The Clown's Stage
The tension that had been stretched taut snapped in the strangest way possible.
I held my breath and glared at the text floating above his head.
Baek Dohyun (5th-turn Regressor)
...No way.
A fifth-turn regressor? Had my Spoiler glitched?
“...Ha.”
A dry laugh slipped out before I could stop it. This was beyond ridiculous. Even dealing with Choi Kangmin, a second-turn regressor, had been hard enough. And now a fifth-turn?
Insane.
I narrowed my eyes. The air had definitely changed. A sticky, alien pressure clamped down on my lungs. An incomprehensible reality. I read his inner thoughts.
Target: Baek Dohyun (5th-turn Regressor)
Status: Annoyed, Playful / What the hell! This isn’t Gangdong-gu!? Total mistake! Mistake! Mistake-desu!! Ah~ I told them to update the navigation!! Crazy crazy crazy-desu!!
...Who the hell is this lunatic?
Even at a glance, he was clearly unhinged. A fifth-turn psycho. My head started to throb.
“Hey...” I turned to Choi Kangmin. Maybe he knew something. But then—
“Why...”
Choi Kangmin’s condition was off. The guy who had looked so composed moments ago was now trembling violently. His sword hilt rattled from the spasms. His pupils had lost focus and were shaking wildly.
“Why... is that crazy bastard... here...”
Choi Kangmin bit his lip hard, letting out a pained groan. I tilted my head and tapped his shoulder.
“Hey. Who is that guy—”
“Keep your head down.”
“What?”
“I said keep your head down, you idiot...!!!”
Choi Kangmin cut me off with a desperate shout. He was already hunched over, staring at the ground.
“Whatever you do, do not make eye contact with him. Don’t even look at him... Just pretend you don’t see him.”
His voice was completely terrified. The same Choi Kangmin who always acted so heroic was trying to crawl into a hole.
..What the hell does he know?
Even when I checked with Spoiler, all I got was useless information. Things like ‘Don’t make eye contact’ and ‘Why is he here right now...’ The plaza fell into a suffocating silence. No one had expected this.
He spoke again.
“A~ Seriously! What’s with this atmosphere? Wait, this is a big park!!! How could a genius like me make such a mistake! I was supposed to go to Gangdong-gu but ended up in Gwangjin-gu!!!”
Baek Dohyun tapped his hat with his staff and shrugged. In the brief moment when no one dared speak—
“Ah, fuck this...!”
A harsh curse erupted from the front row. It was a large, thirty-something man. He looked like his sanity had finally snapped from extreme fatigue and hunger.
“Hey! You doing cosplay or what? I don’t know what mental hospital you crawled out of, but stop ruining the mood and get lost! We’re trying to eat, you crazy bastard!”
The man spat insults while holding a lunchbox in one hand. Choi Kangmin’s shoulders jerked. I instinctively gripped my shortsword tighter.
“...Crazy bastard? Get lost?”
Baek Dohyun’s movements froze. His head tilted to the right with a sharp crack as he looked at the man. His shoulders shook.
In that unpredictable instant—
“Puhahahahahahaha!!”
A roar of laughter that seemed to tear the plaza apart exploded out of him. He wasn’t offended at all. Instead, his mouth stretched into a grin so wide it looked like it might split his face, and he swung his staff wildly.
“Ah, for real! Mr. Extra! Your lines are way too cliché! Stop ruining the mood and get lost? Wow~ What is this, some third-rate gangster movie? Who would watch that?!”
Baek Dohyun snapped his fingers toward the man with a cheerful voice.
“This won’t do! Before the ■■ cuts off...”
For a second, I doubted my ears. The word he said didn’t register. Instead, all I heard was mechanical noise. The infamous censorship beep. I wasn’t the only one. People around me flinched and instinctively covered their ears.
“Huh?”
Baek Dohyun’s movements stopped again. He tilted his head, then tapped his lips with the end of his staff.
