The town of Clown sits on a flat area halfway up the mountainside, with a rugged mountain path leading directly to it. Because few people have passed through here in the past six months, the path is overgrown with weeds, making it extremely difficult to traverse.
At this moment, Ye Chui couldn’t help but sigh. Fortunately, their carriage had been destroyed earlier; otherwise, upon reaching this path, the carriage wouldn’t have been able to proceed, and they wouldn’t have known what to do with it.
In response to Ye Chui’s sigh, Green cast a speechless glance. So, President, are you now celebrating that our carriage has been destroyed yet again?
The sky darkened rapidly, as if covered by a layer of grey cloth, with some stars beginning to appear. Ye Chui walked alongside Old Bart, sensing a hint of urgency in him. Old Bart’s eyes vigilantly scanned the surroundings, the onset of night seeming to fill him with unspoken worry about potential dangers.
“Old Bart, you said earlier you haven’t seen the moon in six months?” Ye Chui asked at this point.
“Exactly. I’ve almost forgotten what the moon looks like,” Old Bart replied. “And the night… the people in the village are much the same. As soon as evening comes, we go to bed early, not thinking about anything else.”
“When outsiders come to your town and die horribly on the streets the next day, don’t you all notice anything?” Debbie interjected. If there were demon clowns in the town, and outsiders were chased and killed by them at night, the commotion would surely be significant. How could the townspeople not sense anything?
“That’s the strangest part. We sleep soundly at night, nothing happens, and we hear nothing…” Old Bart shivered, continuing in a trembling voice, “But we often have nightmares, dreaming of a group of clowns… Some in the town speculate that the demon clown appears in dreams to attack people. If it’s an outsider, they’ll be attacked by the demon clown in their dreams, but we residents of Clown Town are spared.”
“Attacking from dreams?” Hearing this, Ye Chui and the others were momentarily stunned.
Old Bart hurriedly glanced at Ye Chui and his group with concern, a hint of panic in his eyes, fearing they might be scared off by this information and want to leave immediately. Attacks in the real world could be defended against, but how do you deal with attacks from dreams?
But he soon realised he had worried too much.
Instead of panicking, Ye Chui burst out laughing upon hearing this. “If that’s the case, then that’s just perfect.”
There exists dream magic in this world, and the enhanced attribute of mental magic is the dream attribute. Some terrifying dream magic mentors can invade others’ dreams, controlling them through dreams or driving them mad or killing them. According to Old Bart, if the demon clown attacks people through dreams, it’s likely a magic mentor who has mastered dream magic. But that makes things interesting.
Ye Chui knows a super dream spell, [Matrix Infinity]. If the demon clown dares enter his dreams, he’ll make sure it learns what “infinity” truly means.
They soon arrived outside the town.
From the outside, the town was not small. At the mountainside of this mine, there was a vast flat area where houses were built, scattered densely. Some houses were even constructed on slightly sloped land. The arrangement of these houses was enough to show Clown Town’s past prosperity, but in reality, these houses were now empty, uninhabited.
Old Bart told Ye Chui that only about a hundred households remained in the entire town, concentrated in the central area, with the other houses long abandoned.
The vast town was like a ghost town, devoid of any light in the darkness, empty and desolate.
“Esteemed guests, this house used to belong to the town mayor, the best house in our town. But three months ago, after the mayor’s child was abducted by the demon clown, he moved out. You can stay here for the night,” Old Bart said, leading Ye Chui and his group to a house in the town. He pushed the door, and with a creak, the dilapidated door swung open.
Green, somewhat fearful, took out a magic lamp and shone it inside. “It’s pitch black in there, feels a bit creepy…”
“Don’t worry, there’s nothing inside,” Ye Chui confirmed, checking his iPad map. He glanced at the moon rising in the sky and led the way into the house. “We’ll spend the night here and see what happens in this town at night.”
There was even a hint of excitement in his voice. His dream magic was primarily defensive, and in his dream world, he was omnipotent. That feeling was truly wondrous, and he almost wished the so-called demon clown would hurry up and attack him.
Though the mayor’s house was said to be the most luxurious in town, it couldn’t compare to the houses in big cities like Ganglu City or Fengyan City. It was just a two-story wooden building, covered in dust and cobwebs due to long neglect.
“If you weren’t such esteemed guests, I’d have taken you to my own home, but my rundown place could hardly accommodate you. Wait a moment, I’ll go fetch some cleaning tools,” Old Bart said, looking guilty at the state of the room.
Debbie was about to tell him they could handle the cleaning, but Old Bart had already stepped into the deepening darkness. She called out twice, but he didn’t respond.
Ye Chui thought of something and turned to Guni. “Go with Old Bart.” The nights in Clown Town might hold dangers, so he was sending Guni to protect him.
Guni nodded, grabbed her Fire Ant Greatsword, and followed Old Bart.
Debbie then summoned the omnipotent housekeeper, Afu.
While Afu cleaned the room, they went outside, deliberately choosing an open area far from the house to set up a stove and start cooking. They had to cook far from Afu, or the consequences would be dire, a lesson they had learned the hard way.
Ye Chui took this chance to open his [Browser] to search for information about the place.
He first entered the keyword “clown” into the search engine.
