Eldritch Horror Theatre

At first glance, aside from sorting out a web of love and hate, this trip hadn’t yielded much. The key information was almost entirely already known.

But Adele’s final muttered reflection sparked a flash of inspiration for Fu Qian.

The next moment, rather than pressing Adele for answers, he went straight to the door, quickly clearing the barricade he had built earlier.

Adele seemed to have little sanity left. She just kept her head down and silently petted the cat, showing no reaction to Fu Qian’s dangerous behavior.

Fu Qian soon cleared a path again and carefully opened the door a crack.

Drawn by the noise he had just made, another group of audience members had already gathered outside.

Immediately, a spindly hand reached inside.

However, Fu Qian instantly blasted this overly eager audience member away with a single shot.

By the time that one struggled back up, the sedatives in Fu Qian’s hand had already smashed another skull, along with the corresponding pair of knees.

Just as this second audience member fell, Fu Qian yanked him hard, dragging him straight through the door before backhanding it shut.This selected audience member wasn’t particularly tall, but he had a distinctly round build. Fortunately, the path Fu Qian had cleared was wide enough.

Ultimately, guided by Fu Qian, the monster crawled arduously on his two unbroken arms, finally settling into the spacious spot Fu Qian had chosen in advance.

With a series of cracks, Fu Qian showed no further mercy and shattered both of the man’s arms as well.

Although injuries of this extent weren’t fatal to an already mutated monster, his mobility was undoubtedly severely restricted.

”I should have brought Akasha’s Claw Tip if I knew this was coming.”

Muttering to himself, he watched the lucky audience member thrashing around on the ground, still refusing to give up the hunt, before walking over to pat down Angelo and Paul.

Unfortunately, he only managed to find a small knife with a blade no longer than five centimeters.

It was enough.

Fu Qian wasn’t greedy. He returned to his prey with the small knife, various principles of human anatomy flashing through his mind.

”Cover the cat’s eyes. The upcoming scene isn’t suitable for children.”

Noticing from the corner of his eye that Adele had been drawn by his actions and was peering over, Fu Qian casually threw out the reminder.

Adele was clearly good at taking advice. Surprisingly, she actually pressed the cat to her chest, shielding its eyes.

To be precise, she curled up around the cat as if they were weeping in each other’s arms, losing all curiosity about what Fu Qian was about to do.

”Then let’s begin.”

With his audience gone, the blade in Fu Qian’s hand glinted with a cold light.

Since he didn’t know when the situation might end, he needed to test out this interesting idea as soon as possible.

...

Done!

After a not-insignificant amount of time, Fu Qian tossed the makeshift scalpel aside and admired his masterpiece.

The lucky audience member lured onto the floor now had only the faintest trace of movement left.

A long gash now spanned his massive body.

Fu Qian had been as careful as possible, but given how crude his tool was, the incision was hardly aesthetically pleasing.

Beside the body lay a pile of internal organs and bones, wrapped in a fluorescent glow.

A fair amount of space had been hollowed out within the man’s body cavity.

”Pardon the intrusion.”

After briefly straightening his clothes, Fu Qian offered this polite greeting and tentatively reached his hand into the wound.

...

It was a bit hot and stuffy.

After overcoming various difficulties and spending considerable effort, Fu Qian finally realized his vision, burrowing his entire body inside the wound.

That’s right, this was the flash of inspiration sparked by Adele’s unintentional reminder.

If the omnipresent color was the culprit stripping him of his power, then where else could ’he’ hide? In the past, whenever he concealed his identity, he simply created an alternate persona.

And based on his earlier tests, he had seen that living things like a cat or a person differed from inanimate objects—they were treated as independent concepts.

So, was it possible to try and find a physical alternate persona?

To hide completely inside another living individual, thereby evading the influence of the color?

It was hard to say how effective it would be, but trying it didn’t cost anything.

Curled into a ball, carefully controlling his breathing to hold out as long as possible, Fu Qian began his patient wait.

...

Just as Fu Qian finished counting to sixty for the first time, a long-lost feeling finally returned.

Feeling the power gradually awakening and flowing through his body, he found that holding his breath was no longer an issue.

It actually worked.

Growing more comfortable by the second, Fu Qian felt deeply gratified by this major breakthrough, once again marveling at the importance of dedicating oneself to one’s craft.

This method wasn’t exactly easy to come up with. If not for his vigorous desire for exploration, figuring it out would have taken a lot more effort.

Of course, comfort aside, he probably didn’t have much time left.

Given that he could theoretically use this method to isolate the color and restore his transcendent power at any time, he had already wasted far too much time.

The hypothesized, potentially unbearable risks had likely accumulated significantly during that delay.

He needed to take action immediately.

The only problem was that his current alternate persona wasn’t exactly suited for movement...

Fortunately, Fu Qian already had a plan.

”Angelo’s supervisor, Sheldon. Do you know where his office is?”

Fu Qian spoke up directly, projecting his voice toward Adele.

”It’s right over there...”

Adele finally raised her head. Although she couldn’t see anyone, she still clearly recognized Fu Qian’s voice and pointed toward one of the walls without much hesitation.

”Thank you.”

Having recovered a sliver of his power, Fu Qian didn’t need to ’see’ to receive this information.

A bloodstained hand reached out, and several invisible bullets blasted in the direction she had pointed.

A large hole was instantly blasted through the upper section of the wall.

Then a body leaped into the air, vaulting straight through the hole.

”A pleasure!”

Blasting the door lock apart with another Air Bullet, Fu Qian came face-to-face with Sergei, whom he had met once before.

This burly man, who practically had the demeanor of King Kong, hadn’t tried to play hero. Instead, he had locked himself in his office.

Fu Qian’s greeting clearly caught his attention. This character, who looked like a mini-boss no matter how you sliced it, immediately lunged forward with his mouth wide open to bite.

Unfortunately, his gaping mouth was immediately clamped shut by a single hand, locking him in place.

”I’ve never done this kind of thing before. Let me think.”

Feeling his power rapidly draining away from exposure to the color, Fu Qian muttered to himself.

At the same time, his exposed arm slowly elongated. Even the five fingers dissolved bit by bit, merging into a single, boneless strand.

This strip of flesh twisted like a snake, surging straight down Sergei’s open mouth.