Guni’s stomach was already growling with hunger, but since Ye Chui had asked her to follow Old Bart, she had no choice but to go with him to fetch cleaning tools. Her mind was filled with complaints, thinking she’d make sure to eat heartily once dinner was ready.
For the super-strong girl, dinner was something that could never be compromised.
She knew that when they stayed in Ganglu City last night, Green had stored a large amount of food in his [Storage Space], including a whole cow and five freshly slaughtered hens. They had also lucked out when someone delivered a fine wild boar to the inn, and after much haggling, Green managed to buy half of it from the stingy owner.
Her favourite was the delicious taste of roasted wild boar paired with fragrant bread…
Thinking of this, she couldn’t help but swallow hard, longing to taste that roasted wild boar soon.
However, Old Bart, walking ahead, suddenly stopped.
The village was quiet and dark, with only the red glow from her Fire Ant Greatsword illuminating the surroundings.
She hated the dark. When they had first left the Sword Burial Ground, those initial nights had been so terrifying that she couldn’t sleep. Things were better now, but being in the darkness still filled her with an indescribable fear.
She hurried behind Old Bart and patted his shoulder. “Hurry up, I’m starving.”
But Old Bart, in the darkness, didn’t respond. His body seemed oddly stiff.
“Hey? What’s wrong with you?” Guni asked, puzzled.
Old Bart’s body swayed slightly, then slowly turned around. In the darkness, his face came into Guni’s view, wearing an eerie smile, his lips unnaturally curled.
“Huh?” Guni froze at the sight of Old Bart, then felt a surge of fear in her heart. She let out a scream, “Ah!” and instinctively stepped back.
“Would you like to see my performance?” Old Bart said in a comical yet strange tone, his body seeming unnaturally rigid. He raised his arms and walked toward Guni step by step. His face flickered in the dim glow of her greatsword, and that eerie smile suddenly reminded Guni of something.
Old Bart, right now, looked just like a clown.
Clowns could be funny, but sometimes they were utterly terrifying.
At that moment, the doors of other houses in the village began to creak open one after another. Townspeople emerged onto the street, each resembling Old Bart: stiff movements, vacant eyes, and that same eerie, clown-like smile on their faces. They stretched out their hands, chanting in a chaotic, uneven chorus, “Would you like to see my performance?” “Would you like to see my performance?”
“What are you doing? I don’t want to see your performance!” Guni shouted in fear, gripping her Fire Ant Greatsword tightly.
“If you won’t watch my performance, then die!” The villagers’ voices changed in unison, their movements still stiff but suddenly faster. An old woman’s hand even grabbed Guni’s back.
“Get off!” Guni yelled, flinging her body to throw the old woman into the air. Her Fire Ant Greatsword buzzed as she swung it down.
Boom!
The old woman was sent flying, her body wrapped in red flames, crashing into a nearby house and collapsing it. Yet, she climbed out of the rubble as if unharmed, continuing in that sinister tone, “If you won’t watch my performance, then die!” The red flames from Guni’s sword faded, and the woman’s body showed no signs of injury, not even a scorch mark on her clothes. She lunged at Guni again.
Guni had the courage to face any terrifying beast or demon, and she could remain unfazed by gruesome scenes. But this inexplicable situation truly frightened her. After all, she was still just a kid.
She swung her greatsword relentlessly, knocking back the approaching townspeople, but her terrifyingly powerful strikes seemed to lose all effect. The townspeople she sent flying appeared completely unharmed.
It was as if an invisible force was enveloping their bodies.
“Stay away!” Guni shouted, her voice tinged with a rare, girlish panic.
At that moment, another figure descended from the sky. When the terrified Guni looked over, she was overjoyed to see it was Ye Chui. She rushed over and hugged him tightly.
Ye Chui smiled reassuringly. “Good thing you’re okay… Ouch, that hurts, my waist… Guni, ease up…” Guni’s strength was no joke!
Guni sheepishly loosened her grip.
Rubbing his waist, Ye Chui cast a spell, conjuring a swirling fire snake around them, [Dance of the Fire Snake], which coiled protectively around the two of them.
The clown-like townspeople were pushed back a few steps, but they soon crossed through the fire snake, clawing and lunging forward.
Ye Chui’s scalp tingled as he glanced at them, quickly storing Guni’s Fire Ant Greatsword in his magic book. He then picked up Guni’s petite frame and cast the intermediate wind spell [Wind God Legs], soaring into the air toward the town’s exit.
The clown-like residents chased after them, shrieking, “If you won’t watch my performance, then die!”
While airborne, Ye Chui tried casting [Invasion] to access the memory worlds of these clown-like residents. But when his iPad switched to the [Browser] interface, the login bar stopped halfway.
Unable to log in, a bold 404 error appeared at the top of the page!
“404…”
Ye Chui glanced at the clown-like residents frantically chasing them, his mind instinctively recalling scenes from zombie movies and games. Clown zombies… the resemblance was uncanny.
Soon, he spotted Debbie and the others.
The Valkyrie Jiji had been summoned, glowing with golden light as she hovered in the air like a massive human beacon. Around them, a group of clown zombies was already gathered, relentlessly attacking these terrifying creatures.
