The Eldritch Files

It was like stepping into a kaleidoscope.

In every direction, there were vibrant, dazzlingly colorful fragments.

Each fragment held a different experience, a different realization, or perhaps, some secret hidden deep in the heart, not meant for outsiders to know.

Han Su directly saw the secrets of the Crystal Skull—or rather, the secrets of this bizarre corpse from before its death.

It was like cracking open a sealed hard drive.

The dead man had originally been a warehouse keeper in the neighboring Seawall City. He lived a happy, blissful life with his wife and son, working from nine to ten, until he saw a certain excavated artifact in the newspaper. Its strange beauty captivated him completely.

It was a work of art shaped like a Crystal Skull, possessing a soul-stirring beauty.

He recklessly took time off work to go admire it at the art museum. Gazing at the crystal-clear skull up close, he felt as if it were peering deep into his spirit.

But his reverie was soon shattered. Robbers burst into the museum, firing their guns wantonly. They killed who knows how many people, but when they saw him, it was as if they noticed the crystalline glint lingering in his eyes.

A robber smiled, extended a hand, and said, "You’re one of us."

Without a moment’s hesitation, he abandoned everything and went with the robbers. From that day on, he became a member of the Crystal Skull Organization.

They worshiped the Crystal Skull day and night, kneeling before it for entire nights. The organization’s leader told them to be pious, to be earnest. He said the Crystal Skull would speak, that it was a divine revelation from the Gods to their followers, the key to unlocking a new Life Level.

He truly believed.

So he worshiped with fanatical devotion, until one day, he actually heard the voice of the Crystal Skull.

He felt a grace from beyond the physical world. His body began to undergo mysterious changes—he gained extraordinary strength, and his wounds healed quickly. He even felt as though he had truly come "alive."

From then on, his status within the organization skyrocketed. He quickly went from a peripheral worshiper to an official member, and then from a member to a preacher.

...

’Who gives a damn about this crap?’

Han Su frowned slightly, feeling a bit annoyed.

Although Miss Crow had said that memory reading was a very dangerous affair, he was now almost certain of one thing.

He was, in fact, something of a natural-born master at it.

Every time he returned from a Flashing, he would go through the process of experiencing countless new memories.

It was as if a doctor had long been practicing various surgical techniques on his own body.

Coupled with his "parallel" Spirit World, it was impossible for his "self" to be annihilated, no matter how many memories he read, let alone those of a single dead man.

But a person’s memories were too vast. Passively reading them only revealed the most vivid and profound ones. Thus, what he was seeing now were just the memories from when this dead man was first corrupted—or rather, "Penetrated"—by the Crystal Skull. The man considered it the most important phase of his life, reliving it time and again with emotional reverence.

In Han Su’s eyes, however, it was just a man who had abandoned his wife and child going insane.

He just wanted to quickly find more valuable clues about that woman or the Crystal Skull Organization.

"BZZZZ..."

A faint, complex hum sounded as countless memory fragments flashed before his eyes, like a film reel playing at three hundred times the normal speed.

Han Su’s "reading" was still without method; he was simply relying on instinct to capture countless fragments of memory.

A quick glance, and he would toss them aside.

The profound realization of hearing divine grace, the joy of cutting off a companion’s head to extract another Crystal Skull, the process of performing miracles in the wilderness to recruit followers.

He didn’t want any of it.

He could feel the dead man’s vast spiritual fragments rapidly dissipating. The man’s will had collapsed and his Activity had vanished, causing the fragments to begin self-annihilating. This made Han Su even more anxious to grab more of them before they were gone.

Suddenly, he saw an unusual scene: a woman in a black qipao, looking down at "him" and speaking:

"Mr. Peng, this mission is extremely important. We need you to handle it personally."

"No matter what, we must find the Mechanical Fragment hidden in Qinggang City."

"After a discussion among the elders, we’ve decided to use a spiritual search method. We need someone to become the hand of our lord, to enter Qinggang City and release a plague, then collect the memories of the people there. We’ll use this method to find the whereabouts of the Mechanical Fragment."

"Are you willing to bear this responsibility?"

"..."

The last thing remaining in the image was a photograph. It showed a broken Mechanical Fragment, covered in strange patterns and lines resembling the blood vessels of a living person.

