Neil Yaden was over forty years old this year.
From a young age, he was influenced by his father and took a great interest in clown tricks. He also aspired to become an outstanding clown performer. At that time, Joker Town was still a prosperous town, still the clown homeland where clown performances were renowned across the entire continent. But in the year he turned eleven, everything changed.
The terrifying devil Joker killer suddenly appeared in Joker Town, killing wantonly and slaughtering madly. The prosperous and joyful town instantly turned into a terrifying hell. No one dared to come here anymore, and the town’s residents also fled one after another.
Joker Town rapidly declined.
The clowns of Yaden Town, at that time, seemed to become a curse. No one would instinctively show a joyful expression because of a Yaden clown anymore. What remained was only bone-chilling fear.
Later, the nearby Iron Furnace City dispatched a city defense force, plus the joint efforts of many magic guilds and mercenary groups, and finally found that devil Joker, bringing him to justice.
“Who exactly was the devil Joker?” On the way out of the mine, as Ye Chui listened to Neil recount these past events, he interjected and asked.
A trace of tension appeared on Neil’s face. After his consciousness cleared, he had wiped off the greasepaint on his face, and the tattered ridiculous clown costume on his body had also been changed. He glanced at Ye Chui, shook his head, and said: “I, I don’t know. He wasn’t from Joker Town. He came from outside…”
“Is that so?” Ye Chui looked at Neil somewhat strangely. From Liya’s mouth, he knew that the devil Joker’s true identity was the head of the Yaden family in the imperial capital at that time. This answer didn’t seem to have anything worth being nervous about. Neil’s appearance seemed somewhat odd.
However, before Ye Chui could delve deeper into this issue, Neil Yaden shifted the topic as if changing the subject and continued recounting his own affairs.
The devil Joker incident ultimately led to Neil’s parents dying. The eleven-year-old Neil became an orphan from then on, but he always lived on strongly. At that time, no one in Yaden Town liked clown tricks anymore. Only Neil still had the desire to revive the town’s clown performances. Just like that, after a few years, he met a girl he liked, married her and lived together, and even had a daughter.
The clown dream in his heart was also slowly buried deep in his innermost being…
But at that time, he discovered a cave.
In that cave, Neil discovered some relics left by Yaden ancestors: a mask, a cane, colourful clothes, pointed shoes.
These items all carried magical power. The devil Joker back then had gained powerful strength by relying on these things. After the devil Joker died, these items had disappeared, yet they were discovered by Neil in that cave.
At the time, out of curiosity, Neil put the clown mask on his face.
But he clearly didn’t have the ability to control that power. His spirit suffered a heavy blow, and from then on, he became a madman.
“Those ancestral relics contain heroic spirit power.” Hearing this, Debbie interjected and explained, “Some sacred objects contain the strong wills of those who once used them. These objects are treasures for summoners, allowing them to form contracts with heroic spirits as a result. But for ordinary people, those strong wills are instead fatal. It seems Neil was injured by this power!”
From then on, a crazy clown appeared in Joker Town. Perhaps after his spirit was damaged, the clown dream buried in Neil’s heart revived, and from then on, he could only live as a clown.
This was about more than ten years ago.
Later, Neil’s wife fell ill and died in the end while taking care of him. Fortunately, their daughter survived well under the care of the townsfolk.
Children like Turi had known Neil since they were young. They often followed behind Neil, mocking him as a fool and throwing stones at him. Yet Neil never got angry; instead, he would smile and perform his clown tricks for them. The giggling smiles on the children’s faces brought him immense joy.
Then, half a year ago, the devil Joker appeared once again.
Someone discovered those ancestral relics again.
People in Joker Town died one after another, some went mad, so more and more people moved away from here. Every night, the town’s residents would turn into terrifying Joker zombies. Neil, perhaps because of his intellectual issues, was like the children and wasn’t affected by the Joker transformation. That saying goes, the intellectually impaired are naturally immune to mental attacks. Although Neil had already become a fool, he possessed the kindest heart, so he brought the children in the town to the mine cave, taking care of them to avoid being found by the devil Joker.
His consciousness wasn’t clear and couldn’t determine if what he was doing was right, but he could only ensure the children’s safety in the most direct way: working hard to find food for them, providing them shelter, and using what he thought was the best way: clown performances, to bring joy to these children.
He wasn’t forcing these children to watch his performances. He was just trying his best, with his only method, to give the children warmth.
