Chapter 26: CH 26

The moment he saw it, Zong Yan couldn’t help but swear.

“What’s wrong?” Edward asked. In the reflection, Zong Yan’s gaze collided with the flat black eyes of the little prince.

“Nothing, never mind.”

Zong Yan snuffed out the spell pattern in his hand. He put the phone back in his pocket like nothing had happened.

Zong Yan thought he’d had his fill of bad luck. First there was the school advisor who was an evil god, and before that was the senior student who was also an evil god. Then there was the powerful but unusable evil god card in his pocket that somehow was forced on him. But even after all of that, he hadn’t seen it coming. An evil god had taken control of the people around him, infiltrating his own team.

Despite Zong Yan’s reaction just now, Edward didn’t seem to notice anything.

After the incident with the Azathoth card, Zong Yan’s insight had risen to an almost unimaginable level.

“All I did was go out to see a play. I didn’t do anything else, and yet I had the strangest hallucinations. The private doctor couldn’t find anything wrong,” Westin continued to talk at length.

At first his words didn’t sound especially relevant, but eventually they pointed to one place.

—A theater in London’s West End.

Maybe…

Zong Yan looked at Edward on one side, who was still completely vacant, then looked at Westin on the other side, who continued to mumble, and came up with a bold idea.

It was clear that Edward and Westin had the same symptoms. Hoshino Kota specifically warned him to use the spiritual perception spell that detected mental influence, because that was a specialty of the Order of Feasters.

But why was this evil god operating so openly? Even with a huge number of investigators in London, the enemy hadn’t taken any countermeasures. And the investigators themselves hadn’t found anything wrong.

After thinking about it, Zong Yan decided there was only one remaining possibility.

The god had absolute confidence in his plan.

With arrogance befitting an evil deity, the enemy was confident his mind control wouldn’t be discovered by anyone. That was why he dared to be so reckless.

He probably didn’t think that among a bunch of ordinary people at Miskatonic University, there was an actual superpowered person whose insight ability was straight up hacks.

Edward: “A theater in the West End? Which one?”

According to this logic, the god didn’t know Zong Yan had discovered something wrong. Which meant his pawns had mentioned the theater on purpose.

Zong Yan steadied his mind. “Let’s go to that theater and take a look. I think the problem is likely to be there.”

Heaven knew that as he spoke his palms were sweating.

Edward followed him the entire time. He hadn’t noticed a thing.

But Zong Yan was certain that the night before yesterday, when they were lying on the top floor of the palace looking at the stars, Edward was absolutely not under mental control.

""

When did it happen? Was it when he fought the Death-Walker, or maybe it was—

Ada.

She was the only one who had access to Edward, and she was the most suspicious.

Zong Yan gritted his teeth. When he thought of Wang KeMing, who was alone with Ada right now, he quietly clenched his fists.

The message he’d sent on his phone to Wang KeMing was like a stone sinking into the sea. There was no reply at all.

He suddenly recalled what the vice chancellor told him. “Remember the school motto. Especially the last sentence.”

Trust no one.

—

London’s West End was brightly lit tonight.

Recently, a play with an excellent reputation had attracted visitors from all over Europe.

The last show to be so successful was 《Harry Potter and the Cursed Child》. Otherwise, the big shows on the West End were pretty much fixed. Most years didn’t see much turnover.

The name of the new play was 《The King in Yellow》, and it told quite a strange story.

The play depicted a magical, ancient city without any suffering or pain—Carcosa.

What was even more magical was that many people who’d seen the play claimed they visited the ancient city in their dreams. They said Carcosa was a legendary utopia like the Garden of Eden, a biblical kingdom of heaven without any sin, as beautiful as the realm of the gods.

The current production of 《The King in Yellow》 consisted of only one act. The second act had been postponed for a long time and hadn’t been officially released.

And it was because of the suspense that the audience of 《The King in Yellow》 eagerly looked forward to the release of the second act.

Today the second act would be performed for the first time.

The play had been running for a while, so a lot of people were waiting for the premiere. The opening was originally scheduled for eight PM. At six o’clock, people were already sitting in cafes throughout the West End, waiting with newspapers.

By the time Zong Yan arrived, Hoshino Kota was already at the door.

When Zong Yan saw him at a distance, he made a random excuse about going to the bathroom and temporarily separated from Edward.

“Why are you here too?” After he saw the little chief, Hoshino Kota scowled. The cigarette in his hand flicked to one side.

The intelligence brought back by the investigators pointed to a play that was being staged here.

The investigators had found literally dozens of clues that all pointed to the same place. Any fool would know there was a problem there.

So Hoshino Kota immediately led his team over.

The senior investigator was keenly aware of the strangeness behind the recent incident.

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The main reason the Order of Feasters were able to stay in London for so long without being eradicated by MU was that they were cautious.

MU kept a close eye on them, but the senior members of the Order were powerful in the UK, and the junior members were very tight-lipped. It was only at the end of last century that MU learned from a member that the sect liked to use mental suggestion to control the less devout adherents. Their high-level leaders were extremely pious and fanatically believed in the god they worshipped.

