Eldritch Horror Theatre - Ch. 48: Feast
[Lucid Dream: Upon activation, plunges targets within a certain range into a brief, shared dream.]
Fu Qian checked the rewards for his two Godlikes, unexpectedly finding that this [Lucid Dream] was actually another ring!
But saying "another" didn't seem quite right either, because although Tyrant's Fist had the style of a ring, it was by definition a weapon.
Compared to Tyrant's Fist, Lucid Dream's appearance was much more normal.
The silver-white metallic band was hollowed out with intricate patterns, and the face of the ring was inlaid with tiny gemstones clustered into a swirling nebula.
With a slight movement, an ice-blue light flowed across it, dreamy and illusory.
Plunging people within a certain range into a dream was somewhat like Hypnosis; the special part should be this shared dream.
Making a group of people have the same dream? Inception? That's quite interesting.
He couldn't think of any place to utilize it for the moment, but the ring's design was quite beautiful, so Fu Qian slipped it directly onto his other middle finger.
Moving on to the next reward, Fu Qian set his sights on [Feast].
[Feast: Substantially increases life vitality. Cannot be deactivated once activated.]
[The form of the flesh is unimportant; only the joy of the soul is a Feast.]
Hearing the name, I thought it was a skill like corpse-eating for health regeneration. Looking at this explanation, the target of Feast seems to be myself.
Substantially increases life vitality?
Fu Qian was a bit puzzled. It seemed his current life vitality was already high enough; how else could it be raised?
Moreover, this "cannot be deactivated once activated" part looked a bit serious.
Another point of no return!
Unfortunately, Fu Qian was a highly curious person. After hesitating for a few seconds, he convinced himself and chose to activate the skill.
The Feast icon before his eyes lit up with a soft glow, then vanished into nothingness.
At the same time, Fu Qian felt ripples of oscillation appear within his body, rapidly sweeping across his entire frame.
Bones, muscles, meridians—the ripples echoed in all locations, ultimately overlapping on his skin to create rolling reverberations.
After a long while, the fluctuations slowly ceased.
"It seems there's no obvious change!"
Fu Qian clenched his fists, feeling no significant increase in strength.
The next moment, feeling an impulse, he threw a punch into the empty air.
Wind howled. After the punch followed through, his index finger suddenly straightened. Along with a sound of piercing the air, the index finger stretched straight out by an arm's length, becoming a finger-spear.
I think I know what this life vitality is all about.
Fu Qian retracted his finger and took a deep breath.
With a ripping sound, a massive maw tore open on his chest, filled with countless sharp fangs.
Just as I thought!
This transformation that previously required considerable effort could now be done in an instant, without even needing to tear open a wound first.
Fu Qian quickly returned to his original state, basically confirming the changes [Feast] brought him.
If the Thug form removed his strength limit as a human, then Feast had removed his form restrictions in the traditional sense.
He could now freely control any part of his body to change shape without worrying about physical collapse.
Impressive! Just a bit perverse!
But at least it was worth the hard work.
Overall, Fu Qian was fairly satisfied with the harvest.
After checking his rewards, he selected the event replay.
Just a moment ago, he realized he had overlooked something.
The Containment Failed prompt had appeared after he exited the barrier, which was normally understandable.
However, he clearly remembered the scene when [2-292] leaked earlier.
When Wen Li's mind collapsed and she lost her chance to advance because Wen Xiuxian was killed, he had directly received a mission failed prompt.
Comparing the two, it actually proved one point—until he walked out of the barrier in a collapsed state, there was still a chance to complete the containment.
Meaning, there was definitely a way within the Furnace to let him dispel the mental collapse state.
Quickly skipping the progress to the end, Fu Qian watched his self who had already walked outside the barrier, undergoing both physical and mental collapse.
His body was severely deformed, covered top to bottom in human faces trying to escape, clear enough to distinguish their facial expressions.
The faces were male and female, and many perfectly matched the bloody faces from Feng Yunhong's self-destruction earlier.
But it seemed something was missing!
Fu Qian frowned and rewound to the exact moment of Feng Yunhong's self-destruction. Observing closely, he indeed found an anomaly.
After Feng Yunhong exploded into a Flesh Storm, all the bloody faces pervading the area had a strange extra mark on them, shaped like four hands rotating counter-clockwise.
This...
Recalling Feng Yunhong's state when they first met, even Li Weixuan hadn't noticed anything unusual about him, meaning he had suppressed the consciousnesses of these bloody faces very well.
Feng Yunhong was clearly hiding a secret. With the help of some special method, he could suppress mental collapse to a certain extent, allowing him to avoid a state of madness.
This should also be why he had roared angrily that his (Fu Qian's) actions at the time were purely messing around.
It seems I need to find a way to have an in-depth chat with him this time.
After watching it several times to ensure he hadn't missed anything, Fu Qian decisively touched the Fog Door again.
[Consumed 1 Sanity Value. Attempting containment again. Current Sanity Value: 54]
[...1%...5%...15%...50%...75%...99%...100%, Containment Scene loading complete.]
"Strange, is this place on the map?"
Yuan Xin's voice came from ahead. A half-broken wall appeared, and the team once again began discussing taking a break on the spot.
Time to move!
Fu Qian stretched his back and, under the group's incredulous gazes, walked straight from the back of the line to the front.
"Is something wrong, Fu Qian? Don't change formation without permission."
Yuan Xin, who was communicating with Ji Liushuang, noticed his abnormal behavior and called out somewhat displeased. Unfortunately, the latter turned a deaf ear.
"I'm talking to you!"
Anger flared in Yuan Xin's heart. He reached out to grab Fu Qian's shoulder, but unexpectedly grasped at empty air as his vision blurred. Fu Qian had already left the team by several meters.
"I'm going ahead to scout the path."
Fu Qian didn't even turn his head. He didn't break his stride, stepping over the broken wall blocking the way in one stride.
As Fu Qian walked away without looking at him even once from start to finish, Yuan Xin was stunned at first, then felt a burst of humiliated rage.
But he wasn't so provoked as to lose his composure. After taking a deep breath, he looked at Ji Liushuang with an inquiring gaze. The latter hesitated before shaking her head.
"Fu Qian seems to not want us to follow. To be safe, let's stick to the plan and rest here. In a bit, we'll figure out a way to notify Vice Dean Li—"
Before Ji Liushuang finished speaking, her gaze instantly froze.
From the shadows, a flurry of black spikes suddenly sprang out from behind the broken wall, densely shooting toward Fu Qian's back.
Amidst a wave of gasps, it was as if Fu Qian had eyes on the back of his head. He tapped lightly on the ground, leaping forward once more to perfectly dodge this sneak attack, his body rapidly disappearing into the thin mist.
The nine-person team stood frozen in place. It was a long moment before they reacted and jumped away from the broken wall.
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