A Night in the Theater

Lu Ban woke up again to an unfamiliar ceiling.

Green climbing plants, a dilapidated European dome, and stagnant air carrying a scent of decay.

A ray of golden sunlight streamed through a wide opening, falling onto Lu Ban's face and causing him to slowly open his eyes.

"Mmm."

Lu Ban sat up.

He found himself holding a suona in his right hand, his flashlight lying on the ground. The stage was old, covered in dust and filth.

The piano beside him was missing all its strings, leaving only its heavy, immovable frame. Decades of rain had caused it to rot, growing mushrooms and moss.

Lu Ban didn't know why he had survived.

"The effect of 'Great Success'?"

His mind clearly recalled the events of the previous night. Lu Ban remembered rolling a 1 on the All In skill. It seemed that under these rules, it was a remarkably successful roll.

Under extreme luck, Lu Ban managed to hold onto his last shred of sanity and picked up the suona, playing it.

He didn't know what power lay behind the suona, but judging by the situation, the one confronting Du Danping was not to be trifled with.

Perhaps it was this final stroke of luck that allowed Lu Ban to survive.

As he pondered, the dust accumulated on the stage seemed to gather on its own, forming faint system text.

[Congratulations on completing the mission]

[Commencing settlement]

[Mission Exploration: 90%]

[Mission Completion: Astonishing]

[Your night in the theater witnessed a martyr in hiding. You will forever remember his melody. This world always has those who play these melodies when they are most needed. All seems beautiful, but the seeds of disaster have long been sown.]

[Acquired Silence Points: 700 points]

[Acquired Profession Reward: Skill: Midnight Piano Melody]

[Acquired Profession Reward: Item: A Night in the Theater]

[Settlement Complete]

[Maintain a high level of creative passion; continuous creation is the foundation of a creator's existence.]

[Selected to complete the profession development mission, receiving profession rewards]

[Newbie guidance has been completed. Free exploration mode unlocked]

[Welcome back to The Silent Land]

"700 points."

The first thing Lu Ban noticed was the reward.

In his last mission, his exploration rate was only 30% and he received a "Mediocre" rating. This time, however, his exploration rate was 90% and he received a higher rating, "Astonishing."

Yet, the increase in Silence Points wasn't as high as he'd expected.

Perhaps Lu Ban had become spoiled by the 2,000 Silence Points he'd earned from short videos.

He had worked so hard, nearly had his brain explode facing an unknown alien monster, and only got 700 Silence Points. It wasn't even enough to earn back the money he spent on the crowbar.

This system was truly stingy.

"Perhaps it's due to the mission difficulty?"

Lu Ban guessed.

The difficulty of this mission was [Mortal], which looked like the easiest. In fact, if Lu Ban hadn't had so many useful items and been unable to break free from the melody's restraints to smash Du Danping's head, he might have just been a puppet for a night, watching those mannequin dolls walk back and forth in front of him. It would have been a little scary, but at least not so dangerous.

Therefore, the maximum Silence Points for a mission of this difficulty might be 1,000.

Compared to this, making videos was still the way to earn points.

Lu Ban suddenly felt a sense of irony.

It felt strangely similar to current society, where the money earned from hard research and exploring the world might not be as much as what an actor earns from an endorsement deal.

Regardless, 700 points was still 700 points. At least he had recovered some of his losses.

Lu Ban wasn't greedy, nor did he intend to question the system.

Contentment is true happiness; he was just an ordinary mortal.

He then checked his other gains.

[A Night in the Theater] was video material, all stored on his phone, almost filling Lu Ban's phone memory.

He casually browsed through it. It was essentially footage of his night's activities from multiple angles, with a long duration that would require editing to be watched.

According to the career plan provided by the system, this should be the material he needed for his next short film.

As for [Midnight Piano Melody], it was a melody.

It didn't exist on Lu Ban's phone but within his mind.

Unlike the skills brought by the crowbar and the suona, which felt like cobwebs clinging to the grooves of the cerebral cortex, this melody was directly etched into the brainstem and spinal cord, into his DNA.

In other words, Lu Ban could play this melody anywhere, using anything that could produce sound.

He picked up his phone and turned on the keypad tones.

Drip, drip, drip—

His fingers moved at a speed beyond Lu Ban's comprehension, playing the complex and ever-changing melody filled with discordant notes.

If there were a piano here now, even if Lu Ban had no idea how to play it, he could follow his instincts and perform it.

This feeling wasn't so much awe-inspiring as it was a little terrifying.

Gaining knowledge he had never encountered out of nowhere gave Lu Ban an uncomfortable feeling, as if his brain had been spied upon.

And this melody...

Although he hadn't tested it, the knowledge in Lu Ban's mind told him that this melody possessed a certain resistance effect against those unclean things; it was commonly known as an exorcism tune.

Perhaps blowing it on his suona would double the effect?

Lu Ban mused.

He put down his phone, closed his eyes, and recalled what he had seen and heard last night.

When he saw the yellowish planet and the strange radiance of Aldebaran, Lu Ban knew that certain knowledge that shouldn't have been obtained had also flowed into his brain, just like this melody.

But this knowledge was fragmented and unsystematic. He could only vaguely determine that those two indescribable, great existences were currently in an inactive state, and could only influence or interfere with the outside world under certain extremely special circumstances.

Thinking of this, Lu Ban materialized the silver revolver in his right hand.

He saw that one of the six chambers in the magazine had a yellowish Speech Bullet.

"It actually recorded it."

Lu Ban was a little surprised. At the time, he had only instinctively filled the last empty slot in the Speech Bullet magazine with his babbling; he didn't remember what he had done at all.

But he hadn't expected it to be successfully recorded.

Raising the [Last Words], Lu Ban pulled the trigger against his temple.

Then, he opened his mouth, attempting to make a sound.

"■■■■■■"

A sound not belonging to this world rang out. No creature on Earth could, or should, make such a sound. A grand, indifferent, distant babbling from another realm echoed in the theater hall.

The moment he heard this sound, Lu Ban's own brain exploded with a buzz. The feeling of a glowing hot iron rod churning inside his head surged back, but it quickly subsided. Lu Ban began to find the sound as pleasing as heavenly music, even wanting to burst into song along with the melody of a Christmas carol.

Lu Ban closed his mouth, stopping the playback.

"Scary. Just listening to this makes me feel like my sanity is about to drop... Right."

Despite saying it was scary, Lu Ban, who showed no expression, suddenly remembered that he must have lost a lot of sanity experiencing those things last night. He wondered what his current situation was.

He opened his personal status panel.

[Name: Lu Ban]

[Profession: Director]

[Education: University Undergraduate]

[Strength: 55]

[Constitution: 65]

[Body: 60]

[Agility: 70]

[Appearance: 90]

[Intelligence: 65]

[Willpower: 80]

[Education: 70]

[Luck: 20]

[Sanity: 0]

*

It's a new month, and you can vote for monthly and recommendation tickets!

Thank you all for your votes, collections, rewards, and comments. This novice is extremely grateful!

Also, I'm really not some big shot; I used to slack off everywhere. Now that I've finally signed a contract, I need everyone's support!

Thanks to the big shot "Unrivaled Little Cleaver" for the 5000 coin reward!

Thanks to "Scholar's Scumbag Dad," "幽夜天圣," "I Was Originally an Unknown Soldier, Holding My Sword Firmly," and "God of Aries" for the 500 coin rewards. Thanks to "Why So Prominent," "The Moon Returns to the Shore," "Laughing Black Ice," and "Only I Am in the Jianghu" for the 100 coin rewards!