Eldritch Horror Theatre

The Sweet Dream Head Cage was indeed effective.

Facing the compound eyes steadily swarming toward him, Fu Qian felt entirely satisfied.

His SAN Value hadn't budged an inch. When those things had locked onto him before, he had lost five points in a single breath.

The only problem was that while his body had grown massive, his head hadn't enlarged in sync, leaving him looking rather peculiar.

But that was a minor detail. Taking a deep breath, Fu Qian thrust his ferocious arm straight through the compound eyes and plunged it deep into Hamadus's flesh.

Visceral Attack x3

This time, the Boon of Release finally triggered.

Beneath that terrifying strike, Fu Qian seemed to hear a chaotic wail pierce the overwhelming Clamor and sweep across the pier.

The struggling body finally began to disintegrate.

The bizarre compound eyes within the flesh rapidly withered and shattered in indignation, vanishing without a trace!

'Is it done?'

Watching Ariel turn and flee without a second's delay, Fu Qian took a breath as his body rapidly shrank.

Even after deactivating his gigantification and Mythical Form, his berserk damage output had caused the Divine Blood Curse to spread rapidly.

Many parts of his body already gave off an alien feel, with scales sprouting in random places.

But none of that mattered. Everything would automatically recover once the mission was complete. Wait a minute—

Seconds later, looking at the surging sea and listening to the lingering Clamor, Fu Qian realized the prompt for a successful Containment had not appeared.

'It's still not complete?'

'No matter how you look at it, it meets the requirements!'

'The crowd on the shore is still roaring, and Ariel even ran away.'

Fu Qian recalled the Containment Conditions.

[Before the Clamor ends, completely destroy Hamadus]

The Clamor definitely hadn't ended, but the mission wasn't complete. The only explanation was that Hamadus wasn't dead.

But given the situation just now, Hamadus had been completely wiped out in both body and soul, no matter how one looked at it.

Something that was clearly dead, yet didn't die... unless that "clearly" was a fake?

Staring at the churning surface of the sea, Fu Qian rapidly ran through the process of elimination.

'Could it be that I am not currently in the real world?'

But that would be too surreal. Last time, when the Clamor ended and Rom successfully took possession, his mission had failed outright, and there hadn't been the slightest hint of unreality then.

Someone didn't accept this future.

Faced with this bizarre situation, an explanation came to Fu Qian's mind.

Some kind of power only accepted the outcome of his mission failing—meaning Hamadus being successfully twisted into Rom, the Clamor ending, and the Origin Council's plan achieving total success.

And it refused to accept the current ending.

Because it wasn't accepted, none of it became reality.

'Is it "Him"?' Fu Qian recalled the manuscript he had found in the Old Theological College.

'Rom?'

If that was truly the case, then this entity was genuinely far too powerful. Not only did it cooperate with the Origin Council to plot this hunt, it directly negated all futures where they failed.

It only allowed a successful future to become reality.

'As expected of a mission designated as Number 1, requiring full-status participation!'

Fu Qian clicked his tongue in admiration.

Raging whirlwinds were rapidly condensing beside him, and a requiem-like sigh echoed once more.

Chelfus and Cassandra, the two Night Watchers demigods, were rushing over at full speed.

It wasn't surprising; the commotion here had been simply too massive.

Amidst the Clamor, Fu Qian smiled and snapped his fingers. Transcendence activated.

'I know you don't accept this future.'

'But don't worry, I'll help you accept it.'

...

"Your coffee and pastries. Please enjoy."

The familiar voice rang in his ears.

Appearing in the Cafe for the third time, Fu Qian immediately turned to look at his left hand.

Activating Transcendence wasn't as simple as just trying again.

Against the methods of a Deity, blind attempts wouldn't bring about any changes.

Fu Qian believed that since that moment had existed just now, there had to be an explanation.

Simply defining it as an unreachable future couldn't fool the Warehouse.

Otherwise, there would be absolutely no need for this mission to exist.

The most reasonable explanation Fu Qian could think of was that from a certain node onward, that Higher Existence had negated everything that happened afterward as his own delusion, preventing those events from genuinely occurring in history.

And the cognitive impact forcibly caused by such a Higher Existence was, in theory, impossible to guard against completely.

Fu Qian could easily think of several such nodes. For example, when his will had become unstable under the influence of the Divine Blood Curse, allowing the entity to exploit his vulnerability.

Or perhaps even earlier, when he witnessed the bizarre symbols in the Old Theological College, suffering a faint, imperceptible influence while off guard?

It could even be earlier than that. For instance, the area-of-effect mental influence released by Old Man Camus right at the start could have caught him off guard and dealt a tangible impact.

The events that occurred afterward had all been deduced by his own chaotic will under the subsequent gaze and interference of the Higher Existence.

In short, as long as there was even a tiny possibility of a reasonable explanation, it would definitely be exploited as a loophole.

This was the true method of a Deity.

Unfortunately for the enemy, there was one thing he could be sure of: that node definitely came after this exact moment of his arrival.

Otherwise, the mission wouldn't need to exist.

And as long as that was the case, there was a way.

Clack!

Without a single second's delay, Fu Qian placed the Sweet Dream Head Cage onto his head.

In his last attempt, he had waited until the Clamor was about to begin before putting it on, hoping to avoid its side effects: wearing it continuously for more than six hours would plunge the user into a sweet Nightmare.

He hadn't experienced this sweet Nightmare yet, but considering the item came from the Nightmare Corridor, its effects definitely wouldn't be simple.

From now until tomorrow's Clamor Festival, it would comfortably exceed twenty-four hours.

But that was fine. A corrupted save was always better than a rollback.

Nightmares and delusions—they were truly a perfect match.

...

"Young people always manage to catch the eye."

Amidst the roaring up ahead, Old Man Camus's commentary rang out.

This Tier 4 Transcendent had already stood up from his seat, sizing Fu Qian up with a smile.

Clearly, he was treating Fu Qian like an energetic young lad with peculiar tastes.

"What a pity. This getup is still too eye-catching."

He shook his head, abandoning the idea of parasitizing Fu Qian's body, and turned to look at the others.

Then, his head kept turning, detaching directly from his body.

"There's actually this unexpected benefit."

Casually finishing off the humanoid silhouette attempting to flee, Fu Qian shook his head.

After he had put on the Head Cage, the old man had given up on lifting the mask simply because of the fashion choice, and even exposed his back to him. He was truly being far too cooperative.

...

The Opera House, the Old Theological College, Cross Square.

Soon enough, the culturally renowned city of Dunis was once again left with the legend of the Rebirth Club.

As the sky darkened, Fu Qian, choosing to hide his achievements and fame, was already sitting in a corner of the coast, gazing out over the endless waters.

According to the mission introduction, crossing the expanse of water before his eyes would lead to the legendary Ash Sea.

And hidden there were clues regarding a certain predecessor.

Unfortunately, from this distance, even with the effects of the Sweet Dream Head Cage, he couldn't discover anything more.

And at this exact moment, the six-hour time limit was rapidly approaching.

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