Eldritch Horror Theatre

”You aren’t taking my advice?”

Fu Qian’s words clearly took the Black T-Shirt aback.

”That’s right. In fact, I just came from there.”

”What?”

The Black T-Shirt recoiled in shock, eyeing Fu Qian up and down.

”Have the people there gone mad too?”

”It didn’t seem like it. Though, strictly speaking, I only exchanged a couple of words through the door with the guy inside.”

Fu Qian stretched his limbs as he spoke, using every available second to adapt to this body.

”Judging by his tone, he sounded pretty much like us.”

”Isn’t that for the best? Why...”Both the Black T-Shirt and Liu Yi were clearly a bit confused.

”I’m just describing the situation. You can judge for yourselves.”

Fu Qian didn’t explain. In truth, there was no way to explain it.

He couldn’t exactly tell these two that he felt the person inside was more dangerous than those crazed students, could he?

Ultimately, meeting their conflicted stares, Fu Qian turned and left.

”What do you think? Are you going to go take a look?”

The Black T-Shirt looked back at Liu Yi and asked.

”...Alright.”

Liu Yi watched Fu Qian vanish into the dense fog. She hesitated, but still didn’t chase after him.

Although they were classmates, she didn’t really know him, and today he felt like a total stranger.

And no matter what, she absolutely wasn’t going to stay here alone.

...

Moving silently through the darkness, Fu Qian quietly digested the information the Black T-Shirt had just provided.

If that description was true, the anomaly definitely covered the entire school.

As for the source, it was highly likely related to this strange fog.

This had to be the deepest darkness mentioned in the initial task description.

Along the way, this fog seemed to carry an abundance of spirituality. Not only did it cause anyone inside to act bizarrely, it had also awakened quite a few things.

Like Sister Ox-Head, and the Bipedal Rats.

As he pondered, Fu Qian heard another moo echo from the darkness, sounding even closer than before.

This area was undoubtedly Sister Ox-Head’s territory. Although he had only caught a fleeting glimpse of her earlier, she gave the impression of being incredibly difficult to deal with. A head-on clash would probably end in terror.

He couldn’t fight her directly; it was best to figure out her patterns and take a detour.

Fu Qian quickly settled on a strategy.

Speaking of which, hearing the moo from such a close distance hadn’t caused his SAN Value to drop. Did this mean the sound wasn’t the primary trigger?

Recalling the counselor’s demeanor from earlier, it seemed he had first been attracted by the sound, and only after locking eyes with Sister Ox-Head did he start tearing at his own head.

It seemed that if they crossed paths again, he needed to avoid eye contact at all costs.

As he thought, Fu Qian calculated the direction of the sound and deliberately took a wide detour to avoid running straight into her arms.

What was this?

Unexpectedly, as Fu Qian maintained his distance and pressed forward, a long line of people suddenly appeared in front of him.

Young men and women dressed as students were gathered in a loose formation, shuffling forward in dead silence.

Fu Qian watched them and realized they were heading in the exact direction of the mooing.

As expected, ordinary people’s resistance was simply too low. They couldn’t withstand Sister Ox-Head’s call at all.

But where did so many people come from?

Standing beside this line of unblinking figures, Fu Qian looked toward the back of the queue.

Through the darkness and dense fog, he could only make out the barest of silhouettes.

But without a doubt, that massive building in the background was the school library.

Had the library been emptied out completely?

Fu Qian immediately understood.

It proved his earlier judgment correct. Judging by this long queue, the school had quite a lot of good, studious kids.

But this cleared the building out, instantly turning the library into a relatively safe place.

Fu Qian suddenly had an idea.

Just as he was about to head toward the back of the line, a roar like a shrill wail suddenly erupted from behind him.

Was there something else now?

That was Fu Qian’s first reaction.

Mainly because that sound was absolutely not something a human could produce.

Most importantly, it sounded very close.

As he wondered what it was, rapid footsteps approached. A moment later, a panic-stricken Liu Yi dashed out of the dense fog, glancing over her shoulder as she ran.

”You’re here!”

The moment she saw Fu Qian, Liu Yi’s face lit up.

And a few seconds later, the Black T-Shirt ran out in almost the exact same manner, their left shoulder dripping with blood.

It seemed the worst-case scenario had happened.

Witnessing this scene, Fu Qian caught on almost instantly.

There was an eighty percent chance that the one who just made that sound was the guy in the duty room.

These two were truly top-tier at attracting monsters.

”Careful, that monster is catching up—”

Seeing Fu Qian, the Black T-Shirt was clearly startled too, then quickly warned in a hushed voice.

”I can tell.”

He didn’t need the reminder. Fu Qian kept his eyes on the churning fog. That sound was far too close; their pursuer was definitely fast.

”We shouldn’t have ignored your advice and gone there.”

The Black T-Shirt looked full of remorse.

”That thing sounded perfectly normal, but when we opened the door, it was actually a monster. If Liu Yi hadn’t stayed outside, I’m afraid we would have—”

”Is that so?”

Fu Qian gave a casual response. The next moment, he saw something leap out of the fog.

Calling it a monster was one thing, but it looked more like a stitched-together hybrid of two people.

The main body was a doctor in a white coat. His facial features were entirely normal, making him look quite young.

The only problem was that another body’s neck was attached directly to his chest.

The second body was missing its head, and the rest of it seemed to have fused right into him. Its torso faced upward, yet its limbs were flipped bizarrely downward to plant on the ground, turning this amalgamation into a six-legged creature.

This...

Witnessing this grotesque shape, a scene quickly surfaced in Fu Qian’s mind.

A student, feeling too unwell to endure it any longer, ran to the Campus Hospital for an emergency visit, where the on-duty doctor received him.

However, just as he was tilting his head up for the doctor to examine him, the student suddenly suffered a flare-up and slammed headfirst into the doctor.

It was probably because something inside his body had been stimulated.

Fu Qian deduced inwardly.

And the one hiding behind the door conversing with him earlier was undoubtedly this thing.

For it to hide behind the door and try so hard to coax him inside, its intentions were undoubtedly far from kind.

If he had fallen for it back then, his fate would likely have been even worse than these two.

Fu Qian shook his head, clicking his tongue in amazement.

Despite its bizarre movements, the fused monster was incredibly fast. After charging out of the fog, it locked onto the three of them almost instantly.

”What do we do?”

Liu Yi asked, her voice trembling with a sob.

What could they do? Outrunning it was out of the question; this thing was obviously much faster than all three of them.

”Keep up.”

Fu Qian thought for a moment, then turned one hundred and eighty degrees and headed straight in the direction the queue was marching.