Eldritch Horror Theatre

In fact, if he hadn’t just heard the voice, Fu Qian would have forgotten the man even existed: Xu Meng, who had come looking for trouble not long ago.

Since they had only met once four days ago, any information about the man had been practically wiped from his memory.

It took Fu Qian quite a bit of effort to recall him.

Xu Meng clearly didn’t share that forgetfulness; the shout echoing in Fu Qian’s head was dripping with hatred and resentment.

Fu Qian wasn’t surprised in the slightest. He had never believed that people could simply laugh away old grudges.

Perhaps because of Tan Ying’s involvement, the man had indeed given up on using him to vent his anger.

But they were adults, after all. Falling back on the spiritual victory method by mentally hacking someone into a thousand pieces was always an option.

The only strange thing was how this tough guy’s voice had ended up inside his head.

They really weren’t that close; even if Fu Qian were having auditory hallucinations, Xu Meng shouldn’t have made the cut.

Fu Qian held his breath, carefully parsing the voice he heard.Half a minute after that first resentful shout, the exact same voice rang out again.

Fu Qian subconsciously focused his attention on it.

Swish!

The next moment, a dark curtain unfurled, and Fu Qian found the room instantly turning hazy and surreal.

All around him in the dimming light, erratic orbs of light flickered and vanished.

Xu Meng’s resentment-filled voice was coming from one of them.

Fu Qian reached out and tapped it.

Light flared before his eyes, and a scene flashed past.

A scowling Xu Meng sat at a desk, the surface in front of him splashed with scalding tea.

A curvaceous woman in professional attire stood nearby, as mute as a winter cicada, while shattered teacup fragments littered the floor not far away.

’He isn’t even speaking!’

The vision ended quickly. Fu Qian watched from beginning to end, right up until Xu Meng stood up and started tearing at the woman’s clothes, the two of them tumbling onto the sofa in a display of half-hearted resistance. Through it all, he never heard his own name spoken aloud.

’Could it be that what I’m hearing is his internal resentment?’

’As long as someone thinks of me, I can hear their voice?’

It was a little bizarre, but that was the only explanation that made sense!

As for why this was happening, Fu Qian already had a pretty good guess.

His only change today was his advancement to a Blank-Slate Demigod.

The description of the Demigod Realm specifically mentioned: ”Achieved Sublimation at the foundational level, officially becoming a Mythical Creature.”

It had the word ’God’ in it, after all. Having some miraculous traits was only reasonable.

Having just dealt with a conceptual entity, Fu Qian didn’t find this particularly hard to accept.

’Since your main account is already ruined, here’s wishing you, President Xu, to be old but still vigorous, strong in your twilight years, and for this old tree to blossom once more!’

Fu Qian paid Xu Meng no further mind and turned to examine his surroundings.

In just that short span of time, new orbs of light had already appeared, while some of the initially dim ones had completely dissipated.

Fu Qian focused his attention on one of the new arrivals. The voice coming from within it sounded just as indignant.

Another vision unfolded before his eyes.

Inside a classroom-like space, Tan Ying sat with her hair tied simply behind her head. She tilted her head, her pink lips pursed as she chewed on the end of a pen, frowning in thought.

Although she was in class, her eyes weren’t focused on the blackboard at all.

’It was just a minor squabble. Does she really need to be this resentful?’

Fu Qian sighed inwardly. She really knew how to hold a grudge!

Without watching any further, Fu Qian backed out of the vision and clicked through a few more in succession.

Qin Mingze, Wu Qingyu... practically all of them were acquaintances. Most of the visions were incredibly blurry, likely because they were earlier thoughts.

Fu Qian felt quite grateful for his pocket-sized social circle.

If he were a celebrity, this endless noise would probably annoy him to death.

’Where there is a thought, it shall be known.’

It seemed the side effect of his advancement to the Demigod Realm was that any thought related to him would be converted into a voice he could hear.

And after a quick survey, the loudest voice by far was undeniably President Xu’s.

’Sure enough, your enemies are the ones who pay the most attention to you!’

Sighing, Fu Qian consciously withdrew his attention from the voices. The surreal atmosphere around him vanished instantly.

Even so, new voices still popped into his head every now and then, just not as loud as when he actively focused on them.

He needed to find a way to block it out. He wasn’t some kind of voyeur, after all.

Fu Qian frowned and glanced around his room. The voices were appearing directly in his consciousness; wearing earplugs probably wouldn’t do a thing.

’Wait a minute! Earplugs won’t work—’

Remembering something, Fu Qian activated the Imprint on his wrist without a second thought.

The scenery warped as he entered the Warehouse. Not wasting any time, Fu Qian quickly located Item 3-0177, the Emissary.

This mask allowed him to synchronize with another world. It should be able to sever this invisible connection.

The moment he placed the Blood-Stained Mask over his face, his vision rapidly shifted.

When his five senses returned, Fu Qian found himself waking up on the Bookstore Second Floor once more.

Sitting up in bed, Fu Qian didn’t rush into action. He simply stared straight ahead, waiting in silence.

Neither Xu Meng nor Tan Ying’s voices appeared again—in fact, there wasn’t a single voice to be heard.

However, this actually made Fu Qian feel somewhat puzzled.

Now that he thought about it, his social circle in this world was relatively much wider. Logically speaking, it was impossible for him not to hear any voices at all.

Fu Qian had expected that while he wouldn’t hear Tan Ying and the others over here, voices from this world would pop up to take their place.

Yet, after waiting for a full half-hour, there was absolutely nothing.

’Did my Demigod status fail to trigger any changes here?’

’Is there something special about this world?’

It made sense. There wasn’t exactly a shortage of Demigods in this world, yet he had never heard of anything similar happening before. There had to be some unique quirk to it.

What a pity. Fu Qian instantly felt his high hopes falling through.

Being annoyed by the noise was one thing, but if that effect worked in this world too, the difficulty of his future missions would take a nosedive.

It was basically a telepathic radar. With it, absolutely no one could plot against him undetected.

’What a shame!’

Fu Qian shook his head.

But looking on the bright side, at least he now had an extra place where he could enjoy some peace and quiet.

Whenever the noise over there got too annoying, he could just run over here.

Fu Qian thought about this as he examined his surroundings. Judging by the dust on the windowsill, it looked virtually identical to the first time he had synchronized here.

’Sure enough, the flow of time in both worlds is synchronized.’

Of course, the most foolproof method would simply be to head outside later and check the date.

Come to think of it, he hadn’t really explored this place much.

Thinking about it, and considering the harassment awaiting him back home, Fu Qian decided to take a short stroll outside.

...

’Even in such a perilous world, human civilization still manages to receive the utmost care!’

In a sense, the Night Watchers were truly doing an excellent job.

Strolling through a mall near The Bookstore, Fu Qian sighed in admiration. But in the next second, he froze.

Just a short distance ahead, Yuan Shan—her arms currently loaded with shopping bags—was turning her head to look at him, a perplexed expression on her face.