Eldritch Horror Theatre

Good thing he had reacted fast.

Based on past experience, realizing he was in a dream should significantly boost his resistance in certain areas.

Otherwise, merely changing clothes would be the least of his worries. If a bunch of people from his memories were manifested, Yarakil could launch a reverse invasion, trying to see if Brute Force Produces Miracles.

Given his extensive social circle, that would have caused a massive disaster.

In fact, that was likely one of Yarakil’s goals.

As Blazing Rainbow had already demonstrated, these higher entities always loved achieving several gains with a single action.

Fortunately, he had hit the brakes in time, so there shouldn’t be anyone—squeak!

The thought hadn’t even finished forming in his head before the unmistakable sound of a door opening echoed nearby.

Hmm?

This was a genuinely unexpected development. Fu Qian quickly ”raised” his gaze toward the sound.A figure in a black outfit and a narrow hat stood right outside the door.

...

You’re a dignified member of the Demigod Realm. How were you the first to fall for it?

How could Fu Qian not recognize that face?

With her demeanor as striking as ever, Su Gao—the elite employee of The Bookstore he had personally recruited—was quietly looking back at him.

Her gaze landed squarely on his face, observing a man having eyes but no pupils.

Logically speaking, Su Gao had no reason to end up trapped in the Nightmare Corridor.

The only reason she was here was because the information fragments leaking from his own will into the Divine Dream had dragged her in.

As for why she responded so quickly, appearing to have absolutely zero resistance—

”I am dreaming.”

Not bothered by Fu Qian’s appearance in the slightest, Su Gao offered a slight nod and immediately clarified her situation.

So she hadn’t lacked resistance at all. Her resistance was simply too strong!

Her Echo was terrifying to this degree.

”Come in and take a seat.”

The situation suddenly made a lot more sense. Fu Qian gestured for her to enter while glancing behind her.

With her arrival, the path he had walked just moments ago had silently transformed.

The dull corridor with its monotonous wallpaper was gone, replaced by an overwhelmingly lush expanse of green.

It felt like standing beneath the canopy of a sun-blocking jungle.

Even as Su Gao readily accepted good advice and stepped into the room, the interior followed suit.

The chandelier, the cabinets, the rug, and even the bed behind him—every decoration vanished in an instant.

In their place stood three to five rows of old-fashioned wooden bookshelves.

The already modest room immediately felt far more cramped.

...

”Who is...”

Clearly unbothered by the cramped space, Su Gao walked right up to Fu Qian’s side and gestured to a spot nearby.

Brother Persuader, whose expression had gone completely slack moments ago, sat there staring at her intently. The Illusory Eye floating above his head was flashing erratically.

”A waste of space.”

He completely understood the shock Su Gao’s appearance had inflicted on the Persuader. Unfortunately, having just suffered a bout of workplace bullying himself, Fu Qian had absolutely zero intention of offering an introduction or alleviating the creature’s confusion.

His description wasn’t inaccurate, either. Surrounded by bookshelves, squeezing an extra person and a chair into the already small room genuinely took up too much space.

”A real dreamwalker. How could she...”

Unwilling to be ignored any longer, the Persuader finally voiced his utter disbelief.

”How could she enter? And how is she maintaining such a stable state—”

Unfortunately, his question was destined to remain unanswered.

The very next moment, the figure—whose wings hadn’t even settled yet—dissolved into bubbles, leaving behind only a thirst for knowledge that had come to an abrupt halt.

He got killed off?

Staring at the empty chair, Fu Qian quickly withdrew his illusion of controlling the dreamscape. He wasn’t entirely sure if this sudden removal was Yarakil’s doing, or if it was—

”Was that okay?”

Su Gao, who had already taken a seat beside him, asked in a polite, inquiring tone, instantly answering his unvoiced question.

So he really was forcefully killed off.

...

”You did great. That guy wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, but he constantly felt the need to share his opinions.”

Fu Qian immediately praised Su Gao for casually clearing the room.

The current situation was already painfully obvious.

Yarakil despised losing the initiative. Following Fu Qian’s second exchange with Wen Li, the entity had decisively set up this trap.

While appropriately accelerating the invasion, Yarakil had utilized the contacts in Fu Qian’s memories to summon wills from the Real World into the dream, desperately searching for more channels of infiltration.

Considering how heavily Yarakil’s dreamscape had been targeted and suppressed, the success rate of such a move was undoubtedly slim, but the entity had done it anyway.

His previous assessment had been spot on. Yarakil was genuinely desperate, refusing to let even a single exploitable opportunity slip by.

It was just a shame for Yarakil that Fu Qian had realized it so quickly. The resulting mental resistance had thrown a massive wrench into those plans.

Under these circumstances, the people in his memories should have only been affected to a very minor degree.

Especially someone at the Demigod Level like Su Gao.

And especially since she possessed the fully automatic defensive effects of her Echo.

What he hadn’t expected, however, was that the effects of her Echo might have worked a little too well.

”I sensed a strange connection and attempted to respond to it. Then, I entered this state.”

Hearing Fu Qian say this, Su Gao completely dismissed the Persuader from her mind and quickly explained her own situation.

Just as he thought.

Her explanation undoubtedly verified his theory.

Even though Fu Qian had hit the brakes on his end quickly, Su Gao’s overly sharp perception still managed to detect this Divine Dream.

And the automatic resistance provided by her Echo allowed her to step into this place in a uniquely transcendent state.

This was exactly why she could blatantly state she was in a dream while still maintaining perfect stability.

From the moment she arrived until now, the Illusory Eye floating above her head had remained wide open, yet she showed zero signs of losing control.

That ability was far too convenient!

Comparing the two of them, Fu Qian felt a rare pang of inadequacy, realizing just how crude his own flesh-and-blood, brute-force methods were.

”Your situation seems quite unique, Mr. Fu. Do you need me to do anything?”

While he lamented his methods, Su Gao didn’t waste a single second, cutting straight to the chase.

It was obvious that this was the very reason she had come. Su Gao clearly wasn’t the type to casually answer bizarre, supernatural summons.

And more obviously, Fu Qian found it rather difficult to deny that his current situation was less than ideal.

...

”I’m alright.”

However, how could something like this stump a true professional? Fu Qian waved her off, signaling for her not to worry.

As if to prove his point, Fu Qian toyed with the eyeball in his hand for a moment before bringing it up to his mouth. He blew on it to make sure it hadn’t caught any dust, then nonchalantly shoved it back into his eye socket.

He even deliberately chose the right eye socket.

Ever since earlier, he had been curious. Under the effects of the erosion, what would it feel like to stick his left eye—which had consistently provided him with vision—into a completely different socket?

The results proved to be quite wondrous, possessing a twisted, bone-crushing sort of beauty.

”I took a long trip earlier and got a little lost on the way back. How about you?”

”...Still running around all over the place.”

Although Fu Qian’s horrific appearance seriously contradicted his casual phrasing, Su Gao still didn’t question him. Instead, she accepted his prompt and shared her own situation.

A moment later, she seemed to recall something. She reached into her pocket and pulled out an irregularly shaped Die, displaying it in the palm of her hand.

”This really does seem to bring good luck.”

”During the pursuit I just wrapped up, I incidentally managed to track down another fugitive.”

⬣⬣