14. Melting Point (8)
14. Melting Point (8)
After loading all our luggage onto the freight train departing the next morning, we returned to our empty quarters to rest.
We'd been stopping at every station to perform because of the sixth preliminary. The final test we were scheduled to face would rely heavily on our troupe's popularity and renown.
That wasn't something we could reinforce with special training or strategy. So, to prepare for it, we decided to steadily accumulate a track record of both large and small performances starting now.
The train journey we'd just begun was the perfect environment for that kind of practice. The crowds at each station rivalled major cities, and the performance venues nearby were on par with big-city theaters.
Just six months ago, we wouldn't have dared to rent stages for audiences this large. The moment anyone mentioned the Monster Circus, people either shook their heads or, worse, swore at us and tried to chase us off for being bad luck.
But after going through two preliminaries, we had become quite famous in the industry. Unfavourable rumours still followed us, but far more venues welcomed us now. Ella, Clara, and Dosville would ride one or two stops ahead while the rest of us performed, scouting out venues and securing contracts before rejoining us. According to them, each theater practically fought over the chance to host us.
Thinking back to the days when we had to beg village market merchants' associations for a spot, it was deeply moving. I could also verify our circus troupe's fame objectively through the system.
The current fame of the Circus Troupe is 316.
Judging from the fame stat alone, over thirty Devoluts poured in every night at midnight. On top of that, a new ability had recently been unlocked as a reward tied to our fame.
<Circus Troupe Fame Rewards>
: [Costume Room: Unlocks at 50]
: [Sound Room: Unlocks at 150]
: [Props Room: Unlocks at 300]
: [Unlocks at 500]
: [Unlocks at 800]
The third troupe management ability, the Props Room, allowed me to 'repair' or 'duplicate' items. Of course, it didn't work on just anything—only items owned by the troupe. It also couldn't duplicate magic tools imbued with special power, but it was clearly a highly useful ability.
Thanks to it, I'd restored Maya's ruined sketchbook, and the reason our members could sit around in groups playing games now was also thanks to the Props Room.
The card game they were all obsessed with lately was called 'Wonderworld.' It had been released a year ago by the Sky City Hippodrome to commemorate the Circus Grand Prix.
At first, it was barely known except among a small circle, but it slowly spread through word of mouth. Recently, its popularity had exploded, and you could easily spot people playing Wonderworld wherever you went.
A few days ago, we heard that card production had resumed to meet the soaring demand. Before that, getting a copy was incredibly difficult because so many people wanted one. We had barely managed to secure a single set thanks to the Bergson Trading Company.
When I first asked the trading company, no one here seemed particularly interested. But as soon as the set arrived and they watched me, Clara, Maya, and Dosville play, they all rushed over, insisting on joining.
But we only had one card set, and the maximum number of players was four, so a fight was inevitable. I duplicated the card set using the Props Room and distributed it to them.
A Wonderworld set consisted of 13 Role Cards, 188 Performance Cards, 15 Theater Cards, hundreds of bonus gold coins, a popularity horse piece, a four-quartered fame board, and lastly, fake gems—Trill—the size of eyeballs.
A maximum of four people could play at once. The game ended either when all 188 Performance Cards were exhausted, or when someone met the victory conditions.
There were two main victory conditions.
Collect all seven Performance Cards depicting magic tools, or advance the popularity horse to a corner of the fame board.
If no one met the victory conditions and all the Performance Cards were drawn, the winner was determined by the points each player held at the end.
Before starting, each player chose two Theater Cards to use during the game. There were fifteen theaters in total, including the six preliminary sites for the Grand Prix and locations that had been candidates for the preliminaries. Each Theater Card had a distinct, powerful special effect, and choosing which theaters to use drastically changed a player's style, so they had to carefully consider their combination.
Once all players chose their Theater Cards, they shuffled the 188 Performance Cards and arranged them in a diamond shape in the center of the table. Unlike normal games, you didn't draw from the top of a pile.
You had to reveal and take cards from the outer edges of the diamond inward. Just as you have to remove the top block in a block tower to access the one below it, you could only take a card once the ones above it in the pyramid were cleared.
In this pyramid layout, if one row was placed face down, the next had to be face up. So, people had to approach face-up cards strategically while also remaining wary of the surprise cards that might spring up from the face-down rows.
The 188 Performance Cards featured famous acts straight out of a circus encyclopedia. Each turn, a player could pick up one card from the center, and if they had the necessary resources and gold coins, they could put on a performance.
Each installed Performance Card exerted a unique effect.
If the Performance Card was of the 'Acrobatics' type, it usually provided resources. Here, 'resources' meant human resources—five types of acrobats. For instance, the 'Burning Wheel' card provided one Ground Acrobatics resource and one Tightrope Walking resource, while 'Hammer Ring' provided one Strength Show-off resource.
If the Performance Card was of the 'Magic' type, it provided a set number of points for the final scoring and one of the seven magic tools. For magic tool cards, collecting two identical ones let you activate the tool's powerful special ability. And since collecting all seven different magic tools meant that player immediately won the game, they always demanded close attention.
