As the smoke billowed, the scene before Olson spun violently.
When his vision returned, the surrounding audience had all disappeared. Only the magician with his ghastly white makeup stood before him.
A beam of light, from an unknown source, illuminated Olson and his immediate surroundings, but beyond that, there was nothing else, only empty darkness.
More bizarre monsters seemed to lurk in the darkness, watching him. Olson subconsciously swallowed, and then he heard the magician's smiling voice.
"Esteemed guest, you have thirty minutes to prepare."
"May I ask, what exactly is the miracle you spoke of? Of course! Of course! If your miracle can satisfy all our guests, then our Freak Circus will fulfill all your requests!"
The magician gestured wildly, but the flesh on his face suddenly trembled, revealing the tender skin underneath and large patches of wriggling granulation tissue.
Countless strange transparent worms continuously squirmed in the gaps between the granulation tissue.
"But!" he said with a slight apology, "if your performance fails to meet the needs of our audience, then you will need to offer some insignificant congratulatory gifts to our circus, to those selfless performers."
As for what the congratulatory gifts were, the magician didn't say, and Olson was quite clear.
Olson was digesting the knowledge in his mind. He knew this was a high-stakes gamble.
If he won, he could live. If he lost... he would rather commit suicide than become a puppet in this place!
"I need props," Olson said, feeling a tremor in his voice, unsure if it was fear or excitement.
Although he trusted Tang, but...
But mainly... he really couldn't quite understand what those things Tang had provided were.
"What do you need? Our Freak Circus will provide it all!"
"Anything is fine?"
"Naturally!"
Of course, the so-called magic props couldn't contain Extraordinary factors beyond their rank. The magician smiled without speaking.
Olson's eyes, however, lit up, and the corners of his mouth curled up.
The magician, however, seemed to sense something, a faint premonition of disaster.
As if granted permission, Olson began to recite the string of items in his mind directly, like ordering dishes, rattling them off one after another. The moment he spoke, it was a long list of terms that both the speaker and the listener had never heard before.
"Cylinder, base, piston, crank-connecting rod mechanism, slide valve steam distribution structure, speed regulation structure, flywheel..."
"Throttle valve, centrifugal governor, steel, crankshaft, eccentric wheel, fire-tube boiler..."
The magician went from sitting upright at the beginning to looking bewildered, and then the granulation tissue on his face seemed to be uncontrollably breaking free from the constraints of flesh and blood in large patches, as if unable to withstand the soaking of knowledge, on the verge of losing control.
The magician wanted to stop Olson from continuing, but Olson spoke first, interrupting the magician's spellcasting.
"Not ready yet, I need to start explaining in detail... Can you handle it?" While the Traveler rattled off the menu more and more smoothly, he also thoughtfully asked.
"Nat...urally..."
The magician was bewildered, the magician didn't understand, the magician began to understand, respect, and mechanically follow the other party's words to display a miracle.
These were all things he had promised, the magic props provided contained no Extraordinary factors and did not exceed his inherent rules. Therefore, the magician followed his own logic and mechanically repeated his persona's commands.
The boast had already been made; what else could he do?
Olson saw the magician, who looked like he was about to collapse and whose face was truly as pale as paper, snap his fingers. The surroundings suddenly lit up, and various scattered parts seemed to be conjured out of thin air by some mysterious force.
The huge circus tent, its dome, was silently trembling.
The miracle the magician was now displaying was rapidly consuming the power accumulated in this place.
The Extraordinary people watching the various freak shows were surprised to find that the cheers of the surrounding marionettes, which were incessant, had weakened.
What was happening?
Their expressions varied, but they all simultaneously realized—this was an opportunity!
"Next, we have the pleasure of inviting Mr. Marcel Labres!"
Unexpectedly, the freak show on stage suddenly stopped. The monsters formed from various pieces of flesh shuddered and froze. At this moment, an old woman wearing a black robe and holding a purple crystal ball in her hand walked out from behind the scenes. Her voice was hoarse and unpleasant, yet it resounded throughout the entire circus.
"No!"
Someone suddenly shouted, "The previous performer hasn't finished his performance yet!"
The old woman cast a cold gaze over, and the surrounding marionettes silently twisted their heads one by one, some even turning a full 180 degrees, their hollow eyes staring at the man who had spoken.
Cold sweat immediately trickled down the man's back, and he shrank back his head.
The Seer old woman didn't reply. A man stood up, his expression stiff and terrified, and walked towards the stage.
"No, this shouldn't be happening, why me..." he muttered to himself repeatedly, but he couldn't resist the manipulation from the spirit threads.
However, the high-sequence Extraordinary people who had mistakenly entered all quietly noticed the problem.
The power manipulating them had strengthened.
But... the accumulated power in this place was rapidly weakening.
What was happening here?
Could this be their chance and possibility to escape?
At this moment, Olson had just finished reciting the mass of knowledge in his mind. He looked back at the magician and suddenly felt that the other party looked quite pitiful.
Just reading those things made his head feel empty and unable to process anything. Tsk tsk, this Mr. Magician was clearly in an even worse state.
The magician at this moment looked utterly ravaged, his entire body covered in frantically wriggling granulation tissue. His crisp clothes and hat seemed to have dissolved, revealing tender internal organs and jagged ribs. The pair of eyes exposed and surrounded by countless granulation tissue also revealed a dull look.
He was like a talisman that had been used and then cruelly discarded, his whole body exuding a sense of brokenness, as if he would shatter in the next second.
Shatter into a pile of flesh and wriggling worms...
"I'm guilty, I actually feel pity for such a thing," Olson thought silently.
A huge machine appeared before Olson. Olson looked at the assembled steel monster with awe.
Exquisite parts, meticulous construction, and... power beyond the era.
This was not some precisely assembled mystical monster, but a true industrial miracle.
"The Extraordinary people of the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery would go crazy if they saw this."
He thought of this, and then seemed to realize something. "Ah, it seems like I'm over time."
He had been talking for so long that his mouth was a bit dry.
The magician, however, no longer cared about these things. He raised his arm, which had already begun to disintegrate, pointed at the huge machine, and then snapped his fingers.
Flames blazed, and a huge steam hum echoed in the empty hidden space.
With a whoosh, the steel behemoth slowly moved its steps.
The dome trembled frantically. The terrifying power that had just been completely consumed suddenly seemed to be replenished, and a sense of terror instantly pressed down on the heads of all the audience members.
All the marionettes stood up.
Loud, terrifying, murmuring, delirious whispers, finally turning into roars.
They were enthusiastic and shouted:
"Miracle!"
"Miracle!"
"Miracle of life! Miracle of industry!"
The steel behemoth pierced through the curtain and drove onto the stage.
(End of this chapter)