Eldritch Horror Theatre

Exactly. When the task mentioned The Abyss, Fu Qian’s first thought was the group’s previous destination in the underground Laboratory.

It paid to look for commonalities. Things like The Abyss were always tied to corruption and chaos.

And of all the elements they had encountered along the way, the fluorescence was undeniably the most corruptive.

That held true even if Death Row Inmate’s information called the phenomenon prismatic color.

In fact, this was a major reason for Fu Qian’s unease.

The Company was certainly free to name its research subjects however it pleased.

But when the task was to find the Origin of Colors, chalking such a misleading name up to mere coincidence was far too optimistic.

Anyone hearing that name would likely let their guard down and rush headlong toward the Lowest Level of the Third Zone.

Take his five teammates, for instance.

To be fair, they had all shown their professional side, each with a distinct approach to the task.Yet under this subtle manipulation, the entire group had collectively decided to stake everything on a single throw. The results spoke for themselves.

Such tactics carried a heavy stench of conspiracy.

Lamenting this, Fu Qian didn’t bother with the door. He simply leaped straight out through the hole in the wall.

The three in the projection room were acquaintances, after all; there was no need to disturb them by opening the door.

...

He wondered how the team was faring now.

A short time later, Fu Qian stood by the secret exit he had escaped from earlier, assessing the nearby research building.

Judging from the traces, no one else had left this way.

Although the connection between the bottom of the Third Zone and The Abyss was still just a theory, it was absolutely worth investigating.

Theoretically, the safest approach would be to just use Transcendence, instantly neutralizing any potential unseen crisis.

Fu Qian had seriously considered that possibility on his way here, but he ultimately decided against it.

The reason was simple: he wanted to see how his teammates handled themselves under the current circumstances.

He wanted to observe the choices they would make in a scenario that was almost impossible to replicate.

...

Manipulating his body to open the hidden door, Fu Qian reentered the passage.

By now, his strength had mostly recovered.

So, despite his massive frame and the narrow confines, his pace was far faster than before.

In a matter of breaths, he was revisiting an old haunt, stepping back into the elevator to descend.

But when the elevator doors slid open, the sight before him was fundamentally different from when he had left.

In just that short time, the glowing substance on the ground looked as if a shit pit had exploded; there was barely a clear spot to set foot.

Amid the rippling fluorescence, clusters of branches had sprouted, their shapes eerily reminiscent of what had grown out of Adele’s head.

To make a commotion this big, it seemed everyone had really gone all out!

Controlling his body, Fu Qian stepped out of the elevator and into the bizarre scene.

A mere half-second later, his body suddenly accelerated as he stepped to the side.

With a crisp gunshot, two bullets slammed into the open elevator doors just behind him.

Amid a shower of sparks, Fu Qian’s feet didn’t stop. He changed directions continuously, silently counting in his head.

After letting nearly an entire magazine of bullets harmlessly graze past him, Fu Qian suddenly leaped. Spanning over ten meters of space in a single bound, he hoisted a figure out from behind a barrier, casually knocking the gun, throwing knives, and Dagger from the opponent’s hands.

Sure enough, the shooter was none other than his teammate, Madam Star—now in a supreme fluorescent edition.

At this moment, the normally image-conscious team member was glowing from head to toe, looking exactly as if she had just blown up a shit pit.

Although only someone out of their mind would actually do such a thing, the woman currently dangling in his grasp was quite clearly out of her mind.

”What kind of... monster are you!”

Aside from the obvious daze in her eyes, Madam Star’s poor mental state was most prominent in her attempt to demand answers from the very person she had just unloaded a magazine into.

”Name?”

Fu Qian naturally wasn’t idle enough to clear up her confusion. He immediately deployed the ultimate technique of answering a question with a question, tightening his grip as he did.

”Stel... Stella!”

Facts proved that compared to revealing his identity, this method of communication extracted information much faster and more accurately.

Fu Qian even learned Madam Star’s real name for the first time.

”Why are you here?”

Gratified, Fu Qian continued his questioning.

”...Henry!”

Unfortunately, as Madam Star shook her head, she happened to catch sight of the cat in Fu Qian’s other hand, triggering a violent reaction.

”Are you Guansi?”

Hmm? Was this the power of team spirit?

Madam Star was clearly the least perceptive member of the team, yet she had instantly thought of their runaway comrade.

”What about the others?”

Giving her a silent thumbs-up, Fu Qian didn’t deny it and smoothly moved to his next question.

”The others—Mask has gone mad, we need to run!”

Star cooperatively followed his lead, but a moment later, she remembered something and her breathing grew frantic.

”Mask went mad?”

Fu Qian frowned slightly. That was quite a hard scenario to imagine.

In his eyes, out of the five of them, Mask was absolutely the most pragmatic and humorless. Even if they were pushed to the absolute brink, he would definitely be the last to lose his mind.

”Yes... he suddenly snapped. He killed Qing and tried to kill the rest of us... Death Row Inmate and Red Dragon both ran away, and I escaped too—”

Star’s tone was incredibly urgent, as if terrified that Fu Qian wouldn’t believe her.

Madam Qing was already dead?

Fu Qian paused at the news.

She could definitely be considered the backbone of the team, yet she was the first to die. It really made one sigh that worldly affairs are hard to predict.

”Did you find the place?”

After a moment’s thought, he continued his questioning.

”Yes... we found it. That other team had already lost their reason... we confiscated their weapons, and then Mask just snapped.”

Surprisingly, Madam Star’s speech was gradually growing more coherent.

”Mask was much more corrupted than the rest of us. Those monsters weren’t attacking him. The scene was complete chaos; we had no choice but to run first.”

That made sense. Otherwise, against a single crazed teammate, it would still have been three against one. They could have easily gunned him down; there would have been no reason to flee.

”Qing said that when the other team came in, they must have cleared a relatively safe path that we could use to get out later... so I followed the traces all the way here—wait, you aren’t Guansi! Guansi isn’t this tall!”

As she spoke, Madam Star’s voice suddenly spiked into a shriek, and she even reached out to claw at Fu Qian’s eyes.

”Stella!”

Fu Qian sighed inwardly. He easily dodged the attack and directly shouted Madam Star’s real name.

”Uh...”

”What Rank are you?”

Rank...

Successfully derailed from her frenzy, she sank into strenuous thought.

”Demigod...”

In the exact moment Madam Star finally gave her answer, an Air Bullet directly blew her head apart.