Eldritch Horror Theatre

She truly lived up to her proven reputation as a genuine cat lover.

Adele was clearly in terrible shape, but at the sound of the meow, she looked up as if jolted awake.

Fu Qian showed her the dangling Henry for barely a second before slamming the door shut with a loud bang.

In that final glimpse, Adele had already surged to her feet and lunged forward, followed immediately by the crash of the barricade being knocked over.

It wasn't that he was cruel enough to play at releasing in order to capture; he simply didn't have the time.

When Fu Qian had held up the cat, the audience he had led in circles earlier was already close enough to count his nose hairs.

As for the massive barricade inside, who knew how long it had taken Adele to stack it up? Even with her newfound, tireless drive, clearing it would still take her a good bit of time.

...

The power of love proved mighty indeed. After leading his pursuers on two more laps, Fu Qian was delighted to find that Adele's demolition work had been highly effective.

He had to admit, even when reduced to walking corpses, felines remained incredibly formidable.

The moment Henry left his grip, the cat began thrashing wildly in midair.

Perhaps because it had been tormented the whole way here, it didn't try to turn back and take revenge on Fu Qian; instead, its first instinct was to flee.

By the time Henry finally failed to escape those demonic clutches and was pinned down by Adele, Fu Qian had already restacked the barricade, even reinforcing it for good measure.

Watching Adele affectionately clutch the cat in a tight embrace, Fu Qian didn't rush to interrupt. Instead, he sat down to rest and surveyed his surroundings.

Aside from Adele, there were two other corpses in the theater.

Even though both were mangled, bloody messes, Fu Qian could actually recognize one of them—it was Paul, his main objective for this trip.

At this point, however, the young model had thoroughly lost his good looks.

Not only was there a massive hole in his head, but his limbs were bent and broken at grotesque angles.

Tangled up with him was another equally gruesome corpse.

It was a young, unfamiliar face, but Fu Qian had a faint guess as to who it might be—Angelo, the identity he had assumed earlier?

He had clearly known both Adele and Paul, making this highly likely.

Judging from the surrounding traces, it seemed these two had gone mad, severely tortured each other, and were ultimately finished off by Adele.

Human potential was truly immense.

Offering a word of quiet praise, Fu Qian looked at Adele, whose emotions had slightly settled from petting the cat.

The problem now was that Paul, the person involved, was dead. How was he supposed to get the detailed intel he had planned for?

"Adele, why are you here?"

After a moment of thought, Fu Qian decided to start with questions suited for a three-year-old.

"I saw Paul come back and answer a phone call... then he rushed right back out... I was worried he was coming to look for Henry, so I followed him..."

To his pleasant surprise, despite the stuttering pauses, Adele's answer was actually somewhat coherent.

Worried he'd find the cat and beat it?

He could understand her compassion, but weren't these people a little too free? Did none of them have jobs to go to?

Snark aside, Fu Qian quickly analyzed the information he had just gathered.

If Adele and Paul still had the presence of mind to care about a cat back then, it meant the anomaly hadn't appeared yet.

Of course, it wouldn't have been much longer. Both of their homes weren't far from here; if Paul hadn't found the cat, he certainly wouldn't have lingered here for long.

"And what happened to Paul then?"

Taking advantage of Adele's stable mood, Fu Qian pressed on.

"He... went mad. We didn't find the cat... he suddenly tackled Angelo... bit him... I tried to help, but then Angelo went mad too... later, both of them stopped moving... but it felt like everyone else had gone mad too..."

As she spoke, Adele grew increasingly agitated, a guttural gurgling rising from her throat.

"I was so scared..."

The other corpse was indeed Angelo.

"There's nothing to be afraid of."

Fu Qian offered a casual word of comfort. It looked like Adele's three-year-old answering ability wouldn't last much longer, so his next question was the critical one.

"What did Paul give you?"

A moment later, he asked directly.

"Give me..."

This question was clearly a bit more difficult. As Adele muttered to herself, Fu Qian waited without rushing her.

"A bottle of medicine."

Ultimately, Adele didn't let him down.

"A very small bottle of medicine... drinking it can resist the... corruption... Paul told me someone gave it to him, but he didn't want to drink it..."

Someone gave it to him and he didn't want it?

Fu Qian furrowed his brow slightly. Adele's answer rapidly sketched out a likely chain of events in his mind.

The reason he had asked that question in the first place was because he faintly sensed that Adele's ability to maintain her current state was likely due to the exact same reason as Oliver's.

In fact, that was exactly why he had still wanted to find Paul and have a chat, even given the current circumstances.

As a senior researcher, if there truly was some method to suppress the corruption, Oliver had likely come into contact with it. His distinctly different behavior during their first encounter proved as much.

And as his 'lover,' the probability of Paul receiving some residual benefit wasn't zero.

Now, that guess seemed pretty close to the mark.

Although The Company in this timeline hadn't accepted Paul's warning, Oliver had still provided him with a small token of affection.

It was just that things had played out slightly differently than he had imagined. Those two had seemingly gotten into a spat, leading Paul to reject the gift.

And perhaps it was Adele's pure love for cats that moved him to pass it along to her instead—ultimately allowing this very conversation to take place.

"Did Paul say anything else specific to you?"

"...Paul also said... when the disaster hits, try to hide in the dark... it might be safer."

Safer in the dark. It seemed Oliver had done some verification on that front as well.

Fu Qian clicked his tongue, feeling the entire incident becoming clearer.

The problem was that, to him, this information had already been proven false. The effect on Henry wasn't obvious at all.

"After that, I kept hiding here... everyone outside wanted to get in... I was so scared, and my mind was a mess... I didn't know where else I could hide so they couldn't find me..."

As Adele continued to lament, the force of her hands petting Henry escalated, making it look as if she might lose control at any second.

She was right. With this pervasive color, where could one even hide—wait a minute!

Fu Qian suddenly realized something.

Based on past experience, how did 'I' usually ensure others couldn't find me?

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