I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

Through performance, one can, to some extent, suppress the influence of that great being on people.

The melody is irrelevant; what matters is the act of playing it.

Throughout history, in cultures based on faith, performing music has evolved from an act of entertainment that is an offering to the divine.

That is, a ritual to worship gods, pray to gods, and summon gods.

At this moment, Lu Ban had already forgotten the troubles that the suona had brought him before. Now, Lu Ban even longed to see that dark, deep yellow star.

Lu Ban's remaining rationality told him that humanity has its limits.

No matter how magnificent a civilization develops, how rational a fortress is built, or how much we explore the ultimate truth... humanity has its limits.

Only great beings can contend with great beings.

He picked up the suona, and in that eternal moment when even his vision became fragmented and his reason diminished, his words had fallen into darkness, he played this black instrument.

beep--

A high-pitched voice rang out, like a proud and unruly bird that would never bow its head, flapping its wings and soaring high toward the starry sky.

Countless other birds sing around it, but none can match its brilliance.

Lu Ban's body moved naturally, and he played the melody that he hadn't heard many times before.

It could be seen that the black on the suona spread from Lu Ban's fingertips to his wrist, and his bulging veins were gradually stained black. In Lu Ban's vision, the fragmented images were reassembled. He saw the dark yellow planet and the silvery stars shining together, and a huge distortion occurred between the two. A kind of confrontation that he could not feel, hear, or think about was completed in an instant.

Despairing, incomprehensible, and mind-bending babbling grew wildly in his ears, almost bursting Lu Ban's mind.

[Rationality has vanished]

He only had time to jot down a few sentences by instinct. The last thing Lu Ban saw was the text formed by the deformed plants on the dome, and a real starry sky he had never seen before.

In the vast sea of ​​stars, the sky and the universe merge into one.

He lost consciousness.

Chapter 023 [One Night at the Theater]

When Lu Ban woke up again, he saw an unfamiliar ceiling.

Lush climbing plants, a dilapidated European-style dome, and stagnant air carrying the smell of decay.

A ray of warm golden sunlight shone through the wide hole onto Lu Ban's face, causing him to slowly open his eyes.

"Um……"

Lu Ban sat up.

He found himself holding a suona (a traditional Chinese wind instrument) in his right hand, a flashlight on the ground, and the stage was dilapidated, covered in dust and filth.

The piano next to it had long since lost its strings, leaving only a heavy and immovable frame that had rotted from years of rain and was covered with mushrooms and moss.

For some reason, Lu Ban survived.

"The effect of a great success?"

Lu Ban vividly recalled last night's events and remembered the 1 point he threw with the "All or Nothing" move. Under this rule, it seemed to be a very successful throw.

In a stroke of incredible luck, Lu Ban managed to grasp his last shred of rationality, picked up the suona, and began to play.

Although we don't know what power is behind this suona, it seems that the one who is fighting against Du Danping is not easy to deal with.

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

As I pondered, the dust accumulating on the stage seemed to have a mind of its own, automatically gathering and forming indifferent system text.

Congratulations on completing the task!

Settlement will now commence.

[Mission Exploration Progress: 90%]

[Task Completion Status: Amazing]

[You witnessed an anonymous martyr during your night at the theater; his melody is etched in your heart. There are always some people in this world who will play these melodies when needed most. Everything seems beautiful, but the seeds of disaster have already been sown.]

[Gained Silence Points: 700]

[Gained Career Reward: Skill: Midnight Melody]

[Occupation Reward: Item: One Night at the Theater]

Settlement complete

Maintaining a high level of creative passion and continuous creation is the foundation of a creator's success.

[Choose to complete career development tasks and receive career rewards]

[New player tutorial complete, select mode now available]

Welcome back to the Silent Land!

"700 points..."

Lu Ban's first thought was about the reward.

In the last mission, his exploration progress was only 30%, and he was rated "mediocre". This time, his exploration progress was a whopping 90%, and he received an even higher rating of "amazing".

However, the increase in silence points was not as significant as expected.

It's likely that Lu Ban has been spoiled by the two thousand silence points he earned from short videos.

