The Eldritch Files

No matter how nervous Han Su felt, the black cat was clearly unconcerned.

It couldn’t even be bothered to spare Han Su another glance. With an impatient meow, it swayed its fat bottom and headed straight for the stairs.

Han Su looked all around before tiptoeing after it.

”Come on, monster! We’ll see if I don’t chop you to bits...”

”Shit, you’re actually coming...”

Arriving on the third floor, Han Su heard something from a nearby room that made his heart clench: the truncated, strangely cheerful laughter of a woman, and the fearless, profanity-laced tirade of a hot-tempered little boy.

’That kid never disappoints. He’s still fighting...’

But the black cat paid it no mind, turning directly into a nearby storage room. It went behind a cabinet, squeezed through, and passed through a well-hidden, half-sized door.

Han Su’s heart stirred. The path the cat was taking was made up entirely of hidden passages and gaps he had never discovered before.

This Ancient Castle was bizarre. It seemed to be clearly divided floor by floor, and one could take the stairs on either side to ascend. But Han Su had long since discovered that strange and enormous rooms would often appear within the castle.

For example, on the same floor, one room might have a three-meter-high ceiling, while a hall right next to it could be seven or eight meters tall.

There were countless other gloomy and bizarrely shaped rooms. Some housed machinery whose purpose was impossible to comprehend. Others displayed unknown objects as if in an exhibition. Walking among them was like traversing a lawless and unspeakably strange nightmare.

Han Su’s principle for escape had always been to stay far away from these strange things, following only a logic he could understand to find a potential escape route.

But now, following this fat cat, it was as if a previously unknown, secret network of passages was being laid bare before him.

He saw the countless bizarre aspects of the Ancient Castle that lay hidden beneath its seemingly orderly layout: rooms that seemed spatially impossible, and secret passages that theoretically shouldn’t have been built but were there all the same.

Normally, even if he had discovered such a passage, Han Su would never have considered entering it, lest he be cornered by monsters inside.

This time, however, he had no choice but to follow the Black Cat Duke. He trailed it through one vast showroom after another, where he saw countless broken machines, dim crystals, and a series of massive, empty paintings.

Torture instruments lay on a table, stained with blood from some unknown victim.

There were lumps of discarded human parts, cast aside like pieces of clay. Han Su stared at them. ’Why do these look so much like the Pseudo-humans I saw during my assessment at the Disaster Management Bureau?’

’Are these grotesque fragments?’

Even in the midst of his tense escape, Han Su was shaken. ’Why are there so many grotesque fragments related to the real world inside this Ancient Castle?’

The questions in his mind swelled dramatically during this brief tour.

If the Ancient Castle was merely gloomy and mysterious on the surface, then these hidden corners and spaces seemed to hold endless cruelty.

It was a pity his only companion was a cat. Otherwise, he had so many questions he wanted to ask...

However, just as the initial horror of seeing these things began to fade, Han Su suddenly realized something important:

’The route this cat is showing me... it’s extremely important...’

...

’There are so many secret corners. If this cat hadn’t led me here, I could have come back ten times and never found them.’

’And these passages seem to be part of the Ancient Castle itself. Unlike the damaged areas I exploited before, these places theoretically shouldn’t be repaired by the castle’s mysterious will.’

’Every time I’ve tried to escape the Ancient Castle, I’ve had to take risks. The only paths I could choose were stairs, pipes outside windows, and other places where it was impossible to avoid the monsters. I even had to face them head-on.’

’All these secret passages... If I can figure out their locations and functions, and combine that with the Invisibility Spell I’ve mastered, then next time...’

’...could I get a child out of here without taking any risks at all?’

...

The thought made his heart race.

He subconsciously began to integrate this new information with his existing knowledge of the Ancient Castle, automatically piecing together connections and forming viable escape plans.

The instant a few of these plans took shape, he felt a powerful urge to put them to the test.

He’d always felt like a child playing hide-and-seek with adults in this Ancient Castle.

In this game, control over the space was key.

But the Ancient Castle’s mysterious will had destroyed that advantage. Now, the cat’s appearance seemed to have restored it.

Almost in a trance, Han Su followed the cat through the Ancient Castle’s various nooks and crannies, occasionally hearing faint, crazed sounds drifting from afar.

Faint giggles and chattering—that would be the Puppet Dolls on the fourth floor, tormenting Li Manman.

