Eldritch Horror Theatre

Among the many higher entities, Excellency Patches had always possessed the most distinct disposition.

While others were entirely result-oriented, declaring ”I want it all” in various ways, he was truly unique in his preference for ”enjoying the process.”

From old ones and Divine Entities of equal status down to unranked, low-level transcendents, anyone could bring him amusement by going astray.

He even casually turned something like developing Covenanters into an elaborate game.

He had not only designed a trial akin to a death trap for Doctor Goya and his group.

He had even developed a special game to counter the Warehouse’s potential intervention, harvesting SAN Value in reverse.

In short, when dealing with an acquaintance like him, it was best to scrutinize any lax logic in one’s own head before taking action.

For instance, random sampling—a habit that fit daily routines but inherently lacked rigorous logic.

’Cannot walk on walls’ was in effect—

’Cannot open an umbrella in the Laboratory’ was in effect—’Cannot exceed the height of the White Tower’ was in effect—

But did that prove the White Tower Codex enshrouded the entire archipelago, remaining in effect even within this fragmented dream?

Honestly, testing the rules three times was already considered rigorous for most people; many would have simply assumed the rest and applied them outright.

But if one was truly that careless here, the next logical leap would be exactly what had happened earlier: concluding that if Old Man Lu and his companion were still here, they would definitely violate the rule ’cannot hide from observers up high,’ meaning they must already be gone.

That was trapping oneself, driving the train of thought into a dead end.

Fortunately for Fu Qian, no matter how flawless something appeared on the surface, maintaining a healthy skepticism about what remained unseen was a basic virtue of intelligent life.

Because of this, back when his finger first bled from ’walking on walls,’ his assessment at the time had been that the codex only ’appeared’ to be taking effect.

This reserved judgment actually carried two layers of meaning.

First, before he entered this place, had the codex actually been in effect?

It was true that Old Man Lu and his companion had later demonstrated a proficient use of the rules.

But putting himself in their shoes, one would realize that this proficiency was only surface-level; essentially, it was far too ”luxurious.”

What an incredibly crucial piece of intelligence that was—one perfectly suited for exploiting an information gap and manufacturing an advantage.

Yet they squandered it just to test an intruder, making him pay a price no steeper than a bleeding finger?

Not to mention, this intruder had not only swaggered in with obvious ill intent, but was an open, life-and-death enemy.

If the two of them had been in poor condition, such waste might have been understandable.

However, it was later proven that Old Man Lu and his companion were not only in excellent condition, but their control over the entire dream was astonishing.

In that situation, failing to meticulously set an inescapable trap the moment they detected the intrusion, failing to drive their enemy into a corner until he had no choice but to jump off the building, was practically squandering their entire hand of cards.

Yet they hadn’t done so. Even the Master, who had openly used him, hadn’t offered so much as a vague warning before he entered.

In short, both sides had displayed an astonishing waste of resources.

It was enough to make Fu Qian suspect whether the obvious conclusion he had drawn was equally clear to them.

Was there a slight possibility that Old Man Lu and his companion had also been caught off guard by the codex suddenly taking effect?

That, to them, the place wasn’t supposed to be like that?

That was why, despite waiting at ease for an exhausted enemy, they had hardly seized any obvious initiative.

As for the second layer of meaning, it pertained to the random sampling he had just mentioned.

A few random checks were in effect, so everything was in effect? Was it possible that he had simply happened to test the valid ones?

At first glance, this sounded like deliberately splitting hairs, and under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t even be worth dwelling on.

But combined with the oddities of the first point, engaging in a bit of Overthinking was absolutely justified.

And Excellency Patches’s reaction at this moment seemed to prove that he hadn’t overthought things.

”Hehehe—is that not exactly what you love to do?”

The next moment, in the face of Fu Qian’s high praise, the other party let out another burst of wretched laughter, not forgetting to return the compliment.

It really was.

As the saying went, he who flatters others shall be flattered in return. He had been so busy criticizing others that he had forgotten how well some of those methods actually suited his own style.

As expected of an old acquaintance, Fu Qian had to admit that Excellency Patches’s reciprocal critique sounded perfectly accurate.

Artificially creating psychological blind spots and subtly luring people astray—he had done his fair share of that himself.

Even that time at the Solitary King Court could almost be considered a silent collaboration between them, born of this shared hobby—no.

Two collaborations.

Besides teaming up to screw over Rom, who had been trying to play the fisherman, Patches had even been highly intrigued by Fu Qian posing as a puppet like Ariel to sling mud at the members of the Origin Council. In the end, he had even joined in to sling some mud himself.

For an organization with such lofty prestige to show signs of falling apart so quickly under the pressure of the Night Watchers—this fellow’s contributions could not go unnoticed.

”That’s true. Actually, I ran into Rom just a few days ago.”

For a moment, Fu Qian didn’t feign modesty. He calmly accepted Excellency Patches’s acknowledgment and even casually brought up a certain victim.

”Oh? Where?”

Patches was completely unsurprised, evidently aware that their stunt at the Solitary King Court wouldn’t have been enough to put Rom down for good.

”The Ash Sea.”

Of course, it was hard to tell whether the curiosity of someone like him was genuine. It would be entirely normal for him to already know the answer and just be testing how Fu Qian would respond.

But even fully aware of this, Fu Qian continued to treat others with sincerity.

”A place like that?—That certainly sounds like somewhere he would go.”

Sure enough, Patches seemed to know something, looking thoughtful.

”The Inverted Lake.”

However, Fu Qian wasn’t finished. He continued to narrow down the location.

Indeed, when dealing with an expert, words were never wasted. It was obvious that the name ’Inverted Lake’ carried far more weight.

”How is that possible—you found the Inverted Lake inside the Ash Sea?”

At that moment, Patches jerked his head over to look at him, his face filled with shock.

”Is it impossible?”

Managing to shock a character like him would at least count as a ’Glorious Deed’ in a video game.

However, faced with this exaggerated reaction, Fu Qian merely cast him a disdainful glance and threw the question back casually.

”Hehehe—of course it’s possible.”

Sure enough, the act broke in a single second. Amidst his wretched laughter, Patches instantly dropped his shocked posture.

He then squatted down right where he was, arms dangling at his sides, once again adopting the classic posture of a village elder.

”But it still counts as an incredible achievement. After all, even Blazing Rainbow couldn’t find it.”

However, the next moment, he still emphasized that his earlier reaction hadn’t entirely been for show.

This achievement of Fu Qian’s truly lived up to the word ’glorious.’

To prove his point, he had even directly pulled out the name of an incredible entity to back it up.