Eldritch Horror Theatre

Fu Qian glanced at the middle-aged man who stepped out from behind the stone monument.

Slightly chubby with utterly ordinary features, he wore a loose knit sweater. His hair was thinning a bit at the front, and a pleasant smile rested on his face. At first glance, he looked like a twenty-five-year-old programmer.

The moment Fu Qian left the team earlier, he had sensed someone tailing him. He hadn’t bothered addressing it, but he never expected the man to follow him all the way here so relentlessly.

Despite his harmless appearance, the man had stepped out soundlessly. His body seemed so light it lacked mass entirely—the obvious hallmark of an expert thief and prowler.

Being targeted by someone like that was rarely a good thing.

”I have to say, you’ve really impressed me.”

The middle-aged man looked at Fu Qian, his gaze like a cat toying with a mouse.

”You don’t show off, but your realm is probably the highest on your entire team. Even I nearly lost track of you.”

”With such a low-profile and patient temperament, you’d definitely achieve great things in time. Assuming you had any time left, of course.”

”You flatter me.”Fu Qian kept his eyes fixed on the invisible barrier and offered a casual, perfunctory response, seemingly deaf to that final threat.

His reaction clearly caught the middle-aged man off guard, prompting him to narrow his eyes.

”I’m actually a little curious. Could you tell me why you broke off from the team to come all the way out here by yourself?”

”Bailing.”

”Bailing?”

This answer clearly caught the middle-aged man by surprise.

”Yeah. The atmosphere here is a bit too oppressive, so I’m heading home to get some rest.”

Fu Qian’s tone was as casual and matter-of-fact as someone saying they really needed to take a piss.

...

”An exploration mission led personally by Li Weixuan is an opportunity countless people would beg for, yet you want to go home?”

The smile on the middle-aged man’s face turned icy.

”If that’s really the case, you don’t need to be in a hurry. I’ll be sending you on your way soon enough.”

”You can try to run, of course, or even pull out your Arrow Bell. We’ll see if Li Weixuan makes it here in time to save you.”

Arrow Bell?

Fu Qian thought about it for a second. He had heard the other team members mention it while chatting earlier. Put simply, it was a survival tool issued by the Academy to every student heading out for field experience, functioning much like a distress flare gun.

Since standard communication devices completely failed in many forbidden zones, a student facing a life-or-death situation could activate and launch it to call for backup and mutual support.

”It’s fine. I don’t need to call for backup just yet.”

Fu Qian waved his hand dismissively. Frowning at the middle-aged man, he asked the one question he actually cared about.

”What weapon are you planning to use to kill me?”

What weapon?

The middle-aged man was visibly taken aback, staring at him as if he were a complete lunatic.

”Aren’t you going to ask why I want to kill you?”

”Don’t care. Besides, am I really the one you want to kill?”

Meeting only silence, Fu Qian sighed.

”What do you mean?”

The middle-aged man’s gaze turned sharp.

”Just a wild guess. You’ve been tailing me ever since I left the group. There were countless opportunities to strike along the way, yet you insisted on following me all the way out here. And now that you’re finally making your move, instead of launching a sneak attack, you show yourself out in the open and announce my impending death. It feels like you’re deliberately creating a sense of pressure just to force me to run.”

”You even reminded me to use my Arrow Bell to call for backup. No matter how you look at it, none of this seems like something a professional killer would do.”

”Your real target is probably still deep inside the ruins. You’re trying to feint to the east and strike to the west, aren’t you?”

”You were hoping to drive me as far away as possible, then use my Arrow Bell to lure Li Weixuan out here for a rescue. That way, you could slip back and take out your actual target.”

”Interesting... Then why don’t you try guessing who my target is.”

The middle-aged man lowered his voice, seemingly confirming Fu Qian’s deduction.

”That’s not very hard to guess, either. First off, we split into three groups. Since you locked onto me so quickly, there’s a high probability your target is in the same group as me. While trailing us, you noticed me wander off from the rest, figured it was a perfect opportunity, and decided to follow.”

