Eldritch Horror Theatre

The task completion notification chimed, but Fu Qian’s hands didn’t stop.

He had barely withdrawn the hand that tore out the kidney when his other hand shot forward, aiming straight for Claudio’s graying head.

Crack!

With that crisp snap, the old man’s brain was instantly liberated in a purely physical sense.

Unsurprisingly, Fu Qian found a smooth, circular incision on the chunk of skull in his hand, perfectly matching the one on Teresa.

This...

Nearby, Li Min’s consciousness was already blurring from the flames incinerating her from within, yet this sight still left her stunned.

What kind of deep-seated grudge was this? To kill the man and then mutilate the corpse—he seemed even more ruthless than she was!

It had sounded like a mere clash of ideals. Was it truly this brutal?

Regardless, the target was dead.Earlier, she had abandoned all fear of death for the sake of revenge, but now she had no reason to seek her own end.

Regaining her senses, she desperately tried to dispel the flames wreaking havoc across her body.

Unfortunately, the moment she willed it, the fire simply erupted outward into an even larger ring, forcing a pained groan from her lips.

It had burned for too long. Her body was nearly out of control; she could no longer extinguish it on her own.

Realizing her predicament, Li Min instinctively looked up at Fu Qian beside her. She tried to ask for help, only to find she couldn’t force the words from her throat.

Hearing the noise, Fu Qian glanced over and instantly understood her situation.

The next moment, a brilliant light flared.

Fu Qian casually activated the Commandment Residue.

He wasn’t entirely sure how effective this brainwashing aura would be on Li Min, whose mind was nearly delirious from the heat.

But it was the only skill he could think of right now that might actually do something.

She would just have to rely on her own luck.

Without even checking the result, Fu Qian turned back to Claudio’s corpse, his gaze falling on the missing chunk of the man’s head.

Amidst the blood and gore, the pale gray brain was still slowly writhing.

Every fold and groove on its surface opened and closed like eyelids, revealing bloodshot eyeballs hidden within.

The variously sized eyeballs swelled rapidly, popping like blisters a moment later to leave behind streaks of gore.

Simultaneously, even more eyeballs surfaced from deep inside the brain, churning like a boiling hotpot.

So this was the Inner Eye? It looked disgusting!

Even as the scenery before him began to distort, the bursting of the eyes still hadn’t completely stopped.

Fu Qian leaned toward the idea that this thing was some kind of physical manifestation of the Inner Eye concept, rather than simply eyeballs growing inside a head.

The vision swirled, and Fu Qian once again returned to the familiar Warehouse.

[Task Evaluation: Envoy of Blindness]

[A Prosthetic Eye is a meaningless eye.

The transcendents cut eye-shaped openings into their skulls, attempting to pry into the knowledge of Deities.

But this ridiculous action was far from enough to achieve their goal; it was nothing more than a crude imitation.

Claudio never told these people the true meaning of the Inner Eye.

Just as he never told them that the revelations they initially received largely came from him.

As someone who could truly peer into the will of a higher entity, Claudio saw his opportunity—to trigger a Ritual Tide and, amid the surging undercurrents, orchestrate a reasonable death, leaving this tide without its initial initiator.

In the end, he chose Percy as the location and silently pushed the changes forward.

When everything was going smoothly, he even noticed the arrival of an avenger and was utterly delighted by it.

Unfortunately, he never imagined—nor could he comprehend—that a power existed capable of shattering this revelation.

In the final moments of his life, he clearly realized that he was about to step into the darkness of Eternity.]

[Kills: Teresa, Claudio]

[Rewards: SAN Value +28; inspiration +5]

[Special Reward: Starry Sky Prism]

[Current SAN Value: 197, Current inspiration: 81]

[Play event replay?]

So Rolden and his gang were basically just getting swept up in their own delusions?

Sitting in his seat, Fu Qian looked thoughtful.

According to the summary, the imagination of Rolden and his crew wasn’t enough to let them glimpse the ”knowledge of Deities.”

Most of their heaven-sent revelations had actually come from Claudio, just like what Rolden had done to Cha Soon-young.

To sum it up, the ritual-related revelations here in Percy essentially had two sources—

Claudio’s sharing, and the occasional enlightenment others received from being caught in the ritual, like Madam Huang.

He had to admit, Claudio’s plan was quite thorough.

If it weren’t for his kidney-snatching move, the old man would have likely used Li Min—the vengeful spirit—to complete the ritual and witness divinity.

And considering his own other words and actions, the transcendent realm of Boxi City would probably experience a good bout of turmoil in the near future.

As Fu Qian pondered this, he located his special reward.

The next moment, his hands sank under a sudden weight as an object appeared before him.

This was?

Although Fu Qian was quite experienced by now, he couldn’t help but frown slightly.

What had appeared in his hands was actually a giant eyeball!

It was as large as a basketball, and it felt soft and bouncy to the touch, like a colloid.

It wasn’t real, of course, but it was incredibly lifelike.

Examining the dark red blood vessels on the eyeball, Fu Qian came to a conclusion.

One of the reasons for his judgment was that this thing had more structural features than a normal eyeball.

Toward the back-side of the eyeball, right where the optic nerve should be, there was a fist-sized hollow.

The key was that this hollow was perfectly regular; it even looked like some sort of designed opening.

Fu Qian focused his attention on the reward, and lines of information subsequently appeared.

[Name: Starry Sky Prism]

[Type: Special Item]

[Description: An artificial eyeball that establishes a connection with the starry sky and possesses Insight. It can pry knowledge from transcendent items. To use it, feed a transcendent item to it, then stare into it from a close distance.]

[Note: When you are confused, learn to look at the problem from a different angle.]

This thing was quite unique!

After reading the description of the Starry Sky Prism, Fu Qian’s interest was immediately piqued.

Combined with its appearance, this thing easily brought Old Man Claudio’s Inner Eye to mind.

Although this one was a handcrafted artifact, the two shared some conceptual similarities.

It was just that ”feed” seemed to imply a one-way trip with no return.

In other words, he would likely have to sacrifice an item to gain any relevant ”knowledge.”

Fu Qian glanced around his desk.

Although he had accumulated a fair amount of things over these past few days...

Most of the items here had their own specific uses; he was a bit reluctant to just feed them to an eyeball.

Wait!

A moment later, Fu Qian’s gaze fell upon a dark green Bracelet.

It seemed there was still something he could use as food.

Reaching out to pick it up, Fu Qian weighed the Bracelet he had spent a full 180,000 to buy.

Speaking of which, he had always wanted to uncover the background of the person who had left this thing behind. He wondered if he could see anything by using the Starry Sky Prism.

With that thought, Fu Qian didn’t hesitate any longer. He directly tried holding the Bracelet up to the eyeball, right by that suspected opening.