Eldritch Horror Theatre

Was this the legendary feint to the east and strike to the west?

The power had seemed ready to pour into the cat, drawing his attention before suddenly changing targets to break Brother Mask's bindings instead. That was some peak micromanagement.

He really couldn't afford to let his guard down at any time!

But as everyone knew, relying on micro to save your life meant a straightforward brute-force assault was already off the table.

So, even as Mask's aura visibly climbed before his eyes—reaching the Demigod Tier in the blink of an eye—Fu Qian actually felt quite gratified.

The entity behind all this apparently couldn't find a better solution.

Regardless of what Brother Mask thought, Fu Qian had never considered him much of a rival.

The man lacked imagination and refused to take even the slightest risk, operating strictly on a philosophy of nipping all threats in the bud.

This typical noob-stomping style might seem sharp and peerless, but in most situations, Fu Qian didn't think he would actually be any stronger than Qing.

Completing the task would be easy. He could have just put a bullet in Mask's head a moment ago and tossed the cat straight into the Well.

But for Fu Qian, ever since the development of the Tyrant was completed, his goal was no longer as simple as just finishing the task.

From that moment on, he had the capital to explore the true essence behind this task and confirm exactly what massive crisis might be brewing in the background.

That was true even though he was currently only at the Demigod Rank, and his form remained restricted.

Even if a True God were to descend before him right now, Fu Qian was entirely confident in his countermeasures; he could still calmly activate Transcendence.

"Your composure is admirable, but it's also truly obnoxious!"

By now, Mask had evidently completed his transformation, his voice ringing with unprecedented vigor.

He even laughed off Fu Qian's previous ravings.

"To think you're a Demigod as well. Apologies for my lack of manners."

He looked Fu Qian up and down, his praise entirely devoid of sincerity.

"So this task really is annoying, isn't it? Without these baffling restrictions, six Demigods would have finished it in minutes."

He certainly had a lot of confidence in the others' skill levels!

The crux of the matter was that it was true. Counting Madam Star, half the team was already confirmed to be at that level.

A certain suspicion in Fu Qian's mind was only growing clearer.

"You flatter me. Diligent practice simply brings strength. So, how often do you undertake a task?"

"Once a month. Why do you ask?"

Mask was clearly caught a little off guard by the question.

One month...

I! Knew! It!

Mask's answer triggered a deep sense of lament in Fu Qian.

Sure enough, had he been commissioned during a time of crisis, forced to work brutal overtime just to keep operations running?

Exactly. From the very beginning, when he first realized he had five teammates, Fu Qian had hypothesized a possibility—they might indeed be his seniors, but they weren't necessarily real people.

Putting aside the fact that he hadn't encountered a co-op mission in ages, the sheer style of these individuals felt drastically different from his own.

After confirming that Madam Stella was actually a Demigod just moments ago, that suspicion had only grown heavier.

Truth be told, given her behavioral style, Fu Qian found it incredibly hard to imagine how she could have possibly survived long enough to become a Demigod.

Was their golden age truly a thing of the past?

The seniors had enjoyed high pay, light workloads, and rapid promotions. But when it finally came to his turn, he was left with nothing but ruins and rubble, facing a deficit as red as a monkey's ass.

For a moment, Fu Qian's mood soured entirely.

"However, Guansi, your situation seems a bit abnormal!"

Meanwhile, Mask blindly leaned in to draw more aggro, completely oblivious to the room's mood.

"Transforming into this state might have restored your Rank, but it seems to have placed many restrictions on you as well. From start to finish, you've only used that one move."

He pantomimed the motion of firing an Air Bullet.

"Don't tell me that's the only move you can use right now? If that's the case, then it seems I hold the advantage again."

As he spoke, Mask snapped his fingers. A dazzling sphere of light instantly materialized above his palm, rapidly manifesting into dozens, if not hundreds, of long spears.

Kind of flashy!

Facing this sudden, explosive barrage, Fu Qian marveled internally while executing a series of precise, delicate dodges.

In his current state, after all, his entire body was essentially an Achilles' heel. Even scraping a tiny bit of skin might cause his power to uncontrollably bleed out.

In Fu Qian's judgment, the environmental restrictions on the Transcendent Tier hadn't been lifted. Mask's transformation felt much more like some kind of power had been forcefully injected into him.

Obviously, whatever was behind this power was highly likely to be hostile, meaning the chances of it graciously injecting him with a power-up were practically zero.

Fortunately, as he dodged through the sky-filling barrage, another bizarre phenomenon occurred.

The giant tree inside the Well, which had just begun to quiet down, started surging wildly. Countless severed limbs and broken arms that had previously been submerged within it were violently expelled, erupting outward like a Volcano.

Brilliant! It was exactly as he had suspected!

In that moment, Fu Qian wasn't alarmed but overjoyed, feeling the intense satisfaction of solving an extra-credit problem.

...

From the beginning of the fight until now, there had actually been two very important questions.

First, if Mask and the other four were just residual phantoms of his seniors, what was the reason for their appearance?

For one, Fu Qian didn't think the Warehouse was powerful enough to resurrect its dead employees and force them to keep working to pay off their debts. Therefore, they most likely came from the Higher Existence that had just injected Mask with power.

Which meant their presence here harbored malicious intentions.

The facts proved exactly that. From the very beginning, his five teammates had seemed to be working hard, but their actual contributions were almost entirely misleading, constantly pushing his thoughts and actions in the wrong direction.

If he had been a team player like Madam Star, he would have likely been stuck in a ditch with no way out.

At the same time, assuming this group was genuinely compromised, then as he had considered before, they had every opportunity to gang up on him and kill him right from the start, thereby preventing him from completing the task.

But they hadn't done that... Why?

The answer was obvious—if he had simply died like that, the result would just be a slight loss in his SAN Value. He would then realize the true faces of all five teammates and begin his next attempt.

The entity pulling the strings behind the scenes believed that such a death was far too cheap. It was currently preparing something deeply malicious, something that would cost him far more than just a little SAN Value.

Like draining it all to zero?

He had previously faced a True God directly because of Ariel, and as a result, his SAN Value had plummeted by several dozen points in an instant.

His current SAN Value, likewise, was no more than double digits.

Without his Pseudo-God Incarnation, surviving another True God Descent would be impossible; having his SAN Value completely wiped out would be a given.

And that led to the second question: If this entity was so powerful, why not directly initiate a Descent?

That was something Fu Qian had constantly wondered about, but the sudden eruption from the Well just now gave him a possible answer.

The Well was a symbol of The Abyss's power, and this entity was clearly not on the same side as The Abyss.

The current situation rested on a delicate balance. If its power seeped in even a little, The Abyss would immediately react, and the entity wouldn't be able to bear the consequences.

Mask's actions just now looked very much like he was employing a method to slightly pacify The Abyss, thereby buying the entity an opportunity to seep a tiny fraction of its power into this place.

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