I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

Chapter 020 Fire, Moonlight, Melody

Lu Ban immediately gripped the crowbar in his hand.

Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the mannequin's face appeared to have been damaged by something, revealing the outline of human facial features.

"Were these mannequins the cause of the fire?"

Lu Ban took two steps back, shining the flashlight beam around the power switch.

He didn't understand circuits very well, and could only see that the fire was dense near the switch and became smaller further out.

"But why would a fire backstage lead to Du Danping's death?"

Judging from the situation in the theater lobby, the fire had spread to almost the entire lobby, even leaving a large hole in the dome. How could a fire that started backstage have escalated to this point?

"There shouldn't have been many people in the theater at the time. If there were no other unexpected events, they should have been evacuated quickly. What affected them?"

Lu Ban felt something was wrong the more he thought about it.

A dozen or twenty people were rehearsing here when a fire broke out backstage, and no one noticed. The fire was allowed to spread to the point of almost destroying the entire theater. Were they all out of their minds and asleep?

At the same time, Lu Ban felt that the surrounding heat was a bit outrageous.

Sweat was already seeping from his back, and the heat was still rising.

Lu Ban turned around and was shocked to see the entire theater ablaze!

In that scorching hell, a humanoid figure engulfed in flames struggled and howled in agony, crawling toward Lu Ban, trying to drag him in as well.

Lu Ban saw at his feet that the doll with the outline of a human face was burning with flames and reached out its hand towards Lu Ban's trouser leg.

He immediately swung the crowbar in his hand and struck the doll on the head.

click-

The crowbar swept away everything in its path, and the already rotten puppet's head shattered with a single blow. Lu Ban was about to run off the stage when he found that the entire theater lobby had darkened again.

The fire just now seemed to be a temporary illusion; the entire theater remained deserted, lonely, and gloomy.

Lu Ban looked at the things that had been smashed by the crowbar. They were not dolls, but just ordinary wooden frames that had been placed randomly.

As they continued outwards, all the fused mannequins they had seen earlier disappeared, as if it were a nightmare.

Lu Ban walked to the piano, turned around and shone his flashlight on the backstage area, but there was nothing there.

After wiping the cold sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, Lu Ban realized that the previous heat might have just been an illusion.

The flashlight beam shone on the messy second floor, where there were no groaning dolls, no blazing flames, only silence.

However, when Lu Ban used his flashlight to check the mannequins with strange eyes in the control room directly opposite the stage, he was surprised to find that all the mannequins that had been staring at them from the window had disappeared!

Lu Ban had many guesses about where these dolls had gone.

"These are the people who died in the fire. Their resentment remains here, trying to find the people who killed them?"

"If that's the case, they shouldn't hurt me; they should help me instead."

Thinking about this, he seemed to feel much more at ease.

Lu Ban returned to his backpack in the first row.

He wasn't some famous detective who could solve cases while sitting in a rocking chair. The police had investigated so many times; he certainly wouldn't find many new clues about the case. Rather than wasting his time and effort, it was better to wait for the other party to appear.

Since the mission mentions finding performers, it means there must be a performance here tonight, and someone on the local forum has also mentioned this.

Lu Ban sat back down, took a sip of water, and continued watching videos on his phone.

Perhaps it was because his views on those strange mannequins changed, but for a while afterward, he didn't encounter any strange phenomena.

To be precise, there was nothing that caught his attention.

Strange sounds, like footsteps, occasionally drifted from outside the hall, along with the crisp sound of marbles bouncing on the ground, and mannequins that would occasionally appear and disappear in front of the control room window—if you ignored these, it was indeed quite peaceful.

As midnight passed, Lu Ban checked the remaining battery level of his power bank and looked up at the piano.

The moon was positioned directly above the hole in the dome, and its clear, cool light shone down, striking the piano directly and creating a natural spotlight.

A hazy moonlight bathed the theater lobby, making it much brighter.

Under such light, the originally gloomy, dark, and eerie theater hall didn't seem so terrifying anymore.

A cloud drifted by slowly, obscuring all this beauty.

thump——

Suddenly, a string tinkled from the piano.

