Chapter 176#
Hunt 27#
Watching the doctor’s “crackling” wire tip, Klaros took an almost imperceptible step back, the smile at the corner of his lips widening. “Doctor, I don’t need treatment.”
“Oh?” said the doctor. “Wasn’t that you at the underground casino?”
“It was me. I just wanted to talk to the doctor and be friends. But you ran away too fast. Was I too scary to look at?”
After switching from the crazy loli to the black raincoat, Klaros’s tone of voice had normalized quite a bit—at least sounding like a human being.
Doctor: “?”
He might have believed it if he didn’t still remember the terrifying experience of being hunted down.
Klaros continued, his voice taking on a cryptic air, muttering to himself, “But it’s okay. Sending you first to make friends with my family works just as well. See? Now we’re friends, aren’t we?”
“Friends?”
The doctor pondered thoughtfully for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice even carried a hint of paternal affection. “Looking for free treatment? Do you sense you’ll need treatment one day? Or… do you have a friend or family member who needs treatment?”
Klaros: “We can discuss the treatment details in private…”
“Ha, haha.” Hina let out an awkward laugh. “Just a heads up, I’m not his family. I’ll leave you two to make friends. I’m off now.”
The black-robed, red-haired witch quickly slipped off the high platform, her figure disappearing at the end of the stairs.
Disappearing with her was the young-girl-form Fate Goddess.
The doctor sighed to Klaros, “Patients cause a lot of trouble for their families. I think your treatment is urgent.”
“Mhm mhm, it really is troublesome…” Klaros’s gaze subtly shifted towards Murphy’s direction.
“You can treat him when you have time.” Murphy’s cold voice interrupted them, pointing towards the oppressive crowd ahead. “What are you planning to do?”
Now, a tide of nearly a thousand fervent people—like a black ocean—was surging towards the circus.
Yu Feichen identified the grey mist on their shoulders. True enough, there were also several hundred NPCs without the grey mist mixed in—all lured here by ‘Rose’.
The danger wasn’t just from the front.
All around, voices and figures were stirring. In the crisscrossing streets and alleys, the lurking hunters, attracted by this massive disturbance, had also tacitly gathered together.
In the twilight sky, figures using flying items hung everywhere, enveloping the entire circus like a flock of bats.
Originally, after the disruption by the Paradise priest, the attackers had abandoned collective action, scattering into a terrified mess. But then Klaros had unexpectedly meddled, causing them to spontaneously regroup into the situation before them now.
A few people, a few dozen, even two or three hundred attacking the circus—they would be killed.
So, what about a thousand? Two thousand? They wouldn’t lose then, right?
“It’s okay, we have several hundred too…” The doctor looked down, but his word ‘people’ got stuck in his throat.
The evening wind blew the colorful balloons inside the circus grounds, tumbling lonesomely across the empty space—where was a single trace of a ‘prey’ anywhere on the entire field?
Instead, at the edges of the field, a few figures were quickly dispersing, disappearing into the circus’s mechanisms and secret passages.
“They all escaped.” Indeed.
Soon, night would fall. If they could just hide and endure in the passages and castle for a while, wouldn’t this hunting game be over?
The desire to escape, though delayed, finally took shape in the doctor’s heart.
“You two stay here.”
Having said that, the doctor’s golden-haired figure instantly vanished from the high platform.
Just kidding, if he didn’t run now, when would he?
Choosing a circus with such complex mechanisms, wasn’t it precisely for flexible escape?
Yu Feichen looked at Klaros, repeating Murphy’s question with a faint gaze.
What do you plan to do?
“I didn’t know what to do, so I came here…” Klaros pulled his hat brim down again, his tone as matter-of-fact as if saying “time for afternoon tea”.
Murphy: “?”
Klaros coughed as if feeling guilty.
“If I attracted enough hunters, you guys would be safe, right? So I did that thing at the canal bridge.”
“But there were really too many of them.”
“I couldn’t hold them off. So I had to leave the canal bridge and come for you to save me.”
Having said that, Klaros looked at An Fei. “So, what should we do?”
An Fei didn’t even glance at Klaros.
In the sky, the first figure swooped down towards the circus.
Blinded by excessive frenzy, he didn’t see the crisscrossing thin steel wires above the circus.
Accompanied by a scream, and a speed too fast to brake, a chunk of flesh and limbs fell down.
Facing the colorful scene before them.
At the same time, at the exit of the circus’s largest maze, Hina.
She unlocked the exit of the locked underground maze and then quickly, as if fleeing for her life, flashed into the building.
The two or three hundred people locked in the underground maze a day and a night ago had little sanity left. Under the combined effect of the confined space and the City of Mist, they were now completely insane.
The gate opened, and they surged out like water from a broken dam.
—Running straight into the first wave of attacks from outside.