Compared with all those cults made up of kids and riff-raff, the Order of Feasters was a breath of fresh air. But they were also harder to see inside than an iron bucket.

So what caused this low-key cult to make such a big splash in London lately?

Sadly, it seemed to be a case of that ancient Chinese idiom, inviting the victim into the funeral urn.

But all these clues, without exception, pointed to His Majesty’s Theatre in the West End. Hoshino Kota had no choice but to go.

Before he left, he asked MU for support, and they agreed to send over a Monarch professor.

And that was what happened. The mission he’d given the little chief had led here just like everything else.

It was too difficult to get tickets for the play this late, so the investigators planned to wait until the show opened and use a search warrant to get inside.

Investigators from all over London were rushing to the West End. Professionals who specialized in magic patterns were distributed around the theater and had already begun to draw spatial isolation patterns to make sure tonight’s event wouldn’t end up in tomorrow’s headlines around the world. Otherwise MU’s public relations department might be willing to stab someone with a knife.

“Thanks for the warning.” Zong Yan looked at the other party and lowered his voice. “It seems like something really terrible is behind all of this. When we checked the information you gave us, I noticed the interview subject was under mental control.”

Did he want to abandon the mission? Yes, if it weren’t for Edward’s situation, Zong Yan might really have decided to abandon the task then and there.

But he couldn’t act against both his heart and his brain. His friend was in trouble. How could Zong Yan pretend he didn’t notice and run away from the fight?

As Hoshino Kota listened he took another puff of the cigarette and exhaled the smoke from his lungs.

“I understand.” After he finished the cigarette, Hoshino Kota finally added, “This mission is really too dangerous. You should seriously consider giving up.”

Zong Yan gave a bitter smile. “My friend’s under control too. I have to save him.”

The person who tied the bell should be the one to untie it. The only way he could solve the problem was from the root. 

“You’ll go far.” The scruffy uncle patted him on the shoulder. “It’s rare for someone your age to have that kind of understanding.

“But what happens next won’t be a game.” Hoshino Kota stared directly at him.

He wasn’t sure why, but when he met the young man’s eyes, Hoshino Kota fell into something of a trance.

Those black eyes were too deep and still, without the faintest speck of light within. But there was a flickering spark of hope.

“Any being that’s capable of mind control won’t be a lower-level creature.” He blinked his eyes to dismiss the strange feeling. “Even for an upper-level monster, it’s rare for them to be able to tamper with reality.

“This time—” Hoshino Kota took a deep breath. “We might be facing a god.”

This wasn’t an exaggerated statement. After the appearance of the Death-Walker, avatar of Ithaqua, the professors of MU had been busy.

They speculated that after so many years of preparation, it was likely that the Order of Feasters was finally ready to summon their god.

This being was served by Ithaqua. That meant it was something even more terrifying.

For investigators, finding out their opponent was a god didn’t change anything. In the face of an even more powerful opponent, they still had to meet the challenge head on.

If they didn’t sacrifice themselves, millions of ordinary people would lose their lives.

It was true that Awakened enjoyed the best treatment and privileges in the world. But when the occasion demanded it, they were the first to die.

This wasn’t a matter of kids playing games, and it never had been. It was a real organization whose members might have to lay down their lives at any time.

“You’re still a student. Leave this kind of thing to us adults.” Hoshino Kota’s attitude was firm. “Thank you for the information, but I’m not going to give you tickets to get in. Tell me your friend’s name and I’ll send an investigator to deal with it.

“Well, it’s already late. You should hurry back to your hotel.”

The ticketing gate for the theater had already opened, and the audience members began to file inside the building one after another.

Hoshino Kota urged him repeatedly, then he took the search warrant and walked towards the entrance.

Zong Yan stood in a corner, clenching his fists.

When he left, he’d already seen Mr. Westin and Edward walking into the theater together. It was clear the next performance was going to be a real headliner.

He let out a deep breath, and the Night Watchman card appeared in his hand. After a flash of light he melted silently into the shadows.

And at the very same moment, a gray-haired man sitting in the first row of the theater suddenly smiled.

“What are you grinning at?” Ada, who was sitting beside him, gave an amused laugh. “It’s so rare to see a human reaction on your face.”

Tawil smiled but didn’t utter a word.

The lights in the theater dimmed, and a good show was about to begin.

—

The author has something to say:

I’ve heard that if you get three evil gods together, you can start playing Fight the Landlord immediately 

But no one wants to play against Bubbles, because that guy is all-knowing, all-powerful, and blatantly cheats

TL Notes:

straight up hacks – from 开了挂 – opened and hung up – cheating in a game by (illegally) using a plugin; getting amazing results

inviting the victim into the funeral urn – 请君入瓮 – Will you kindly step into the jar? — Try what you have devised against others.; make a person suffer from his own scheme; pay a man back in his own coin; Please get into the jar, sir!; treat sb. with his own ways

the person who tied the bell… – 解铃还须系铃人 – In order to untie the bell, the person who tied it is required; It is better for the doer to undo what he has done; Let him who tied the bell on the tiger take it off; Let the mischief-maker undo the mischief

Fight the Landlord – 斗地主 – One of the most popular card games in China

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