Chapter 216: The Merry-Go-Round and the Eerie Little Girl
'I am going to die. I am absolutely going to die.'
The honey-skinned woman stumbled backward, her boots scraping against the dirt. A long-forgotten, icy dread crawled up her spine from the soles of her feet, freezing the blood in her veins. Her survival instincts screamed at her. Even though she was already a ghost bound to this twisted instance, she knew with absolute certainty that a single strike from the silver-haired girl's blade would erase her from existence entirely.
"Hold on, don't kill her just yet. She still has her uses."
The boy's casual voice drifted through the tense air, breaking the suffocating pressure.
In an instant, the heavy shadow of impending death vanished. The honey-skinned woman exhaled a ragged breath, her chest heaving violently. Only then did she realize she had retreated all the way to the back of the crowd, her uniform completely drenched in cold sweat.
The surrounding players, all clad in the crimson uniforms of the Red Staff Members, stared in sheer terror. They knew exactly how terrifying this woman was. Not even the core entities of the Circus could truly kill her. Yet here she was, trembling like a cornered rat before a silver-haired girl who barely looked of age.
The conclusion was obvious. Their opponents possessed a level of power that completely shattered their understanding.
One by one, knees hit the floor. The red-clothed staff members collapsed in utter defeat. Fight back? How could they even entertain the thought of winning against monsters like these?
Haruto nodded, a look of mild satisfaction crossing his features. He lazily beckoned to the honey-skinned woman. She hesitated, her eyes darting nervously toward the gleaming blade, before submissively shuffling forward.
Resistance never even crossed her mind.
She still harbored dreams of tasting all the beautiful boys the world had to offer; dying in this godforsaken instance was not on her agenda. Although the boy standing before her perfectly matched her aesthetic preferences—perhaps the most handsome face she had ever laid eyes on—her life took absolute priority over her carnal desires.
Reaching Haruto, she forced a stiff, ingratiating smile. Her previous flippant, seductive tone was entirely gone.
"At your command."
"In addition to what we just discussed," Haruto began, his tone light but leaving no room for argument. "Once you see my signal tomorrow, you are to systematically violate the established rules. Additionally, you will split your group. One half will disguise themselves as Tourists, while the other half will pose as Blue-clothed Staff Members."
The woman's brow furrowed in deep distress. Before she could formulate a careful response, the red-clothed staff behind her broke.
"Are you insane?!" one of them screamed, his voice cracking with panic. "Just helping you transport those cursed animals is practically suicide! Now you want us to actively break the ru— Argh!"
A silver crescent flashed through the dim light. A severed arm hit the dirt with a wet thud, blood spraying across the ground.
"I am giving you an order, not opening a negotiation." Haruto stood calmly, reaching out to casually pet the floating phantom of the Half-Spirit, a cold smile playing on his lips. "If you find yourselves unwilling to cooperate, I have no problem disposing of every single one of you right now. I can easily pick a new batch of pawns from the Tourists and Blue-clothed Staff to replace you. I prefer my plans to be foolproof, after all."
"We agree."
A flicker of realization flashed through the honey-skinned woman's eyes upon hearing his ruthless alternative, and she immediately bowed her head in submission.
Haruto nodded slowly. "Excellent. Just remember, if this plan fails due to any incompetence on your end, you will bear the full weight of the consequences."
As if punctuating his words, Youmu's hand shifted slightly on her hilt, releasing another sharp, suffocating wave of killing intent directly at the woman.
"...Understood," she choked out, her voice trembling violently as the aura of death washed over her once more. Only when Youmu finally withdrew the oppressive pressure did she manage to suck in a desperate gulp of air.
After a heavy silence, she raised her head slightly, her voice dropping to a cautious whisper. "...Is there something wrong with the escape route?"
Haruto raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised by her sharp intuition.
Sensing his silent question, the woman quickly explained her reasoning. "This is already the second performance. Given the sheer number of participants dragged into this instance, it is statistically guaranteed that a few highly capable individuals would emerge."
She cast a quick glance at the dark sky.
"It is well past midnight. The main performance concluded over two hours ago. Yet, someone as overwhelmingly powerful as you is still standing here. That means either you have unfinished business, or... you simply cannot leave."
She swallowed hard, her eyes darting between Haruto and Youmu.
"Considering the extreme lengths you are going to, forcing the Tourists and Blue-clothed Staff to cooperate in such a chaotic scheme... only the latter makes sense."
"Correct."
Since she had already pieced the puzzle together, Haruto saw no reason to hide the grim reality.
"As of two years ago, that supposed escape route became a complete dead end. The entire passage is choked with the rotting corpses of animals and plastered wall-to-wall with staring eyes."
He kept the description brief, sparing them the more gruesome specifics.
