Eldritch Horror Theatre

[Lucid Dream: Upon activation, plunges targets within a certain range into a brief shared dream.]

Fu Qian examined the two transcendent rewards. To his surprise, this [Lucid Dream] was actually another ring!

Calling it ”another” ring didn’t feel quite right, though. While Tyrant’s Fist took the form of a ring, it was technically defined as a weapon.

Compared to Tyrant’s Fist, Lucid Dream looked much more normal.

Intricate openwork patterns decorated the silver-white metal band. Its face was inlaid with tiny gemstones clustered into a swirling nebula.

With a gentle shift, ice-blue light flowed across it, ethereal and dreamlike.

Plunging everyone within a certain range into a dream was a bit like hypnosis. The real trick likely lay in this ”shared dream.”

Making a group of people have the exact same dream? Like Inception? That was interesting.

He couldn’t think of any immediate use for it, but the ring itself was beautiful. Fu Qian simply slipped it onto his other middle finger.

Next, Fu Qian turned his attention to [Feast].[Feast: Massively increases life vitality. Cannot be deactivated once activated.]

[The form of the flesh does not matter. Only the joy of the soul is a feast.]

Going by the name, he’d assumed it would be some sort of corpse-eating, health-regenerating skill. But looking at the description, the target of Feast seemed to be himself.

Massively increases life vitality?

Fu Qian was a bit puzzled. His vitality was already incredibly high. How much higher could it go?

Plus, that ”cannot be deactivated once activated” clause sounded rather serious.

It was another path of no return!

Unfortunately, Fu Qian was a highly curious person. After hesitating for only a few seconds, he convinced himself and activated the skill.

The [Feast] prompt before his eyes flashed with a gentle light, then vanished without a trace.

At the same time, Fu Qian felt a vibrating ripple originate inside him and rapidly sweep through his entire body.

Bones, muscles, sinews—the ripples echoed through everything, eventually overlapping into lingering reverberations across his skin.

Only after a long while did the fluctuations finally fade.

”Doesn’t seem like there are any obvious changes!”

Fu Qian clenched his fists. He didn’t feel any significant increase in strength.

The next moment, acting on a sudden impulse, he threw a punch at the empty air.

Fierce wind howled. Just as the punch reached its limit, his index finger suddenly straightened. With a sharp crack through the air, the digit extended by an entire arm’s length, transforming into a finger-spear.

’I think I know what this life vitality is all about now.’

Fu Qian retracted his finger and took a deep breath.

With a tearing sound, a massive maw split open across his chest, revealing countless razor-sharp fangs.

’Just as I thought!’

This transformation, which had previously been quite strenuous, could now be achieved in the blink of an eye. He didn’t even need to tear open a physical wound first.

Fu Qian quickly returned his body to normal, essentially confirming the changes [Feast] had brought him.

If Brawler Form removed his human limit for strength, then Feast removed his physical restrictions in the traditional sense.

He could now freely control and transform any part of his body without worrying about it breaking down.

’Amazing! Just a bit perverse!’

’But at least it was worth all the hard work.’

Overall, Fu Qian was quite satisfied with his haul.

After checking the rewards, he selected the incident replay.

A moment ago, he had realized he was overlooking something.

The Containment Failure prompt had only appeared after he stepped outside the barrier. That made sense in itself.

However, he clearly remembered the scene when 2-292 breached.

Back when Wen Li’s mind collapsed and she lost her chance to advance because Wen Xiuxian was killed, he had instantly received the failure prompt.

Comparing the two proved one point—right up until he walked out of the barrier in a collapsed state, there was still a chance to complete the Containment.

In other words, there had to be a way inside the Furnace to cure his mental collapse.

Quickly dragging the progress bar to the end, Fu Qian watched his past self walk out of the barrier, having suffered a dual physical and mental collapse.

His body was severely deformed. Human faces striving to escape covered him from head to toe, so clear that even their expressions could be distinguished.

Both male and female faces could be seen among them. Many perfectly matched the Blood Faces that had appeared after Feng Yunhong’s self-destruction.

’But something seems to be missing!’

Frowning, Fu Qian rewound the playback to the exact moment Feng Yunhong self-destructed. Observing carefully, he did indeed spot an anomaly.

After Feng Yunhong exploded into a storm of flesh and blood, a strange mark appeared on all the Blood Faces permeating the air. It was shaped like four hands rotating counterclockwise.

’This...’

Recalling Feng Yunhong’s state when they first met, not even Li Weixuan had noticed his abnormality. That meant he had suppressed the consciousness of those Blood Faces exceptionally well.

Feng Yunhong was clearly hiding a secret. By relying on some special method, he could suppress mental collapse to a certain extent, preventing himself from falling into total madness.

This was likely why he had roared that Fu Qian’s actions earlier were just blindly messing around.

’Looks like I need to find a way to have a deep conversation with him this time.’

After watching the footage a few more times and confirming he hadn’t missed anything else, Fu Qian decisively touched the Mist Door again.

[Consuming 1 SAN Value to attempt containment again. Current SAN Value: 54]

[...1%...5%...15%...50%...75%...99%...100%. Containment Scenario loading complete.]

”Strange, is this place on the map?”

Yuan Xin’s voice came from ahead. A half-broken wall came into view, and the team once again began discussing resting on the spot.

’Time to move!’

Fu Qian stretched his back and, under the group’s incredulous gazes, walked straight past them from the back of the line.

”Do you need something, Fu Qian? Don’t break formation without permission.”

Yuan Xin, who had been speaking with Ji Liushuang, noticed his unusual behavior and called out with slight displeasure. Unfortunately, Fu Qian turned a deaf ear.

”I’m talking to you!”

Anger flared in Yuan Xin’s chest. He reached out to grab Fu Qian’s shoulder, but his vision blurred and his hand closed on empty air. Fu Qian was already several meters away from the team.

”I’m going ahead to scout the way.”

Fu Qian didn’t even turn his head. Without breaking his stride, he stepped over the ruined wall blocking the path.

As Fu Qian walked away without looking back even once, Yuan Xin stared blankly for a second before feeling a surge of humiliated anger.

However, he wasn’t provoked enough to lose his composure. After taking a deep breath, he gave Ji Liushuang an inquiring look. She hesitated for a moment before shaking her head.

”Fu Qian doesn’t seem to want us to follow. To be safe, we should stick to the plan and rest here. We’ll figure out a way to notify Dean Li later—”

Before Ji Liushuang could finish her sentence, her gaze instantly froze.

From within the shadows, a cluster of black spikes suddenly surged from behind the broken wall, shooting straight toward Fu Qian’s back.

A wave of alarmed cries rang out, but it was as if Fu Qian had eyes on the back of his head. Tapping his foot lightly on the ground, he leaped forward, perfectly dodging the ambush as his body rapidly vanished into the thin mist.

The nine-person team froze in place. Only after a long moment did they react, quickly jumping back from the broken wall.