"It’s her?"

The moment he saw that woman, Han Su’s heart clenched fiercely, as if some distant memory was surging awake.

That woman!

The woman who took care of him before he was ten!

It was her!

Even though in this memory she wore a qipao completely different from the one in his own, and possessed a lofty, cold, and mysterious aura that was nothing like the woman he remembered, Han Su was still certain it was her.

’She’s really in the Crystal Skull Organization?’

"BZZZZ..."

Just as Han Su’s mind was reeling, he felt a shattering tremor. All the remaining spiritual fragments in the air were annihilating.

Han Su couldn’t stop the process. He could only focus his mind and desperately commit the photograph to memory before all the "information" dissipated.

’So, that woman is the one behind all this?’

’So, these Spiritual Plagues were indeed released by the Crystal Skull Organization, and their goal was to find this Mechanical Fragment?’

’This Mechanical Fragment... how could I... how...’

’...’

He stood there in a daze, his thoughts churning like a tide as he quietly pondered.

There was nothing new in the memories of the Crystal Skull, or of the dead man. It was just the story of someone bewitched by a Mysterious Power, who ultimately became a corpse thrown into Qinggang City to spread a Spiritual Plague.

Worshipping something you don’t understand—perhaps this was the natural outcome.

No wonder the plague released this time was so shallow and hard to detect. Their goal wasn’t corruption in the first place.

They were using the plague as a means to travel through more people’s minds in search of a "secret."

So, what exactly is this so-called machine that the Crystal Skull Organization—or rather, that woman—is looking for?

As he carefully considered the photograph, a sense of familiarity washed over him. He vaguely felt that he had seen it somewhere before...

Not only had he seen it, he had even talked about it with someone...

He was so close to remembering, but perhaps because of the prolonged Spiritual Penetration and reading, his mind was momentarily blank. He just couldn’t recall...

...

...

At that very moment, in a sealed room within a manor not far from Qinggang City, a slender woman with a black veil over her head stared in shock at the Crystal Skull placed before her.

It was an object like a work of art, crystal clear, occasionally flashing with a captivating light that possessed a certain Activity.

But a heart-wrenching crack was slowly spreading across this work of art.

She stared at the crack in disbelief. After a long moment, she extended her palm and infused it with her Spiritual Power. A vision appeared before her—a scene that would still inspire shock and worship even if she saw it ten thousand times: a pyramid so vast it seemed to encompass the entire universe.

A pyramid constructed from countless Crystal Skulls, all of them supporting the one at the very top. That was the faith of all their people.

It was because she could see this vast and mysterious thing that she would remain unwavering, no matter what "It" commanded her to do, even if it was to die.

Because she knew that the countless Crystal Skulls represented a countless number of shared beliefs.

They were one, indestructible.

But now, she saw with disbelief that at the very bottom of this massive pyramid, an almost imperceptible spot had dimmed. A part of this enormous pyramid had been erased from the system.

And the most critical thing was...

The thought of this possibility sent a cold fear through her entire body: ’Could the direct orders from the Lady of Sacrifice have been seen by an outsider?’

...

...

CRACK... CRACK... CRACK...

As Han Su was still reeling, thinking about the information he’d captured from the Crystal Skull’s will but not yet reaching any conclusions, a sound like shattering glass suddenly echoed in his ears.

Slightly alarmed, he looked up and saw layers of something like dust flaking down from above.

It was as if the space he was in was becoming unstable; the power that constructed it was collapsing.

’Is the world inside the door unstable because the Crystal Skull was destroyed?’

The mysterious symbol covering the four walls and the floor was also rapidly fading away, causing everything around him to become more and more real.

Han Su saw the ground beneath his feet turning into a wooden floor.

He saw long counters appear around him. Small cakes were displayed inside them. He saw a server behind one of the counters, mouth agape, staring in horror at the scene before them.

Following the server’s gaze, Han Su saw Song Chushi, and across from him, Mr. Strange Bird, who was drawing a gun and aiming it at him.

At that very moment, he even saw Mr. Strange Bird pull the trigger. Fire erupted from the muzzle, and a bullet shot out, flying straight toward Song Chushi’s forehead.

And that idiot was actually turning his head to smile at him?

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