The town residents always thought it was the devil Joker who had taken the children away and never suspected Neil. In fact, from half a year ago, Neil hadn’t appeared before the residents anymore. The town residents all thought he had died long ago… until now, when Ye Chui and Debbie found him and healed his injuries.
“So, do you know who the Joker Girl is?” Debbie asked at this moment.
“Who she is doesn’t matter anymore. The Joker Girl is already dead.” Ye Chui said casually.
He noticed Neil’s body suddenly tremble forcefully.
“Dead?” Debbie looked at Ye Chui.
So Ye Chui recounted the matter of the Joker Girl being swallowed in one gulp by her own summoned heroic spirit.
After Debbie listened, she pondered for a while and then said: “I’m afraid the Joker Girl isn’t dead. From your description, the heroic spirits the Joker Girl summons are all fantasy creatures, heroic spirits born from her fantasies. Such heroic spirits absolutely cannot attack their host. The situation at the time… should have been the Joker Girl using heroic spirit reverse summoning!”
“Heroic spirit reverse summoning?”
“Having the heroic spirit swallow oneself, pulling oneself into the heroic spirit world, then summoning the heroic spirit out again from another place via a magic array, thereby escaping the enemy’s attack. This is a very powerful summoning skill. I’ve only heard of it.” Debbie explained, “The Joker Girl is probably still alive.”
“Damn!” Ye Chui couldn’t help swearing.
And what he didn’t notice was that Neil’s face suddenly seemed to relax with relief.
They passed through the winding mine caves and had now arrived at the exit. This was a forest at the bottom of the mine. Those children hadn’t seen the outside sun for several months and were all breathing in the fresh air outside forcefully. The time had already reached the afternoon, and their stomachs were all rumbling with hunger. Fortunately, Ye Chui’s [Storage Space] had quite a bit of food stored, which he distributed to them some, then led them towards Joker Town.
Neil originally feared letting the children return to Joker Town, but now that there were powerful people like Ye Chui and Debbie present, these worries in his heart were no longer necessary. He walked silently along the mountain path the whole way, seeming to be thinking about something in his mind.
He was indeed thinking about something.
Ye Chui smoothly entered Neil’s memory world. His memory world was very simple. As that fool clown for those years, the memories left behind were all very fuzzy, fundamentally unable to form any memory articles. This also made Ye Chui understand a limitation of his search engine: it was hard to work on the intellectually impaired.
But now that Neil’s head had been healed, several articles had formed in his heart. Ye Chui browsed some, all accounts of his experiences over the past more than ten years. Those were just fleeting memory fragments, not of much reference value. Yet in Neil’s memory website, there was an article that had just formed, which made Ye Chui’s eyes light up instantly.
That article’s name was: Absolutely Cannot Reveal the Joker Girl’s Identity!
“He really knows who the Joker Girl is!” Ye Chui glanced at Neil walking ahead, then he tried to open that article, but the result was that he was informed the article couldn’t be unlocked!
“Cannot unlock?” This was the first time Ye Chui had seen such a situation. He actually couldn’t unlock Neil’s private article?
Why would this happen!
“Ye Chui, what’s wrong with you?” Debbie asked Ye Chui strangely.
“Debbie, if someone wanted to get a certain secret from your heart, but you wouldn’t say it even if you died, what kind of secret would that be?” Ye Chui asked Debbie in return. Unable to unlock probably meant the secret that Neil wouldn’t tell others even if he died.
Debbie tilted her head and thought for a bit, then said: “That secret involves the safety of my family?”
“Exactly!” Ye Chui immediately nodded. He suddenly thought of Neil’s earlier self-introduction. In Joker Town, his parents had already died, but he seemed to still have a daughter… If the Joker Girl was Neil’s daughter, then Neil might rather die than reveal to Ye Chui that his daughter was the Joker Girl!
Neil became a fool because he put on that clown mask. That clown mask seemed to be the key to creating the Joker Girl. Ye Chui had seen in the Joker Girl’s memory website that the website’s logo was a damaged clown mask!
Neil’s daughter also had a high chance of having contact with those ancestral relics.
“It seems I need to find a way to figure out who exactly Neil’s daughter is!” Ye Chui thought to himself.
He quickened his pace a few steps to come beside Neil, preparing to probe him for words. But at that moment, a few cries of alarm suddenly came from ahead. It turned out to be several herbalists gathering medicine in the mountain forest who spotted Ye Chui’s group and hurriedly cried out as they ran over.
Some of the children recognised those people, and the scene became quite chaotic for a time. This instead left Ye Chui with no chance to continue asking Neil anything.
