Eldritch Horror Theatre - Ch. 77: No Money Needed
This was truly an unexpected situation!
Fu Qian looked at the waitress in front of him.
A standard oval face, neat teeth, an upturned nose, long hair pinned up, and a silk scarf tied around a slender, fair neck.
Even in the standardized dark red uniform, her curves were prominent, unable to hide her beauty.
It was just that her previously charming and lively eyes were now blurred and intoxicated.
Was this caused by the Decree Residue skill?
Because the effect was so unnoticeable, it was indeed easy to ignore after turning it on.
But isn't this extent a bit exaggerated? An area-of-effect intelligence-lowering aura?
The waitress's current state was even somewhat reminiscent of the group of people who had stared directly at that tree.
The feeling of looking up and being stared at by a room full of smiling faces was truly bizarre.
But clearly, when he took the taxi over here, the driver hadn't reacted much.
Time!
Fu Qian quickly realized a key point. He was only in the taxi for a little over ten minutes in total, whereas he had been eating for over an hour.
It seemed that for this thing to take full effect, it needed sufficient time, and the process was so subtle it was almost imperceptible.
"What is your name?"
Fu Qian stared at the waitress's face and asked a different question.
"Pei Yanqing."
The waitress answered subconsciously.
"Very good, Pei Yanqing. How much was my meal just now?"
Calling her name, Fu Qian slowly asked again.
"How much?"
Pei Yanqing repeated in a wooden tone, then muttered to herself.
"You... don't need to pay!"
Sure enough, her mind had been compromised.
Eating without paying? Decree Residue could just be renamed the Freeloader Aura.
An imperceptible golden pattern flashed across his body, and Fu Qian decisively turned off the skill.
He looked up again to observe the waitress's reaction.
Unexpectedly, Pei Yanqing just froze for a moment. Not only did she not snap out of it, but her blurred gaze actually grew a bit more dazed.
After locking eyes with Fu Qian for a few seconds, a flush of excitement even spread across her cheeks.
"Hello!"
Pei Yanqing took a step forward, practically pressing herself against Fu Qian. Her body trembled slightly, and she bent down as if wanting to kiss Fu Qian's hand resting on the table.
"Wait a minute."
Fu Qian grabbed Pei Yanqing's arm, stopping her from getting any closer, and then scanned the room.
Pei Yanqing's words and actions hadn't triggered any reaction at all.
The other people in the restaurant were still looking over with smiles on their faces.
Fortunately, no one else approached, and the expressions on their faces had restrained slightly.
The person furthest away was already mechanically bringing food to his mouth, but just couldn't seem to put it in.
It seemed the others weren't as deeply affected. Sure enough, the closer the distance, the greater the influence.
The fact that Pei Yanqing had been paying more attention to him earlier was probably also a factor.
In short, she was the biggest victim!
"Hello..."
Naturally, Pei Yanqing couldn't resist Fu Qian's iron grip and was rendered immobile under his control.
But seeing Fu Qian holding her hand, her smile only grew more radiant. Although futile, she still struggled to lean closer.
Things couldn't continue like this!
"Look here!"
Fu Qian tapped Pei Yanqing to make her look at his left hand.
At the same time, the Lucid Dream ring on his middle finger activated.
Galaxies swirled, and an invisible veil expanded, enveloping the entire restaurant.
This was his second time using it, and the feeling was still quite miraculous.
Catching Pei Yanqing's slumping body, Fu Qian helped her sit down in a seat to the side.
Regardless of anything else, he had to let her calm down first.
At this moment, everyone in the restaurant, just like her, had instantly entered a dream state.
And as the initiator of the dream, Fu Qian found himself in a rather unique state.
His consciousness remained in the real world, but through a simple self-hypnosis, he could join this dream.
Sitting back securely, Fu Qian chose to self-hypnotize.
In an instant, as if piercing through a film of water, the restaurant began moving again.
Pei Yanqing was still standing by his seat, acting as if nothing had happened, while the others numbly resumed eating.
If he hadn't known beforehand that he was in a dream, it would genuinely be hard to tell the difference.
"How much?"
Fu Qian looked at Pei Yanqing standing beside him and probed.
"Hello!"
Pei Yanqing looked infatuated.
"No money needed."
This wasn't good. She still hadn't snapped out of it?
Could it be her mind was already broken?
Fu Qian inexplicably recalled the scene of the crowd in Xiyuan City looking up at the sky.
To his surprise, it wasn't over yet.
The next moment, the freed Pei Yanqing spread her arms as if to embrace the sun, letting out a euphoric sound.
"Hello... It's an honor..."
Her face was full of an entranced expression, and even her facial features seemed to turn holy and translucent.
Even more exaggeratedly, the clothes on her body actually started to become transparent little by little.
Such a thing was possible?!
He hadn't expected that in a dream, this classmate's intense emotions could trigger such a change.
Seeing the uniform rapidly shifting into lingerie, Fu Qian delivered a crisp and clean knife-hand strike to the back of Pei Yanqing's neck, directly knocking her unconscious.
This action was a bit louder, and the eyes in the restaurant focused on him again.
"She fainted from working too hard."
Fu Qian calmly explained.
The dull-eyed crowd showed no doubt towards this explanation and lowered their heads to continue their business.
Phew!
After confirming once more that the effect on the remaining people was slowly fading, Fu Qian rapidly exited the dream.
Pei Yanqing was slumped over the table, out cold. Without another word, Fu Qian hoisted her up and carried her out the door, ending the dream the instant he stepped out.
How should he handle this?
He had completely never expected that just having a meal could cause such an incident. Staying home really was the best way to stay safe, wasn't it?
Fu Qian frowned as he looked at Pei Yanqing.
Although it wasn't intentional, the incident was ultimately his doing. He couldn't just leave an accidentally injured civilian behind.
He hadn't expected the Freeloader Aura to be so overpowered.
Looking at it now, the description stating "its power is so weak that almost only visual effects remain" was very likely meant in the context of Beyonders.
Against ordinary people, it was practically a dimensional strike.
Considering the frail constitution of ordinary humans, he didn't have any good solutions at the moment and could only wait to see if resting for a bit would improve her condition.
As for resting, this girl was most likely a student. Bringing her to a hotel as a strange man would probably cause bad rumors.
Fu Qian hailed a taxi and chose to bring her directly to his own home.
Fortunately, it was noon, and the vast majority of the elderly folks in his residential complex had gone inside to eat, so it didn't cause a massive commotion.
Even so, when Fu Qian helped her out of the car, he still drew quite a few vigilant stares.
Especially since, out of consideration for Pei Yanqing's privacy, Fu Qian had taken off his jacket and draped it over her face.
"Xiao Qian!"
An auntie in the crowd finally couldn't hold back.
"Who is this girl? Is she feeling unwell?"
"My fan."
Fu Qian blinked.
"She fainted from being too excited to see me."
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