Chapter 104: The Core Ability of the "Absurdity Clown" |
"Then should I make a set of restraints for you now?" Samuel started talking to Evina about the topic directly, "If you wear a blindfold, it would be troublesome because you can't see."
"Yes, so I need a blindfold that doesn't block my vision," Evina answered matter-of-course. "Also, handcuffs and leg irons that won't affect movement."
"Then make the handcuffs longer so they can double as weapons. As for the leg irons, just make two separate pieces and don't connect them in the middle."
"Right, purely decorative will do."
Griell found himself momentarily at a loss for words.
Something with extraordinary effects...
just to do this kind of thing?
He glanced at Falson not far away and found that Falson didn't seem to care about what was happening. He was staring at the air in front of him, as if watching something.
He was looking at his System.
Sensing Griell's gaze, Falson immediately looked up and gave an innocent smile.
He casually closed the system screen and asked softly.
"Mr. Griell, what should we do next?"
He could understand why Griell had gotten so riled at Evina earlier, but he couldn't really empathize.
The story from a moment ago had moved him a bit.
But it was too distant in time, and Griell's description had been very condensed.
Besides, the first "Siren" he encountered was introduced by Samuel, which gave Samuel a positive trust buff in his mind.
That made it hard for him to be as wary of Evina as Griell was.
Hearing Falson's question, Griell fell silent for a moment and took out a sheet of paper.
"This is the updated rules from today. I transcribed them. Everyone can take a look."
[Liant Town Living Rules]
[Please pay attention, citizens, recently...]
[1, ...]
[15, Citizens are forbidden from showing smiles that stem from genuine inner feelings within the town.]
[16, Citizens are forbidden from producing laughter that stems from genuine inner feelings within the town.]
[17, Citizens are forbidden from feeling genuine pleasure within the town.]
[18, Citizens are forbidden from enjoying entertainment methods that do not conform to mainstream perceptions, and from obtaining pleasure through them.]
[19, It is forbidden to privately modify the Liant Town rules.]
[20, It is forbidden to carry out large-scale destruction in Liant Town, including but not limited to explosions and arson.]
[The law is still being supplemented. Citizens are advised to pay attention to any rulebook within sight. If you violate the law, trust me, you will not want to bear the consequences.]
[Note: All rule interpretation rights belong to the Enforcement Team of Liant Town.]
Griell pointed to rules 15 through 19.
"I don't know what's going on, but the rules have started to include things that defy common sense."
"This is extremely hard to establish. If it takes effect, it must share the binding force with several other rules."
"You should be able to feel it too. These rules, more than restricting something, feel like they're padding numbers."
"I suspect someone else came up with a similar workaround as I did."
At that moment, Evina seemed to have finished talking with Samuel.
She came over as well, smelling faintly of a pleasant perfume.
Griell hesitated, then continued his explanation.
"I just sensed things in the square. These four rules are like the 'forbidden to leave' rule: they forego after-the-fact punishments and strengthen the rule itself."
"In other words, as long as you can break them, no matter how many times you break them, there will be no punishment?" Falson asked.
"Yes." Griell nodded.
Falson frowned and thought for a moment, then tentatively flashed a smile.
It had absolutely no effect.
He felt the constraint seemed weak.
Griell glanced at the smiling Evina and at Samuel, who was fiddling with something unknown.
"Obviously, for outsiders like us, this rule won't be very effective."
"At most it will restrain ordinary townsfolk," he told Falson, "once someone becomes a Law Seeker, even you will hardly be affected."
"Seems like that's the case." Falson nodded.
He recalled what had happened half an hour earlier when he was having lunch.
He had been bored and opened the system.
Since he had nothing to do, he randomly selected a comic from the system to read.
The comic was called The Dou Nuo Continent, about a group of youths using a decade-borrowed solitary bamboo to take turns fighting the ancient strongest fart god Nuo Three-Cannon.
At the time he read it, he didn't feel anything was wrong.
If something was supposed to make him laugh, he still laughed; there was no sense that laughter was blocked.
At most, his sense of humor seemed to have shifted a little higher.
The innkeeper Samuel had shown earlier had clearly had a worried frown.
But it was hard to say whether that was due to this rule affecting ordinary townspeople or because the inn had been blown up.
Falson personally thought the latter was more likely.
"I don't know why, but the locals in this town are affected more by the rules," Griell said, nodding. "So these four rules are basically tailored to the locals. I don't know what that serves."
He touched his head and fell into thought.
"Because the natives of this city are tied to these so-called rules," Samuel said, walking behind Evina. A silk scarf appeared in his hand and he wrapped it in circles around Evina's face.
Evina did not resist. She tilted her head slightly back and told Samuel not to wrap her hair too tightly.
"What do you mean?" Griell snapped out of his thoughts.
"I don't know. In any case, most of the natives of this city are mannequins, temporarily brought to life by some ritual."
"This rule is their 'half of the low-level code,'" Samuel explained.
"So these four rules target the natives?" Griell looked at the sheet in puzzlement.
"Isn't that even stranger?" Griell said, baffled.
Could it really be someone who thought the same as him, intending to lead the town's rules to produce a large number of meaningless and self-contradictory rules to weaken the 'forbidden to leave' rule?
That would be an uncanny convergence of ideas.
"This is aimed at Samuel," Evina joined the conversation for the first time.
By then Samuel had finished wrapping a white silk blindfold around her face, making her features look more charming.
She moved her head slightly to confirm the binding, then blinked the eyes under the silk blindfold to make sure the 'Law Object' Samuel had delicately created would not affect her sight.
