Eldritch Horror Theatre

Fu Qian completely understood Red Dragon and Madam Star's shock.

After all, given his earlier reckless behavior, dying inside the building would have been the most logical outcome.

Yet not only had he survived, he had wandered outside and seemingly struck up a rapport with Adele. It really did stretch the imagination.

However, as highly trained task runners, keeping their emotions in check was a mandatory skill.

After the initial shock passed, the two of them suppressed their reactions by unspoken agreement and fell right back into character.

"Paul?"

Red Dragon snapped the name in a low growl before he even reached him.

"Who are you?"

Realizing he was indeed the target, Paul panicked and offered a deeply unprofessional response.

Keeping his eyes locked on Paul, Red Dragon gave a cold sneer and strode right up to him.

"Someone took a keen interest in your story. You're going to have to come with us."

"You're not the police. You don't have the right to do this."

Just as expected, they were here because of the earlier "rumors." Naturally, Paul refused to comply.

Unfortunately, this futile argument achieved nothing except acting as a tacit confession that he was indeed the source of the rumors.

"That doesn't matter. In your story, the police died too."

Madam Star had already approached from the other direction, speaking with a sweet smile.

...

Faced with this logic, Paul found himself momentarily speechless.

The two colleagues accompanying Red Dragon and Madam Star were clearly so satisfied with the duo's performance that they didn't even bother speaking. They simply stood their ground and flashed the weapons at their waists, playing the perfect backup muscle.

"Angelo, you brought them here?"

Knowing full well that he had no avenue of escape, Paul naturally refrained from trying anything stupid, decisively opting for the safest course of action—taking his anger out on someone else.

"Are you an idiot?"

Meeting Paul's furious glare, Fu Qian gave him a look reserved for absolute morons.

"To this dump? You think they needed me to personally guide them here?"

...Fair point. His location wasn't exactly a heavily guarded secret. If this guy really wanted to sell him out, simply dropping his name would have been more than enough.

Paul fell silent, but a moment later, a realization hit him and his head snapped up toward Red Dragon's group.

"Was it Oliver?"

His tone shifted noticeably as he uttered the name, sounding far more heartbroken than angry.

It almost smelled like heartbreak...

Fu Qian didn't have much time to indulge in the gossip, however, because Red Dragon was already looking his way.

"Angelo?"

Not bad, picking up on the name so quickly!

Amid his amusement, Fu Qian offered a highly cooperative nod.

"Yes."

"If possible, we're going to need you to come with us too."

"Of course. I've realized the error of my ways. Just tell me who you want me to testify against."

Fu Qian agreed without missing a beat, displaying all the eager sincerity of a tainted witness turning state's evidence.

"Oh? And her?"

Red Dragon gestured directly at Adele with a humorless smile.

His tone and demeanor clearly looked like a casual taunt, but Fu Qian understood his true meaning.

Red Dragon wanted to confirm if she held any value and whether she needed to be brought along too.

...

Her?

Faced with Fu Qian's scrutiny, Adele grew momentarily tense.

She was just a young woman, after all, and the lineup in front of her was quite intimidating.

"Just an animal lover."

Amid her trepidation, Fu Qian thought for a moment, shook his head, and casually tossed Henry over to her.

Adele was momentarily stunned and nearly let Henry escape. After fumbling to catch him, she finally let out a sigh of relief.

"Let's go, Mister Angelo."

Without waiting for a cue from Red Dragon, Madam Star stepped up beside Fu Qian, fully playing the part.

...

"How did you end up out here, and why were you mingling with them?"

As they headed downstairs, Red Dragon and Madam Star cleverly let their two colleagues take charge of Paul up ahead. Together, they "escorted" Fu Qian into another vehicle and quickly fired off those two questions.

"Maybe because I'm an animal lover too?"

Fu Qian already had his answer ready.

"Anyway, after the flash of white light, I found myself looking for a cat inside the cinema."

Fu Qian mimed holding something up by the scruff.

"Then Adele showed up."

"Alright."

Red Dragon and Madam Star had both seen him toss the cat to Adele, and it was true that he had been carrying Henry around the entire time they were upstairs. For a moment, neither of them knew what to say.

"Where are the others?"

Fu Qian didn't give them much time to think.

"I don't know."

Madam Star shook her head subconsciously.

"There was the same sudden flash of white light. Once it faded, I found myself standing with a bunch of uniformed personnel."

"Before I could even figure out the situation, we received orders to make an arrest. Throughout the entire process, I only saw Red Dragon..."

"Same here."

Beside her, Red Dragon nodded as well.

"With things running normally right now, security personnel are clearly under a lot of restrictions. I expanded my patrol area as much as I could, but I still couldn't find Mask and the other two."

Maybe some of them aren't even "inside" the building at all.

Fu Qian thought to himself, though he was in no rush to say it out loud.

"But when the white light flashed, you were together?"

"Yeah..."

As she replied, Madam Star actually looked a little embarrassed.

After all, that meant that ever since Guansi had left, the group had simply stood there waiting, never once sending out a second person.

"It doesn't look like there's any obvious pattern to how we entered these roles."

Fortunately, Guansi didn't show any strange reaction, instead offering a thoughtful analysis.

"We feel the same way."

Red Dragon agreed with his assessment.

"In short, the current situation seems to be just after the disaster premonition started spreading. The red and blue scenarios from earlier are likely two different subsequent developments. What do you think?"

Red Dragon asked in a consultative tone, clearly placing high value on Fu Qian's opinion.

"A reasonable deduction."

Fu Qian gave a slight nod.

"So you decided to let nature take its course, acting according to your current roles with the sole purpose of gathering as much information as possible? After all, there isn't even any color right now, so the task might be completely impossible to complete."

"Yes, we suspect another color shift will happen later..."

Madam Star looked a little surprised.

This was the consensus she and Red Dragon had reached after repeated consideration following their reunion, yet Guansi had seen right through it at a glance.

No... even before this, he had been employing the exact same approach. He had already figured this out.

No wonder Red Dragon had warned her earlier never to underestimate this sixth member.

"Speaking of which, Guansi, did you make any special discoveries after you left?"

Red Dragon suddenly seemed to remember something, asking a critical question.

Hearing this, Madam Star also visibly perked up.

"I did."

Facing the two eager listeners, Fu Qian replied quite naturally.

"I ran into Oliver."

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