Eldritch Horror Theatre

Neural synapse docking complete?

Although the description sounded absurd, Fu Qian felt it was quite fitting in that moment.

The manifestation was highly efficient. In the blink of an eye, a second Brain Jellyfish appeared inside the previously empty cage.

Compared to Brother Thinker, this one seemed far purer.

Skull, flesh, hair—those useless burdens had long been discarded, leaving only an unblemished body. It looked almost identical to the batch they had seen earlier.

So they really were transformed from the Arcane Mathematics Stargazers?

One could only say that their drive to take notes regardless of their physical form was a moving level of dedication.

Furthermore, although their appearances were identical, this one’s posture was a bit too wild, creating a massive visual contrast.

Although it hadn’t crossed the cage’s boundaries—just like the awakened brother—the jellyfish’s legs were stretched perfectly straight and crisscrossed. At first glance, it looked more like a shoddy spiderweb centered around the seat.

Despite the lack of a direct physical connection, Fu Qian—having just profoundly interpreted its academic, arcane, and even artistic aspects—easily sensed its resonance with the entity in the cage below, confirming a genuine link between the two jellyfish.In short, such a swift change strongly indicated that the ”standing on the shoulders of giants” hypothesis was correct.

Regarding that unreachable answer, it wasn’t that The Thinker was a peerless genius who had forcefully derived the conclusion alone, but rather the result of collective effort.

Before his eyes lay an entire Computation Matrix, merely hidden in a special state.

He wondered if, given a bit more time, Brother Thinker would also turn into one of these, integrating himself in an alternative way.

If that were the case, this place could no longer be called a Tiered Lecture Hall, but rather a supercomputing center composed of numerous wetware components.

And now, with the critical node connected, a chain reaction seemed to have been triggered—

Fu Qian looked up toward a higher tier and discovered a third jellyfish in a spot not directly connected to either cage...

Then a fourth...

A fifth...

In the blink of an eye, as if igniting in sequence, jellyfish appeared one after another on the circular steps. It wasn’t uniform, but it possessed a beautiful rhythm.

And each complex, abstract pattern distantly formed a cohesive whole.

Hm... it seemed he had really gotten it right this time.

In response, Fu Qian assumed the role of a strict grader, imprinting the numerous patterns into his mind one by one, savoring and experiencing them until his gaze finally landed on a specific spot beneath his feet.

...

The fall point.

As mentioned before, Fu Qian didn’t know the algorithm. Deriving the answer from such a complex structure was actually just a feel-good fantasy.

But a person couldn’t be too rigid. He might not know how to deduce it forward, but he already knew the answer. Working backward was much easier.

What Fu Qian did in that moment was simple: he directly substituted the previously locked-on fall point coordinates into the glowing jellyfish matrix.

The conclusion was perfect. The Arcane Mathematics Stargazers seemed to have truly accomplished it—even if the cost was massive.

”Uh... ahh...”

For instance, when Fu Qian returned and lightly landed in front of The Thinker, the latter couldn’t even say thank you anymore.

Its barely audible sounds carried none of the ecstasy of finding the ultimate answer. Instead, they seemed full of agony, eventually dissociating into a whimper no human could make.

”Congratulations. It looks like you were right.”

Fu Qian didn’t mind, still giving it a perfect score.

”Hah... ah...”

What a pity. The test-taker seemed completely entranced.

It offered no response; instead, its movements became increasingly inhuman.

Considering it hadn’t been speaking normally with its mouth anyway, in just a few breaths, even the concept of sound was lost, transforming into a more abstract fluctuation.

Fu Qian neither interrupted nor left. He simply sensed it quietly—sure enough.

At a certain moment, he reached a conclusion.

This was the little tune Eldest Miss Wen had hummed to him.

...

Before setting off on the expedition, one of the preparations had been swallowing a theoretical contaminant: Claudora Flesh.

It had indeed caused contamination, such as the Etched Intellect that flared up from time to time.

But before doing that, he had actually reaped a small harvest.

He had asked Eldest Miss Wen to try and sense whether there were any emotions inside that mass of flesh.

And the latter, having already advanced to the High Tier, hadn’t disappointed him. Not only did she confirm their presence, she even translated them on the spot, turning them into a little tune—the very melody the Brain Jellyfish was humming right now.

Although some elements had already surpassed the realm of sound, Fu Qian was still very confident in his judgment.

He wasn’t just pretending to be cultured; he had genuinely been listening this whole time, following along step by step to feel its essence.

Theoretically, during such a precious moment, a normal person’s reaction would be to hurry and check the situation at those coordinates.

But to Fu Qian, compared to the answer itself, this process of seeking it was the truly fleeting, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Thus, he refused to miss a single second.

And now, this appreciation seemed to have paid off.

The melody echoing within the Claudora Flesh was actually coming from the Brain Jellyfish?

There was every reason to believe that this change was related to finding the fall point and discovering the ultimate answer.

Then, could he conclude that the melody also involved the ”beginning of the world” and the ”end of the Transcendent Tier”?

This was truly too beautiful a conclusion, and logically, it seemed to make sense.

Don’t forget, the origins of the Claudora Flesh traced back to this very place.

Now he could only say that, on this basis, a further guess could be made: the Crystal Blessing contracted by the Academy Exploration Team had some connection to the fall point.

That wasn’t even the best part. Someone else knew this melody—the Sage.

In a certain Containment mission, it had been the password used to open a classified location of the Blind Eye Society.

So the value of having a hole drilled into one’s head was still increasing?

Those predecessors had even grasped certain elements related to the beginning and the end?

As expected of the highest realm: different paths leading to the same destination.

Amidst his admiration, Fu Qian was extremely satisfied with the choice he had made.

Within the cold melody, Brother Thinker’s emotions were also fading away.

The bodies of the jellyfish began to flash one by one, like intellect flickering in and out of existence.

This fragile matrix could collapse at any moment.

Easily reading the situation, Fu Qian gave a light leap and landed at the correct coordinates. Any obstacles swiftly dissipated under the erosion of his Calamity.

Very soon, Fu Qian reached that destination—

It was perfectly clean. There were no messy piles of debris, no flesh, no crystals—nothing at all.

It was also very quiet. This time, the notification of a SAN Value loss didn’t appear either.