Eldritch Horror Theatre

"All right, let's not waste time on this right now."

While Fu Qian was deep in thought, Tan Ying clearly had no desire to keep fussing over his pose.

"Come with me to find her!"

The next moment, she practically lunged at him, dragging him outside without another word and completely abandoning her ladylike restraint.

...

The stability seemed pretty good.

Hauled out the door, Fu Qian casually surveyed his surroundings.

They were in a four-story shopping mall. It was one of the oldest buildings on the street, and given its age, the foot traffic was average—neither bustling nor deserted.

Looking down from his vantage point, he could see students strolling about in twos and threes. Their expressions seemed perfectly normal—just like their actual bodies.

Thanks to the upgraded Lucid Dream, Fu Qian could now fine-tune many of the details.

First was the depth of the dream. When dealing with ordinary people with normal willpower, controlling how deeply they were pulled in was no longer an issue.

In reality, these people just felt a bit groggy; it didn't significantly affect their movements.

Compared to before, this was undoubtedly far more subtle.

And Fu Qian was confident that once he grew more proficient, he could silently guide these people through an entire dream without them showing a single abnormality in the real world.

Of course, the most important change was the ability to set a termination condition for the dream—in other words, the laws of the dreamscape.

As long as Lucid Dream was active, if he didn't manually dispel it, that condition had to be met for the dream to end. Otherwise, everyone would remain trapped inside.

Naturally, these were all just ordinary people. Considering the monsters and demons he encountered during his assignments, Fu Qian heavily suspected that entities with high Mental Resistance wouldn't be so easily bound.

Additionally, his experiments showed that the termination condition couldn't be too outlandish; it required a certain degree of logic.

If it was something that blatantly defied common sense—like stuffing an elephant into a fridge—the dream's stability would fracture almost instantly. He had just tested this, which had forced him to rewrite the rule right before everything collapsed.

That was why the condition to end this dream was finding Pei Yanqing.

Which was exactly what Tan Ying, standing right beside him, was so desperate to do.

Pei Yanqing was perfectly safe, of course. Tan Ying's panicked demeanor was actually a direct result of the dream's rule.

When establishing a rule, he had to select a dreamwalker and leave them a clue on how to fulfill it. This was a prerequisite for the rule to take effect.

Fu Qian interpreted this as an alternative form of "the ignorant are not to blame." If a target wasn't informed, the rule had no binding power over them.

Which made sense, really. Otherwise, he could just drag an enemy into a dream and set a condition like having to go seven rounds in a night to escape, and most people would be trapped inside forever.

Finally, just as he had tested moments ago, Fu Qian found that with a simple shift in thought, he could alter minor details, such as the clothes Tan Ying was wearing.

However, this control wasn't entirely limitless. Changes that were too drastic could easily compromise the dream's stability.

Especially now that he had established the rule to end the dream, he faced significantly more resistance when trying to make alterations.

Overall, he had gleaned a substantial amount of information from this round of testing.

The only issue was that he had originally planned on quietly observing changes, yet he hadn't expected Tan Ying to drag him directly onto the battlefield. He had brought this upon himself.

...

While admiring his own handiwork, Fu Qian also noticed Song Hang sitting a short distance away. The young man was slouched in a seat by the railing, a somber look on his face.

After giving Fu Qian and Tan Ying a brief nod of acknowledgment, he shifted his gaze back to the floor below, where several bodyguards in crisp suits were conducting a sweeping search.

He had clearly seen Tan Ying dragging Fu Qian out, causing his expression to chill slightly.

In response, Fu Qian merely kept a smile on his face.

Naturally, Song Hang would never guess the true meaning behind that smile.

Fu Qian had only bumped into him after arriving, which helped him understand exactly why Tan Ying was so irritated.

Fu Qian had never been fond of meddling in melodramatic soap operas, but this particular situation had given him a rather unique flash of inspiration.

The reason he was here today was to find a leisure activity to soothe his nerves, while taking the opportunity to test the effects of his Ring after its upgrade.

Although everything was happening without anyone else's knowledge, Fu Qian was a reasonable man. Since he was using Tan Ying as a test subject, he couldn't let her work for free.

After double-checking Tan Ying's demands, Fu Qian had ultimately decided to offer her an opportunity as compensation—an opportunity to rid herself of her annoyances.

At its core, this was a transaction, and this guy was a crucial bargaining chip.

Playing the mastermind behind the curtain truly had a unique flavor to it. No wonder movies were always churning out new villains.

...

"Hurry up, hurry up!"

Tan Ying was noticeably less composed. The moment they were out the door, she immediately tried to drag Fu Qian off to find her missing friend.

"Where exactly are you planning to go?"

Fu Qian stood rooted to the spot, shooting her a glance.

...

She was rendered momentarily speechless. Driven by the dream's rule, she possessed an instinctual urge to find Pei Yanqing, but that didn't mean she actually had a plan.

"Those guys look like professionals. I doubt they'll even leave the women's restroom unsearched."

Seeing Tan Ying freeze up, Fu Qian turned and pointed down at the lower floor.

"Besides, they've split up. That's definitely far more efficient than you running around like a headless chicken."

"I suggest you just wait here for a bit and see what they dig up first."

"Right... okay."

Tan Ying realized that her panic had made her lose her bearings. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down.

"Speaking of which, since when did the two of you become so close?"

While they waited, Fu Qian casually brought up a topic to help ease her tension.

Since this was supposed to be a leisure activity, he didn't want things to get too intense.

From what he recalled, Tan Ying and Pei Yanqing rarely interacted. Furthermore, one was a rich girl while the other had to rely on a work-study job to get by; they shouldn't have much in common.

Yet in the blink of an eye, they were close enough to go shopping together. Was this just the bizarre nature of female friendship?

"There are plenty of things you don't know!"

Distracted by the question, Tan Ying let out a snort at Fu Qian.

"Everyone has their own secrets. It's not like we have to tell you everything."

It was a perfectly fair point, but Fu Qian had a sneaking suspicion she was taking a jab at his own secretive behavior from earlier.

"Speaking of which, that suddenly reminds me of something."

Tan Ying furrowed her brows.

"After we left your place last time, Pei Yanqing casually mentioned that your apartment's layout felt inexplicably familiar, almost like she had been there before."

"That time she fainted... did you actually pull some shady stunt on her?"

Was this a woman's instinct for gossip?

Fu Qian nodded, not denying it in the slightest.

"Yeah, I actually brought her back to my place first."

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