Circus of Horrors (17)
A single beam of light shone down in the center of the stage, isolated and stark, illuminating Joker standing there. His head was bowed, hiding any expression on his face.
Chen Li’s heart pounded chaotically.
Since early this morning, a sense of uncontrollable panic had been brewing inside him, despite everything proceeding as planned.
Now, at last, the final performance was about to begin.
He pressed a hand against his chest and, following the prompt on his task panel, slowly spoke: “For the final act, what dance have you prepared for me?”
He sat up high, gaze lowered with focused intensity. When those round almond eyes looked down at you, it was easy to fall into the illusion of being needed.
Bathed in that gaze, Joker’s body trembled slightly with excitement. He lifted his head and smiled—restrained and courteous: “My dear Young Master Rum, please allow my circus to present to you a dance performance—Blood Swan.”
The male dancer gently took his partner’s hand in silent reassurance.
Chen Li’s heart sank slightly. He had never heard of this dance before, but his mind instinctively went to a different classic—Swan Lake.
[System, if I remember correctly, Swan Lake has two different endings, right?]
System 001 responded cheerfully: [Yes! One is a happy ending wnhere the prince and princess are together, and the other ends in classic tragedy.]
As for what kind of tragedy it would be—well, that didn’t need to be said.
No one believed that the temperamental circus ringleader would be kind enough to prepare a happy ending.
Especially not when even the name of the dance reeked of something sinister.
Hand in hand, the male and female dancers walked to the center of the stage. Joker said nothing, simply retreating into the shadows with a chilling smile on his face.
The two dancers stood beneath the spotlight.
The Magician whispered: “Do they even know how to dance?”
The Puppeteer nodded: “The girl was a dance instructor before entering the game. She’s been teaching her boyfriend to dance in their room these past few days.”
As they spoke, the pair on stage had already begun dancing.
At first, the male dancer’s movements were stiff. But gradually, he loosened up, syncing perfectly with the rhythm and moving in flawless harmony with his partner.
Their dance resembled ballet, yet differed from it in subtle ways. Dressed in flamboyant, brightly colored circus costumes, their movements were graceful but jarring—an eerie mismatch.
The Puppeteer frowned:“Something’s not right.”
The Magician, watching the increasingly elegant performance, asked: “What do you mean?”
The dancers’ expressions had shifted too—from initial nervousness to serene, peaceful smiles.
The Puppeteer replied: “The guy’s a fitness trainer. Have you ever seen a fitness trainer master a dance this complicated in just a few days?”
Even with extraordinary talent, it would be nearly impossible.
Not to mention, she had witnessed the girl scolding him multiple times over the past few days—calling him clumsy, saying he couldn’t learn.
“Look closely at their smiles.”
The Magician glanced back. At first, nothing seemed wrong, but two minutes later, a chill crept over him.
Who could possibly maintain the exact same smiling expression, without blinking once?
They weren’t the only ones to notice something was off. Chen Li quickly realized it too. Unlike the Magician, he immediately identified the problem—it was the dancers’ shoes.
Their exaggerated costumes and painted faces made the perfectly normal ballet slippers on their feet seem completely out of place.
As the dance built toward its climax, Joker suddenly spoke: “The beautiful swans adored each other. They fell in love by the lake.”
“They leaped together, they spun together…”
With each line from Joker, the dancers’ movements followed precisely—perfectly synchronized with his narration.
Everyone soon understood: this wasn’t just a commentary. Joker was crafting the story as he spoke.
Joker: “One day, the Swan Prince wished to leave the lovely lakeside to find a crown for his Swan Princess.”
On stage, the dancers embraced, then spun apart rapidly. The tips of their toes grazed the stage floor with fluttering steps. Sadness flickered across the girl’s face as she reached out toward him, but their paths continued to diverge.
Joker’s voice brimmed with enthusiasm: “The Swan Prince crossed tall mountains and snowy peaks, until at last, he found the long-desired crown.”
A large curtain suddenly dropped center stage, hiding the female dancer. The male dancer now performed alone, expressing the tale through movement.
At some point, a crude-looking treasure chest had appeared on stage. The male dancer circled it in rhythm, until the chest slowly opened to reveal the crown inside.
A crown made of yellow balloons—shoddily crafted and absurdly simple.
Yet the Swan Prince’s face lit up with wild delight. He grabbed the crown and spun joyfully.
Spin, spin, spin—he spun endlessly!
Joker’s voice suddenly rose in volume, almost like an operatic chant: “Ah! Poor Swan Prince! On his way back, he was caught in a storm!”
Inside the enclosed tent, a violent wind actually began to howl, whipping around them with gusts of rain that chilled on contact.
Chen Li had to squint against the wind, barely able to keep his eyes open—let alone the male dancer at center stage, who was now completely drenched. Yet his expression remained flawless, unchanging, even as rain poured into his eyes without making him blink.
Joker continued, voice full of theatrical pity: “Ah! Poor Swan Prince, he lost his way in the blizzard!”
Though still on stage, the male dancer radiated a sense of helplessness, as if truly lost in a storm.
“He must climb over a mountain of blades… to return to the beautiful lakeside.”
Suddenly, rows of gleaming blades appeared on stage. The male dancer moved toward them with perfect poise, unfazed, continuing his ballet.
The Magician couldn’t help but scream: “Watch out!”
