Eldritch Horror Theatre

Climbing down from the barbed wire, Fu Qian didn’t rush to open the door. Instead, he approached the room’s only wooden table.

”I saw something here a moment ago.”

Fu Qian muttered to himself, staring down at the tabletop.

The table was extremely low and pushed against a corner of the room. Resting on its surface was a miniature silver-white voice recorder, barely half the size of a palm.

Fu Qian picked it up, noting the cassette already loaded inside.

Calling it a standard tape recorder wasn’t quite accurate; it was more of an old-fashioned dictaphone.

Despite its compact size, it felt rugged and durable.

Sitting in such a conspicuous spot, it was undoubtedly a message left for him.

He didn’t rush to hit play, continuing to examine the table instead. After all, it seemed to be the only thing left in the room to investigate.

Of course, there were a few fluorescent tubes overhead, but if he had the means to scale an eight-meter ceiling for clues, why wouldn’t he just climb back out the way he came?Unfortunately, the table was the epitome of minimalist design—just a few wooden planks joined at right angles. Aside from the tabletop itself, there was nowhere to hide anything.

Its legs were firmly bolted to the floor; flipping it over without tools would be a massive struggle.

Fu Qian crouched, peering at the underside of the table from an extremely tight angle.

He quickly spotted an unusual lump and reached under to feel it.

It was something hard, sealed in a small bag and taped to the bottom of the table.

With a light tug, Fu Qian pulled his discovery free.

It was a crudely made action figure of some superhero.

This didn’t look like something that would help him escape.

Fu Qian vaguely remembered seeing another mark near where the figure had been taped, so he lowered himself further to the floor.

Sure enough, in the dim light, he spotted a line of text scrawled there.

He quickly made out the words, immediately grasping the heavy sarcasm behind them.

Judging by the exaggerated smiley face drawn at the end of the sentence, the toy had been left there purely to mock him.

Fu Qian didn’t feel the slightest ripple of emotion. After toying with it for a moment, he shoved the figure into his pocket.

Wasting no more time, he stood up and pushed open the room’s only door, pressing the play button on the recorder at the same time.

...

Surprisingly, the space behind the door couldn’t even be called a room.

The open door revealed a tightly sealed corridor, roughly two meters high. Everything in sight was made of solid metal and looked exceptionally sturdy.

At the end of this short, five-meter passage stood another door.

Compared to the one he had just opened, this second door looked far more imposing.

Made from the exact same metal as the surrounding walls, it sat perfectly flush, thoroughly sealing off the path forward.

On one side of the door, a keyhole was clearly visible.

Was this the first test, then? Passing through this door?

”Excellent. It seems that even Superman is willing to put in the effort to stay alive.”

”I hope this game brings plenty of surprises for both you and me.”

At that moment, a raspy voice echoed from the recorder.

”You have always prided yourself on being level-headed, having long since seen through the true essence of life.”

”Because of this, even when facing violent threats from your peers, you never felt anger, nor did you back down.”

”To you, a heartbeat is merely a necessity to sustain thought. It holds no other significance.”

”It is a magnificent kind of coldness. Or at least, it appears to be.”

”Now, a door blocks your path. Naturally, it is locked.”

”Rest assured, the proper Key will absolutely open it. I can even tell you where the Key is. Do you see the hole in the door?”

It’s so obvious. How could I possibly miss it?

Fu Qian thought as he listened to the recording.

He had noticed it right from the start. On the surface of this polished, perfectly flat metal door, there was a modest-sized hole. The edges around it had been sanded completely smooth.

”The Key is mounted on the back of the door. All you have to do is stick your entire arm through that hole, reach to the right, and you will feel the Key.”

”Of course, there is a small mechanism hidden inside the door.”

As the recording reached this point, Fu Qian heard a faint ding echo from inside the metal door.

”The mechanism is extremely simple. Inside is a set of sharp Razor Blades. Every time you hear that sound, the blades will spin for exactly fifty-five seconds, followed by five seconds of stillness.”

”Unsurprisingly, the hole lies directly in the path of the blades. If they touch your arm while spinning, they will effortlessly slice it off.”

”You might think your opportunity lies in those five seconds before the ding sounds to stick your arm through the hole, find the Key, and pull it back.”

”In fact, if you are agile enough, three seconds is all you need to complete the task.”

”The only problem lies in how you determine when those three seconds begin.”

”A special reminder: the Razor Blades are sharp, but incredibly fragile. Any interference will cause them to lose balance and stop spinning. Due to a special linkage, if they stop, the Key on the other side will drop to the floor. You will never be able to retrieve it.”

”Begin now. Let me see that cold heart of yours!”

He’s forcing me to get it right on the first try!

Actually, that’s putting it lightly. There’s zero margin for error.

Fu Qian thought as he listened to the very end of the recording.

He stepped forward and pressed his ear against the cold metal door.

Unfortunately, the door must have been specially treated. Even in the dead silence of the room, he couldn’t hear the faintest sound from the mechanism inside.

Pulling his ear away, Fu Qian turned to the hole and traced its edge with a finger.

The recording had been detailed enough: to get through this door, he just needed to retrieve the Key from behind the hole.

He leaned in and peered through.

Sure enough, the hole didn’t bore straight through. It curved in an arc, and from what he could see, there was no sign of any blades.

The door was clearly very thick. He would have to stick his entire arm in to reach the Key.

The limb-severing blade mechanism lay hidden within that blind spot.

Of course he wouldn’t leave such a glaring loophole.

If the hole were straight, he could just watch the blades. The moment they stopped, he could thrust his hand in. After all, he already knew the timer’s pattern.

As things stood, he had to figure out a way to find those safe three seconds blindly.

As he pondered, another ding rang out. Another minute had passed.

A wristwatch would be great right about now. I could crack this mechanism in no time.

Fu Qian sighed toward the ceiling.

But he had already checked his pockets. Let alone a watch, he didn’t even have his phone.

Brother Jigsaw had undoubtedly calculated for this.

Of course, even without external tools, Fu Qian knew a few ways to keep time manually—such as using his heart rate and pulse.

In fact, that was exactly the method Brother Jigsaw wanted him to use.