Entering the humongous gates, Natsuki was blasted by loud cries as hawkers waged verbal wars, trying to grab the largest share of the consumer pie to gobble up. He swore he even saw someone do an RKO over a small, pixie-type customer, who stood before them, confused, trying to figure out what on earth was going on. Though the fighting was eventually stopped, a few teeth were seen lying on the ground, but they quickly disappeared amid the oncoming traffic. Though it was only brief, Natsuki swore to the heavens that he saw the teeth glitch out right before disappearing, as if a piece of data from a simulation was being deleted after serving its purpose.
He turned around, trying to confirm what he saw was not a hallucination, and he was glad he did so:
Vylara pursed her lips, eyes furrowed at the possible implications...
Scaramond, though not as visible compared to Vy, was seen rapidly twitching his fingers, communicating with his various subsystems, trying to calculate where the central database for this 'simulation' was...
And the old man was constantly gazing at the mountain, thoughts pensieve, eyes silent in rumination...
"Oh look mommy, the Clown of Adelhaide has returned! Look at how he is juggling the wooden balls so elegantly!"
Looking to his left, Natsuki found himself staring at what appeared to be a noble girl. Seeing her point her finger at a comically bad clown, he saw how the clown was surrounded by a large crowd. Though he hated clowns (blame Pennywise the stripping clown for it), he couldn't help but clap his hands at the jovial atmosphere, for despite looking like a registered sex offender, the clown did do a pretty damn good job at entertaining the crowd, to the point that even Scaramond, despite calculating in a trillion Brontabits per second, couldn't help but drag himslef from his calculations, whistling at the clown's attempt in juggling 10 balls, while spinning ten plates on his mouth and painting a picture of the noble girl sitting with her dog with his feet:
Impressive
Though the spectacle was mind-blowing, they had other priorities, mainly trying to find an inn for them to live in (what'd you expect– 5-star hotels were invented in the twentieth century!). As they ventured further into the city, Natsuki couldn't help but glance at the Clown juggling. What he saw next made him shrink his eyes:
One of the small wooden balls was stuck in the air, glitching all the while
What the fuck– are they seeing this as well!?
Quickly turning back, he saw that both Vylara and Scaramond had pinpricks for eyes; both noticed the abnormality, their palms sweating.
Knoxis, as usual, seemed unperturbed, just taking a quick glance before continuing on
"Ooooohhhhh! Look mummy, the Clown made the ball freeze in the air again! WAAAW!"
Amidst the cheering crowd, the group made their way quickly to the nearest inn, wanting to figure out what the fuck on Aeronia is going on in this world...
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"Okay, first the wacky animals, then the very badly 'animated' arrows, and now...
MOTHERFUCKING PIXELATED BALLS!?
What on Aeronia is going on here!? It's like this world is a badly simulated world or some shit! Hey old man, can you please us:
Where the fuck on Aeronia did you bring us to!?"
Despite seeing how pissed off Scaramond was, even Natsuki agreed that this mission seemed to be a death trap for them. Being the leader of this group, he expected old Knoxis to tell them what was going on, but what he heard next soon sent him to despair...
"I...don't know to be exact. There seems to be a power unseen that is hindering me, making it near impossible for me to do a proper reconnaissance here...
But my instincts are telling me that whoever, or whatever, is behind this, they mean no harm..."