The charred traces behind the stage twisted, projecting indifferent words into Lu Ban's vision.
Found Performer 1/1
Obviously, this was the person Lu Ban's mission required him to find.
However, it would have been nice if the mission were only that simple.
Another line of text appeared below it, twisting into view.
Survive Until Dawn: 05:51:16
There were still more than five hours to go, but every second was agony for Lu Ban now.
That charred "person" in a tailcoat was also immersed in his own melody. The tune was bizarre and ever-changing, every note seeming to leap about with a will of its own, hopping from the keys and flowing into Lu Ban's ears, pounding against his eardrums.
Lu Ban felt his thoughts falling into stagnation again, as if they had been stuck in some semisolid gel. He could barely form even a single thought.
The situation reminded Lu Ban of the suona.
When he played the suona himself, he seemed to enter a similar state.
Were the people listening to him play the suona also like Lu Ban was now?
"!"
Thinking of what had happened earlier, Lu Ban's mind suddenly cleared.
The piano music he heard now was not merely ordinary music.
It was a melody imbued with some supernatural power, capable of interfering with the human mind.
Did Du Danping possess a similar power?
The system had told him that he was the 233rd Chosen of the Gods. In other words, there might have been more than two hundred before him?
Was Du Danping one of them?
"I see."
Amid his sluggish thoughts, Lu Ban understood everything.
"Du Danping possessed some kind of talent or obtained the qualifications to enter the Land of Silence, thereby gaining supernatural powers, just like me. Perhaps he chose to become... a musician?"
"Using his supernatural power, Du Danping bewitched everyone in the theater with his piano music. So even after the fire had spread, these people still... remained unmoved, because their minds had already been interfered with!"
"But... if all of this was caused by Du Danping, and he really possessed these powers, why did he... die here?"
Lu Ban's thoughts tried to break through the barrier of the piano music and reclaim control of his body.
But no matter how hard he tried, he was merely like a puppet, growing more and more sluggish. Even the light in his eyes began to fade.
"...I have to break free of the control. Music can only be defeated by... music."
His thoughts trudged forward, and Lu Ban seized a flash of inspiration.
The melody was clearly affecting people through their hearing. Then, if he destroyed his hearing, would he be freed from it?
With no time left for further consideration, a silver revolver materialized in Lu Ban's right hand.
Within his mind, the revolver's cylinder rotated, and a silver-gray bullet aligned with the chamber.
In the illusory realm, the revolver was aimed at Lu Ban's brain.
Bang—
A silent gunshot rang beside Lu Ban's ear.
The bullet easily pierced Lu Ban's skin and bored into his brain. Along with an invisible void, a force transcending reason began to tear through everything, altering the structure of Lu Ban's vocal organs.
A melody came from his open mouth.
"Good luck to you, good luck to you, good luck brings happiness and love, good luck to us, good luck to us, welcoming good luck, prosperity reaching across the world."
The spirited singing of "Good Luck" echoed through the theater. The voice interwove with the piano music, unexpectedly forming a strange harmony.
The melody in his ears was disrupted. Lu Ban felt the strength return to his entire body. He continued to sing in a high, feminine voice, repeating "Good Luck." For a moment, the elegant theater became a bizarre scene where the demonic piano melody collided with a cheerful popular song.
Singing "Good Luck," Lu Ban ran toward the stage, tightening his grip on the crowbar.
As long as he could deal with Du Danping's spirit, the piano music would stop.
In the next moment, several mannequin dolls abruptly appeared.
The mannequin dolls wore tattered formal suits, with two eerily strange painted eyes. Their movements were slow and awkward, as though someone were controlling them with strings. But there were more of them now, and they nearly blocked Lu Ban's path to the stage.
The mannequin dolls reached out toward Lu Ban. Their stiff palms were cold and hard, with a horrifyingly slick texture, and they were about to seize his body.
"Good luck to you, good luck to you."
Lu Ban did not stop singing. At the same time, he swung the crowbar in his hand.
Clack—
Something as light and dense as a spiderweb covered his brain. It allowed Lu Ban to use the crowbar with precise, practiced skill, as if he had been born to wield one, as though the bones in his body had all been made of crowbars.
With the greatest force, the most precise angle, and the perfect direction, the crowbar struck the mannequin blocking his way.
The mannequin's head immediately flew off, soaring high into the air. Before it could hit the ground, Lu Ban swung again and smashed open the head of another mannequin.
"Good luck brings happiness and love."
Lu Ban continued repeating the joyful song, and amid the festive, peaceful singing, another mannequin was sent flying by the crowbar.
Lu Ban was practically a god of war. Taking two steps at a time, he reached the piano.
At that moment, the piano melody reached its climax. A timeless, magnificent, grand, indifferent, and frigid power seemed to be contained within it.
The crowbar struck again and again.
Clatter—
The charred, rotten, broken performer was struck by the hard crowbar and shattered apart with almost no resistance.
The music stopped abruptly.
The mannequin dolls immediately halted, frozen into a series of horrifying tableaux.
"That's it?"
Lu Ban waited several dozen seconds before stopping his own repeated singing and returning to normal.
Looking at the corpse that had already drifted away on the wind and turned to ashes, Lu Ban felt that something was wrong.
If he had not possessed Last Words, then after hearing the melody, he would have had almost no chance to resist before losing control of his body and even consciousness, becoming helpless prey.
If he had not possessed the Physics Holy Sword, then even if he had managed to break free of the control, it would have been extremely difficult to break through the mannequins and kill Du Danping's spirit.
Under such circumstances, how could this mission still be rated Mortal difficulty? Was it the same as Friend Under the Bed?
Was there a problem with the mission's rating, or had some deviation occurred during Lu Ban's mission?
At that thought, Lu Ban looked around. Everything was silent.
At some point, the moonlight had dimmed.
He raised his head.
Beyond the broken dome stretched the deep night sky.
The moon had already passed the gap, leaving only stars visible in the wilderness scattered across the sky.
Among those stars was one exceptionally dazzling star. Its light was now spilling through the gap.
As the starlight shone down, some information surged into Lu Ban's mind, into the brain wrapped in that sticky, spiderweb-like knowledge.
It was knowledge transmitted through the melody that had already vanished.
He knew that this brilliant star was one of the most dazzling stars in the sky throughout the year.
A call came from that star, crossing the distances of time and space.
Along with the light, a magnificent, indifferent, absolute power began to fill the entire theater.
Lu Ban finally understood the whole picture.
He understood what Du Danping had been fighting against until his death—and even after his death.
He stared over there.
At that moment, Aldebaran was clearly visible in Lu Ban's eyes.
* * *
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