Eldritch Horror Theatre

”Looks like it.”

Fu Qian tapped the floor beneath his feet before turning to look, then agreed with Su Gao’s assessment.

Though wisps of mist drifted through the air, it was easy to tell that the space before them was both spacious and structurally unique.

Like the floor, everything around them was made of wood. Aside from a single, unadorned door, there were no windows in any direction.

Yet, the visibility was even better than before.

Streaks of bright blue spread across the wood of both the floor and the walls. The sight immediately brought to mind the Fluorescent Sea they had encountered while vacationing on Ye Island.

Su Gao likely felt the same.

Given the slight tilt of the entire space, it looked exactly like a sunken ship at the bottom of the sea—just without the water.

But that made the situation utterly bizarre. A ship had sunk beneath the Benevolent Curse Institute?

Did that mean Platform Three-Quarters from earlier should be renamed to Pier Three-Quarters?”My perception is heavily restricted. The power Rank sustaining this place must be quite high. Professor Fu, please be careful.”

Su Gao offered her thoughts at a fitting moment.

”Don’t worry, I have plenty of ways to escape. Shall we continue?”

Nodding in agreement, Fu Qian gestured toward the door.

A consultant should act like a consultant.

This was Classmate Su Gao’s project, after all. She had figured out a solution earlier without needing any hints, so he had to help her maintain that momentum.

Besides, Su Gao’s assessment was entirely correct. Even at Tier 2 himself, his perception felt profoundly stifled right now.

”Let’s continue. I should still be able to shatter this place in reverse.”

As expected, Su Gao didn’t hesitate. She glanced at the path they had taken, which had already vanished without a trace, and readily took the lead.

...

Not only was the wooden door unadorned, it lacked a lock entirely. It seemed to serve solely as a partition.

As Su Gao reached out and pulled it open, a strange sound echoed out.

But it didn’t come from the door. It sounded more like a living creature; Fu Qian was fairly certain of that.

Su Gao’s actions had indeed disturbed this place.

Unfortunately, the sound was highly erratic, and perception beyond their line of sight was useless.

But as the saying went, one shouldn’t just look at the bad side; one should try to look at even more bad sides—for example, the visibility out there wasn’t great either.

As the door opened, the mist outside was noticeably thicker, to the point that even the bright blue luminescence became blurry.

A place like this, combined with a living creature likely lurking in the shadows, absolutely required maximum vigilance.

That was fine, though. Fu Qian believed that Su Gao, just like him, always maintained such good habits.

Sure enough, despite the disturbance, Su Gao stepped out without hesitation.

Clang—

And on her very second step, she swung her sword upward, striking a shadow that lunged down from above.

...

There was indeed a living creature, and it was deeply hostile toward those who disturbed its peace.

Unsurprised by the sudden attack, Fu Qian stepped forward and examined the thing confronting Su Gao.

It was hairless and emaciated, its skin looking as though it had been slathered in tar to match its surroundings. This gave it near-perfect camouflage, making it entirely inconspicuous when it had clung to the ceiling moments ago.

Of course, not only had Fu Qian noticed it early on just like Su Gao, he could even confirm that it wasn’t the one that had made the sound earlier—or perhaps he should say, the person?

That was right. Although its crouching posture was quite feral, one could faintly make out its arm- and leg-like limbs, a round head, and soft facial features.

It actually looked somewhat human.

At the same time, Fu Qian spotted the webbing between its fingers, the gills behind its ears, and the fin on its back that seemed to have fused with its spine.

It really was full of oceanic elements—a classic depiction of human evolution.

Studying its appearance, Fu Qian’s first reaction was that humanity had evolved once again to adapt to the environment.

The attacker’s weapons were the jagged spikes growing from its forearms, looking utterly ferocious.

And it clearly wasn’t very afraid of people. After failing its first strike and having several of its spikes severed by Su Gao’s counterattack, it showed no sign of retreating. It locked its gaze on her with eyes covered by an extra layer of membrane.

To find a living creature in such a state hidden away in a secret place like this was truly something to marvel at.

”Ghk...”

Unfortunately, while it still retained human facial features, it had clearly lost all ability to communicate through language.

Facing the imposing gazes of two High-Tier Transcendents, it merely let out a sound from its throat to bolster its own courage.

”Nothing of value.”

Seeing this display, Fu Qian shook his head at Su Gao.

”Ghk—”

Almost at the exact same time, the creature receiving the negative review couldn’t hold back any longer. It lunged forward once more, only to be cleanly split in two.

That seemingly tough body was cleaved right open in midair, forcing it to literally split up.

After all her recent experience, Classmate Su Gao was no longer the rookie Night Watcher who would suffer a mental breakdown over slaughtering mutants.

Perhaps the psychological impact hadn’t diminished, but her tolerance had clearly skyrocketed—just like his hot-and-cold tempering theory.

And while the attacker was eerie, its strength and speed weren’t exactly outrageous.

The reason she had only severed a few of its spikes earlier wasn’t because that was all she could manage, but because she hadn’t been in a rush to do more.

But now—after slaying the lunging, aberrant fishman with a single strike, she didn’t even pause, smoothly sweeping a backhand strike right behind her.

Squelch—

Accompanied by a distinct sound, another similar body was cleaved right down the middle.

...

That must have been the one that made the noise earlier.

Fu Qian, who had been watching the entire time, silently evaluated the slightly larger second attacker.

Aside from having lost all human intellect, these things looked remarkably savage.

Not only had they attacked together, but the death of its comrade hadn’t made the second one flinch in the slightest.

Of course, in return, Classmate Su Gao showed absolutely no mercy.

Cutting it squarely in half was the best way to prevent any chance of it stubbornly clinging to life and dragging its mangled torso around to keep fighting.

”We must have found the right place.”

Amidst his praise, Fu Qian bent down, picked up a Feather from the back of the second corpse, and showed it to Su Gao.

Its color and shape were perfectly classic. The creature must have brushed against it somewhere. It seemed the Prison Archangel didn’t just leave these things outside.

”Yeah.”

Su Gao clearly agreed with him. She didn’t need any urging and continued forward.

This was...

But after only a few steps, she stopped again and stared to one side.

Was this... a bountiful harvest?

Fu Qian quickly caught up. Following her gaze, he too was momentarily filled with awe.

It was an enormous space, so large that the structure of the ship’s hull was clearly visible. Amidst the drifting mist, ropes that seemed to sprout directly from the floorboards stretched perfectly straight upward.

And at the other end of those ropes, more than one human body could be seen.