Eldritch Horror Theatre

Just waking up, Wen Li still looked a bit dazed.

But Fu Qian could clearly sense that the aura radiating from her was vastly stronger than before.

Rubbing her eyes, she recognized Fu Qian looming over her. Wen Li jolted fully awake and subconsciously patted herself down.

Unsurprisingly, an ear-splitting scream tore through the air.

It couldn’t be helped. After taking so many consecutive lashings just moments ago, even the highest quality clothes wouldn’t have held up.

Combined with the tearing from her body twisting and deforming, it was no exaggeration to describe Wen Li’s clothes as riddled with holes.

Tch, as if anyone was actually interested in looking!

”Congratulations on leveling up.”

Fu Qian looked at Wen Li’s face, offering his congratulations with a beaming smile.

His joy was entirely genuine.”Ah!”

Wen Li jolted. She stared fixedly at Fu Qian’s face, completely oblivious that her arms had dropped from covering her chest.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and extended her senses. She could feel a power she had never experienced before surging through her body.

She had really reached Tier 6!

She had actually broken through the bottleneck and officially become a Mid-Tier Transcendent!

”But... I really don’t remember a thing. I have no idea what just happened.”

Wen Li frowned, muttering to herself.

”This is exactly what it means to have great fortune. A daughter of destiny indeed!”

Fu Qian let out a long sigh. There was no need to be modest, he thought. She really had just taken a nap while someone else did the heavy lifting for her.

Of course, it was also true that she had taken quite a few kicks for it. The title of punching bag definitely belonged to her.

The noise overhead was drawing closer. Figuring that Tan Mingxue and her team would soon break through the vent to get inside, Fu Qian asked Wen Li one last question.

”You were pretty resistant to hiding in the Safe House. Was that related to your ability? If there’s no one nearby for you to sense their emotions, do your own emotions end up being repeatedly reflected and amplified?”

”How did you know...”

Wen Li’s head snapped up, but the man before her had already vanished. The empty Safe House was left in a total mess.

Nonsense. If she didn’t have that problem, she could have just found a place to hide whenever she didn’t want to sense other people’s emotions. Where would the unbearable torture have come from then?

The only explanation was that being alone was even more agonizing for her.

Back in the Warehouse, Fu Qian mused to himself.

The anomaly during Wen Li’s leveling up had already made him suspicious, and now his theory was finally confirmed.

[Evaluation: Ruthless Blade Sacrifice]

[Breaking out of the cocoon is a painful process, especially when you are the cocoon.

You personally eliminated an immature larva, allowing the supernatural power to advance in a seemingly normal manner.

No one will know this secret, including Wen Li herself, whom you saved. Just as when life gestates within a cocoon, no one knows what happens inside. →]

[Kill Count: Eve ×1]

[Rewards: SAN Value +25; inspiration +5]

[Would you like to play back the event review?]

Time to clock out!

Fu Qian was extremely satisfied with the result of his final attempt.

The Mist Door and anomalies in the Warehouse had already vanished, a clear sign that he was officially off the clock.

Looking back on it now, the black-and-white bug cocoon clinging to the Mist Door had, in a sense, foreshadowed the relationship between Wen Li and Eve all along.

”You personally eliminated an immature larva, allowing the supernatural power to evolve in a seemingly normal manner.”

Taken literally, the supernatural powers in the world of the Containment Scenario were quite bizarre.

When he first entered, it was only natural to assume that the ’immature larva’ in the prompt referred to Wen Li, who needed protection. Now, it was apparent that it actually referred to Eve.

She had been growing silently inside Wen Li’s body all along. If things had developed normally, the moment Wen Li broke through to Tier 6, her consciousness would have been completely replaced by Eve’s.

When that happened, no one would have known that the Mid-Tier Transcendent Wen Li was no longer the same person as before, and Eve would have officially completed her process of breaking out of the cocoon.

That was also the exact reason his previous attempt at the mission had failed.

It really was birthing an alien!

A certain movie quote inexplicably came to Fu Qian’s mind.

”Allowing the supernatural power to evolve in a seemingly normal manner.”

This line indicated that in that world, this process was completely unknown to the public.

At the very least, the majority of people were entirely oblivious that Wen Li’s advancement to Tier 6 was fundamentally a transformation of this nature. They would simply view it as a normal leveling up.

In that context, the Night Watchers’ directive of quietly observing changes was extremely intriguing. Did they know something? Or had they simply sensed something was off?

Of course, none of that mattered now. It was time to go back and rest!

He had to admit, today’s workload had been a bit hefty. Escort missions truly were the most exhausting.

In comparison, the rewards for completing the containment seemed a bit shabby.

Aside from a few routine stats, there was nothing else.

But on second thought, even though this Containment Scenario had been riddled with traps, he genuinely hadn’t encountered any powerful entities that were difficult to fight.

Besides, he had already gained quite a few benefits during his previous attempts.

He wondered if the rewards would have been upgraded had that presiding big boss of the Night Watchers actually made a move.

As for the incident replay, Fu Qian decided not to watch it.

Setting aside the fact that the process had been so brief he didn’t need any memory assistance, there were quite a few exposing shots of Eldest Miss Wen in there. Better to show some respect for this newly advanced Tier 6.

...

Upon returning home, the first thing Fu Qian did was check his watch. He found that the time was exactly the same as when he had entered.

Sure enough, his working hours didn’t consume any real-world time. No matter how long he stayed inside, he would always emerge at the exact moment he had left.

Outside, the morning sun was still just rising. It seemed as if nothing had changed at all.

Fu Qian wiggled his right hand, revealing a Dark Red Ring resting prominently on his middle finger.

Under the sunlight, fresh blood seemed to pulse within it.

Many things had changed after all.

Recalling the scene of himself swallowing that dark clump of blood in one gulp, Fu Qian couldn’t help but touch his chest again.

Although thinking about it was a bit disgusting, that particular look had been pretty badass. Thinking it over, it possessed a unique kind of aesthetic.

Speaking of which, since the rewards he obtained could be brought back to reality, didn’t that theoretically mean he could transform into that state in the real world too?

Stop!

Fu Qian rubbed his face, abruptly cutting off his dangerous train of thought.

Had he really suffered mental pollution because the working environment was too toxic?

Looking at it now, he could take this ten-million annual salary with a completely clear conscience.

Speaking of which, he had rushed off to work the moment he woke up today. He hadn’t even eaten breakfast yet.

Fu Qian headed into the kitchen and spent a few minutes throwing together a bowl of noodles for himself.

As everyone knew, noodles were the indispensable trump card of the solitary bachelor.

This simple food—requiring nothing more than a pot of boiling water and a couple of cabbage leaves—was enough to comfort any starving stomach.

And as a man without kith or kin, Fu Qian possessed a wealth of experience in living alone. He had mastered this craft a long time ago.

Most importantly, of course, this incredibly cheap food perfectly suited his near-bankrupt consumption habits from before, meaning he still had quite a large stockpile at home.

Staring at the steaming bowl of noodles on the table, Fu Qian was just about to pick up his chopsticks when a well-timed knock suddenly sounded at the front door.