Eldritch Horror Theatre

Was it really true that one lost track of days in the mountains? The flow of time in the Sanitarium was indeed a bit off.

In the blink of an eye, a net targeting a certain poor soul had already taken shape.

Fu Qian naturally felt no psychological burden over this. He simply pondered the claims regarding the True Word Notebook in silence.

Judging by the stakes involved, Servis had little reason to lie to him about this.

But if what he said was true, didn’t that mean the final entry in this notebook should have been written by Lasik a year ago?

At first glance, that sounded perfectly fine. It really was on the latest page, too.

But he couldn’t forget one crucial point: it had been far less than a year since he retrieved the Abyss Notes from Taylor.

The subsequent entries regarding Jia Keke and Annalise happened even more recently, yet they somehow appeared before the content Lasik had written.

The moment he opened it earlier, Fu Qian’s core focus had been on this exact chronological order.

Now, after the Attending Physician’s explanation, the situation seemed even more bizarre.At present, there seemed to be only two ways to explain this.

The first involved the Well of Time. His earlier concerns had been correct.

Even without the Columnist acting as an observer, the Well of Time still erupted upon everyone from time to time.

This caused time here to pass exceptionally fast compared to the outside world.

For instance, after those new entries were written in the Abyss Notes, many years had already passed here.

Exactly. It wasn’t just the single year Lasik had been active here.

After all, according to Servis, the contents of the notebook were already like this when he acquired it.

In short, due to some currently unconfirmed connection, the contents of the Abyss Notes from the outside world could project inward.

Then, through a genuine time differential, it ultimately created this exact scenario...

Honestly, even with this explanation, the logic still felt stretched.

For example, there was still a critical chronological question: had Lasik been trapped in this Sanitarium first, or had he been trapped in the videotape first?

Given that Servis claimed the man was eventually sent away, and Lasik’s ultimate fate in that mission was a mental collapse that turned him into Virtue, no matter how he looked at it, the events here should have happened first.

But the timeline of the Virtue mission occurred even earlier than when he obtained the Abyss Notes.

Once again, a paradox emerged.

Ultimately, in Fu Qian’s view, for this point to be perfectly explained, this Sanitarium likely had to be even more surreal.

It wasn’t just filled with traps leaping forward in time. The very concept of time here was falling from grace, no longer a sacred coordinate defining the world, but degrading into something easily influenced by other elements.

Only this could explain the paradox of later events arriving first, and it might even be the root cause of the Well of Time phenomenon.

”That would be wonderful... but what makes you think I can call him in? You should know that won’t be easy.”

Though unaware of Fu Qian’s myriad deductions, Servis clearly felt this intruder growing more extraordinary by the second.

So much so that the intruder taking an interest in the Harbinger—a notion that initially sounded bizarre—now vaguely felt perfectly reasonable.

In that moment, what surprised Servis was why Fu Qian felt so certain of his plan.

”How you do it is your problem. I just think that compared to us going out there, having him come in would yield better results.”

Fu Qian maintained an aloof posture, looking every bit like a boss who had washed his hands of the details.

...

”You’re right. Even if you restored everything to how it was right now and walked out openly, it wouldn’t mean much anymore.”

He had slipped into the role of a cooperative partner far too quickly. The Attending Physician looked almost excessively relieved. He fell silent for a moment before letting out a sigh.

”He might even walk away completely satisfied,”

Fu Qian added.

Some things were easy enough to deduce with a little thought.

The clash between the Harbinger and the Attending Physician was essentially a battle of momentum.

The core issue might revolve around whether he, the intruder, would enter the office, but some things didn’t need to be seen with one’s own eyes.

The recent trio act went like this: Fu Qian created the Black Box, the Harbinger gathered the crowd, and then the Attending Physician forcibly dispersed them.

Even without seeing what was happening inside, from the Harbinger’s perspective, the Attending Physician had already shown weakness. It was practically an admission of defeat.

If the dark room was dismantled after this stalemate and the intruder came right back out, the Harbinger could easily throw his head back in laughter and declare victory on the spot.

In fact, the ability to maintain the stalemate this long already showcased Servis’s profound control over the situation.

If he wanted to turn the tables and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, the opportunity lay solely within this office.

He had to find a way to drag the Harbinger inside and stage a face-to-face trio act.

And to achieve the best results, he naturally had to forge a secret agreement with Fu Qian first.

From Fu Qian’s perspective, the situation had always been crystal clear.

As for exactly how he would drag the Harbinger inside? No matter how you looked at it, a Hongmen banquet wouldn’t be very appealing to its target.

It didn’t matter. He had already said that was Servis’s problem.

They were both wallowing in the mire now. There was no reason for Fu Qian to do all the heavy lifting alone.

”Don’t worry, he won’t be leaving now.”

As expected, Servis hadn’t thought about slacking off in front of an expert. He simply gave a meaningful smile.

”Did you hear that? Your situation is looking grim.”

Turning toward the door, he surprisingly resorted to the most primitive method of summoning someone—he shouted directly at it.

”I heard you—”

What was even more astonishing was that it actually worked. A response came immediately after.

As the voice faded, a figure quietly appeared outside the door, staring inward.

”It’s rarely this lively in here.”

...

It seemed this was the legendary Harbinger.

The rapid succession of events was shocking, but Fu Qian didn’t seem overwhelmed. He merely looked politely at the newcomer.

No wonder the man felt so highly of himself—he genuinely possessed an otherworldly aura.

First was an astonishing darkness.

Even though he wasn’t particularly gaunt, his complexion was incredibly dark, so much so that it almost blurred the contours of his facial features.

Fortunately, there was a faint amount of light, and his features were distinctive enough on their own.

He had strikingly narrow eyes and a pointed mouth that jutted out like a bird’s beak. Meeting his gaze gave one the uncomfortable sensation of having their skin pierced and all their schemes seen through—and in fact, they had been.

Judging by his demeanor, he had been eavesdropping on everything, acting as a silent witness to the sinister deal between the Attending Physician and the Columnist.

But that wasn’t the most crucial point. The Attending Physician’s direct shout proved he had anticipated this all along, entirely unbothered by displaying his collaborative scheming right in front of the victim.

So for the Columnist, this wasn’t a plan to slowly unfold after reaching an agreement. He had been part of the game from the very beginning.