When Ye Chui reached them, Debbie explained, “We were about to leave the town, but as soon as we stepped out, we were ambushed by residents hiding outside. These guys are such a hassle.”
“They’re strange. They don’t seem like undead or spirits, but I can’t sense any living aura in them either. My [Purification Holy Word] barely has any effect,” Reisha added, casting [Holy Crap Word] to blast away a lunging clown zombie. She turned to Ye Chui. “Little brother, what do we do?”
“I could summon the dragon to get us out of here, but…” Ye Chui scanned their surroundings. They were halfway up the mountainside, and Dragon Baby’s summoning time limit was at least ten minutes, enough to get them to the foot of the mountain. But there weren’t many places to land near the mine. It might be better to stay and figure out how these clown zombies came to be.
As long as they stayed together, they could summon the dragon to escape if things became untenable. With that, Ye Chui made his decision. “Let’s head back to that house. We need to figure out what’s going on here!”
They quickly ran back to the house supposedly used by the mayor, slamming the door shut behind them.
Outside, the clown zombies swarmed, pounding on the door. Windows shattered with a “crash” as arms reached in, accompanied by distorted, smiling faces. The scene couldn’t have been more like a zombie movie!
“If you won’t watch my performance, then die.”
“Die!”
“Die!”
Their cries rang out in a chorus.
Ye Chui hurriedly cast the wood escape spell [Four-Pillar House], conjuring green vines that wrapped around and reinforced the house, binding some of the clown zombies trying to squeeze in.
With a thud, a clown zombie fell from the roof, a middle-aged man who quickly scrambled up to lunge at Jacob, the nearest person. But two vines shot up from the ground, tightly binding him.
Ye Chui had deliberately let this clown zombie in to study what was going on with them.
The house, now enveloped by Ye Chui’s wood escape magic, gave them a moment to catch their breath.
They gathered around the bound clown zombie, examining it.
“There’s some kind of power enveloping them,” Ye Chui said, frowning.
Guni nodded vigorously. “My greatsword couldn’t harm them, but their movements are sluggish, and they don’t have much in the way of attacks… Green, I’m hungry. Got anything to eat?”
Green was about to share his insights when Guni’s words sidetracked him. “I stored the roasted boar from earlier in my storage space. I’ll get it out for you…”
“The townspeople were supposed to be ordinary residents, but something turned them into this,” Ye Chui said, still frowning.
They now understood that Old Bart’s claim about not seeing the moon for six months, outsiders being killed in the village while the townspeople remained unaware, and the nightmares about clowns… it was because, at night, Old Bart and the other residents turned into this!
The outsiders were actually killed by them. They were the demon clowns they feared!
Was this some kind of curse?
A clown’s curse?
Ye Chui thought of the information he’d uncovered earlier: the missing children and the “Uncle Clown” forcing them to watch his performances.
“Wait a minute…” Debbie suddenly spoke up. When the others looked at her, the girl had a look of sudden realisation. “No wonder I felt something was off earlier… I think I know what’s going on with these guys.”
“What’s that?” Ye Chui asked.
“They’re possessed, specifically by heroic spirits.”
Debbie leaned closer to the struggling clown zombie and continued, “Auntie said they’re neither undead nor living, because they’re possessed by heroic spirits. Heroic spirits are a type of undead, so people possessed by them feel half-dead, half-alive.”
“But there are at least a hundred people in the town. Are there a hundred heroic spirits possessing them?” Reisha asked, puzzled.
“There’s a type of heroic spirit that can possess multiple people at once, though such group-possessing spirits are very rare… If I’m right, the townspeople are possessed by this kind of spirit, which is why their actions are so eerily synchronised,” Debbie explained. “And judging by their appearance… the group-possessing spirit is likely a clown itself. For people without summoning talent, being possessed by a heroic spirit causes them to lose themselves, completely dominated by the spirit’s power, like the townspeople now.”
Her face showed confusion again. “But this is what puzzles me…”
“What’s puzzling?” Ye Chui asked.
“Group-possessing heroic spirits are extremely rare, especially one that was a clown. As far as I know, there’s only one known in the world, and in Clown Town, it could only be that one!” Debbie’s brow furrowed.
“Who is it?” Reisha asked, her eyes widening as she vaguely guessed the answer.
Debbie took out her summoning key, sending Jiji back to the spirit world. Then she opened a colourful door, and a comical clown emerged—her Clown Spirit. This was the Joyful Clown, who, despite the tense situation, immediately began performing silly tricks. Unfortunately, his performance felt more like a bad joke.
Pointing at the Joyful Clown, Debbie said, “It’s him, the Clown Spirit formed from my ancestor Sako Anduin.”
The spirit controlling the townspeople could only be Debbie’s Clown Spirit, but her contract with it was still intact.
Ye Chui knew Debbie’s Clown Spirit had five forms. She had never summoned the most powerful, the Horror Clown, and could only vaguely sense what it was capable of. He had seen the other four forms. The group-possessing spirit Debbie mentioned was likely the Horror Clown.
A clown spirit with group-possession abilities was incredibly rare, and there was only one: the Horror Clown. Could it be that the fifth form of Debbie’s Clown Spirit, the “Horror Clown,” had somehow become independent?
With a grave expression, Ye Chui said to Debbie, “Debbie, has your ancestor gone schizophrenic?”
