"Excuse me, what's the next performance?" Mu Anqi walked onto the stage and, seeing that Red Nose and the performers remained silent, asked proactively. She only had 666 guansi, probably only enough to bribe one person; she needed to think…
"The next show is the Disaster Roulette!" The performer snapped out of his daze, smiled at her, and waved his arm. "You'll be tied to a roulette wheel with an apple on your head... Of course, the ropes aren't tight, you can struggle. By the way, I'm a great dart thrower, don't worry!"
As soon as he finished speaking, his arm accidentally fell to the ground. He exclaimed "Ouch!", bent down to pick it up, and looked up to find that Mu Anqi's expression was normal.
Mu Anqi crossed her arms, looked down at him, and said casually, "Wait, I have an even more interesting idea... We can switch roles." She seemed to be acting like a boss, but in reality—
Money makes the world go round, let's go! All our savings, bet it!
The performer was about to refuse, but upon receiving the message and the "666 guansi" from Mu Anqi, his expression faltered. He glanced subtly at the adults below and coughed lightly, "Tell me, what's a more fun way?"
"Role switch, I'll throw the knife, you spin the wheel."
"...?" The ghost frowned. What was so fun about this! However, for the sake of Guansi, he would be willing to accept it if the master wasn't here, but the master... He secretly glanced at the female ghost below.
The female ghost looked thoughtfully at the stage and nodded indifferently.
The ghost immediately relaxed and grinned, "Alright, whatever you say!"
[Ding! Skill activated successfully!]
Immediately afterward, Mu Anqi saw her backpack move. She reached up and unzipped it, only to find that the huge pile of guansi (officials) had transformed into a large red envelope inside. Mu Anqi was speechless for a moment, then quickly picked up the red envelope and handed it to the performer.
The action was anything but discreet, drawing boos from the Ghosts below. The performer's head could be twisted off at any moment; as long as the adults didn't blame him, what did he care about saving face? He accepted the red envelope without batting an eye and led Mu Anqi backstage.
The turntable was pushed up, and the Ghost slowly floated onto it, standing motionless with an apple on its head. Then, another Ghost dressed in a Circus staff uniform gave Mu Anqi ten small knives, without blindfolding her.
The curtain was drawn back, and Mu Anqi fiddled with the knife, getting used to its weight. She tried to swing it around, measuring her angle and strength... Even if the target was a ghost, she didn't intend to hurt it. There was a roughly human-shaped arc on the turntable, marked with ten green dots, which were obviously the corresponding areas.
However... beyond those ten green dots, Mu Anqi also saw a very conspicuous red "x".
"Hit the green dot to end the game. Hit the red cross to receive a small gift from Circus after the game ends," the Ghost, standing there temptingly, "maybe a few thousand guansi!"
"..." Mu Anqi ignored the so-called prize. Several thousand guansi? If you could afford that, you wouldn't have been bought off by 666 guansi. Ghost was skilled at manipulating people's hearts and wouldn't give players anything for free. She wouldn't fall for it.
Of course, this was entirely because she couldn't afford a second bribe.
Mu Anqi weighed the knife in his hand, and just as the performer was about to continue enticing them, he suddenly flung it out. The sharp knife flew past like a silver streak and struck the green dot directly.
Boos erupted from the audience again, and even some of the players couldn't understand why she didn't try if hitting the red target would be rewarded.
"Newcomers are all timid."
"Why don't you try killing a demon? Tch."
...
Mu Anqi couldn't hear these sounds; she was completely focused on the spinning wheel. She threw another knife, which went straight through the apple and landed on the green dot behind it.
Time and time again.
Mu Anqi wiped the sweat from his brow, took a few deep breaths to catch his breath, and then focused on throwing the knife again—hitting the green dot squarely!
She was very serious, and the process was slow. The Ghosts below were getting impatient, but since there was no time limit for the performance, she prioritized her completion rate—ten throwing knives, all hitting the green dot.
Mu Anqi breathed a sigh of relief.