“Ah, what? That word is still censored? They’re being so picky, seriously.”
He clicked his tongue in annoyance, then painted another bizarre smile across his face.
“Well, whatever! Time for a magic show to really liven up the mood! Everyone, pay attention!”
The skull staff in his hand traced a short arc through the air. There was no chant, no detectable energy. But the result was immediate and overwhelmingly cruel.
“Uh... uhh?”
The man’s voice cut off. At the same time, I instinctively covered the child’s eyes.
—Crack.
The sound of breaking bone echoed through the plaza from the man’s neck. His feet were still planted on the asphalt. But his head began to stretch straight up into the air.
“Guh, guuuuuh...!”
His neck elongated like a giraffe’s in a grotesque sight. Everyone’s eyes locked onto the unbelievable scene. His flailing hands tried to grab his own neck but couldn’t reach.
“Okay, come out, little dove! Yap!”
Baek Dohyun winked and clicked his tongue.
—Boom!
A cheerful sound like a firework going off. The man’s head, stretched high into the air, exploded.
“Coo... coo-coo-coo!”
Instead of a scream, clear bird cries filled the plaza. From where the man’s head had been, colorful flower petals and dozens of pure white doves burst out. The man’s body finally lost strength and collapsed. Flower petals gently settled onto the lunchbox he had been holding.
“Tada~! Success! How was it? The dove magic trick! Pretty cool, right?”
Baek Dohyun took off his pointed hat and placed it over his chest, then bowed exaggeratedly. Standing there amid the swirling petals, his figure was chillingly grotesque.
After a brief silence—
“Kyaaaaaaaaaah!!!!”
“He’s... he’s insane!!!!!!”
“Run!!! Run!!!!”
The plaza instantly turned into pandemonium. People screamed and scattered through the multicolored petals. Lunchboxes were kicked aside and sent rolling. I kept the child’s eyes covered and took a step back.
In the middle of that brutal scene, he wore a strangely dissatisfied expression.
Target: Baek Dohyun (5th-turn Regressor)
Status: Disappointed, Puzzled / Huh, not the reaction I expected. Was the dove trick not popular yet?
His gaze swept through the air, as if checking something.
Status: Disappointed / Come on, after I went through all that trouble to show them... This is why ■■ are the worst...
My Spoiler kept feeding me his thoughts. Some of the characters were blacked out, as if censored.
Crazy bastard...
Killing a man and then complaining about trends. He stroked his chin with his staff and tilted his head. The Spoiler updated rapidly.
Wait, this is Gwangjin-gu? If it’s Gwangjin-gu... isn’t that where the old man is?
Old man?
The moment I mulled over that word—
—Whoosh.
Baek Dohyun’s feet left the ground. His body floated gently into the air.
“By the way, this is the flying magic trick! Applause! Applause!”
Ten meters above the ground. Standing tall there, he waved his hands dramatically in every direction. Of course, no one responded. Everyone was too busy running for their lives. He indifferently scanned the survivors below him.
Status: Searching, Confused / ...He’s not here? The old man isn’t here? Why isn’t he here? He should be here?
His gaze quickly scanned the faces of the crowd.
Is this not Gwangjin-gu? Gangseo-gu? Gangdong-gu? Gangjin? Ah, this is so confusing I’m gonna die!!!
I focused all my attention on the Spoiler window.
Who the hell is he talking about?
There were plenty of old men here. But if a fifth-turn regressor was looking for him, he had to be someone special.
Damn... This is such a shame, shame, shame-desu! Where did the old man go? Did he hide because he knew I was coming? No, but I wasn’t even planning to come here in the first place?
He floated in the air, swinging his staff irritably. Even though the sight was ridiculous, no one laughed.
A~ So annoying. Should I just head to Gangdong-gu now? But even if I go now, the boss is probably already dead and everything worth taking is gone.
..He’d be stronger than me, right? If I fight him now, would I lose? Ah, what a total loss!! And I went through all the trouble of gathering the ■■s!!!!