Soon, a series of web pages appeared.
As residents of Clown Town, the word “clown” was clearly a frequent term in their memories.
Ye Chui clicked on the first page, an article titled “Uncle Clown’s Performance Today Wasn’t Funny at All.” Puzzled, he opened it, and his pupils shrank.
At the top of the website, the logo showed a boy about seven or eight years old, named Turi Kras!
“A young boy?” Ye Chui recalled Old Bart mentioning that all the children in the town had been abducted by the demon clown, twenty-three in total. There shouldn’t be any children left in the town, so where did this boy come from?
Ye Chui quickly skimmed the article.
“Uncle Clown performed his tricks for us again today, not funny at all, but we have to pretend to be interested and keep making laughing noises, or Uncle Clown will get upset.
We can’t make him upset, or the consequences will be severe…
I really want to go back home to see my father and mother, but Uncle Clown won’t let us leave. Yesterday, Lane tried to escape, and when Uncle Clown brought him back, he was so angry it scared us all…”
It was a simple memory article, but Ye Chui could glean much from it.
This Uncle Clown was likely the so-called demon clown, wasn’t it?
The children abducted by the demon clown were being held together, forced to watch its performances daily. Was this some kind of ritual?
Ye Chui clicked on the homepage, browsing other memory articles by this boy named Turi Kras. The content was largely similar, about being confined and unable to leave, a life that clearly distressed him but which he could not change.
Perhaps because he was a child, unaware of hiding secrets, Ye Chui could access nearly all his memory articles.
In some articles, he even saw pictures and videos.
The pictures showed they were confined in a dark cave, with barely any light. The vague silhouettes of other children could be seen in the darkness, creating a claustrophobic feeling.
In one article, there was a short video clip.
The video was dark and blurry, but a tall, pale figure was faintly visible, wearing a dirty, colourful robe, bald, with white-painted skin, a red nose, and exaggerated red lips. He held clown performance props, performing clumsily.
The footage had no sound, yet it exuded an eerie, absurd, and terrifying atmosphere, reminiscent of scenes from certain heavy Western horror films.
Amid the clown’s performance, sparse laughter from children could be heard, clearly coerced.
After browsing for a while, Ye Chui exited Turi’s site and clicked on the next search result for “clown.”
This time, it was a girl’s article: “I miss my mother, but Uncle Clown won’t let us leave.” The content was similar, detailing a young girl’s confinement.
Ye Chui exited the site and continued checking other search results.
“…Uncle Clown brought food today that tasted awful, but I didn’t dare complain…” A memory from an eight-year-old boy.
“…I wonder what the demon clown looks like. I really want to see…” This came from Green.
“…Uncle Clown got angry today because I said his performance wasn’t funny. He looked so scary when angry…” A memory from a five-year-old girl.
“…I don’t know how long Uncle Clown will keep us locked up here…” A memory from a seven-year-old boy.
“…Today I saw Uncle Clown return covered in blood…” A memory from a nine-year-old girl.
“…The demon clown dares to impersonate our ancestor Sako Anduin’s name. I’ll definitely beat him up!” A memory article from Debbie.
As Ye Chui browsed these articles, his brow furrowed, noticing something strange: all these memory articles, except those from his group, came from children!
Among the web pages found by searching “clown,” not a single one was from an adult!
“As residents of Clown Town, especially with the recent demon clown incidents, the word ‘clown’ must constantly appear in their memories. So why can’t I find any memory articles from adults using ‘clown’?”
Ye Chui then searched for keywords like “missing children,” “Ganglu City,” and “Mercenary Guild,” which might appear in adults’ memories. But apart from his group, there were no search results from the townspeople, not even Old Bart’s memories!
When Ye Chui searched for “Old Bart,” the results only included memories from his group, none from other townspeople.
Something felt off. Ye Chui looked at the dark, silent town, devoid of any signs of life, a chill creeping into his heart. Was it possible that, apart from those children (likely confined in a nearby mine), there were no other living people in this town?
What about Old Bart, then?
Ye Chui had spent the day with Old Bart, even accessing his memory world and checking his memories, confirming there were no issues. If it was Old Bart, keywords like “clown” or “Mercenary Guild” should have pulled up his memory articles, yet nothing was found.
His search engine had a vast range, and Old Bart, an ordinary person, couldn’t have left its scope so quickly.
Was he… dead?
And Guni was with Old Bart now. What was happening to her?
Ye Chui hurriedly searched for keywords related to Guni, like “so hungry.”
Sure enough, the top result was Guni’s.
He quickly opened Guni’s memory site, starting with the top memory article: “Old Bart Suddenly Got Weird.”
“…I’m starving, I just want to eat. Will Green make roasted wild boar tonight? I love wild boar, but Ye Chui asked me to go with Old Bart to get stuff, and he’s walking so slowly…
This village is so dark. I hate the dark.
Why did Old Bart suddenly stop moving?
What’s wrong with him?
Huh?”
At the bottom of the article was a picture.
In the image, Old Bart, in the darkness, wore an eerie smile, his lips unnaturally curled, his eyes staring straight ahead…
At that moment.
“Ah!”
Guni’s scream echoed through the dark town.