"Why?" Falson asked Evina. "Didn't you say this targets the natives?"
"Didn't Samuel tell you?" Evina shook her head with a smile. "The degree to which he can directly warp reality is proportional to the number of genuine smiles around him."
This is the core ability of the "Absurdity Clown."
Absurdity Clown, as a Law Rhyme formed from the complete fusion of six Absurdity Law Marks, naturally possesses sufficiently powerful effects.
Its amplification of the six prerequisite Law Marks is almost limitless.
How could a great clown only make himself happy?
Shared joy is better than solitary joy.
A clown that only enjoys themselves is not a competent clown.
The more people around who feel genuine happiness and the more genuine smiles there are, the stronger the Absurdity Clown's effect becomes.
When the surrounding joy reaches a certain level, the Absurdity Clown cannot even be killed. Even if it dies, it can resurrect from the surrounding people's joy.
To kill an Absurdity Clown, the prerequisite is to extinguish the joy within a certain radius.
This is the crucial premise.
............
At the Enforcement Team's station, in a narrow, dim room.
A soldier in uniform sat on a bench, handcuffed.
He leaned forward, hands resting on his knees, his whole body slumped over his elbows.
He was the soldier Samuel had first influenced a day ago. At this moment he was detained here for a day's inspection.
But calling it an inspection, the current situation looked like he had already been sentenced to death.
It seemed to be a room converted from a restaurant, filled with tables and benches, but the windows were sealed shut. Nothing could be seen from the inside and no light could enter from outside.
Unlike the handcuffs Evina wanted that would not affect movement, these handcuffs locked his hands together and connected to a chain extending to the floor, preventing any large movements and even keeping him from straightening his back.
There were no lights in the room; only a candle that had burned down sat not far away.
Creak.
The door opened and sunlight poured into this windowless room.
The soldier, who had been locked up for a full day, looked toward the doorway with discomfort, squinting; the light stung his eyes.
"How do you feel? Think of anything?" an officer with a rank on his shoulder said as he entered.
The officer looked about twenty years old, dressed in black, holding what looked like a lady's hand mirror.
The officer walked closer to the soldier, lit a candle, and the room brightened slightly.
Then he went to the main door and closed it, finally dragging a chair to sit in front of the soldier.
The soldier did not answer, only shook his head.
Two days without food or water left him too weak to answer.
The officer seemed to have expected that.
"Your two teammates have been checked and found fine. You are the last one," the officer said calmly. "It makes sense — after all, you were the first to come into contact with that suspicious individual, so the inspection will take a bit longer."
The soldier weakly nodded, still silent.
"Not enough strength to speak? That's fine."
The officer's face held a smile, but his eyes were devoid of warmth. He raised the hand mirror.
"A person's mouth is the least trustworthy. People always like to lie. So I don't plan to listen to whatever you say."
"Here, look at this."
"I intend to directly examine your memory."
The soldier barely lifted his head to look into the mirror before him.
He stared at the mirror; the officer looked into his eyes and at his reflection in the soldier's eyes.
Tick.
It sounded as if a drop of water had fallen.
The floor of the room had somehow become a smooth reflective surface.
The soldier's head sagged weakly.
The officer released the mirror from his hands, but the mirror floated in midair, defying gravity with no sign of falling.
"Like this." The officer spoke softly, stood, took two steps back, and ran a hand through his hair.
Then he looked down at the reflective surface beneath the soldier's chained feet.
In the mirror, the image became the scene from the previous day.
It showed Samuel approaching the soldier and influencing him.
The soldier's mental activity at that time was also displayed within the mirror.
As expected...
Starving him for two days was the right move. The weaker his mind, the easier to handle.
First torment the target's spirit, and when their psyche nears collapse, confront them in the domain you excel at — the mental realm.
The officer never thought himself cowardly; this was his proud prudence.
He continued to look down.
This Law Object was useful, but watching memories backwards like this was unpleasant.
Soon, the memory ended and the mirror's scene became a reflection of the present.
"Looks like the evidence is conclusive now." He said to the soldier with a blank look.
"I don't want to do this, but for the next few days you cannot leave here."
"However, since this is only a manipulation of the mind and not possession, it should still be reversible."
"After this ritual ends, I'll figure out a way to save you."
Having said that, the officer intended to remove the Law Object.
At that moment, he saw the soldier reflected in the surface looking back at him.
The soldier in the mirror smiled, the corner of his mouth lifting.
In the mirror, the soldier's hands appeared completely free; he stood up.
"Do you want to see my memories?"
"If it's only those moments, it would be a bit dull, wouldn't it?"
The officer heard a voice coming from the mirror.
He didn't reply, only watched.
The soldier in the mirror slowly shifted, becoming a man the officer had never seen before.
At that instant, the mirror's scene also changed.
The room that had appeared upside-down in the mirror became a rooftop.
The roof's style was odd, entirely unfamiliar to the officer, and around it were other strange buildings.
The officer watched coldly, without any thought of stopping it.
This was normal.
When invading someone else's memory, the memory's owner resists.
But the owner's resistance only matters briefly; once you fully enter the memory, all resistance becomes meaningless.
Just like when Samuel entered the Bard's memory before.
Memory scenes and the intruder do not affect each other.
The man in the mirror clearly read the officer's thought and shrugged.
"I'm not able to do anything to you. After all, I'm just a filler clone."
The man stood on the strange building's rooftop and flashed a peace sign at the officer.
The next moment, the mirror-room's floor flipped over in the next instant.