Eldritch Horror Theatre

”I don’t know.”

”Never heard of it.”

It truly was a scene of honest exchange. Under normal circumstances, it would be hard to imagine South Taylor and Northern Jiang En so bluntly admitting their ignorance right to each other’s faces.

Granted, the title ”Master Yuhun” was indeed obscure. The one posing the question had gone a bit too far off the beaten path.

But as that very questioner, Fu Qian wasn’t dissatisfied with the result. He had faith in his volunteers.

Who said failing a question meant getting no results?

”You were awfully quick to admit it this time. Have you really never heard of it?”

As it turned out, believing in the youth paid off once again.

Even though Jiang En had been a beat slower to admit his ignorance, Taylor clearly felt he had yielded too quickly. He immediately voiced his suspicions.

”Are you implying that I actually know and I’m just pretending not to?”Jiang En instantly caught his nemesis’s meaning and let out a string of cold sneers.

”I’m stating it outright. You’ve already fed us false information once before.”

Taylor’s logic was as sharp as ever; he even deduced the other man’s motive.

”You claimed a fake name was real, so I have every reason to believe you’d claim a real name is fake—just to cover your tracks.”

...

”That sounds quite reasonable.”

Typical youths—their tempers flared in an instant.

Thanks to Taylor’s relentless barrage, the atmosphere grew remarkably heated.

On the receiving end of the attack, Jiang En held out for a mere two seconds before jumping into the fray.

”If it makes so much sense, shouldn’t you go try it again right now? Who knows, maybe you’ll get a different result than you did with the last name.”

The latter half was practically dripping with mockery, but just as Taylor had demonstrated, all is fair in war.

Using such a tone might have been a deliberate ploy to spark a rebellious streak, provoking the other party into not testing it.

”So I’ve always been an idiot in your eyes? Heh... You think you can just provoke me with a few words and I’ll dive right in?”

However, it turned out Brother Taylor was operating on the Third Layer. Faced with his nemesis’s suggestion, he merely let out a strange chuckle.

”Didn’t you say you were cursed because of that name? Shouldn’t you be the one in a rush to figure things out right now, to see if the title ’Master Yuhun’ is actually correct?”

Not bad. As they said, a rival was the only way to improve. At this point, Brother Taylor probably wouldn’t do something as pathetic as picking up blackout drunks outside a bar.

Watching the drama unfold with detached amusement, Fu Qian devoted at least half his attention to guessing which of the two would ultimately perform the test.

He had to admit, Brother Taylor’s performance was nothing short of stunning. It perfectly showcased his personal growth.

He suspected his opponent of releasing in order to capture, while simultaneously suspecting him of pretending to use that exact tactic. He had even found the breaking point to this seemingly unsolvable loop.

You claim to have no connection to the King of the Abandoned Prison, and even say you’ve been cursed by Him?

Then it seems you should be the one far more anxious to verify the truth right now, shouldn’t you?

It was incredibly sharp logic, even if it was still a bit rough around the edges.

But considering the two men had clearly entered a state of flow, fixated on winning their duel...

...so fixated, in fact, that they still hadn’t bothered to wonder about the identity of the mysterious entity constantly feeding them reference answers—it made this train of thought inexplicably reasonable.

”That makes sense...”

And Brother Taylor’s stunning performance seemed to have successfully suppressed his opponent.

After a brief hesitation, Jiang En found himself forced to agree with this reasoning.

”Why not do it? Even though I’ve never heard it before, it seems this title is indeed far more likely to be the truth...

”So it seems my chosen test subject is far more likely to be correct in comparison, wouldn’t you say?”

At the same time, he refused to show any weakness, finding an angle to claim victory with lightning speed.

...

Your attempt already failed, while mine appears much more likely to succeed.

Regardless of why I made that choice in the first place, it’s obvious my judgment was better.

The two competitors were naturally highly sensitive to certain things. Before Jiang En even finished speaking, Taylor’s momentum faltered, and he could only watch helplessly as the other man’s figure vanished.

Of course, that disappearance was just a bit of dramatic flair orchestrated by Fu Qian.

Though he hadn’t made a sound, he intervened at the perfect moment, replicating what Taylor had experienced earlier by first severing the fragile connection with Jiang En.

A control group needed to actually act as a control. Aligning the baseline conditions was the absolute bare minimum.

Moreover, it seemed the results from the control group were finally going to be different this time—

Less than ten seconds after the connection was severed, a strange silhouette surged out from amidst the churning red mist.

...

So ”Fu Qian” didn’t work, but ”Master Yuhun” did?

Fu Qian didn’t even have to look closely to know it was still Jiang En.

Consequently, as he casually steered the Scarlet Angel to crawl over, he arrived at a startling conclusion.

Jiang En was clearly much less prone to giving up than Taylor.

He had every reason to believe that Jiang En had used the name ”Master Yuhun” to call back in this time.

As for pulling a fake-out—avoiding the risk entirely by using the King of the Abandoned Prison to call back in, just to pretend he had been right all along?

Honestly, under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t put it past Jiang En to pull a stunt like that.

But leaving aside his currently erratic mental state, Taylor’s earlier argument had been convincing precisely because it was an open scheme—Jiang En truly was cursed, and he truly needed to verify it.

Winning a petty argument was important, sure, but not more important than his own safety.

In short, without his volunteer needing to say a word, Fu Qian had basically confirmed a rather bizarre result.

Even ”Master Yuhun” worked, but his actual self, ”Fu Qian,” didn’t?

In theory, didn’t the connection between that honorific name and the King of the Abandoned Prison require Fu Qian himself to act as the intermediary?

Tracing that connection back to the Abandoned Prison itself would make it another degree removed.

And yet, the Abandoned Prison’s response had been incredibly prompt... Did Rank really exert that much influence? Or were there other factors at play?

”It looks like I did win, after all.”

Just as Fu Qian was musing over this, Jiang En, having regained his ability to communicate, immediately announced his victory.

”Master Yuhun... I’m honestly quite curious if the Night Watchers are aware of this title.”

The very next second, however, he casually pivoted back to business, acting as if he didn’t care about their petty argument at all.

”It actually worked? How is that possible!”

But there was no way Taylor was going to let it go that easily. He immediately let out the exact same gasp of disbelief Jiang En had made earlier.

”I’ve never heard of that title in my life, and it certainly doesn’t sound like a true name either... We’ve definitely been tricked.”

This was truly a classic love-hate relationship. Faced with this test result, he would rather suspect the entity feeding them information of having ulterior motives than suspect his nemesis of faking the invocation.

”You’re exactly right. My apologies, I misremembered again. His true name is actually Ramon.”

Seeing them hit a stalemate, Fu Qian naturally felt duty-bound to step in. He smoothly hijacked the conversation, tossing out yet another name.