Eldritch Horror Theatre

You sure have the nerve to say that!

It was clear that at that moment, Professor Fu’s analysis landed like a bombshell.

Clearly never expecting such an explanation, the audience could finally no longer maintain their composure. The majority of their expressions turned thoroughly bizarre.

[An unscrupulous professor entering the game as a piece, cleverly locking down the Sanctuary to bully men and dominate women]?

Wasn’t this development a bit too worldly and vulgar?

”That is truly an honor... but if that’s the case, it looks like you have quite a few helpers?”

Faced with this kind of topic, mature women ultimately possessed a stronger tolerance. After steadying her nerves, Yuan Shan was the first to speak, even analyzing the situation with absolute seriousness.

”Besides someone to plant the poison, there also has to be someone who could bring you here.”

As she spoke, her gaze pointedly shifted to the hands binding Wen Li and Fu Qian together.

This...In all fairness, there was no flaw in that logic. This plan, which sounded like it had an absurd goal, hinged on two key points.

Besides a stealthy method of poisoning, the victims also had to be brought over.

As the hunter, Wen Li undoubtedly held considerable dominance over their actions along the way.

”Makes sense.”

Fu Qian immediately agreed, turning to look at the silent Wen Li, and even at the Handcuffs that had never been unlocked.

”Even this item could be seen as restraining me... or it could be seen as a form of protection, keeping me from being harmed by those with ulterior motives.”

It was just a pity that with his current stamina, even showing off the Handcuffs was somewhat strenuous.

”But you really are just an ordinary person right now.”

When communicating with someone who could draw inferences from one instance, the problem sometimes lay in how excessively smooth it was.

Yuan Shan’s expression was already somewhat peculiar, evolving from her initial teasing to seemingly genuinely considering the possibility.

”Yes, how else would you have fallen for it?”

Fu Qian scoffed coldly, perfectly illustrating what true boldness was.

”A transcendent is not always stronger than an ordinary person. For example, whenever you encounter an anomaly, you all subconsciously lower my threat level.”

...

That truly was ’dying a romantic ghost’ then.

Fu Qian’s explanation over here was clear and systematic, taking ’seeking noble ladies in the midst of danger’ to its absolute extreme, but the audience found it even harder to maintain their composure.

At first glance, it really made perfect sense. From the beginning up until just a moment ago, right before he outed himself, hardly anyone had actually suspected him.

Mainly, once someone became a transcendent and transcended the human domain, very few would ever want to experience falling back down.

That wasn’t just a matter of streaking naked; it was straight-up regressing into a paramecium.

Obviously, they couldn’t begin to imagine just how much experience Fu Qian had with turning into a paramecium.

But now that they had accepted this premise, it actually seemed somewhat reasonable.

He had even cleverly avoided the risks involved by locking himself to the hunter.

Although he was just an ordinary person himself, he could let the fox exploit the tiger’s might and share the threat of the hunter’s Combat Power.

It was just that in this scenario, the hunter had to be exceedingly trustworthy...

Although Yuan Shan didn’t say another word, she easily straightened out the logic behind it.

She clearly wasn’t the only one to do so. For a moment, Wen Li became the focal point of everyone’s gazes.

”That really does sound logical...”

The latter truly possessed excellent psychological fortitude. Faced with such a grand spectacle, not only did she not shrink back; she even gave a slight nod, acknowledging Fu Qian’s analysis.

”But if that’s the case, was the checkpoint also locked down according to your plan? Considering that clearly wasn’t my department, I’m quite curious as to how you pulled it off.”

In the very next moment, she completely bought into the role, raising another critical question.

...

Not bad at all. Worthy of a professional hunter who had wanted to control the situation the entire way.

Even now, she didn’t get tangled up in those inexplicable details, and instead continued to guide everyone’s thoughts toward the bigger picture.

Seeing that Wen Li wasn’t rushing to explain herself, but was instead focusing on completing the chain of events, Fu Qian praised her inwardly.

Of course, this wasn’t some kind of depraved plot. In theory, not a single person in this group was his hidden mole, and he knew absolutely nothing about anyone’s plans.

Saying even that was putting it mildly. How they got here, what their purposes were... he had no concept of any of these key story elements.

And that was exactly the point of spouting this nonsense right now.

Facts proved that aside from Professor Lisa, Wen Li’s attitude also faintly carried a hint of ambiguity.

For instance, her seemingly normal and clever response very likely carried the risk of handing him a weapon to use against her—

”Isn’t that simple? Why must there only be two helpers?”

Fu Qian laughed aloud.

”Professor Lisa wasn’t lying either; she really wasn’t the one who set up the checkpoint.”

...He even outed the identity of his own person? And it sounded like they were indeed from the Academy?

It was another shocking revelation. Professor Fu’s aura of strategizing within the command tent grew ever more astonishing.

Upon suddenly hearing Lisa’s name, Wen Li’s expression grew several degrees more solemn.

Especially since the party in question just narrowed her eyes without making a sound, clearly silently acquiescing to the claim.

It wasn’t that they hadn’t guessed at such an identity before, but having it outed at this moment gave an entirely different impression.

She wasn’t here to rescue him or silence anyone, but to help set a trap?

That seemingly absurd conspiracy theory was actually beginning to look more and more real.

Furthermore, doing this even shattered a certain unspoken rule everyone had been intentionally or unintentionally following: to avoid confirming the identities of the others as much as possible.

All in all, it very much gave off the feeling that the story had reached its climax, and the mastermind was freely discussing their plan.

...

So it really seemed like they didn’t know each other very well?

Taking everyone’s reactions in, Fu Qian clicked his tongue in wonder.

This was the other issue he had wanted to confirm. Of all these people who had uniformly appeared here, how much of their social relationships with one another remained?

This wasn’t idle curiosity. It was extremely useful for answering the question of ’why they appeared here.’

And the final result was that, from just a moment ago until now, he had continuously expanded the conspiracy theory, even deliberately tacking on a particularly vulgar goal.

Yet the result was that all the implicated parties were fighting lone battles. Not a single second person jumped out to help corroborate their stories and clear their suspicions—not even between Yuan Shan and Wen Li.

Such behavior undoubtedly drastically reduced the probability of the ladies having formed small cliques among themselves.

So every single one of them was fighting alone? Did they retain their identities while having their social connections with each other uniformly erased or distorted?

This result undoubtedly made things far more interesting, and it certainly increased the probability of a certain theory: they were coming for him.

Exactly. If this was some sort of Mind Space, and they didn’t share any deep connections with one another, then wasn’t the fact that they could all gather here stemming from their connection to him?

Regardless of the different postures they each presented.

Of course, it probably wasn’t for that rather vulgar goal he had mentioned earlier.