Eldritch Horror Theatre

In theory, the current situation was already enough to wrap up the assignment.

Deep beneath the Benevolent Curse Institute lay a vessel suspected to be from antiquity—The Ark. The Prison Archangel who had dared to offend the supreme authority of the Night Watchers had hidden inside, attempting to prolong its miserable existence, only to be crushed to dust.

The recommended next step would be to strictly interrogate anyone who might be involved, and especially to track down the whereabouts of the suspicious Nepheli.

As a temporarily assigned field operative, submitting a report like that was more than enough to fulfill his duty. Classmate Su Gao could easily coast from here on out.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t Chief Yuan. Unless she encountered an insurmountable threat, she likely wouldn’t be in any rush to retreat.

In that case, they might as well ”rush” deeper inside and see what lay further below.

For one thing, Fu Qian was equally curious. For another, given his many past dealings with Angels, he harbored no fondness for this rapidly intensifying light and wasn’t inclined to waste time on a carpet search.

”Alright.”

Su Gao’s willingness to take the consultant’s advice was undoubtedly high; a moment later, she was already leading the way.

Acting as if they faced a formidable enemy, the Natives remained rooted in place like they were being punished, but their gazes stayed dead-locked on Fu Qian and Su Gao wherever the pair passed.Their reaction seemed to indicate that this frozen posture was actually them charging up an ultimate attack, rather than a gesture of peace.

But it appeared that was the extent of it. Even when the two of them reached the passage leading further down, no divine punishment fell upon them.

...

It had to be said, the overarching architectural style of The Ark was distinctly austere.

Not only were there no visible decorations, but the layout of each floor was remarkably repetitive, featuring at most slight adjustments to accommodate shifts in spatial dimensions.

In the blink of an eye, they descended to the next floor. What appeared before them was another vast, open ”wheat field.”

The light—which clearly had no single source yet scattered everywhere—had already reached the brightness of a rising sun.

Welcoming the light in the midst of darkness was indeed a pleasant feeling. Stacking the joy of a bountiful harvest on top of that made it even more extraordinary.

The only regret was that, while there were plenty of ropes on this floor, not even one in ten of the golden Ambers remained. The vast majority were nowhere to be found.

As for the few that survived, the people sealed inside—aside from being equally emaciated—seemed to possess some rather unique characteristics.

”Are they all pregnant women?”

Weaving through the area and looking around, Su Gao cast a surprised glance at Fu Qian.

”There are pregnant men, too.”

Fu Qian had been observing just as meticulously, and he gestured toward a spot slightly farther away.

It was indeed peculiar. Within every intact Amber on this floor, the emaciated figures inside all possessed swollen abdomens.

Some were large, some were small; some were perfectly round, and some were grotesque.

And the claim about pregnant men was no joke. These bodies were undeniably pregnant, yet they clearly didn’t all possess female characteristics.

They didn’t even possess strictly human features.

Through the golden gelatinous substance, which seemed to grow brighter in the ambient light, it was clear that several of the bodies had undergone mutations similar to the attackers from earlier, bearing a mix of human and marine traits.

”Moreover, even though the things in their stomachs are already dead, they don’t look like mortal flesh and blood.”

Before Su Gao could ask anything else, Fu Qian was already examining an abdomen that had been stretched almost into a triangle, continuing to share his observations.

”Something wanted to use their bodies for gestation, but failed?”

Although it was bizarre, Su Gao looked over, still trying to puzzle out an explanation.

”Hard to say. At the very least, I lean toward the idea that they were aware of the gestation process themselves. Look closely at their clothes; the sizing around the abdomen is different from the ones upstairs.”

Shaking his head slightly, Fu Qian offered his professional analysis as a consultant.

...

They still wore the same style of wrapping robes as the people on the upper two floors. However, even for such naturally loose clothing, the stomach area seemed to have been specially altered, making it look exceptionally baggy.

”Indeed.”

Prompted by his reminder, Su Gao quickly noticed the detail as well.

”So the current situation is that a possible ancient Divine Entity created this place during the Long Night, sheltered Its believers, and... granted them Offspring?”

It was a truly grotesque sight, but Su Gao still carefully examined them one by one, summarizing everything they had seen along the way to formulate her guess.

Still, it was clear from her tone that the sights on this final floor remained somewhat difficult for her to comprehend.

”They might have been humanity’s hope after the Long Night.”

Inside The Ark, which was growing ever brighter, Fu Qian took the lead this time, casually urging Su Gao to let her imagination run wild.

”Judging from this Cocoon-like state, these people must have been sheltered in this vessel in a deep slumber. The condition of the children in their stomachs likely means they were only meant to be born after everyone woke up.”

”But for some reason, they couldn’t survive it, or they failed to wake up after the night ended?”

Keeping pace with Fu Qian in both footsteps and thought, Su Gao surveyed the surroundings. With every step she took, the ambient light continued to climb, and her commentary carried a hint of melancholy.

”Probably. Although the ones we encountered upstairs could still run and jump.”

Fu Qian pointed upward.

”What corrupted them? ...Was it this vessel?

”Those people, as well as the ones who never emerged, have all developed marine traits to some degree. Yet, I haven’t seen an environment here that requires them to mutate like this just to survive.”

Sighing softly, Su Gao shifted to a new question.

...

Not bad.

It was obvious that Classmate Su Gao was an analytical student. Along the entire way, she had never given up trying to seek out and understand the anomalies, and her personal insights showed a great deal of intuition.

”I think so, too. To endure such a prolonged slumber, they must have shared an incredibly deep connection with the vessel itself.”

Hearing her thoughts, Fu Qian nodded in agreement.

”It’s hard to imagine this thing actually sailing on water, but it undeniably displays many traces of the ocean. Perhaps that reflects some intrinsic property of its nature.

”And as an obviously higher-tier power, it doesn’t seem impossible for it to pass that trait on to the passengers inside over the course of millennia.”

”Mhm.”

Receiving such approval from Professor Fu, Su Gao felt a sense of gratification, mixed with a deep sorrow for the tragic fate of this ship full of believers.

”This is—”

However, that emotion was interrupted in the very next moment as her gaze suddenly locked onto a spot up ahead.

”I thought that one looked a bit unusual just now, too.”

Gesturing for her to keep following, Fu Qian walked all the way over to the spot she was staring at.

As if it had been cleanly harvested, almost no standing ropes could be seen in this patch of the ”wheat field.”

Yet, right by their feet, the end of a rope coiled on the ground was unexpectedly connected to a somewhat intact Amber.

Though the abdomen of the female body inside was torn wide open, leaving a gaping wound layered with numerous fleshy folds.

”It seems not all of them failed to be born.”