Eldritch Horror Theatre

"Goodbye. You stay safe, too."

She picked up the cup and sniffed it carefully, as if genuinely trying to confirm what coffee laced with a sedative smelled like. A moment later, Loretta raised her cup to Fu Qian.

"Goodbye. If you run into Bernard, say hello for me."

"...Thank you for your well wishes."

Loretta smiled faintly and drained it in one gulp.

Almost instantly, she lost consciousness and slumped over the table, her reaction identical to Nancy's.

At least for now, she was finally getting some real sleep.

He could tell her the good news next time.

Fu Qian took a sip of his own coffee, sighing inwardly.

"Another one down."

He then looked at Kelly.

Everything had happened too fast. The previously fuming Kelly had lost all her bluster and now wore a look of sheer disbelief.

"You know Loretta?"

"I do."

Fu Qian didn't elaborate.

During his last visit to Fenghou City, he had noticed that Kelly didn't seem to recognize him.

In fact, aside from Loretta and Bernard, no one in Fenghou City knew him.

His theory was that by destroying the Golden Needle, he had caused the chaotic existence of Fenghou City to 'collapse,' ultimately leaving behind only a reality where no accidents had ever occurred.

And as an element of that chaos, he didn't truly exist in the public's perception.

Freaks like Loretta and Bernard were exceptions. They inherently possessed chaotic attributes; Loretta was even the source of Fenghou City's chaos.

"So, are we going to Toshima Shiki's place now?"

Since Fu Qian had completed his task so brilliantly, Kelly tolerated his high-handed attitude and quietly asked for his input.

In theory, it made perfect sense.

After all, a 'little while' had passed, and Toshima Shiki should be done with his business by now.

"No."

Fu Qian shook his head.

"We're going back to Sam's."

Back to Sam's?

Kelly clearly didn't understand, but she was obviously no longer in control of the situation.

Having said his piece, the assistant doctor completely ignored her input and headed straight out.

Given that Fu Qian was carrying all the sedatives, she had no choice but to swallow her indignation and follow him.

...

"Hello, Brother Sam."

A short while later, demonstrating the persistence of visiting the thatched cottage thrice, Fu Qian smoothly got the door open once again.

Almost the instant Sam showed his face, Fu Qian pulled out a paper bag and handed it over.

"Sorry, I went back and checked. I really did make a mistake earlier. This is the medicine with the doctor's signature. Does this look right to you?"

Huh?

Beside him, Kelly's eyes widened into saucers.

She saw it clearly. The paper bag Fu Qian handed over was the exact one she had signed with Nancy's name—the very one that had already been rejected.

What was the point of that?

"Sorry, I can't take medicine without a doctor's signature."

As expected, Sam rejected it again.

"My mistake, I grabbed the wrong one."

Fu Qian's expression didn't change in the slightest as he swapped it for another paper bag.

This time, it was the one Kelly had signed with her own name.

...

"That's right."

Sam stared at the new paper bag for a long time. Finally, he actually nodded and reached out to take it.

"Thank you for bringing it to me."

This...

"You're welcome."

Under Kelly's life-questioning gaze, Fu Qian pulled his hand back again.

"Sorry, I made another mistake. This one isn't yours. Please wait patiently."

...

Sam looked as if his brain had crashed. He eventually lowered his frozen hand and silently closed the door.

"What exactly are you trying to do?"

Sam wasn't the only one confused. Kelly was truly going crazy now.

"He was clearly about to accept it! Why didn't you give it to him? What's your excuse this time?"

"Don't get so worked up."

Faced with her interrogation, Fu Qian glanced at her with an eerie smile.

"You're being a little hot-tempered."

As he spoke, he opened the sedative labeled with Nancy's name.

"What are you doing?"

In that instant, Kelly reacted as if she'd been electrocuted. Her shriek was identical to Nancy's—truly cut from the same cloth.

And her fate was the same.

The next moment, Fu Qian abruptly interrupted Kelly's attempt to dodge and seized her by the throat.

...

Thanks to Kelly's driving skills, only a little over ten minutes had passed since they left here.

Yet Sam, who had been completely resolute before, had done a 180-degree turn in his attitude. He accepted Kelly's signature, meaning he now viewed her as the doctor.

What was the reason for this?

Ever since Sam rejected both signatures, Fu Qian had been pondering the significance of his reaction.

On one hand, it was entirely plausible that the man was so mentally disturbed he had forgotten who the doctor was, meaning the medicine would have to be force-fed.

But during their first encounter, the sensation of receiving a task had been unmistakable.

Referencing Toshima Shiki's reaction to the candles earlier, Fu Qian firmly believed there had to be a signature the man would accept.

And rather than some twist revealing he himself was the real doctor, Fu Qian leaned toward it being one of the two women: Kelly or Nancy.

Then why had both of their signatures been rejected?

After thinking it over for a long time, Fu Qian came up with an interesting explanation—the so-called wheels of history hadn't turned yet.

As the saying went: when in doubt, use quantum mechanics.

Nancy and Kelly were undoubtedly rather special existences within this task.

They knew everyone, yet they understood everyone's behavior through completely different lines of logic.

If they were defined as observers, the perceptions of the two women were completely contradictory, yet neither could be falsified.

Nancy believed she was the doctor among the five of them and that Kelly was the only patient who needed treatment, so Loretta and the other two didn't need the sedatives.

To Kelly, she was the real doctor, and Loretta's trio were all seriously ill and needed to take the sedatives.

If this was considered a superposition of two possibilities, then in a scenario where one of the three—Loretta, Sam, or Toshima Shiki—drank a sedative, wouldn't the world take a step closer toward the reality observed by Kelly?

Similar to the end of Fenghou City, this world had 'collapsed.'

...

Drinking the sedative to collapse the world—this was the favor Fu Qian had wanted Loretta to help with.

The facts proved it: Sam truly accepted Kelly's signature. In his mind, Kelly had genuinely become the doctor.

This also meant that among all the relevant personnel in this task, not a single one fell into the category of a normal person.

Aside from Kelly and Nancy, the two 'observers,' he himself was a task runner planted by the Warehouse. Loretta was a poor wretch lost everywhere, and Toshima Shiki showed signs of being corrupted by a malicious will.

Among them, Nancy, Kelly, and Toshima Shiki also possessed an unusual understanding of the grand picture.

The two doctors clearly had a grasp of everyone's information, including Loretta's. Toshima Shiki was even more outrageous; he even knew how many candles were in an apartment eight hundred meters away.

And Sam, who looked the most normal and seemed to know nothing, was actually able to react to the 'collapse' of the world without even stepping out of his door.

He was like a 'radar' that could receive information but couldn't interpret the data.

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