The Eldritch Files

Everyone had been notified. Abyssal Studio was on its way to Qinggang, but his own companions were also getting ready.

The only problem was Lu Neng...

’How is he unreachable again?’

The Qinggang Empress, Wei Lan, was the current information hub, and Lu Neng was one of the people who had left a Spiritual Coordinate with her. ’To disappear even under these circumstances... where could he have gone now?’

Han Su couldn’t dwell on it. He rubbed his face and rose from his seat, only to be met with a scene of utter carnage. The ground was littered with severed limbs and the mangled organs of bodies that had been rammed by the truck’s front and crushed by its wheels. The ceiling had caved in, and an electrical box was SPUTTERING and smoking.

The Ghost Truck was letting out a soft BEEPING, shaking its massive cargo bed as it scanned the area for any survivors still trying to crawl around.

Meanwhile, a faint, copper-green mist permeated another area. Five or six figures stood frozen within it. They were all members of Red Sea Studio—the best of the best, with individual strength on par with an Investigator.

But now, their bodies were seized by Green Rust, frozen in various poses—firing guns, swinging blades, dodging, or fleeing. They stood there dumbly, like a collection of statues.

The tall, silent Copper Armor Statue stood among them, methodically crushing their heads one by one.

The Ghost Truck had noticed them a moment ago and wanted to get in on the action, but the aura emanating from the Copper Armor Statue terrified it. So, it obediently kept its distance, establishing a boundary so they wouldn’t interfere with each other.

Ignoring the terrified, baffled, and resentful gazes from the Red Sea Studio elites, Han Su walked out of the cage Li Moxi had prepared for him. Just outside the base’s warped iron gate, he saw Song Chushi standing with a briefcase, panting slightly from having rushed there.

He seemed to have arrived just in time to see Han Su walking out.

Behind him, a wall was half-collapsed, and the Flashing lights and frayed wires periodically spat out showers of sparks.

The strong smell of blood and the brutal, chaotic scene were faintly visible behind him, as a strange mist swirled above the base.

Song Chushi’s pupils couldn’t help but contract slightly. ”Your power... it’s beyond what I imagined.”

”Shouldn’t I be thanking you?”

Han Su picked up the briefcase and walked forward. ”If you hadn’t given me that push, I’d still be sleeping in the comfort of reality, with no chance to encounter these strange things.”

’He was actually grateful, though. If it weren’t for the Fishing Song Song Chushi gave me, there were too many problems I never could have solved.’

But when Song Chushi heard this, a look of shame crossed his face. He retracted his slightly scrutinizing gaze and sighed with genuine sincerity, ”I admit, I owe you a great deal. But don’t worry, I will do my best to compensate you.”

”Compensate?”

Han Su’s heart stirred. He really wanted to ask Song Chushi about the Fishing Song.

’But in this current timeline, the event of Song Chushi giving me the Fishing Song never happened. Asking about it would expose me.’

’So, how to ask... it would require some finesse.’

He glanced up at the starless, gloomy night sky. Thinking of Abyssal Studio’s imminent arrival and the pressing lack of time, he decided not to delay. He started walking and asked, ”So, what is all of this about?”

”The Tide!”

Song Chushi knew what Han Su was asking and answered immediately. ”Everything. The root of it all is the fear of the Tide.”

”By now, you should have undergone Tier Two training in Mysterious Power. So you should understand that all Mysterious Power is the result of Stealing power from historical vestiges.”

Han Su nodded. ”Someone once said it’s a foolish act, but one that nobody is willing to stop.”

Song Chushi said, ”A foolish act that everyone commits is no longer a matter of foolishness. It’s just human nature.”

”But the Stealing of Mysterious Power from historical vestiges will inevitably trigger the reawakening of their will. This, too, is an irreversible process.”

”The Mysterious Believers claim that the Gods of history will certainly return to take revenge on humanity. But the opposite is true. Those Gods, or rather, those ancient wills, were already dormant. It is humanity’s current pursuit of Mysterious Power that is waking them.”

”The further humanity travels down the path of pursuing Mysterious Power, and the more power it Steals, the more of those wills will awaken. Over time, this will build to a critical point. That critical point is...”

”...”

”The Tide!”

Han Su took the initiative and said the word himself.

As his understanding of arcane knowledge grew, he had already begun to suspect as much. Song Chushi was simply the first person to explain the concept to him in its entirety.

”Yes!”

Song Chushi nodded lightly. ”Humanity’s troubles with the Tide began several centuries after the start of the Reconstruction Era.”

”It started at roughly once a millennium, then once every few centuries, then every century, and now...”

”The Tide’s impact on civilization shows a trend of growing stronger and occurring at shorter intervals. Although humanity has established three defensive lines in reality and is even trying to build a fourth, the pressure is mounting.”

”Therefore, many scholars from the Hidden School have already made a prophecy:”

”Humanity is doomed to lose!”

”...”

Song Chushi paused before continuing, ”In the end, the Reconstruction Era has only lasted two thousand years. Compared to the Radiation Era, which was so long its exact duration is impossible to verify, this is an incredibly short time. Humanity is not as powerful as it thinks.”

”If the Tide truly does destroy this facade of civilization and plunges us back into an age of strangeness and savagery, then from a historical perspective, it would be nothing more than a return to the norm.”

”...”

Han Su listened patiently to his explanation, then asked, ”So, humanity has resigned itself to its fate?”

”No.”

At this, Song Chushi actually smiled. ”It is human nature to pursue Mysterious Power, but it is also human nature to refuse to accept defeat. It is precisely at times like these, when the pressure is immense, that ambitious people are born.”

”Some people, in fact, are preparing to use the Mysterious Power they have Mastered to end all Tides once and for all.”

”And that plan is... the Seven Days of Divine Descent!”

”...”

As he spoke, a complex expression appeared on his face—a mixture of hatred and, as a fellow researcher, admiration for the audacity of the idea and the courage to actually execute it.

”From historical excavations, there is a fantasy described by an ancestral civilization of a god who created the world in seven days. So, these people planned to use that same seven-day period to permanently end the threat the Tide poses to the human world.”

”According to my investigation so far, they actually went through with it.”

”Ten years ago, they chose Qinggang to carry out this plan. They exhausted every available resource to ensure its success.”

”But in the end, they still failed.”