Eldritch Horror Theatre

"Don't thank me. I took the joke too far."

Faced with Fran's solemn thanks, Fu Qian smiled and replied with her own line.

In less than half a minute, the harrowing tension from moments ago vanished without a trace, replaced by a perfectly harmonious atmosphere.

It was obvious, however, that Fran didn't buy his excuse about it being a joke.

But, just as sensibly, she didn't dwell on it.

Only then did she lower her head and step out of the terrifying torture instruments.

"It seems Jessica really isn't here."

A moment later, Fran sighed.

"Actually, I should have realized it sooner."

"Thinking about it now, my insistence on coming up here was completely unreasonable. I was just trying to satisfy a personal obsession."

"People as earnest and self-aware as you are way too rare these days! I'm much more interested in your current state, though. How do you feel?"

Fu Qian raised no objections to Fran's deep reflection, merely watching her with keen interest.

"You seem a little different from before."

"Different? I feel perfectly fine."

Fran frowned slightly at his words.

"But you're right. It does seem like there's been some kind of change."

She grew thoughtful.

"I think it started just now. I was terrified to the extreme when I was locked inside, but suddenly my mind became more peaceful than ever, and the fear just dissipated."

"Now that I think about it, it really is a strange change."

"What else?"

Fu Qian listened very carefully before asking.

"What else... What do you mean?"

Fran looked a bit bewildered.

"What's in the room next door?"

Fu Qian suddenly pointed toward the wall and asked.

"Nothing much, just a few rusty swords. Why do you ask?"

"The room next door is locked."

Fu Qian pointed to his head.

"How did you know what was inside?"

...

A long silence hung in the air. Only after a good while did Fran finally speak.

"It really is strange, but I don't know why I know it either."

"It's like a lot of information suddenly appeared in my head."

"Even though I've never been in there, I can clearly recall the scene in the room next door."

For now, it seems she doesn't have Lasik's self-awareness.

What she inherited seems to be the information accumulated over a wealth of experience in samsara, along with a psychological resilience forged through countless trials.

Hearing Fran's response, Fu Qian silently made his judgment.

"Understood. Then think about it—is there anything else interesting in this place?"

Uh...

Fran frowned in deep thought once more, but eventually shook her head.

"This is just a rotting, dilapidated old house. I can't think of anything valuable."

"But one thing is certain: there isn't just one path leading down from The Mountain. The Underground structure here is very complex."

A complex Underground structure... Fu Qian immediately thought of the several people who were currently missing.

At the same time, a series of scenes easily played out in his mind—

Harold, whose family life wasn't very harmonious and who didn't even dare to ask where his wife went, reached a breaking point after a long period of repression, prompting a strange change to abruptly occur in his mind.

His inner cowardice and fear vanished as a plan rapidly took shape. Finally, he made his move and knocked his wife out.

The method he used to incapacitate her was likely similar to what was later found on his neck—some kind of anesthetic drug.

After that, he put on his wife's clothes and hat, placed the victim in the car, and drove out, creating the illusion that his wife had driven away on her own.

Given his small, thin build, this wasn't hard to pull off.

Upon arriving at The Mountain, he first drove the car down a fork in the road, then brought his wife to a corner with limited visibility and put the hat on her.

Finally, when some unlucky bastard drove by, a dazed Mrs. Harold was pushed out.

As long as the timing was right, this should have been a perfect accident. Once it was done, all he had to do was safely sneak back home.

Unexpectedly, however, the chosen scapegoat—the driver, Ray—also experienced an intense emotional outburst from the sudden accident, followed by a flash of inspiration.

There was no bizarre plot twist where the victim vanished on her own. After Mrs. Harold fell to the ground, Ray began to handle the scene with superhuman calmness and execution.

First, he demanded that Cartman and Jessica keep it a secret for him. Then, relying on the information that had suddenly appeared in his head, he carried Mrs. Harold into the Dense Forest alone.

Relying on complex secret passages that ordinary people wouldn't know about, he not only hid the body with ease but even had the energy to set up a diversion.

Later, he even found Mrs. Harold's car, and after some tampering, made it look like she had been attacked.

His execution throughout the entire process was on par with a professional killer.

As for why the inside of the car had been ransacked so outrageously—

Drugs?

Fu Qian quickly thought of an answer.

For Harold's orchestrated accident to avoid suspicion, one point had to be clearly explained: why, after driving into a dead end, did Mrs. Harold not drive back the way she came, but instead got out of the car and walked down The Mountain on her own?

No matter how you looked at it, that behavior was abnormal.

So he had likely left some kind of drug in her car to prove she was out of her mind, thus making the accident seem perfectly logical.

When Ray found the drug, he realized it was a disadvantageous factor. So, not only did he take it all away, but he also intentionally made a mess of the scene.

Realizing things hadn't developed as ideally as he'd hoped, Harold had no other choice. Ultimately, he stuck to the original plan, sneaking back home and reporting her missing at the appropriate time.

And so, an unfathomable and mysterious case was born.

"I'm sorry for making you come up here with me just to satisfy this irrational obsession."

Fran had no idea Fu Qian had thought through so much in a split second. She just sighed and spoke.

"Thinking about it now, this whole series of events has been truly strange and bizarre."

"For safety's sake, let's head back first."

She's definitely much more rational now.

Fu Qian silently evaluated Fran's suggestion.

In truth, Fu Qian didn't have much interest in the whereabouts of the three missing people.

His mission was very clear: he had to find a way to achieve Transcendence from samsara.

In fact, right when the task updated a moment ago, a countdown had appeared in Fu Qian's vision, showing only a dozen or so hours left.

There was every reason to believe that when the countdown ended, a new cycle of samsara would begin.

That meant in a dozen hours, he would very likely lose Sanity, experience Rebirth, and start over as a vacationing student.

So the key right now was to figure out why Lasik had failed, and what the method to end all this actually was.

Throughout the endless cycles of samsara, Lasik must have tried all sorts of methods—this was evident from the wealth of experience he had accumulated.

And what he needed to do was find some blind spot that Lasik hadn't noticed.

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