Eldritch Horror Theatre

Of course, there was a problem here.

In his past experience, entities like the Goddess of Sins and the Angel Mirror exerted an indiscriminate influence on their surroundings.

During these two attempts, he had done his fair share of misleading people, and on many occasions, they had clearly believed his lies.

Yet he hadn't felt any obvious changes or feedback.

That was exactly why Fu Qian hadn't considered this angle at first.

Looking back on it now, however, he could think of one explanation—intensity.

The degree of cognitive distortion varied, which in turn affected the strength of the feedback.

His prior deceptions had merely been acts to make others misjudge his condition.

To them, this distorted cognition was about someone else.

There was likely a qualitative difference between the two.

The feedback from the former was simply too faint for him to notice.

If that was true, the Warehouse's purpose in assigning him this mission also made sense.

At this very moment, Goya Ulrich was doing something similar to First Sinner Sir William—using an active Covenant Object to relentlessly spread its influence.

And that was something the Warehouse absolutely could not tolerate.

...

Truly amazing!

To think he would encounter such a special entity inside Anjing Company's underground research institute!

Then again, it wasn't completely out of the question.

An item with transcendent effects that appeared on a regular basis was bound to draw attention.

For a corporate behemoth like Anjing Company to occasionally scoop up a few stragglers that slipped through the Night Watchers' net made perfect sense.

The only question was: to what extent did Brother Goya understand the true nature of this thing?

Was he merely treating it as a transcendent item for testing and research, or had he recognized its essence and systematically begun influencing more people?

That was hard to confirm at the moment, but it naturally led to another question—what was the correct procedure to forge a covenant?

In his past experience, performing specific actions in front of a Covenant Object would forge a conceptual bond between the person and the item.

And those actions were often bizarre and hard to classify—Patches!

The name suddenly flashed across Fu Qian's mind.

As a concept that appeared out of thin air yet possessed such strict uniformity, it was hard to separate it from the covenant.

Could it be that the influenced people calling themselves Patches had technically established a covenant, making deceit their second nature?

That didn't seem right either. He had clearly seen someone successfully shake off the influence—Kuraki Eiko, for example.

He had never seen that kind of bargaining in any past covenants.

"False feedback is the thing a tester despises the most."

While Fu Qian's thoughts raced, Cynthia could no longer hold back, condemning him through gritted teeth.

"It's one thing for someone influenced by the concept of Patches to become a habitual liar, but your actions stem entirely from your own malice."

"From now on, you will be monitored under the strictest measures."

"Furthermore, we aren't ruling out the possibility of subjecting you to prolonged exposure before the Nether Steed."

"After all, you are a special case. Someone with absolutely no self-doubt is a first for me."

Self-doubt?

In the face of Cynthia's threat, Fu Qian latched onto that specific phrase. He recalled the process by which Ji Yicheng and the others had forged their covenant during the Angel Dungeon incident.

Drawing a parallel from that... simply approaching the Nether Steed and suffering the self-cognition influence of Patches wouldn't establish a covenant. One had to completely believe it?

If that were true... Fu Qian suddenly looked up at Cynthia.

"I have a question. Have you ever been exposed to the Nether Steed?"

...

"What do you mean?"

Cynthia asked warily, seemingly sensing danger.

In fact, the two guards lunged forward before she could even issue an order.

Unfortunately for them, they were sent flying backward even faster.

The next moment, Cynthia's pupils constricted violently. She found a hand locked tightly around her throat.

As a Mid-Tier Transcendent, she had absolutely no strength to resist!

Just what kind of monster was this guy!

"I can tell you're very interested in special cases."

"But at the same time, I have a few things I want to confirm myself."

Warning alarms blared across the room, but Fu Qian acted as if he couldn't hear them.

As he spoke, he lifted Cynthia into the air and yanked the cloth off the Guide of the Soul.

"Look into it, or I'll crush your skull."

The next moment, Fu Qian's emotionless voice successfully stifled Cynthia's impulse to squeeze her eyes shut.

Her intuition screamed that if she disobeyed, there wouldn't be a second warning.

A moment later, mist rolled across the surface of the mirror in her vision, rapidly converging.

...

Sure enough, it was a private channel.

Fu Qian felt rather gratified by Cynthia's tact.

However, watching her gaze rapidly turn glassy, Fu Qian glanced over at the mirror, only to see the same churning mist.

Clearly, this mirror respected privacy. He couldn't see what she was seeing.

Confirming this, Fu Qian kept quiet and peacefully played the role of an observer.

"It's hard to imagine that I would actually ask a question like this..."

Cynthia looked somewhat calm now as she spoke slowly to the mirror.

"I won't deny that this test carries risks, but their participation is voluntary. They chose to be used..."

"To them, this is even an opportunity provided by The Company..."

"The Company doesn't even restrict them from leaving on their own, but they refuse to let go, don't they?"

"So on a moral level, I've never felt there was anything to feel guilty about."

...

Following a bout of moral self-justification, Cynthia fell silent for a brief moment.

"People change..."

"You are nothing more than the childhood version of me. All your words are simply my own internal scrutiny. I don't want to debate right and wrong, but there is one thing I am absolutely certain of—you are a part of me..."

"I don't even need to answer these questions raised by 'me'..."

Toward the end, her tone actually grew increasingly resolute.

Swish!

The next moment, Fu Qian flicked the black cloth up with his fingers and draped it back over the mirror.

Dr. Cynthia jolted as if waking from a dream, but there was little confusion in her eyes.

No matter how he looked at it, her reaction was perfectly normal.

Given that coming into contact with the Nether Steed inevitably led to being influenced, it was highly likely Cynthia had never been directly exposed to the thing.

How cautious of her!

As for why he hadn't let Cynthia look for a while longer—pushing the duration past five minutes to dig for clues—there was naturally a reason for that as well.

Amidst the blaring alarms, Fu Qian had already released his grip and sat back down in front of Cynthia.

And the researcher he had just coerced was staring at him with a complicated look in her eyes, even raising a hand to stop the two guards from advancing.

"Mr. 9527, given the behavior you just displayed, you have been classified as a special case."

"Next, we need you to cooperate with further testing."

Just look at that—this was the true spirit of scientific research!

Looking at Cynthia's dead-serious expression, Fu Qian marveled in admiration.

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