Eldritch Horror Theatre

Are people always this quick-tempered these days?

Fu Qian easily dodged the attack and looked down.

The object the burly man threw had plunged deep into the sand, leaving only its tail exposed.

He packed quite a punch.

With that kind of force, a direct hit to a vital spot would be fatal even for a Low-Tier Transcendent.

Very well... then I don’t need to hold back.

Fu Qian executed his Reverse Flash Step, crossing a dozen meters in the blink of an eye.

Before the furious man could even form a look of horror, Fu Qian reached out and clamped a hand around his throat.

The terror of death instantly gripped his heart.

”Stop!”A loud voice intervened as two figures in special uniforms rushed over.

”Is fighting not allowed?”

Fu Qian blinked, not loosening his grip.

”Fighting is fine, even killing is allowed!”

The two uniformed men explained with stern faces.

”But dirtying the beach is strictly prohibited. Violators will be fined.”

Huh?

Fu Qian looked down.

A stream of warm liquid was running down Brother Macho’s pant leg, quickly absorbed by the fine white sand beneath his feet.

No wonder he had heard a sound just now.

Killing this guy would be simple—it would only take a light squeeze.

But the human body was seventy percent water, making it genuinely difficult to kill him without making a mess. Besides, if the guy died and they couldn’t find the person responsible for the puddle on the ground, Fu Qian might end up having to pay the fine himself.

At that thought, he tossed Brother Macho into the arms of the two guards.

Whoever polluted it cleans it up.

The two security guards reacted swiftly, grabbing the man from the left and right to hold him up.

Brother Macho’s face was already ashen.

It looked like a massive fine was waiting for him.

Following the information on his Room Card, Fu Qian soon found his room.

The room was quite luxurious and fully equipped with all sorts of amenities. Fu Qian quickly connected to the internet and searched for information on the Ring Archipelago.

This place really was a lawless zone!

The Ring Archipelago was incredibly famous; a casual search yielded all sorts of introductions and analyses.

And according to the data, it was indeed a unique location.

The entire Ring Archipelago consisted of seven islands arranged in a spiral to form the shape of a ring, with the island housing the White Tower sitting right in the center.

Rumor had it that there used to be nothing here but a few rocks protruding above the sea. Then, a conglomerate with too much money and nowhere to spend it took an interest in the area, investing massive sums to reclaim land from the ocean and artificially constructing this place from scratch.

Because it was located in a jurisdictional blind spot, it was free from almost any local legal restrictions. As a result, all sorts of crowd-pleasing traditional industries flourished on the islands.

In less than five short years, the Ring Archipelago skyrocketed in fame, becoming a globally renowned den of luxury. The conglomerate itself even directly renamed itself the White Tower Company.

There were quite a few extralegal havens in the world, of course. The Ring Archipelago was special because after the White Tower Company created this island out of thin air, they somehow managed to sign a special agreement with the Night Watchers.

Through this agreement, the company obtained a considerable degree of immunity in the supernatural realm. That was the true foundation of its prosperity.

From what he had gathered so far, the Night Watchers had a very low tolerance for sensitive activities involving supernatural powers.

It didn’t matter what conglomerate or family you belonged to; crossing the red line meant your background was useless. They destroyed every sketchy research institute they found.

Consequently, the Ring Archipelago quickly became a convergence point for weirdos. All sorts of talents who couldn’t be found outside, or who couldn’t survive elsewhere, fled here, forming quite the spectacular scene.

Naturally, to avoid becoming a safe haven for transcendent criminals, they still had to cooperate with the Night Watchers according to the agreement and hand over wanted fugitives.

Other than that, all kinds of activities explicitly banned on the outside—human modification, taboo research—could be found here.

Among them, the most famous was the renowned practice of limb grafting.

As the name implied, it involved using special techniques to graft the limbs of supernatural creatures onto human bodies, allowing people to indirectly acquire their inherent abilities.

It sounded a bit twisted, but people were still flocking like ducks to get it done, especially those who originally had no connection to supernatural powers.

Of course, the effectiveness was bound to be somewhat discounted.

As for those who went into qi deviation cosplaying as succubi, purely pursuing visual effects, plenty of them could be found here as well.

It was precisely because of this that the Ring Archipelago was also known as the Grafted Archipelago.

Absolutely twisted!

Fu Qian silently mused, continuing to read on.

There were generally two ways to enter the Ring Archipelago: spending money or an Invitation Letter.

Spending money went without saying; the price was astronomical. Just counting the zeros would take a long time.

As for the Invitation Letter, one of the ways to get it was to sign up for the legendary King of the White Tower tournament.

Anyone who registered would not only get a free entry chance, but regardless of winning or losing—as long as they didn’t forfeit and quit the match—they could obtain a permanent Pass.

Those guys on the beach had undoubtedly all come this way.

As for winning, the rewards were even more exaggerated. It was said that the top-ranked competitors would all receive a free limb grafting opportunity.

Very generous, but there was a catch.

If forfeiting wasn’t an option, then it was a fight to the death.

Considering the mixed bag of participants and the vast disparity in strength, it was likely that a significant number of people would die in the arena.

Indeed, free things were often the most expensive.

Naturally, that didn’t rule out the possibility of some people coming here to indulge themselves one last time and try their luck before death.

According to the data, the White Tower Company had spent a considerable fortune creating such an artificial marvel out on the ocean.

But it was also due to the existence of limb grafting technology that they had grown into quite an influential conglomerate in just a few decades.

Its founder, Bai Jinting, was highly likely his target for this trip.

According to the records, he was over seventy years old and rarely left the archipelago nowadays, spending almost all of his time inside his White Tower Base.

That was good news for him.

There didn’t seem to be any time limit for this assignment, so there was no need to rush; he could take his time to plan it out.

It just so happened that this was a place of illustrious people and blessed land, with beautiful scenery.

He might as well treat it as a vacation.

Of course, he couldn’t rush it even if he wanted to. Just looking at the publicly available information, this place had attracted more than one Tier 4 Transcendent to retire here, and on top of that, there was even a demigod holding down the fort.

A High-Tier Transcendent was a Demigod Realm expert, meaning they were at least Tier 3 or above.

He had just leveled up, so it was better to stay humble.

Aside from this, at the very bottom of many documents was an attached file named the White Tower Codex.

It detailed various prohibited behaviors, numbering close to a thousand rules.

Having nothing else to do, Fu Qian, as a reading enthusiast, actually read through it without missing a single word.

And sure enough, he found the rule prohibiting dirtying the beach inside it.

If anyone thought that nearly a thousand rules presented too many restrictions, they were overthinking it.

After Fu Qian finished reading it, he came to a conclusion.

For the vast majority of these clauses, as long as you met the standards of a scumbag and were strong enough, there essentially wouldn’t be a problem.

Of course, the most important thing was that Fu Qian flipped from beginning to end and confirmed that there was no rule stating ”Do not kill Bai Jinting.”

By the time he finished reading the terms and roughly formulated his execution strategy, the sky had gradually grown dark.

Just then, someone knocked on the door to remind him that the tournament was about to begin.

”Bring your Number Tag and come with us.”

As he followed behind the crowd, the White Tower towering into the clouds soon appeared before his eyes.

As the large doors slowly opened, a deafening roar like a landslide and tsunami poured out.