Eldritch Horror Theatre

It was obvious everyone was trying to figure out the cause of the bizarre changes unfolding before their eyes.

And Brother Red Dragon, who had been leading the way, clearly wasn’t all brawn and no brains.

After assessing the route and realizing they couldn’t safely escape the building, he had decisively chosen this location—a spot where they had previously found some minor gains—as a hideout.

His reasoning wasn’t complicated: he simply wanted to compare the contents of the safe.

Theoretically, compared to a randomly locked door or a dog appearing out of nowhere, any change inside a locked safe seemed just a little bit more credible.

Unlike Death Row Inmate, Qing had undoubtedly figured out his intention. As for the others...

Death Row Inmate subconsciously looked around, noticing that other than Madam Star, neither Mask nor Guansi even bothered to glance at him. They didn’t seem the least bit surprised by what was happening.

These two...

Death Row Inmate gritted his teeth, only to see Red Dragon already looking at Fu Qian.

”Guansi?””No problem.”

Fu Qian appeared quite easygoing. Without needing Red Dragon to elaborate, he took out his tools and stepped forward.

This was a different set of tools, of course; he had thrown the contaminated ones away earlier.

The suddenly deteriorating situation didn’t seem to affect his mindset at all. His lockpicking speed had actually improved again, taking over ten percent less time than before.

Once he unlocked it, Fu Qian politely stepped aside again, leaving the task of revealing the truth to Red Dragon.

...

Although Fu Qian’s posture was a bit hard to understand, his calm composure invisibly relieved some of the team’s pressure.

”Thanks!”

Red Dragon didn’t stand on ceremony. He stepped straight up to open the safe, still making sure to stand in a safe spot as he did.

This...

The next moment, more than one sharp intake of breath echoed through the room.

”Why are there three vials again?”

Madam Star blurted out.

Although the light was dim, everyone could clearly see that three vials of potion were resting quietly inside the newly relocked safe.

”Even the colors are exactly the same.”

Red Dragon reached in, silently took out the three vials, and lined them up. He studied them for a moment before finally speaking.

No matter how they looked at it, the current situation was clearly not as simple as a group of people just running over and locking the doors.

Among the onlookers, Death Row Inmate was undoubtedly the most uncomfortable.

This sight made the three red, green, and blue vials he had so solemnly pocketed earlier seem incredibly awkward.

”Guansi, what do you think?”

After hesitating for a moment, Red Dragon looked at Fu Qian again.

Between their earlier joint operation and his performance along the way, Red Dragon didn’t dare underestimate this sixth member’s opinion.

The situation was critical. Regardless of whether the man had an answer, Red Dragon simply decided to call on him and hear his thoughts.

”It’s obvious.”

To everyone’s surprise, Fu Qian not only didn’t deflect the question, but pointed straight at Death Row Inmate.

”Take those three vials out.”

...

Given their earlier conflict, Death Row Inmate was clearly reluctant to follow Fu Qian’s orders.

However, he undoubtedly had no reason to refuse.

Ultimately, under the watchful eyes of the entire team, the man quickly broke under the pressure. Gritting his teeth, he took out the three vials one by one.

”See? The exact same colors. If we mixed them together, there’d be no way to tell them apart.”

As everyone’s gaze shifted back to him, Fu Qian casually grouped all six vials together.

”So the answer is simple. These three vials are those three vials.”

What was that supposed to mean?

Red Dragon couldn’t help but freeze at Fu Qian’s bizarre statement, but he quickly caught on.

”Are you saying we’re no longer in that space-time? That we’ve arrived here at a different point in time through some special means?”

”More precisely, we’re in a version of this place with a different possible course of events.”

Fu Qian nodded, looking very much like he was praising a child worthy of teaching.

”We met Adele earlier, and she told us this place was empty because someone foresaw the impending disaster and successfully convinced everyone to evacuate. Now, that raises a question... What if that person hadn’t foreseen it? Or what if they did foresee it, but failed to convince everyone else?”

Fu Qian pointed outside.

In just that brief span of time, the Corridor had already grown much noisier.

It was obvious that those unfriendly walking corpses possessed rather good tracking abilities.

”Imagine that possibility. Doesn’t the situation outside make a lot more sense now?”

”That’s completely absurd!”

While Fu Qian’s logic was hard to refute, it was also incredibly difficult to accept.

The first to voice her opposition was actually Madam Qing.

She furrowed her brows as she scanned their surroundings.

”If your theory is correct, it means we crossed through time and space without even realizing it. Don’t you think such a monumental shift should have been a bit more obvious?”

”Who says it’s not obvious?”

Fu Qian motioned toward the window with his chin.

”You mean the color...”

Following his gaze, Qing realized it almost instantly.

She hadn’t paid special attention to it earlier, but looking closely now, the world outside was already bathed in a deep red. The original blue had completely vanished.

”The shifting colors from earlier... that represented the intersection of the two space-times?”

She muttered to herself in a low voice. The next moment, realizing something, Qing looked down at the fluorescent traces on her body.

”Is that also why the fluorescence surged out of the keyholes so violently? Because in this world, that place is already thoroughly covered in contamination; it merely rapidly switched to its true state.”

”While the fluorescence spreading on our bodies... is the true speed...”

”And that’s why the doors that were obviously opened were locked again, because in this world they were never opened in the first place...”

”As for the appearance of characters we haven’t encountered before—”

”The skeptics... the brave souls who stayed behind.”

Fu Qian shook his head, showing the hand stained with a little fluorescence from picking the lock.

”If this is indeed the normal rate of spread, it’s fundamentally bad news. It most likely means that, compared to the mob outside, we aren’t anything special.”

”As long as the infection reaches a certain point, we’ll end up in the exact same state as those guys.”

”It sounds like our prospects are rather bleak.”

Mask’s voice suddenly drifted over.

The person in charge, who hadn’t said a word until now, raised a question about Fu Qian’s theory.

”So, what could be the reason that caused these two space-times to intersect?”

”Our disturbance? Of the things inside the top floor?”

Madam Star subconsciously replied. The next moment, her head snapped up as if she had suddenly realized something.

”Does this mean there’s something special in there? Like... the answer we’re looking for?”