Lu Ban immediately put away his phone, grabbed a crowbar and a flashlight, and walked towards the stage.

thump——

The piano played again, sounding stiff, wooden, and sluggish, like a paralyzed person struggling to lift their hand and press the keys.

thump——

Lu Ban saw that the black and white keys of the piano suddenly pressed down automatically, as if an unseen person was adjusting the pitch.

thump——

When the fourth note of the piano was played, Lu Ban heard that this note seemed much more pleasant to the ear, as if a musician who had not touched an instrument for many years had finally regained his touch.

thump——

By the fifth note, a faint melody seemed to emerge between the two notes.

As the clouds drifted away and moonlight once again bathed the piano, the melody surged forth.

In stark contrast to the somber atmosphere, the clear and melodious sound of the piano filled the entire theater hall like flowing water, making people feel refreshed and relaxed.

The black and white keys of the piano rose and fell continuously, like waves swaying in the twilight, rippling out a melody that Lu Ban had never seen before.

He was so captivated by the music that the melody seemed to be all that remained in his mind.

The music flowed and leaped, and the theater lobby quietly changed as well.

Those corrupt, desolate, and filthy things suddenly came to life with color—red, green, blue—colors both imaginable and unimaginable to humankind, echoing throughout the theater hall.

Unbeknownst to them, many mannequins with eerie eyes stood in front of the control room window, in the ruined box, and at the main entrance, without stepping into the theater lobby. They gazed at the stage as if they were audience members looking forward to the performance, or as devout believers.

Amidst the melody that intertwines different contradictory emotions such as holiness, solemnity, reverence, lightness, melodiousness, and liveliness, Lu Ban was so immersed in it that he seemed to forget what he was supposed to do.

He could see a performer sitting on the stage, next to the piano, under the moonlight.

The performer, dressed in a tuxedo, moved nimbly across the black and white keys, like a master musician with the highest skill.

However, that person, or the humanoid performer, was covered in charred marks, like a body that had been burned to ashes after being baptized by a raging fire. Its blood vessels, muscles, and bones were completely inhuman.

Upon seeing this scene, Lu Ban immediately came to his senses.

He knew perfectly well that this was the biggest anomaly at the Jiangcheng Grand Theater!

Chapter 021 Surviving until dawn

The charred marks behind the stage twisted and projected indifferent words into Lu Ban's vision.

[The performer has been found 1/1]

Clearly, this is the person the Lu Ban mission needs to find.

However, it would be nice if the task were just that simple.

Another line of text appeared below this.

[Survived until dawn: 05:51:16]

There were still more than five hours left, but every second was torture for Lu Ban.

The charred, tailcoat-clad "person" was also immersed in his own melody, a melody that was strange and ever-changing, with each note seemingly having its own will, leaping from the piano keys and flowing into Lu Ban's ears, striking his eardrums.

Lu Ban felt his thinking stagnate again, as if he were stuck by some kind of semi-solid gel, making it difficult to even generate a single thought.

This situation reminded Lu Ban of the suona (a traditional Chinese wind instrument).

I seem to have fallen into a similar state when I play the suona.

Are those who listen to themselves playing the suona just like Lu Ban now?

"...!"

Lu Ban recalled the previous situation, and his mind suddenly became clear.

The music he was hearing now was more than just ordinary music.

This is a melody with some kind of supernatural power, capable of interfering with human consciousness.

Du Danping... also possesses similar power?

The system indicated that I was the 233rd Chosen One, which means there were probably more than two hundred before me?

Is Du Danping one of them?

"……I see."

In his stagnant thoughts, Lu Ban came to understand everything.

"Du Danping possesses some kind of talent or has gained the qualification to enter the Silent Land... thereby acquiring extraordinary... power, just like me. He may have... chosen... [the musician]?"

“Using his extraordinary powers, Du Danping…bewitched everyone in the theater hall with his music, so…even though the fire had spread, these people remained…unmoved, because their consciousness had been…interfered with!”

"But... if all of this was caused by... Du Danping, and he really... possesses these powers, why would he... die here?"

Lu Ban's thoughts tried to break free from the barriers of the piano music and regain control of his body.

But no matter how hard he tried, he became more and more like a puppet, and even the light in his eyes began to fade.

"...We must break free from control...music...performance...only with...music can...defeat...music..."

As his thoughts wandered slowly, Lu Ban caught a flash of inspiration.

This melody clearly affects people through hearing, so if we only need to disrupt hearing, we can be freed from it?

Without any further time to consider, Lu Ban conjured a silver revolver in his right hand.

In his mind, the revolver magazine spun, and a silver-gray bullet was aimed at the chamber.

In the illusion, the revolver was pointed at Lu Ban's brain.