The sound of an old record player—that was the Pale Giant listening to music.

Faint, crazed shouting—the hot-tempered little boy had been caught.

Han Su had lost count of the heart-stopping moments, and he’d gradually grown numb to them. Instead, he found himself watching the calm, lazy cat. The more he looked, the more familiar it seemed, stirring a strange, unexplainable feeling inside him.

’Have I owned this cat before?’

’I must have. The more I look at its fat, lazy self, the more familiar it seems. But why don’t I have any memory of it?’

...

Lost in thought, he suddenly heard a familiar voice.

He quickly stopped and turned. He was in a secret passage, seemingly in the space between walls. Ahead, small holes allowed slivers of light to pass through.

Holding his breath, he peered through one of the holes and saw a thin, ramrod-straight back.

It was the old butler, who had just returned to the Ancient Castle. He was currently speaking to someone or something in front of him.

The room’s layout was familiar to Han Su. Staring intently, he recognized it as the room where he’d found the key during his last escape attempt.

The old butler faced the Copper Coffin—the very one that had given him his cross-shaped scar—and spoke with a smile. ”I have personally retrieved the Mechanical Fragment you were concerned about. It was not convenient to bring it back here, so I have placed it in Dingxiang Mansion.”

”When your great power descends upon reality, that Mechanical Fragment will naturally reveal itself.”

...

After he finished speaking, he tilted his head as if to listen. A bizarre sound, like grinding metal, filled the air.

The old butler replied with a smile, ”You need not doubt the great Emperor’s sincerity.”

”The traitors’ lies will eventually fade. There will always be wise men who hear the true voice of history. When you reign supreme, the steps will already be filled with kneeling believers.”

...

Hearing these words, Han Su felt an inexplicable tremor in his heart, overcome by a strange feeling.

He knew the old butler left the Ancient Castle on the first night, but he’d never known why. ’He actually went to retrieve a Mechanical Fragment?’

’Mechanical Fragment, Mechanical Fragment...’

The more he thought, the stranger it seemed. Suddenly, an idea exploded in his mind. He remembered the information Black Rose had given him. The Mechanical Fragment on display at the Midtown Science and Technology Museum—wasn’t it stolen on the very day of the kidnapping?

’Could it be that the perpetrator of that theft was none other than the old butler from the Ancient Castle?’

A possibility he had never even considered suddenly appeared before him, and Han Su found it difficult to connect the dots.

He instantly recognized the importance of this information and committed the name ”Dingxiang Mansion” to memory.

As his mind reeled with shock and doubt, the Copper Coffin must have said something, because the old butler laughed proudly. ”Seven days from now is the night of the Divine Descent. This is the great Emperor’s promise.”

”All you need to do is wait patiently for these seven days and choose a suitable person.”

...

’The night of the Divine Descent?’

This strange phrase pulled Han Su from his spiraling thoughts.

It was the first time he had heard the term, but he knew that ever since the children were kidnapped, each night had a name: the Night of Crying, the Night of Silence, the Night of Joy, the Night of Transformation. Each name represented a change in the monsters’ attitude toward the children.

The Night of Crying was a time of neglect, allowing the children’s fear to spread and their cries to flourish.

The Night of Silence was the children’s despair.

The Night of Joy was a grand reception the monsters held for the children. After being locked up for three days, the children would be gathered together again to enjoy a rare feast.

And the Night of Transformation was when the true nightmare began...

Han Su didn’t know what came after that. His latest escape had been after the Night of Transformation, but before the fifth night began. He had no idea what fate befell the children after that point.

As for the night of the Divine Descent, he understood even less. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what those words implied.

”As for the request you made...”

While Han Su was rapidly thinking, the old butler paused, his proud tone vanishing. He sighed and said, ”There is no more time to search. If you are not satisfied with the current one, then this is the only other suitable option.”

As he spoke, he gently patted the shoulder of a small boy beside him, pushing him forward.

The boy cowered by the butler’s side, an instinctive, fawning smile on his face that looked even worse than crying.

The old butler, however, looked at him with some appreciation. He even reached out to brush the dust from the boy’s clothes and smiled. ”This child’s compatibility may not be that high, but as a servant, he should be sufficient.”

Han Su watched, slightly taken aback.

He hadn’t noticed a child hiding beside the old butler. Looking closely, he saw it was Secretary No. 2’s child—and he could still see the dusty footprint he’d left on him.