Chapter 200: Fortune Telling! No Losses, No Tricks!
After a thorough exploration of the entire Animal Zone, the three of them finally departed.
A logbook discovered within the zone had granted them a few crucial pieces of information. For a Red Staff Member, there was a simple, brutally efficient method to permanently restore one's Sanity: killing. Specifically, personally killing players who had already transformed into animals. Each kill would recover a significant amount of Sanity.
However, the formal members of the circus required a large and steady supply of animals for their daily performances, which meant the existing population in the Animal Zone was strictly off-limits. Red Staff were, in fact, required to supplement the stock, handing over a set quota of new "animals" every three days. Only after meeting this quota were they free to dispose of any surplus prey as they saw fit.
This system placed the Red Staff in a fundamentally adversarial relationship with the Tourists. To the former, the latter were nothing more than walking, talking prey.
If Haruto's deductions were correct, the Blue Staff Members likely existed to help the players. The question was how. Did they have a different method for restoring Sanity? Or perhaps they knew of another way to escape the instance entirely?
As they walked along the main path, Haruto observed that the vast majority of players already showed signs of extreme mental distress, their faces haggard and drawn. It was clear they had been desperately attempting the various challenges since the park opened at ten o'clock, though none had yet shown the physical signs of animalization.
If the primary measure of corruption was the blurring of the line between human and animal within one's mind, then he, Kaguya, and Youmu were practically pristine. Their pollution levels were almost non-existent, the same as when they had first arrived. The only dip their Sanity had taken was during the unsettling hallucinations they'd experienced while facing the Residential Area on that first night.
If the sole condition for clearing the instance was maintaining a high enough Sanity value, then the optimal strategy would be to simply find a safe place like the Animal Zone, hide for three days, and do nothing but eat and sleep.
But that was impossible. It would be far too simple, a glaring exploit in the game's design. If a kind-hearted soul from a previous batch of players—one who had been kept on as staff—simply explained the rules, wouldn't every newcomer clear the instance with ease?
Therefore, Haruto speculated that while Sanity was indeed a core condition, it was not the only one. There had to be other prerequisites, additional requirements that needed to be met to achieve a "normal" clear.
Yet, as Haruto led Kaguya and Youmu on a leisurely tour around the circus grounds, they found no area designated for the Blue Staff or the formal circus members.
"They can only be inside the Grand Performance Area," Kaguya judged, unable to stifle a yawn. After wandering around for half the day, even she was feeling a bit tired.
"Should be," Haruto agreed with a nod. "It makes sense. Whether they're Red Staff or Blue Staff, they both serve the circus—at least on the surface. It's just that one side leans toward helping the Tourists, while the other sees them as a food source for their own survival."
The sky gradually began to bleed into shades of orange and purple. The sun dipped low toward the western horizon, and the time approached seven in the evening. Despite the late hour, the flow of people in front of the various attraction tents hadn't diminished in the slightest. Players were still racing against the clock, desperately trying to collect stamps.
Haruto picked an empty spot, strategically positioned in the middle of the three most crowded tents. Under the thoroughly puzzled gazes of Kaguya and Youmu, he reached into the air and pulled a table and three chairs from the dark, swirling depths of a Gap.
"What are you doing?" Kaguya asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.
"Waiting for those with destiny," Haruto replied cryptically as he procured a wooden board and began to write. A moment later, he stopped, clapped his hands together, and examined his handiwork with a smug sense of satisfaction.
[Destiny, Fortune, Coin. Awaiting the Fated One. Information has its price; destiny is priceless.]
[Past lives and present woes, marriage and wealth, careers and calamities.]
[To know your fate, first pay the fee. No credit, no prophecy.]
The three lines could be summarized quite simply: pay up for a reading, and you can ask about anything.
"I can understand the first line; we do have a fair bit of information," Kaguya said, pointing a slender finger at the second sentence. "But what in the world is this? Did you actually learn fortune-telling?"
Haruto denied it without a moment's hesitation.
A muscle in Kaguya's cheek twitched. "...Don't tell me you're planning to make me 'pay with my life' again."
"Who else but you, baby, could possibly handle such a heavy responsibility?"
"...Since you've pleaded so earnestly, I suppose I can reluctantly agree."
Hearing the term "baby," a flicker of awkwardness surfaced in the depths of Kaguya's crimson eyes, and the very tips of her ears quietly turned a delicate shade of pink. She feigned composure, waving a hand dismissively as she settled into the central chair. She was about to ask Haruto about the pricing, only to find he had already scooped Youmu up and sat down nearby to snuggle with her.
Dark lines materialized on Kaguya's forehead. She glanced around, her head lowered, half-seriously looking for a loose brick to introduce to Haruto's skull. Just then, someone approached the makeshift stall.
"Are you... telling fortunes?"
The newcomer was a large man with a rugged, scarred face. Kaguya recognized him; he was the one who had trailed them back to the Residential Area on the first night. His name, she recalled, was something like Wu Lian.
"We are. Would you like a reading?" Kaguya asked, looking up.
"...Sure." Wu Lian hesitated for a moment before deciding to support the three kids' little business venture. "What's the fee?"
"Just give whatever you feel is fair," Kaguya said with a dismissive wave of her hand, retrieving the Ghost Letter from her sleeve. Ever since the Insect Sea instance, the strange artifact had been left entirely in her care.
Wu Lian considered this, then placed a magnifying glass on the table.
Kaguya picked it up, examining it with genuine curiosity. "What's this?"
"Specter's Lens. It lets you see the traces left by ghosts. It's very effective against ones with invisibility."
"Oh? Can it be used on things that aren't ghosts?" Kaguya asked, her eyes gleaming with interest. She then efficiently stowed the lens in a small wooden box at her feet, a container designated for their growing collection of supernatural artifacts. "So, what do you want to ask?"
"Just talk about whatever. Life, family, fortune... anything is fine," Wu Lian said, waving a thick, muscular arm. His true intention was simply to relax for a moment and show his gratitude. He knew that by secretly following the trio on the first night, he had narrowly escaped a terrible fate. Many others hadn't been so lucky.
Kaguya's expression was a little strange; she clearly hadn't expected him to be so casual about it. She picked up a pen and jotted down his request. Without another word, lines of elegant script began to manifest on the surface of the Ghost Letter.
"Wu Lian, thirty-seven years old. Three old knife wounds on your left shoulder. The deepest was from a gang fight over territory ten years ago. Three years ago, you voluntarily disbanded your crew and turned over a new leaf..."
Kaguya narrated in a calm, unhurried voice, unfolding the man's life from a decade past to the present day, touching upon his family and even his children's marriages. Although information-type items couldn't predict a player's future within a rule-bound instance, the details Kaguya provided were more than enough to make Wu Lian's blood run cold. His eyes widened in disbelief.
Only then did he realize that the "letter" on the table was no ordinary piece of paper. It was a powerful, information-type supernatural artifact.
"Do you want to divine anything else?" Kaguya asked again.
Wu Lian shook his head quickly, his expression turning serious. "That's an information-type artifact," he warned, his voice low and grave. "You must never use it so casually in the future. Every time you use something like that, it comes at the cost of the user's lifespan!"
This type of artifact was exceedingly rare within the instances—not because of scarcity, but because no one dared to use them lightly. Trading one's own life force for a small snippet of information, which was often delivered as a cryptic riddle, was universally recognized as a fool's bargain.
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