Eldritch Horror Theatre

”Let’s keep going too.”

Professor Fu could understand the Old Man’s feelings, but he felt no sense of pride. As the sounds of the other’s rapid departure faded, he called out casually to Su Gao.

”Alright...”

Compared to earlier, a rare trace of hesitation crept into her voice. Still, she took the lead, stepping deeper into the unknown darkness.

”There shouldn’t be too much danger back at the ship.”

With only the two of them left, their footsteps naturally found a rhythm in the dark, quickly settling into a unique, synchronized cadence.

After they had carved another straight line through the darkness, Su Gao, still walking ahead, finally broke the silence.

”I thought so too.”

It sounded like nothing more than wishful thinking, but Fu Qian agreed in complete earnestness.

The reason was simple: he could already guess what that earlier commotion was about—Nepheli.Professor Ah Kai’s earlier test had gone wrong, producing this new passage. Nepheli might not have had a hand in it, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t intervene now.

From their own perspective, what their three-person squad had been doing made perfect sense.

Lacking the basis for their next judgment, they had to seize any new opportunity, no matter the risk.

But Nepheli wouldn’t see it that way.

According to what she had said during the tea break, their current situation obviously wasn’t that grim. Everyone just needed to sit inside the Ark and quietly wait for the journey to end.

Doing anything else was just drawing a snake with feet, bringing in uncontrollable variables—like this newly discovered area, for instance.

Though Old Man Stoss had abandoned his thoughts of destroying the ship after being persuaded, the trio—and specifically this highest Combat Power—had still run off the ship to explore a dangerous area.

Nepheli might have been perfectly happy to see the three of them die in here or get left behind by the ship. But there was one risk she absolutely could not tolerate—

What if the situation turned sour, and some overly drastic countermeasures ended up affecting the Ark’s operation?

That was by no means alarmist. The Old Man had just been preparing to violently force his way through.

In response to that, putting himself in her shoes, a very simple choice would be to make some noise and call this three-person squad back.

Ideally, it would make them wary enough to never attempt such a dangerous stunt again.

The notification from Demigod Aike earlier was most likely triggered by exactly that.

And precisely because she realized this, Su Gao had suggested the danger wasn’t great.

As for why she had still eagerly volunteered to come down and explore despite remembering Nepheli’s warning?

That was simple too. She didn’t fully trust Nepheli.

From what Fu Qian knew of her, Classmate Su Gao was extremely responsible. Her self-proclaimed title as ”head of the investigation” was by no means just empty talk.

Even if Nepheli’s claims were highly credible, Su Gao still refused to pin everyone’s safety on a single statement from her. She didn’t mind taking a little risk to gather more information.

Furthermore, if Nepheli wasn’t lying, their interests were currently aligned to some degree. Even if they took drastic action, she would have to step in and back them up.

There was just one tiny problem right now: the two of them had wandered so far out. Could she even back them up anymore?

”This place most likely isn’t reality yet. It’s the materialization of some symbol.”

Not bothering to worry about Excellency Nepheli, and having validated Su Gao’s judgment, Fu Qian immediately gave his assessment of their current situation.

Several High-Tier Transcendents had been running this long without reaching the end, and the passage had been excessively uniform the entire way; the reality component felt a bit lacking.

”Yes.”

Su Gao replied softly, suddenly coming to a halt.

”So what kind of symbol do you think it is? You should be able to see something by now, right?”

As if he had anticipated it, Fu Qian stopped almost in perfect sync. He neither bumped into her nor showed surprise, simply dropping a startling question.

”I can only see a little.”

After a brief silence, Su Gao actually admitted to his latter statement.

”So what does it look like?”

”Like a coffin... an infinitely stretched coffin.”

...

So this was the Power of Echo.

In that moment, Fu Qian could only marvel.

Given that her constitution could automatically defend against the color distortions of the Blazing Rainbow, wouldn’t it also have some resistance to this alternative kind of distortion?

Always full of confidence in Classmate Su Gao, he had harbored this suspicion the moment they entered this place.

The facts proved that Echo was indeed completely unreasonable.

He might be able to resist these things if he activated his Mythical Form, but it wouldn’t be anywhere near as convenient.

”After we came in and walked for a while, I gradually started to make out a bit of a silhouette, but I wasn’t able to roughly confirm it until just now.

”The shape and design of this passage look very much like a coffin used to bury the dead. It’s just that it’s empty, and it has been exaggeratedly stretched out in the direction a person would lie.”

While Fu Qian was marveling, Su Gao had already continued to quietly explain the situation.

”Not bad. That definitely supports our guess about the symbolism. It just sounds a bit ominous.”

Even though he couldn’t see it, Fu Qian didn’t doubt her description in the slightest.

Part of it, naturally, was his trust in her honesty. The other part was the ’foot feel’ he had praised earlier.

While he could roughly determine a bit of the spatial outline from the echoes, the quality and polish of the wood beneath their feet were absolutely superb—to the point of feeling ominous.

That was why he had mentioned earlier that it invited bizarre associations. Now, it had essentially been confirmed by Su Gao’s observations.

As for why she had suddenly stopped, it was obviously because of that ominous nature.

She might be steadfast in fulfilling her own responsibilities, but Su Gao had no desire to drag others into taking risks alongside her.

Of course, in response to that, he had immediately made her realize just how much sense of responsibility an operations advisor possessed.

”Do you think there’s an end to it?”

Amid his commentary, Fu Qian moved on to confirm the next question.

”There are distinct patterns overhead. So far, there hasn’t been any obvious repetition, though they are also exaggeratedly stretched out. So I think there is one, but I’m not entirely certain.”

The advisor had long since seen through her misgivings, yet he had still made his current choice.

Understanding this, Su Gao did not engage in any meaningless persuasion, directly stating her somewhat insufficient reasoning.

”Then what are we waiting for? Let’s see who’s hiding in there.”

Nodding slightly, Fu Qian motioned for them to proceed.

...

”Be good... lie down right here. No one will find you.”

At a certain moment, Su Gao halted in the darkness ahead once more.

Accompanying her stop was a distinctly female voice.

But unlike the omnipresent humming, this voice appeared directly in their minds, similar to the information infusion from earlier.

It was extremely bizarre, yet they could still ”hear” that the voice was gently comforting a child.

”Don’t move around now. Mother believes you will definitely win.”