Those at the front saw the seemingly insane crowd rushing towards them and couldn’t help but feel dazed for a moment.
Was this the prey?
They froze for a second, but the madmen didn’t, recklessly charging towards the gate. The scene was momentarily very chaotic, and the rhythm of the first wave of attacks was thrown off by nearly half.
Simultaneously, large mechanisms activated, taking away some people, and attacks were launched from many hidden spots within the castle.
This was Hina’s planned final option. When a direct confrontation couldn’t be sustained, the only choice was to escape and hide, doing what they could to take potshots.
Of course, even if she hadn’t proposed this plan, everyone would have done the same. Announcing this idea was just to avoid the awkward scenario of “everyone fleeing simultaneously”.
—The Goddess of Wisdom always seemed to appear alongside scenes of chaotic scrambling.
On the other side, Murphy twirled his fingers, and a stack of cards instantly fanned out perfectly into an equidistant, flawless arc, their backs adorned with mysterious, ancient patterns.
He offered it to An Fei.
The enemy had already surged like a tide over the outermost defenses. Under the assault of so many people, the beast-head gate and walls were as fragile as paper props.
After Hina went down, Windsor took over the Gatling gun. Aiming was no longer necessary; he just fired indiscriminately into the crowd.
Below, the machine gun’s blue light flashed wildly, the sound deafening. But An Fei only slightly lowered his eyes to look at the backs of the cards, as if everything happening was just routine.
Three seconds later, he drew one card, didn’t even look at its face, and handed it to Murphy.
Murphy read the card and said, “Everything is settled.”
An Fei looked up at the clock hanging upside down in the sky.
“Nine minutes,” An Fei said softly. “Go ahead.”
When he said “you all”, it didn’t actually mean many people.
Just Yu Feichen, Bai Song, Windsor, Murphy, and the two patients left by the doctor.
The two patients looked down below, letting out delighted, eerie laughs.
One of them suddenly said, “Why are they looking at us?”
The other said, “Then gouge their eyes out.”
“Hehe… don’t gouge…” the first patient said. “When they look at us, it feels like being treated.”
The patients spoke loudly. An Fei glanced down indifferently.
Among the nearby crowd, there were indeed some people looking up at them on the high platform. About one in ten.
As if they couldn’t understand why those providing shelter for the circus weren’t prey but hunters like themselves. Nor did they understand how just a few people could have the courage to confront them head-on.
Seeing it with their own eyes was far more impactful than hearing it on a message board. Especially since the few people at the very top looked calm and composed, as if they weren’t afraid at all.
What had gotten into them? What were they doing? What did they want?
As these questions surfaced in their minds, the raging desire to kill seemed to be doused with cold water, actually starting to recede somewhat.
They were already accustomed to mania, so this feeling now felt strange, as if something was missing.
Reflecting on how they had been swept along by the crowd all the way here… it really didn’t feel like the person they used to be.
An Fei withdrew his gaze.
Bai Song seemed to suddenly understand something.
During the day, while idle, they had discussed with the doctor how the City of Mist affects people’s minds.
An Fei had said then that chaos was the essence of power.
Brutality, slaughter, hatred, fear, hunting, escaping—these were also rooted in the human soul.
The rules of the City of Mist happened to encourage these things.
When a guest acted according to the rules, the will of the mist would take root in their subconscious, gradually spreading and growing. The guest wouldn’t notice the change, thinking something was wrong with them instead.
When he explained this, everyone had an epiphany. Bai Song alone felt he still needed some insight.
Now, seeing those people staring blankly at the high platform, he finally got it!
So, for the vast majority, the only way to maintain a clear will in the City of Mist was to fundamentally reject the rules it imposed!
For example, be a hunter who protects the prey.
Or be a prey who bravely fights back against the hunter.
Then, awaken all those lost in the mist, making them understand this law.
The Eternal Night wasn’t just filled with worlds like the City of Mist, but also beautiful places like Paradise.
Therefore, they would never willingly be puppets of the City of Mist. Their ultimate goal wasn’t just to win within the City of Mist, but to do everything possible to transmit the spirit of Paradise to this place, and eventually infect the entire Eternal Day!
Instantly, Bai Song felt all the strange sensations he had before leave him, his body surging with power.
“I see!” Bai Song said. “Brother An Fei, I finally understand the deep meaning behind you building the circus! It was for everyone!”6
Yu Feichen: “?”
An Fei had set up the shelter simply because that was the kind of person he was; how could there be some deep meaning? Besides, An Fei had just lost his memory back then and didn’t even know clearly what the City of Mist was.
Even An Fei glanced at Bai Song a couple more times.
After that glance, neither Yu Feichen nor An Fei said anything.
Seeing this, Bai Song became even more certain of his guess.
After all, both Brother Yu and An Fei had tacitly agreed.8