”Besides me, there are nine other people in that group. Judging by your performance, you’re clearly quite skilled at stealth and assassination—you tailed us the entire way without even Dean Li Weixuan noticing.”

”Considering Li Weixuan can’t keep his eyes glued to our single team the entire time, you could have easily found a chance to secure a one-hit kill and escape. It wouldn’t have been much worse than your current choice. But you didn’t choose that route. That tells me you lack the confidence to eliminate your target in a single strike. You’re worried Li Weixuan would intervene before you could make your getaway, meaning you need more time to guarantee the mission’s success. Given your level of strength, who in our group could possibly make you doubt your ability to secure a one-hit kill? Is it Ji Liushuang, or Yuan Xin?”

Fu Qian watched the middle-aged man closely. When he mentioned Ji Liushuang, the man’s pupils distinctly twitched.

”Got it. It’s Ji Liushuang.”

”Haha.”

The middle-aged man burst into a fit of laughter.

”If you’re so spot-on, why do you think I want to kill Ji Liushuang?”

”Now you’re asking a bit much of me. It’s obvious at a glance that Classmate Ji holds quite a distinguished status, so it’s probably some conflict over the interests of a conglomerate or family. And whenever that kind of drama pops up, it’s perfectly natural for lapdogs skilled in assassination like you to make an appearance.”

Fu Qian kept his face completely expressionless. He didn’t have even a shred of interest in this kind of messy corporate bullshit, yet somehow it kept finding its way to his doorstep.

”You’re asking to die...”

After Fu Qian’s repeated mockery, the middle-aged man finally lost his composure, spitting out a classic villainous line born of humiliated rage.

”I can just as easily kill you and trigger the Arrow Bell myself!”

The next moment, the middle-aged man moved like lightning. He materialized at Fu Qian’s side in an instant, soundlessly thrusting out a palm strike.

A terrifying, murderous aura instantly enveloped Fu Qian.

Sigh, after all that buildup, this guy is just a brawler too.

Fu Qian let out a heavy sigh.

What a waste of my precious time!

I figured an assassin like him would at least have some kind of divine weapon or sharp artifact I could use to test if it could damage the barrier.

How disappointing.

Facing the terrifying strike, Fu Qian instantly darted to the side.

When he was testing the barrier earlier, this guy hadn’t arrived yet. He definitely wouldn’t be expecting an invisible obstacle to be right here—so how could Fu Qian not take advantage of it?

That was precisely why he had been standing completely still this entire time.

Fu Qian’s sheer evasive speed clearly took the middle-aged man by surprise. Even though he had been as cautious as possible, he hadn’t expected to still misjudge his target’s strength.

Missing his strike, he immediately tried to change his stance, only to smash headfirst into an unseen obstacle.

What is this?!

Staring at the empty air right beside him, the middle-aged man’s brain completely short-circuited for a moment.

Before he could recover his wits, a sharp pain pierced his ribs. A long red whip flashed past and vanished, sending a spray of blood into the air.

At the same time, an inexplicable, violent rage surged in his heart.

There’s something weird about this whip!

The middle-aged man pushed off the invisible barrier, narrowly dodging the next two whip lashes, and the maddening irritation in his chest faded slightly.

The wound on my ribs is shallow. I just need to avoid getting hit by that whip again and force him into close combat...

Just as that thought crossed his mind, he suddenly found Fu Qian’s face mere inches from his own.

He gave up his ranged advantage to fight me in close combat?!

The middle-aged man couldn’t comprehend Fu Qian’s actions, but then another sharp pain pierced his ribs. Something had tunneled directly through his open wound. Its tip split into countless fine threads, burrowing deep to violently entangle with his internal organs.

An explosive burst of heat erupted a split second later. Amidst a shower of crimson blood, his lifeless corpse plummeted heavily to the ground.