I worked so hard, almost faced an alien monster from who-knows-where, and my brain was about to explode, but I only got 700 Silence Points, not even enough to earn back the money I spent on the crowbar.

This system is really stingy.

"Perhaps it's because of the difficulty of the mission?"

Lu Ban guessed.

The difficulty of this task is "Mortal," which is obviously the easiest. In fact, if Lu Ban hadn't had so many useful items at the time and hadn't been able to break free from the shackles of the melody to smash Du Danping's head, he probably would have just been a puppet for the night, watching those mannequins walk around in front of him. It was a little scary, but at least it wasn't that dangerous.

Therefore, the maximum number of Silent Points for this level of difficulty is probably only one thousand.

In comparison, making videos to earn points is still better.

Lu Ban suddenly felt a bit ironic.

This is strangely similar to society today, where the money earned from doing scientific research and exploring the world may not be as much as what an actor earns from a single advertising endorsement.

In any case, 700 points is still 700 points; at least some of the damage has been recovered.

Lu Ban was not a greedy person, nor did he intend to question the system.

He was content with what he had and was just an ordinary mortal.

He then examined his other finds.

【One Night at the Theater】is all video footage, all on my phone, almost filling up Lu Ban's phone memory.

He casually flipped through the videos, which were basically multi-angle footage of his activities throughout the night. The videos were quite long and needed to be edited before they could be watched.

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

As for "Midnight Qin Music," it is a melody.

It doesn't exist in Lu Ban's phone, but in his mind.

Unlike the techniques brought by crowbars and suonas, which adhere to the grooves of the cerebral cortex like spider webs, this melody is directly engraved into the brainstem and spinal cord, and into the DNA.

In other words, Lu Ban can play this melody anywhere, using anything that can make a sound.

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

Drip, drip, drip—

The fingers moved at lightning speed, seemingly beyond Lu Ban's comprehension, playing a complex and ever-changing melody filled with dissonance.

If there were a piano now, even if Lu Ban didn't know how to play it at all, he could still play it instinctively.

The feeling was less one of amazement and more one of fear.

Suddenly, Lu Ban found himself with knowledge he had never encountered before, and he felt uncomfortable as if his mind was being spied on.

And this melody...

Although he hadn't tested it, Lu Ban's knowledge told him that this melody had a certain effect of resisting unclean things, which was commonly known as an exorcism song.

Perhaps playing it on your own suona would double the effect?

Lu Ban pondered.

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

When he gazed upon the dark yellow planet and the wondrous radiance of Aldebaran, Lu Ban knew that certain knowledge he shouldn't have acquired, like this melody, had also flowed into his mind.

However, this knowledge was fragmented and unsystematic. He could only vaguely deduce that the two indescribable great beings were currently inactive and could only influence or interfere with the outside world under certain extremely special circumstances.

Thinking of this, Lu Ban conjured a silver revolver in his right hand.

He saw that one of the six magazines contained a dark yellow speech bomb.

"They actually recorded it."

Lu Ban was somewhat surprised. He had only instinctively filled the last empty space in the bullet magazine with his delirium, and he didn't actually remember what he had done.

Surprisingly, it was successfully included.

Raising the "Last Words" sign, Lu Ban pulled the trigger against his temple.

Then, he opened his mouth and tried to make a sound.

"■■■■■■"

A voice that did not belong to this world arose, a voice that no living being on Earth could, and should not, utter. A grand, indifferent, distant, otherworldly murmur echoed in the theater hall.

Upon hearing the sound, Lu Ban's brain exploded with a buzz, and the sensation of the red-hot iron rod churning inside him surged back up. However, the feeling quickly subsided, and Lu Ban began to find the sound as melodious as heavenly music, even wanting to sing along to the melody of a Christmas carol.

Lu Ban shut his mouth and ended the repeat study period.

"...Terrifying, just hearing this makes me feel like I'm going to lose all my sanity...Oh right."

Despite saying it was scary, Lu Ban, who was actually expressionless, suddenly remembered that he had lost a lot of his rationality after what happened last night, and wondered what his current situation was.

He opened his personal panel.