Eldritch Horror Theatre

There was a reason Ballard was the leader of the Order faction.

Coming up empty-handed against an Outlander Squad with two Divine Emissaries was perfectly normal.

But the moment he missed his target, he immediately deduced their most likely move if they hadn't fled the domain. Traitors, after all, were always the most despised.

Since Fu Qian had been successfully recruited, it was entirely natural for the betrayed Chaumont to hate him to the bone.

So with their plan exposed, if Chaumont and the others stuck around, they were highly likely trying to eliminate the traitor.

Judging by the current situation, Ballard had clearly rushed back with his people without a second thought.

His next step was undoubtedly to keep Fu Qian firmly under his thumb, set a trap, and invite the gentleman into the urn.

It was an impressively swift reaction. But what would happen if he just used Blood Crusade to run away right now?

Coming to a profound understanding of his own fate, Fu Qian let his imagination run wild for a moment.

Right now, his goal was to rewrite fate.

And the first step to rewriting fate was undoubtedly to understand it.

You couldn't just mindlessly select "no" on every choice to reach a happy ending; even adult games weren't that simple.

And right now, what better way to achieve that than by mingling with the Native demigods?

After all, every single one of them could communicate in real-time with Prophet Yuan.

...

"Me?"

Entrusted with this heavy responsibility, Akasha looked at Ballard in surprise.

Her earlier posturing had clearly been a case of Lord Ye's love of dragons.

As an outsider identified by the Prophet, how could she not sense how dangerous Fu Qian was?

But Ballard's firm expression gave her an immediate answer: this was non-negotiable.

"Fine."

Since things had come to this, Akasha didn't put up a fight. She turned back to Fu Qian, her face breaking into a radiant smile a second later.

"You'd better behave yourself later."

"Where are we going?"

Without waiting for Fu Qian to answer, she looked at Ballard and asked.

...

Faced with this question, however, Ballard hesitated, struggling to find an answer.

"We certainly can't go to the Base. That would be too blatant a trap."

Seeing this, Fu Qian—the designated bait—offered a suggestion.

"There's a pretty good restaurant around here."

...

"There don't seem to be many customers."

A short while later, Fu Qian walked into the empty restaurant and offered a casual observation.

Ballard had only hesitated for a few seconds before agreeing to the suggestion, deciding to use the restaurant where the beautiful waitress Catherine worked as their house arrest location.

Of course, she wasn't here right now.

"It got a little... heated in here around noon."

Akasha hesitated slightly before offering the ambiguous explanation.

"I can tell."

Sniffing the faint scent of blood in the air, Fu Qian nodded and didn't press the issue.

It was obvious that the inevitable conflict had broken out; otherwise, Akasha wouldn't have been this cooperative.

Unlike last time, however, the tables, chairs, and decorations were completely intact.

It seemed that without his interference, Ballard had kept the conflict firmly under control, stopping Catherine the moment she made her move.

"Can we order?"

Fu Qian even chose the same seat he had occupied last time. It took a while after he and Akasha sat down before anyone finally came over to greet them.

It was an Old Man in his fifties. His face was a bit pale, likely due to the earlier incident.

Though properly dressed, he was obviously a far cry from Catherine.

Of course, if they were both improperly dressed, Catherine would probably win by an even wider margin.

"What would you like to eat?"

As the lady of the table, Akasha naturally looked over at Fu Qian.

Even now, she couldn't understand why this fellow of mysterious origins insisted on eating here.

She understood the need to deliberately expose their whereabouts to lure the enemy in.

But it stood to reason that an outsider wouldn't be very familiar with this city. So why did he specifically choose this place?

Did he have some scheme against her? The earlier incident made it hard for her not to overthink things.

Of course, she would never have guessed that Fu Qian's sole reason for choosing this place was that he genuinely thought the food was pretty good.

"Bring me one of everything that takes more than five minutes to prepare."

Fu Qian said, not even bothering to open the menu he had been handed.

He was deliberately extending their dining time? He was being far too cooperative!

Akasha naturally had no idea about Fu Qian's regrets from his last visit. Watching him order, her only thought was that this outsider's defection had to be genuine!

"We'll go with that."

Meeting the Old Man's seeking gaze, Akasha nodded and handed the menu back.

Fu Qian's overly cooperative behavior didn't make her feel like this mission would be easy. On the contrary, her mood grew increasingly heavy.

Leaving aside whether this guy had any bizarre schemes, even if everything went smoothly, she would be the one bearing the brunt of the attack later!

If she had known, she wouldn't have been so greedy for a better-tasting blood meal and sent Catherine here!

Amid her gloomy thoughts, a sudden wave of cold washed over her, instantly clearing her mind.

Realizing something, Akasha turned around, unable to hide her surprise the next moment.

"Why are you here?"

"To keep an eye on you."

Snorting at Akasha's question, the Crystal Demigod walked through the door and stepped lightly over to their table.

"This matter is too important. I don't trust you to handle this guy alone!"

These lines were seemingly familiar!

Watching the ice wolf unceremoniously hop into a seat, Fu Qian recalled the moment she had insisted on following them to the center of The Lake.

It was obvious, however, that despite being embarrassed by the blunt dismissal, Akasha secretly breathed a sigh of relief, appearing a little more reassured.

The relationship between these two was truly fascinating!

...

"What would you like to eat?"

Fu Qian, for his part, was quite happy to see her.

Two testing probes were always better than one, especially since he desperately needed information feedback right now. Besides, he had no intention of running anyway.

These two were even slightly at odds with each other. Given the right opportunity, they could be used to cross-verify the feedback from Yuan Fang.

Obviously, though, the Crystal Demigod disliked Fu Qian just as much as Akasha did.

In response to his warm greeting, she merely glanced at him, too lazy to even speak.

Oh...

Faced with this attitude, Fu Qian suddenly realized something.

He took in her sitting posture and the paws that were decidedly ill-suited for holding utensils. A moment later, Fu Qian flashed an understanding look and rephrased his question.

"Sorry, my mistake. I should have asked: what would you like to eat out of?"

The instant those words left his mouth, the temperature in the restaurant plummeted another ten degrees.

Seeing that the Crystal Demigod looked ready to lunge across the table at any moment, Akasha shot Fu Qian an exasperated look.

"Why don't you change the subject? If you piss her off, I won't be able to help you."

Change the subject...

Fu Qian looked thoughtful, as if genuinely considering Akasha's advice. A few seconds later, he looked back at the Crystal Demigod.

"So, is Akasha your friend's name, or is it the name of this demigod?"

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