Slash—
The sound of ballet slippers being sliced by metal.
Blood instantly soaked through the shoes, turning the once-white slippers a vivid red.
Chen Li murmured: “So that’s what Blood Swan means…”
He could almost feel pain shooting through the soles of his own feet. But the dancer showed no sign of awareness, continuing to twirl and leap on the blades—each step landing squarely on a sharp edge.
Each movement bled.
System 001: [Fear level +1 +1 +1…]
The system calmly reported the rising fear levels—someone was steadily growing more terrified.
But how?
Chen Li looked toward the Puppeteer and Magician. Both had already turned their faces away, unable to bear the sight.
The fear wasn’t coming from them…
It was from the dancer!!
A chill ran down Chen Li’s spine. His delicate features went pale.
The male dancer—though physically controlled—hadn’t lost his consciousness. He still had awareness and thought!
And he could only watch helplessly as his own body danced barefoot across blades.
The system’s fear notifications kept sounding in his ears, but Chen Li felt no triumph—only a deep, aching dread as he watched.
At last, the dancer emerged from the field of blades. His feet were a mangled mess of blood and flesh.
The red shoes were torn beyond repair. With every step, a fresh bloody footprint marked the center of the stage. Those prints slowly led toward the curtain where the female dancer had disappeared.
Clutching the yellow balloon crown, the male dancer stopped before the black curtain. It began to rise slowly.
Joker’s tone lifted with excitement: “Oh! The Swan Prince is finally about to see his Princess. Will she like his gift? Will she greet him with a kiss full of passion and love?”
Chen Li, tense beyond reason, found himself gripping his own fingers tightly.
He was terrified that behind the curtain… lay the female dancer’s corpse.
No one knew what had happened behind it.
Thankfully, nothing terrible happened—yet.
Joker proclaimed: “Ah! The beautiful Swan Princess!”
From behind the curtain, the female dancer spun forward with a flawless smile, twirling into the arms of the male dancer. Their fingers interlocked tightly, bodies pressed close, eyes meeting in perfect synchrony.
Before the audience could even breathe a sigh of relief, Joker suddenly laughed:
“The Swan Prince is going to place the crown on the Princess’s head.”
A seemingly ordinary line—yet the female dancer’s expression abruptly changed. She let out a sharp, terrified scream, her beautiful face contorting in horror.
Joker looked immensely satisfied: “But the Swan Prince doesn’t know… the crown is laced with deadly poison. His beloved will perish because of it!”
The two dancers began to move more wildly—arms swinging in wide arcs, their leaps growing increasingly exaggerated.
What had been a graceful ballet transformed into something grotesque. Their movements were becoming unnatural, even inhuman.
Chen Li could hear the crack and grind of bones.
It was hard to imagine how much pain the dancers were enduring.
But the more twisted the dance became, the more it matched the circus’s grotesque aesthetic.
As the master of the stage, everything Joker said had come true so far—meaning the poisoned crown was undoubtedly real. If placed on her head, it would kill her.
The two dancers grew closer and closer. Their expressions didn’t change, but the system’s voice grew frantic:
[Fear level +1 +1 +1…!!!]
The shrill audio and the surreal, distorted performance made Chen Li dizzy. He instinctively grabbed the hem of someone’s clothing beside him.
Through the haze, he heard a man’s voice, low and approaching: “Young Master? Do you want me to join this performance too?”
His voice overlapped with Joker’s next line: “Look! The Blood Swan is about to be complete!”
Blood Swan… Blood Swan…
Chen Li turned, horrified, toward the two “swans.”
Blood had begun to trickle from their noses and mouths. Their once serene expressions now contorted with pain and struggle.
This was the true Blood Swan.
They were being forced to witness themselves killing the one they loved—or being killed by them. It was a torment not just of the flesh, but of the soul.
As the system’s broadcast accelerated, Chen Li looked up and forced out the words: “I—I want you to join.”
Fu Moyang smiled. He gently took Chen Li’s right hand, raised it to his lips—and instead of a kiss, gave it a light bite.
“Yes, my little young master.”
Chen Li drew his hand back in confusion, unsure why the formal kiss on the hand had become a playful bite.
That bewildered, slightly aggrieved gaze nearly made Fu Moyang lose control.
Too cute.
His little lamb was looking up at him with pure trust and unconscious pleading—sweeter than the softest glutinous rice cake.
This was the treasure Fu Moyang had captured, but also the master he served.
His Adam’s apple bobbed slightly, and an unexplainable surge of desire rose in him—an urge to declare something, to mark something.
So he removed the whip at his waist and handed it to Chen Li.
A beast tamer has no flowers or jewels to offer—only the whip it once used to tame others.
The innocent lamb didn’t understand the meaning behind this gesture. He simply obeyed, taking the heavy whip in his arms and hugging it close.
Author’s note:
System 001: Let me ask—why did you take the whip?
Innocent Chen Li: …Wasn’t he just asking me to hold it for him?
The Mc s got a little psycho in him he really just watches by the other players slowly fall to bloody death and only think to help (or ask for help) when they’re at deaths door. He doesn’t seem to care too much about loss of human life and with his twisted desire to draw gore I feel it’s on purpose, cuz why else he would not try to subvert or make it less dangerous from the beginning? The system isn’t even that strict with him so I don’t believe he’s doing it for his own survival. He s getting by just fine.