But he didn't need to elaborate. The Red Staff Members understood the implications instantly. As the personnel directly responsible for managing the cursed Animal Zone, they knew exactly what a corridor filled with animal corpses and eyes truly represented. It was a slaughterhouse.
All remaining color drained from the honey-skinned woman's face.
She had never imagined that the designated exit had been entirely compromised and barricaded by the instance's most vicious entities. The grand escape mission they all clung to was nothing but a malicious, carefully crafted scam.
"So... for the past two years, every single player who supposedly escaped actually marched straight to their deaths in that tunnel?"
The confirmation sent a shockwave of absolute despair through the surviving staff members. Panic erupted. Several of them lost all strength in their legs, collapsing into the dirt as the horrifying truth crushed their last shreds of hope.
"What exactly do you need us to do tomorrow?"
The honey-skinned woman dug her nails into her palms, forcing herself to remain lucid. At this point, survival was her sole objective. A monster of his caliber had zero reason to lie about the exit being blocked.
"I will send a clear signal when the time is right," Haruto instructed, his voice cutting through the rising panic. "Keep a detail guarding the animals until then. Once you see my signal, you are to execute three tasks immediately."
Haruto casually swiped two fingers through the empty air. The space before him instantly tore open, a jagged, pitch-black fissure expanding like a monstrous maw. "First, herd all the animals into a single location and leave a skeleton crew of three or four to watch them. The second my order drops, you will drive every last one of those beasts directly into this Gap."
The woman instinctively peered into the dark tear in reality. Staring back at her from the abyssal void were dozens of massive, bloodshot, and utterly hideous eyeballs.
A wave of cosmic horror, infinitely more intense than the fear of a simple sword strike, crashed over her psyche. This was not the fear of a physical threat; it was a primal, sanity-shattering dread rooted deep within the very core of her existence.
She violently wrenched her gaze away, her teeth chattering. "...Okay. I understand."
"Second, as we established, the rest of you will infiltrate the Grand Performance Area. Blend in with the audience, or disguise yourselves as Blue-clothed Staff and deliberately shatter their specific rules."
He paused, his sharp gaze sweeping over the trembling crowd, ensuring every word sank in.
"Third, you will await my final command. Depending on how the situation develops, I may order you to physically demolish the Grand Performance Area or turn your weapons on the animals. In short, your job is to generate the maximum amount of absolute, unadulterated chaos."
Under normal circumstances, not a single one of them would have agreed to such a suicidal mandate. It was a guaranteed death sentence.
But with the true escape route revealed as a slaughterhouse, this insane, chaotic gamble had suddenly transformed into their one and only beacon of survival.
Haruto gestured lazily over his shoulder, pointing toward the ten heavily contaminated Tourists huddled in the background.
"I am leaving these ten in your care," he told the woman. "Escort them to the Animal Zone within the next half hour and use whatever methods you possess to suppress their contamination."
"Understood."
The honey-skinned woman nodded frantically in agreement.
Haruto turned on his heel, his coat fluttering slightly as he headed for the exit. Just as he reached the threshold, he paused, tossing a final warning over his shoulder.
"Keep your people on a tight leash. Tomorrow's operation must proceed exactly as planned. Besides, I have specific uses for those ten Tourists. Not a single hair on their heads is to go missing. If anything goes wrong..."
He let the threat hang heavily in the stale air, leaving the rest to their terrified imaginations as his figure vanished into the shadows outside the door.
The pieces were finally set on the board. All that remained was to wait for the curtain to rise.
Haruto and his three companions, including Kaguya, handled their way back toward the Residential Area. The night air was thick and oppressive, carrying the faint scent of rust and decay. As they rounded the corner of a massive, tattered circus tent, a sickly, pulsating red light suddenly bled into their path.
Haruto narrowed his eyes, his boots crunching softly against the gravel as he took a few measured steps forward.
Sitting alone in the center of a desolate clearing was an ancient, rusted merry-go-round.
Unlike the vibrant, cheerful attractions found in normal amusement parks, this decrepit machine was bathed in a sinister, blood-red luminescence that seemed to stain the surrounding fog.
And mounted on the outermost wooden horse—a chipped, decaying unicorn with peeling paint—sat a small figure.
It was the eerie Little Girl.
Dressed in a faded, dirt-stained floral dress, she sat with her back facing Haruto's group. As the mechanical unicorn rose and fell on its rusted pole, her small body swayed rhythmically back and forth in the gloom.
A crisp, innocent child's voice drifted through the chilling night air, carrying the haunting melody of a twisted nursery rhyme.
"Spin and spin, spin and spin~"
"The wooden horse takes me far away~"
"Mama says come home when it's dark, but I can't find the door~"
"Hehe... I can't find the door..."
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