Lastly, if the Performance Card was of the 'Music' type, you could advance the 'Popularity' horse on the fame board along its track. Each time a player moved the popularity horse a certain number of spaces toward their side, they could impose small penalties on their opponents. Players who ignored music cards to paint their own picture often got tripped up like this. Above all, the moment popularity touched a corner of the fame board, the game ended in that player's victory—so it always required attention.
Besides those, there were 'Play' type cards that provided purely high scores, and 'Clown' type cards that were free to install but required paying a cost each time their special effect activated.
Amassing the required resources to build the theaters you initially selected was never easy.
Take the Rekachev Circus School card, for example. It demanded one of each of the five acrobatic resources. Since four people took turns drawing cards, gathering all five was a real challenge.
Then there was the Rose Windmill Cabaret. It required no resources, but its high volatility in popularity and gold costs made timing its construction tricky.
On top of that, each turn players had to choose two of the 13 Role Cards—a kind of persona they would use for that turn. Each had starkly contrasting strengths and weaknesses, so picking roles required an intense battle of reading each other's intentions.
For instance, the 'Patron' role was excellent at generating gold but had the severe drawback of being unable to put on performances. The 'Clown' could designate one role card and render it a useless fool, but provided no direct benefit to the user. The well-rounded 'The Five Acrobats' had the small advantage of substituting a resource of their corresponding discipline but couldn't create major disruption.
"Got it, I got it! Ta-da, I've collected all seven magic tools!"
The strongest player among our members was Clara. Aside from Maya, no one could match her board-reading. When we placed bets based on point differences, Dosville sometimes demonstrated an uncanny intuition that let him narrow the gap with her.
On the other hand, the weakest player was Yurakne. She had always struggled with thinking-intensive games.
She lost her desired cards to Clara's successive checks, had the popularity she painstakingly advanced sniped and pushed back by Maya's 'Critic' role card, and then, just when she was on the verge of building her theater, had her accumulated gold confiscated by the special ability of a theater Dosville had built. That was the last straw.
"Aagh!"
"Yura, don't crumple the cards!"
In the end, I had to lead her into the kitchen to calm her down after she burst into tears. She pulled herself together quickly, and I helped her prepare boxed lunches to eat on the train tomorrow.
But... was it just my imagination, or did the lunches for Clara, Maya, and Dosville seem a bit more meager than the others?
Meanwhile, Umon and Ruelo quickly lost interest in the game. They were at an age where they preferred using their bodies over their heads.
However, even arm wrestling was forbidden inside the quarters, let alone running around. The furniture they'd broken so far wasn't just one or two pieces.
So for a while now, they had been sitting near the balcony, looking down at the bustling street and whispering to each other. They seemed to want to go out and explore the night market.
But that was impossible for Umon. Ruelo kept glancing around, knowing she couldn't leave him alone, and didn't dare voice her desire to go out.
Feeling sorry for them, I decided to spend a little of the Devolut I had saved up over the month for their sake.
"Umon, would you like to step outside for some fresh air?"
"Huh? How? It's not even Halloween... And the Red-Blood Ogre is way too famous around here now... as a bloodthirsty slaughterer..."
As he hesitated, I held out a newly acquired item.
<Rewards Based on Troupe Members' Average Affection level>
: [Unlocks at 15: Skillbook]
: [Unlocks at 25: Role Name Tag]
: [Unlocks at 40]
: [Unlocks at 60]
: [Unlocks at 80]
Although the three from the Morning Star Circus had joined us, the Affection levels of our other members had risen significantly, pushing the average above 25. The 'Role Name Tag' obtained as a reward literally made the wearer appear as the person whose name was written on it.
In other words, if Umon wore a tag with the name 'Ella' written on it, people would perceive him as Ella.
"But if the physical difference from the role is too great, it can create a sense of dissonance. So, I'll set the role to Mr. Minova. Oh, and this doesn't affect our troupe members, so don't worry about not recognizing your dad, Miss Ruelo."
At my words, Ruelo, who had been glancing at her father stretched out drunk with old man Gaston in the corner, nodded with a bright smile.
"Does it really have that effect...?"
Umon hung the tag I offered around his neck and hesitated with a dubious expression, but with Ruelo constantly tugging at him, he had no choice but to be dragged along.
"Come on, Umon, let's go!"
She seemed most lively around Umon. Since he was the only one close to her age in the troupe, and a target on whom she could unleash her strength freely without restraint, she probably felt comfortable.
The members who had been looking outside with worried expressions, half-expecting screams, watched the massive red demon with horns move through the crowd without incident and relaxed. Maya assessed it as a powerful Perception Impairment Magic.
"Hot-hot, what an incredibly fascinating object. Can the role only be one of our members?"
"No. If you want, you can even turn into a model you saw in a magazine. You can also set it to a younger or older version of yourself."
The troupe members clamored that they wanted to try it next. The monstrous members were especially excited.
Understanding their desire to walk among people looking normal, even just once, I readily agreed. The Devolut had come from them, anyway. I could afford to be this generous.
And so, with fresh topics to savor, we spent our last night here playing cards and drinking.