suitable route.

So far, nearly ten minutes had passed since he entered this place.

Even though he still had plenty of time, breathing in this irritating gas for too long would leave him feeling miserable by tomorrow morning.

It was time to move.

Following his planned route, Fu Qian quickly laid out stepping stones across the liquid, inching his way closer to the exit.

He didn't run into any other obstacles this time, and it didn't take long for him to reach the door.

A faint, strange odor now hung in the air, and Fu Qian knew it came from the books he had tossed into the liquid.

This wasn't surprising. Even if the paper didn't corrode immediately, the hard covers were likely reacting.

So if he had chosen the plan of fishing them out to reuse them, he probably would have suffered immensely; losing a hand might not have even been enough.

As for now...

Fu Qian steadied himself in front of the door, reached straight for the combination lock, and pressed the number 1.

The lock immediately let out a beep.

As long as it still worked.

Quite satisfied for the moment, Fu Qian sequentially pressed 6, 2, and 9.

Unfortunately, the door didn't open. The upside, of course, was that it didn't blow up either.

Fu Qian wasn't discouraged in the least. He waited a moment, then sequentially pressed 6, 1, 7, and 4.

He respected the concept of probability and never entertained the delusion that a specific set of numbers was chosen by destiny, prompting him to impulsively buy a hundred lottery tickets for it.

It was a fifty-fifty chance either way, so it didn't matter which one he tried first.

Even if Brother Jigsaw really had rigged it to explode after a single mistake, there was nothing to regret.

This time didn't disappoint him. As the second set of numbers was entered, a faint click rang out.

Got it.

With his ear pressed against the door, Fu Qian naturally wouldn't miss such a detail, and he immediately exerted a little force with his hand.

The next moment, the metal door visibly pulled open at an angle.

...

By comparison, this second door was much lighter.

After waiting a few seconds and confirming nothing unusual happened, Fu Qian effortlessly pulled the door open.

Surprisingly, the scene behind this door drastically changed.

A refrigerator, a wooden floor, a chandelier—at first glance, he seemed to be standing in the living room of a residential apartment.

Everything looked perfectly normal. He could even see through the window that the sun outside was already setting.

It appeared this was an ordinary room within the building, left completely unmodified.

But if that was the case...

Thinking of something, Fu Qian looked up at the ceiling.

If his original location was on one of the floors, then based on the height, escaping through the window probably wouldn't have brought him into this room, right?

Did different methods of escape lead to different final locations?

"Your performance is truly unbelievable."

Right then, the television in the living room suddenly flickered on, and a familiar hoarse voice echoed from it.

On the static screen, a pale mask came into view.

Beneath the mask was a scrawny puppet sitting squarely on a tricycle.

With blood-amber eyes and spiraling red protrusions on its cheeks, it was the classic image of the maniac from Saw.

"I designated this place as the Unreachable Room of Truth. In my design, this was meant to be a location you could never reach."

"Yet you actually gave me quite a surprise, to the point where it made me doubt the reality of the world for a moment."

"But while I applaud your achievement, your final test has now appeared before you. Are you ready to face it?"

"I also hope you understand the profound significance of this test: you earned this yourself."

"Then I'm truly honored."

Fu Qian replied casually, not caring in the slightest whether the other party could hear him.

Going by this guy's words, if he had chosen to escape through the window, there wouldn't have been this final test?

"First of all, don't you find your surroundings somewhat familiar?"

So that was the source of that strange feeling earlier?

Listening to the voice continuing from the television, Fu Qian scanned the room again and realized the reason why things had felt so odd at first glance.

The layout of this living room was actually quite similar to the place where he lived.

Although it wasn't a one-to-one replica, it was clearly an intentional imitation.

"If you can't figure out why, you can go take a look in the bedroom. I believe you'll get your answer very soon."

Seeming to notice Fu Qian's confusion, Brother Jigsaw continued to offer his suggestion.

Is that so?

Fu Qian had always been one for readily accepting good advice. After glancing toward the bedroom, he walked straight over without hesitation and pushed the door open.

This is...

At the same time, Fu Qian furrowed his brows.

The bedroom's layout was extremely simple, containing only a single bed.

And at this very moment, a rather young-looking woman was lying motionless on that bed.

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