Eldritch Horror Theatre

The fear of Death, which in turn genuinely induced Death itself.

Professor Fu’s input was profoundly thought-provoking.

So much so that for a moment, Professor Ah Kai stared fixedly at his half-withered finger, lost in thought.

The two negative effects shared an intrinsic causal relationship—a possibility he had undoubtedly never considered until now.

”I trust your perception, Professor Fu. But setting aside the fact that inanimate objects, devoid of emotion or will, are also decaying...”

To a true researcher, prestige was merely an extra label. To be persuasive, one’s claims had to actually hold up.

”If that is truly the case, then even after I pulled my hand out, the decay should have weakened in tandem with the fear. Why is there such a discrepancy?”

Clearly, Professor Ah Kai had quickly formulated more than one counterargument.

”Could it be that once you withdrew your hand, the decay was no longer confined to just that one finger joint?”

Fu Qian showed no sign of taking offense, simply continuing to offer his opinion.”And you dismissed your overall weakness as a normal side effect of the earlier testing?”

”Because your Rank has increased somewhat, I can’t be certain of your exact changes over the past eight hours. But one thing is undeniable: you are currently accelerating toward Death at an unnatural rate... and right now, so am I.”

As he spoke, Fu Qian pointed a thumb at himself.

”Those are the conclusions I drew from my perception. As for your point about inanimate objects being affected, that is indeed interesting and seemingly irrefutable.”

”Unfortunately, due to the limitations of your Rank, there is still some information you cannot grasp.”

”That was not a simple emotion of fear, but something on a much higher level. Its effects are not limited to the mind, which is why I prefer to call it a curse.”

...

Professor Ah Kai’s professional competence was unquestionable.

Although Fu Qian had provided a few core hints, directly deducing the Miracle and successfully reproducing it multiple times in such a short span was by no means easy.

To Fu Qian, this process of fumbling to uncover a Miracle was essentially like staring at a mountain of chaotic raw data and trying to guess the world’s cheat codes. One only had to think about it to realize how arduous the task was.

Yet Ah Kai had not only accomplished that, he had even produced a preliminary test report that appeared remarkably well-organized.

The only issue was that his detection precision was still lacking.

Rank didn’t mean everything, but relative to this Miracle, his Rank was ultimately still a bit too low.

This was likely an unavoidable danger for the Benevolent Curse Lineage.

One could only advance by exploring higher-Rank ’knowledge,’ but the inherent risks were impossible for a lower-Rank explorer to fully grasp.

Reaching any level of achievement truly relied heavily on fate.

”A curse?”

The current situation, for instance, had clearly exceeded Ah Kai’s limits. For the moment, he could only try to comprehend it through imagination.

”Yes. That’s not to say it has nothing to do with fear. You could say it is fundamentally much harder to define, but when it manifests on the level of the will, it takes the form of fear.”

Fu Qian did his best to describe it in terms the professor could easily understand.

This was indeed his intuitive feeling.

The core of this Miracle was incredibly unique. First of all, once tainted by it, a target wasn’t just injected with intense fear. In Fu Qian’s eyes, it resembled a special form of power from a higher Rank; upon contact, it directly contaminated the fundamental self, which was why he called it a curse.

And its specific nature was indeed as difficult to define as he had said.

If forced to summarize it, the one keyword Fu Qian could provide was ”God.”

That’s right. It wasn’t fear, nor was it any other specific authority. To Fu Qian’s senses, the core of this curse was a certain ’higher entity.’

It was like a passage of text where He was the subject.

And everyone who entered Apoptosis Dread would be forced to bear the weight of that passage.

...

It truly was a special power. Was this some essential attribute of a Miracle?

As early as their time on Ye Island, Classmate Liushuang had briefly explained that Miracles originated from ”knowledge”—which specifically referred to ancient secrets and mystical legends.

And this indeed seemed to subtly correspond with the core concept of a ”higher entity.”

In fact, this was exactly why Fu Qian had just asked what the most precise definition of a Miracle was for professionals like Ah Kai.

”Excellency Nepheli, who has already left, once wrote a single sentence in one of her manuscripts—the essence of a Miracle is a story, and a true story at that.”

At that moment, Ah Kai—who was still reeling from the news Fu Qian had brought—seemed to finally recall that earlier question.

”I never quite understood why she emphasized that sentence. Although reading extensively is indeed basic coursework for the Benevolent Curse Lineage, to be perfectly honest, in the actual deduction of a Miracle, one’s so-called spirituality still plays the largest role.”

Ah Kai shook his head in a somewhat self-deprecating manner.

”Take, for example, the ’incantations’ that almost always accompany the casting of a Miracle. During the process, they often slowly surface in the mind under entirely unpredictable circumstances.”

”You know they are there, but pronouncing them accurately is difficult, let alone understanding their underlying meaning. I have never known what any of them meant.”

”But now, combining this with your explanation, Professor Fu, I think I’m faintly starting to understand. Could ’something more pure’ be referring to that true story?”

Ah Kai’s eyes gradually lit up with excitement. For a moment, he didn’t even care about the physical decay ravaging his body—a decay that, by the sound of it, was not going to dissipate on its own.

The Miracle itself was a true story that had once occurred, and casting it was akin to reenacting that very story?

The insight he shared, which originated from the former Dean, also struck Fu Qian as deeply intriguing.

Combined with what he had just sensed, couldn’t it be understood as ”a tale of a Deity from the past”?

Interesting. But there was a problem here—

Although this Miracle had been derived from Huo, the Dragon of Apoptosis, in all fairness, Huo could hardly be considered a higher entity.

At most, it was only Tier 2 like himself, and it had already thoroughly fallen.

Furthermore, going by the Rank of this Miracle, it felt like Huo might not even qualify for it.

But if the subject of the story wasn’t Huo, then who was it?

Why would a Miracle related to Huo connect to ’Him’?

Based on his previous discussion with Ah Kai regarding the origins of miraculous creatures, was ’He’ the reason Huo was able to be born in the first place?

Of course, those questions could be left for later investigation.

”Your logic makes sense. But for now, we need to deal with the experimental residue.”

As he spoke, Fu Qian’s hand had already grabbed Professor Ah Kai’s head, simultaneously activating the Decree of Return.