At the entrance of the clown house, a tall young man in beige sportswear walked in, his slicked-back hair glinting under the stage lights.
Ethen's eyes swept across the audience.
The crowd sat motionless, faces blank and glassy-eyed—like lifeless puppets.
Among them, he spotted Grandpa Max, Ben, Gwen, and Mark, all staring vacantly at the stage.
Beside Gwen was an empty seat. His seat.
Ethen's gaze shifted to the stage, where Zombozo—the clown in a magician's hat—was performing with an unsettling grin.
Good. He's far enough from Grandpa Max and the others.
Ethen exhaled slowly. That means I can transform without worrying about anyone getting caught in the crossfire.
His last bit of hesitation vanished.
"Hey, kid!" Zombozo's painted smile twisted into a sneer as he reached into his hat and pulled out a throwing knife. "Are you here alone?"
Whoosh!
The knife flew straight toward Ethen's chest.
But before it could hit, the Error Watch on his wrist pulsed with crimson light—activating on its own!
Flash!
A blood-red glow engulfed him, and in an instant, a bandaged figure wearing a golden pharaoh's crown appeared where Ethen stood.
The Error Mummy raised his head slowly, revealing fanged teeth between torn wrappings.
The flying knife pierced into his chest—but instead of cutting, it sank into the soft bandages and fell harmlessly to the floor.
"Wh-what… a mummy?!" Zombozo's eyes widened in terror as he stumbled backward.
"You're done," the Mummy rasped, his voice low and menacing.
"W-wait!" Zombozo chuckled nervously, hands trembling. "Sir Mummy, my mistake! I didn't know you liked disguising yourself as a kid! Hahaha…"
Ding!
Mission issued: "Evil Clown Zombozo."
Objective: Defeat Zombozo, a circus performer who hides a dark secret and wields strange, powerful abilities.
Reward: 15 points.
Ethen frowned beneath the wrappings. "Only 15 points? Lame."
He cracked his knuckles. "You're not even worth the effort."
Zombozo's eye twitched.
"I tried being polite, and this is how you repay me?!"
He flung a barrage of knives toward Ethen.
The Mummy's bandages whipped outward, intercepting them one by one.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Each strip of cloth struck like tempered steel, deflecting the blades effortlessly.
"It seems one isn't enough." Ethen smirked and unleashed more bandages, twisting two together into a whip.
It lashed across the air, the sound cracking like thunder.
Zombozo blocked desperately, but the blows came faster and faster.
He was driven back step by step until his heels hit the edge of the stage.
"Fall—down!"
The Mummy's chest heaved as a dozen more bandages exploded from his body, striking all at once.
Whip-crack!
Zombozo screamed as the blows sent him crashing to the floor below.
He looked up, trembling, his body covered in welts.
"You—you're not even human…"
"If I wasn't worried about hurting the audience," Ethen growled, "you'd already be ash."
"Enough! Die!" Zombozo roared in desperation, pulling several Molotov cocktails from his hat.
He lit them and hurled them onto the stage.
Boom! Boom!
The bottles burst, igniting the wooden floor.
Flames roared across the stage, swallowing the Mummy and spilling toward the crowd.
"Burn! Burn to death!" Zombozo shrieked, laughing madly.
"Bandages and fire don't mix, do they?! I win!"
But a massive eruption of fire burst upward from the inferno—
and through it stepped a blazing figure with a flaming skull and glowing eyes.
It was Error Heatblast.
He slammed his hands together, summoning a towering wall of fire that curved like a protective barrier around the audience, blocking the spreading flames.
"Nice try," Errorblast said, his voice a guttural rumble. "You've got tricks… but so do I."
Zombozo stumbled backward, panic in his painted eyes.
"Y-you can switch forms too? That's impossible!"
He yanked a fire extinguisher from his hat and aimed it at Ethen.
But before he could pull the trigger—
Flash!
Another pulse of red light.
The flames vanished, replaced by the ghastly silhouette of Error Heatblast's shadow form—the Star of Terror.
He appeared right beside Zombozo, grin full of razor teeth.
"Here—let me help you with that."
He grabbed the extinguisher, spun it around, and pressed the nozzle directly at Zombozo's face.
Psssshhhh!!
The gas blasted out full-force, covering the clown's face with white frost.
Zombozo gagged, coughing and stumbling back as Ethen kicked him to the ground.
"Still feeling funny, clown?" the Star of Terror sneered.
Zombozo's voice cracked as he screamed, "If I absorb the power from the Clown Machine, I'll never lose to you!"
"Oh?" Ethen tilted his head. "You've got a second stage?"
"Y-yes! It's… still experimental, but I'll risk it!" Zombozo's hands shook, his voice trembling with both fear and madness.
"Where's this 'machine' of yours?" Ethen asked calmly.
Zombozo's eyes darted toward the floor.
Ethen grinned. "Underground, huh?"
"Then I hope this dance of yours is worth the effort."
The Error Watch pulsed again.
Another flash—and the Star of Terror's body warped into the massive, six-eyed form of Error Four Arms.
"Let's finish this!"
He slammed his fists down with earth-shaking force.
BOOM!!
The impact shattered the stage, opening a hole beneath Zombozo's feet.
The clown let out a pitiful cry as he plummeted into the underground chamber below.
"What a pathetic freak," Ethen muttered. "Humiliated again and again."
Ding!
Mission complete. +15 Reward Points.
Ethen exhaled in relief. "Mission complete."
He quickly turned his attention to the dazed audience.
One by one, he carried Mark, Ben, Gwen, Grandpa Max, and every other person out of the burning tent.
Even with the wall of fire holding back the flames, it wouldn't last forever.
"I may not be the perfect Plumber," he said under his breath, "but I still protect people."
When the last person was safe outside, Ethen looked back at the blazing clown house.
The fire roared high into the night sky, reflecting in his crimson eyes.
A grin tugged at his mouth.
"Zombozo," he murmured, "ready for phase two?"