Eldritch Horror Theatre

”Whose subordinate was this?”

Staring at a body that measured nearly two meters even without its head, Fu Qian let out a marveling sigh.

He was impressed by the sheer size of the guy, but more importantly, the lack of a head meant he couldn’t cosplay him even if he wanted to.

Whatever. He had come in this time planning to stretch his limbs anyway.

Making a swift decision, Fu Qian took a deep breath as his features rapidly shifted.

A split second before the spreading pool of blood could touch the tip of his shoe, he finished transforming into a slightly smaller figure with dark, fathomless eyes and effortlessly stepped aside.

He raised a hand to smooth out his newly lengthened hair. Right in the center of his right palm, a grayish-white eyeball swiveled around.

That was right. Fu Qian’s current appearance belonged to Ji Ping—the executed traitor who had been swindling people using the Rebirth Club’s fearsome reputation.

The place he currently occupied was an old but not entirely dilapidated Stone Chamber.

With its tiny windows and rather high vaulted ceiling, it felt less like a living quarter and more like a quiet room in a Church. As far as the eye could see, there was only an extremely crude bed. The corpse lay right beside it.Judging by the body, the time of death was a few minutes ago at most. The fatal wound was clean and efficient, suggesting a sneak attack while the victim was caught off guard.

Even so, someone was already rushing over.

Through his perception, he sensed two figures sprinting down the Corridor outside, rapidly closing in on this room.

People wouldn’t be in such a frantic rush just to return to their rooms to rest. It was far more likely they had noticed something amiss and were coming to investigate.

To react within mere minutes of the kill... as expected, everyone’s nerves were stretched taut at such a critical moment.

”But so what? Thinking you can make me, Ji Ping, take the fall? It won’t be that easy!”

With a cold snort, Fu Qian directly activated Blood Crusade.

The next moment, a hazy blood-red mist enshrouded his newly transformed figure, and he stepped into an overlapping, illusory dimension.

Without a shred of hesitation, Fu Qian phased directly through the wall. He brushed past the two rushing figures and headed straight in the direction they had come from.

The Containment Conditions were clear. The only problem was that he first needed to identify the Oathbreaker.

This place was obviously the free guest room area of the Legendary Little Shop. And given how late it was, the Bright Light could descend at any moment, meaning the resting hunters might disperse at any time.

The chance to meet the majority of these Transcendent experts all at once wouldn’t come often. It was best to make every second count.

...

By the time Fu Qian reached the end of the Corridor, canceled his Crusade state, and continued onward, the two investigating hunters remained completely oblivious.

Of course, Fu Qian heard their furious roars loud and clear.

After passing through the Corridor and walking a bit further, things unfolded exactly as he had guessed. He entered an open-air courtyard.

Following the covered walkway further ahead led to a rather short, dome-shaped building.

The building’s exterior clearly bore a solemn religious aesthetic. The reason it wasn’t particularly tall was that the majority of its structure had sunk into the ground, to the point where it even tilted at a slight angle.

At a glance, the door connecting to the walkway had obviously been repurposed from one of the building’s original windows.

To open a shop in a place like this, the owner was certainly no ordinary figure.

Praising them inwardly, Fu Qian didn’t enter through the walkway door. Instead, he activated Blood Crusade once more and shifted to a different direction.

As everyone knew, the most infuriating thing for people waiting wasn’t the agonizing wait itself. It was when, during that agonizing wait, a peer leisurely strolled in late, missed absolutely nothing, and sat down to wait with them.

Adopting that kind of persona would surely help him quickly get acquainted with the various factions and smoothly track down his target.

...

Creak!

He had to admit, the shop owner had quite a bit of flair.

In a place like this, where no one would mind if you just slapped up a wooden fence, they had insisted on installing classic half-height louvered doors.

This also meant the sound of Fu Qian entering was incredibly conspicuous. He couldn’t keep a low profile even if he tried.

Almost immediately, in the somewhat dim lighting, gazes from all over the room snapped toward him in unison.

Naturally, upon discovering Fu Qian’s unfamiliar face, the swirling resentment in the room practically converged into a flowing river.

Faced with this scene, Fu Qian immediately offered everyone an extremely polite smile.

For a moment, the river of resentment surged even more violently.

”What would you like to drink?”

Surprisingly, the owner of this Legendary Little Shop was actually a rather young-looking woman.

Boasting a head of brilliant blonde hair that practically blinded the eye and leaning against a massive, ancient Emblem, she was likely the only person in the bar whose mood had just improved.

As Fu Qian walked all the way up to the counter, she asked him with a beaming smile.

”Sorry, I didn’t bring any money. But I heard the lodging here is free?”

...

The blonde owner was clearly a bit stunned by Fu Qian’s blunt honesty. It took her a few seconds to process it before breaking into a sweet smile.

”It is indeed free. You can take any unoccupied room you like. However, the view over there isn’t nearly as good as it is out here, you know?”

At first glance, this sounded an awful lot like a sales pitch meant to hustle more drinks.

After all, sweeping a glance around, aside from the front and back doors, all the broken windows in this shop had been entirely bricked up. Compared to the murder room from just a moment ago, it was impossible to tell how the view here was any better.

But Fu Qian was perfectly capable of understanding the true meaning hidden in her words.

Monitoring the surrounding changes and ensuring one could react the very second an anomaly appeared—this ’change’ didn’t just refer to the outside world, but also to the people right in front of them.

Although the fragmentary details in the task description made it seem like there wasn’t much direct competition between the hunters, everyone’s reaction to him had already explained everything.

Human nature was a fascinating thing. With all these people gathered here, how many were actually here just to drink?

They had to keep an eye on the outside, and an eye on their peers. Ensuring they didn’t fall a single step behind under any circumstances was the real business at hand.

”That is true...”

Taking another look around at the owner’s reminder, Fu Qian slightly furrowed his brows.

”Friend, if you don’t mind, you can sit over here.”

Just as he was acting hesitant, pretending that his empty pockets were forcing him to walk away from the revelry, someone spoke up.

...

It only took a glance to see that the people in the small shop were divided into several factions.

The most numerous among them were the assorted stragglers and lone wolves. Some drank alone while others huddled together in conversation, but it was obvious none of them submitted to anyone else. At best, they shared fragile, temporary alliances.

In stark contrast, there were two groups clearly moving as cohesive units, exuding a disciplined aura where orders were strictly obeyed.

And the man who had just called out to Fu Qian belonged to one of those two groups.

...

Now that was more like it. During such a tense moment, how could a suspicious character walking through the door right in front of everyone’s eyes possibly need to pay for his own drinks!

Faced with this entirely expected turn of events, Fu Qian was quite satisfied to be readily accepting good advice, not feeling the slightest bit indebted.

The reason was simple. This particular group was from the Siren Group, and by his calculations, they still owed him a lot of money.

As for how he recognized them? The guy who had called out to him—Fu Qian even knew his name.

During the last Angel Dungeon incident, the guy who had paid a heavy sum to hire him as cannon fodder... his name was Gerald, wasn’t it?