Eldritch Horror Theatre

Hearing the very line she had once spoken herself now left Fran frightened out of her wits.

At the same time, the sound of pulling hinges rang out. She could almost picture the Spikes inching closer to her body, ready to pierce through her at any moment.

"Stop joking around!"

In less than half a second, Fran's voice warped into a scream.

'Why is this happening? Could this guy be the hidden, mysterious killer?'

'Did he do all these things? Why would he do this?'

'But when Jessica disappeared, Cartman and Ray were together, and he really was in the house by himself...'

'He always seemed so unhurried, as if the emotion of fear didn't even exist in him...'

'Sheriff Jones seemed to be on guard against him too...'

'Just now, when I wanted to come back, he agreed without any hesitation...'

"What exactly are you trying to do?"

As countless thoughts raced through her mind, Fran screamed again.

Unfortunately, the only response she received was the cold rattling of hinges.

After delivering his sentence, Fu Qian gave no further response.

This silent terror brought a pressure that caused Suffocation.

Soon, Fran found that she could barely even scream anymore; her body was so stiff she couldn't move.

...

If it really was as he thought—

Inside the basement at this moment, Fu Qian stared expressionlessly at the Iron Maiden, casually rattling the hinges in his hand.

From the very beginning until now, everything they encountered seemed to point to the existence of a mysterious figure.

Someone pervasive and omnipotent.

Even the experienced Sheriff Jones had gone from initial disdain to firmly believing in it by now, setting traps specifically for this person.

But what if this person didn't exist?

There was a saying: Entities Should Not Be Multiplied Without Necessity.

A character so perfectly hidden, never seen, existing only in speculation and deduction—if one did the opposite and simply eliminated him from the equation, what would the situation look like?

The cowardly Harold had a poor relationship with his wife, and then his wife died...

The vacationing student Ray hit someone with his car, and then no corpse could be found at the scene, letting him avoid trouble...

Inside the old house, the most timid Jessica disappeared on her own, seemingly passing through a dark tunnel without leaving a trace...

After being suspected by Jones, Harold fell off a bridge. Although he confessed to nothing, he practically cleared himself of suspicion for murder...

There seemed to be a common thread in all these events—the motives actually existed, but the capability was lacking.

Whether it was committing murder, fleeing for their lives, or clearing their names, these people most likely wanted to do these things. It just seemed beyond their personal abilities without a professional's help.

But what if, for a brief moment, they "transcended themselves"?

Like transforming into supermen in an instant, blessed by divine spirits, suddenly making the impossible effortless?

This was merely a hypothesis; Fu Qian wasn't sure of the exact cause for such a phenomenon.

However, he had a ready-made method to verify it.

If the theory held true, judging from prior circumstances, this self-transcendence only seemed to emerge under tremendous threats and intense emotions.

And this Iron Maiden was something even the muscular Cartman dared not step into to try, let alone Fran.

He believed that after everything she had just been through, her terror would be pushed to its absolute breaking point at any second.

...

Starting from a certain moment, Fu Qian realized that the torture instruments were no longer as noisy as before.

Not only had Fran's screaming vanished, but also her heavy, bellows-like breathing.

"I cannot understand the motive behind your actions."

Fran's voice rang out the next moment. It was devoid of its previous panic, replaced by an indescribably earnest calm.

"The current evidence is enough to prove that you have no connection to the various cases."

"And it doesn't appear that you want to kill me; rather, you're deliberately trying to make me feel fear."

"I just want to say that this joke isn't funny. If possible, please let me out. It's time for us to go home."

'It seems she really did transcend herself, as if she were replaced by an entirely different person.'

'The hypothesis seems to have been confirmed.'

Sighing silently to himself, Fu Qian reached out and slowly opened the Iron Maiden.

In the dim light, Fran's pale face reappeared.

However, upon regaining her freedom, she didn't jump out immediately. Instead, she stared intently at Fu Qian's face, her gaze placid.

"Thank you!"

She seemed to be using her actions to prove that her words just now came from the heart, and were not a Lie meant to trick Fu Qian into opening the Iron Maiden.

This was indeed a rational choice; the massive disparity in strength meant Fu Qian could stuff her back inside at any moment. Still, in such a situation, very few people could think so clearly and restrain themselves.

[Current task updated: Transcend Reincarnation with Lasik]

At the same time, a voice echoed in Fu Qian's mind.

'Transcend samsara... Is this really how it is!'

Fu Qian nodded to himself. He felt as though a whole series of questions had been answered in this single instant.

Up to this point, there were two details that had been difficult to explain. One was the ticket with Lasik's name on it.

Jones had explicitly stated that the police officer who issued the ticket had no recollection of it whatsoever and couldn't understand why such a slip existed.

The other was what had just happened: the mysterious figure who was omnipotent and capable of coming and going like a ghost had actually marked Fran's room incorrectly.

Without a doubt, this defied common sense.

But the word 'samsara' led Fu Qian to a possible explanation—

What if the marking wasn't actually wrong, but rather it didn't belong to this time?

That in one specific cycle of samsara, Fran had chosen that very room?

The same went for the ticket.

Unfolding before him was a cycle of samsara, and a certain fellow named Lasik had experienced all of this time and time again, trying desperately to break free, but sadly failing each time.

In the end, whether it was his lingering resentment or his remnant soul, it merged into this world, generating unimaginable influences and leaving behind various illogical traces—such as the ticket and the mark.

This wasn't some baseless, crazy fantasy. In fact, he had personally experienced this exact kind of world before, which was why he could formulate this hypothesis.

When he first met the "Persuader," he had been told that the Nightmare Corridor was a fusion of the consciousness and conceptual projections of failures.

As for Fran's current state, Fu Qian judged that her self-awareness was likely still her own, only certain aspects had been forcibly pushed into Sublimation, as if she were receiving a Deity's blessing.

And this projected Deity was exactly the Lasik he was looking for. Now, Lasik could only rely on this method to briefly manifest within special vessels.

As for whether Lasik might also be a senior predecessor, or just a pitiful remnant soul trapped in a similar illusory realm, he didn't know, nor did he need to.

What he needed to consider right now was how to complete the task.

And obviously, that wasn't going to be easy.

The ironclad truth lay right in front of him: a clear-headed person with off-the-charts execution skills had remained trapped in this samsara until his very soul shattered, never managing to find a way out.

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