Eldritch Horror Theatre - Ch. 96: King of the White Tower (18)
"No rush. We have plenty of time."
Uttering those startling words, Bai Jinting neither called for backup nor tried to escape. Instead, he stood up and walked to the edge of the platform.
"This place offers the best view in the entire White Tower."
Standing with his back to Fu Qian, seemingly unconcerned for his own life, he raised a hand and pointed below.
"Want to come take a look? Even in the archipelago, such a grand spectacle is rare."
"Indeed, I've already felt the enthusiasm just now."
Faced with his unusual behavior, Fu Qian didn't rush to attack either. He actually stood up and walked to the edge, adopting the posture of an old friend having a chat.
He had to admit, the view from this angle was absolutely spectacular, taking in the entire situation inside the White Tower at a glance.
In just this short amount of time, it had become even more chaotic and bloody below.
Coupled with the bizarre structure of the building itself, it made for a truly hellish composition.
"How does it feel?"
Bai Jinting asked.
"Full of vitality."
Fu Qian's answer clearly stunned Bai Jinting for a moment before he couldn't help but burst into loud laughter.
"Well said! This scene could be called the ultimate expression of life's vitality."
"In a way, this was my original intention for building the archipelago."
"Shouldn't your original intention for building the archipelago be playing cyborg games?"
Since the man had such a strong desire to express himself, Fu Qian decisively chose to gather more information.
"That was only the goal of certain people. For me, it was merely a means to an end."
"By 'certain people', do you mean the Rebirth Club?"
"Exactly. I heard you've been in contact with them quite a bit recently. Did they ever tell you they once planned to graft a special limb onto me to grant me immortality?"
"No, but immortality is indeed a tremendous temptation for an ordinary person."
"Yes, I was already getting on in years, and the fear of death was inevitable. In fact, I quickly agreed to their proposal, and then came the plan for this archipelago."
"At the time, their technology wasn't mature enough. So, I expended massive manpower and resources to build the Laboratory outside for them.
Meanwhile, to attract more people, I used various methods to turn this place into a fallen paradise, a land with no taboos.
Everyone who enters the archipelago will easily have the restlessness deep within their hearts awakened, thereby providing a constant stream of test subjects."
I see. The origin of this archipelago is entirely unsurprising. In fact, I've even read your White Tower Codex.
Fu Qian thought to himself.
"You said 'once planned' just now. It seems you ultimately didn't accept the modification?"
Recalling Lu Ming's resentment toward Bai Jinting, it was obvious their relationship had become strained later on.
"Yes, I ultimately didn't accept it. Do you know why?"
Bai Jinting asked, staring straight ahead.
"Why stop at the last minute when everything was already fully prepared?"
"According to my life experience,"
Fu Qian assumed the posture of an experienced veteran.
"Humans have a very poor ability to resist temptation. Most of the time, the only thing that can make someone refuse a temptation is a greater one. Did you perhaps get what you wanted during this process?"
"You are indeed a smart person."
Bai Jinting looked at Fu Qian with appreciation.
"Much better than those Old Men from the Rebirth Club."
"Even now, they still don't understand why I refused to cooperate, and they've even pulled a lot of little tricks to test the waters."
Bai Jinting snorted.
"It was just mutual exploitation from the start. They had long since lost their greatest value to me."
"And then you found Demigod Ibrahimovic?"
"Exactly. I couldn't just kick them out directly, so I paid a huge price to invite Ibrahimovic here and shared a considerable portion of power with him. He didn't disappoint me and helped solve a lot of my troubles."
"However, regarding this ridiculous title of Demigod..."
Bai Jinting let out a cold sneer.
"Mortal imagination is extremely impoverished. A mere human who can summon wind and rain dares to falsely claim to be a god?"
"The reason I rejected Lu Ming and the others' suggestion is because—"
He opened his arms to embrace the sky.
"One day, I touched an inconceivable, magnificent entity. It made me see clearly the essence of the world and the crudeness of so-called supernatural powers."
Such thick cultist vibes.
Seeing Bai Jinting getting more and more into character, Fu Qian politely refrained from interrupting him.
"An entity that can truly be called a god wouldn't have those mundane human emotions at all. It wouldn't even care about your goals. It's merely that your actions attracted its gaze, and it casually offered a response."
"And that day, standing atop the White Tower, I gained its gaze and received its protection."
"Now do you know why I said 'again'?"
Bai Jinting looked at Fu Qian.
"Because I know perfectly well that not long ago, you charged up here just like now and trampled me to pieces."
"But unfortunately for you, you will never be able to kill me here."
"It's best to be a bit humbler as a person. The last guy who said that to me ended up a headless corpse."
Fu Qian roasted while analyzing the situation.
"You used the phrase 'here'. It seems that even though it looks exactly the same, this place is likely not the original archipelago. What could it be... an illusion, a dream?"
"Why couldn't the original be a dream? And this is the reality after waking up?"
Bai Jinting had a mocking look.
"Not impossible, but I just ran a small test specifically for that."
Fu Qian held up his middle finger.
"This is a little gadget that can pull people into a dream. I tested it a minute ago. Before the dreamscape could even spread, it burst like a soap bubble."
"This is highly unusual. So if I had to guess, I'd bet we're in a dream right now."
Haha!
Bai Jinting froze for a moment, then burst into loud laughter.
"Good guess. This is indeed a special dream. Your act of killing me just now plunged the entire archipelago into this place.
Just as I said, I cannot die here.
Any attempt to kill me will just bring you back to that exact moment. Not only can you not kill me, but you can't even escape this place."
"You have two choices now. One is to try killing me to verify if I'm lying. Or, following traditional experience, you can try to leave the dream by committing suicide, though I don't guarantee that will work either."
"I said from the beginning, you have plenty of time. You can think about it for a while; no need to rush a decision."
"It won't take that long."
Looking at this triumphant King of the White Tower, Fu Qian shook his head.
"I had already made up my mind as soon as you said 'again'."
Fu Qian flicked his fingers repeatedly, and Air Bullets whistled out.
"So you choose the most brainless method after all?"
Bai Jinting let out a disdainful sneer before being smashed to pieces once again.
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