His thoughts continued in a steady stream. I could roughly piece together the situation. He had meant to go to Gangdong-gu, not here. But there had been an error and he failed. While he was here, he looked for someone called the ‘old man,’ but couldn’t find him. And it was already too late to head to Gangdong-gu now.
Why did something like this have to happen?
I muttered to myself. At a glance, he was clearly stronger than I was right now. Maybe on par with Clock, or even stronger. I swallowed dryly and quietly whispered to Choi Kangmin.
“Hey.”
“...What.”
“Who the hell is that guy? Why are you acting like this?”
He clenched his fist. His lips moved, then slowly opened.
“I can’t tell you everything.”
“What?”
“Even if I wanted to say it right now, I can’t.”
Choi Kangmin’s gaze flicked toward the man for a brief moment before returning. His pupils trembled instinctively.
“One thing is certain. He’s dangerous. And he’s insane. That bastard doesn’t see us as people.”
“...”
“If that’s all you’re going to say, then what are we supposed to do? Just sit here and watch?”
I pressed him for more information. Right now, both his mouth and my Spoiler were being far too passive. His lips paused for a moment, then opened again.
“...Just. Stay quiet and watch.”
“......”
“And pray that he just leaves.”
“What do you—”
That was when it happened. The grumbling Baek Dohyun floating in the air suddenly froze. A clear stillness cut through the noise. I reflexively looked up.
“Huh?”
His gaze was fixed in the air. His eyes looked like they were reading something. An inexplicable sense of foreboding washed over me. Then, the Spoiler window on my retina began to flicker.
Target: Baek Dohyun (5th-turn Regressor)
Status: Bewildered, Ecstatic / Whoa, insane. There’s a handicap like this? No, wait... This is actually huge?
Why are these guys suddenly showing so much interest? Was there a ■■ that hated Gwangjin-gu this much?
I bit my lower lip without realizing it. Every single one of Baek Dohyun’s thoughts added to my anxiety. Then, new text appeared below the Spoiler window. It was the evidence of the laughter he was seeing right now.
The Festival of Blood
📍 Objective: Someone has spent all their allowed interference during the tutorial period to request a special stage for you.
🎁 Reward: Random stat +1 for every 10 Gwangjin-gu survivors killed.
⏳ Time Remaining: 30 minutes.
“...Crazy.”
A curse slipped out reflexively. Cold sweat ran down my spine. Random stat +1 for every ten survivors killed. The damn hidden quest that some bastard had thrown at him. Ten human lives for a single stat point. Under normal thinking, hesitation would be natural. Setting aside the moral revulsion of massacring your own kind, there was also the risk of turning hundreds of people into enemies at once.
But...
“Kyahahahahahaha!!!”
Baek Dohyun clutched his face and began laughing maniacally. Purple mist slowly rose from the empty eye sockets of the skull staff in his hand.
“A~ Seriously! I was wondering what I should do, and now you’re giving me this much attention!!! If you show such sincerity, wouldn’t it be rude if Mr. Baek here didn’t put on a proper performance!!!!”
His voice, infused with power, rang throughout the entire plaza. At that cheerful tone, the people who had been running stopped and turned to look at him all at once.
“Alright, mic test! One, two, three!”
Baek Dohyun held the staff under his chin and continued speaking. The corners of his mouth rose, and his eyes gleamed.
“Everyone here, listen up!! Starting right now, for exactly thirty minutes! I will be going around killing all of you!!!”
The tone was far too confident. The horrifying gap left people staring up at him in stunned silence.
“So what should you all do!? Obviously, you should scream and run so you don’t die, right!?”
“...”
“Ah! Of course, you’re welcome to fight back! That might be even more fun!!!”
He looked down at his empty wrist. Then, grinning, he pointed the staff downward.
“Then, let the Festival of Blood begin!!!!”
The moment he made that declaration, purple mist surged out from his staff like a tidal wave.