"Wow, that was... a fantastic performance!" Ghost cheered, arms outstretched, and jumped down the steps. Then, he walked behind the giant rotating platform and spun it with all his might—
On the other side of the spinning wheel was the very man who had disappeared during the magic trick! His mouth was sewn shut in terror, his face flushed crimson, even tinged with a bluish tinge. He was bound tightly upside down behind the spinning wheel, which also had green dots on it. The performer chuckled, snapped his fingers, and the man tumbled to the ground.
That's when... the red cross pattern on his back was revealed.
The man gasped for breath, barely managing to stay alive.
Mu Anqi was somewhat stunned. She thought it would be a trap, or something else entirely. She hadn't expected Ghost to use such a disgusting method. To be honest, Mu Anqi wasn't prepared to kill anyone. Luckily, she was cautious enough—she silently turned and left the stage. The woman stood up again to let her pass. For some reason, Mu Anqi felt a little uneasy under the ghost's gaze.
"An interesting ability," the woman suddenly said.
"!" Mu Anqi's eyes widened. Are NCs this intelligent now? No, is this pre-programmed? No, no, no, maybe the Ghosts in this game have self-awareness, or maybe they are real Ghosts, but... is it really necessary to be so blunt about the player's abilities? "...Thank you for the compliment," she replied dryly.
The woman seemed embarrassed by her answer. She stared at Mu Anqi, gave a slightly amused smile, and sat down again, her expression returning to calm as if nothing had happened.
The interactive session ended successfully, even though she had inadvertently saved someone's life... but since no one knew each other, Mu Anqi didn't want to have any connections with strangers, and as for repaying them—forget about it. She sat in her seat, watching the stage curtain fall, and finally relaxed.
She has safely navigated one interaction; it should be... over now.
It shouldn't be too difficult for a beginner, right?
Circus's attempt to start was unsuccessful; both of their invited performers survived, and the performer seemed somewhat embarrassed, with Red Nose Clown's nose appearing even redder. They then interspersed a segment where they pulled in an nc Ghost from the audience to perform a "wave bridge" for relaxation. What should have been a visually enjoyable performance turned into a horror film with heads and arms flying and swaying, making one wonder if the waves originated from a dismemberment factory.
Mu Anqi, close your eyes, and let your heart be as still as water.
However, as soon as she closed her eyes, a voice came from her left, "What, you also think these performances are unbearable and unworthy of the name First Circus?"
"Gurgle." Mu Anqi shuddered. Had she triggered something...?
The wave bridge on stage came to an abrupt halt at this moment. The severed limbs and heads that had been swaying with the "wave bridge" fell to the ground one after another, and the "wave bridge" also stopped. The ghost performers looked panicked, their eyes filled with resentment as they looked at Mu Anqi. And the audience in Circus —once again—was as quiet as a chicken's nest.
Mu Anqi almost suspected that everyone in the audience was a voice actor, as they would mute themselves during tense moments.
"No, the performance was wonderful. It's just that the lights were too bright and made my eyes hurt a little, so I couldn't help but close my eyes to rest for a while..." Mu Anqi was on edge, trying to maintain his composure as he answered.
The female ghost chuckled softly, the meaning of which was unclear. Circus, however, recovered at that moment, the "Wave Bridge" performance on stage ended prematurely, the stage lights came back on, and the selection of lucky audience members began.
Having learned from that man's example, the male player chosen this time didn't cry or whine, but instead walked straight onto the stage. With Mu Anqi's example in mind, the players in the audience all widened their eyes, no longer daring to look away.
"The next performance is a little game called Exploding Poker." The performer left the stage, and the Red Nose Clown stepped on a red ball to the center, magically producing a deck of cards. The performance on stage was magnified on the large screen above the audience, allowing them to clearly see the cards in the clown's hand.
"The game is simple. This deck of cards has no jokers, and this stack... you just randomly draw one card." The clown grinned. "Don't worry, it'll be perfectly fair!"
The young man hesitated for a moment, a hint of panic in his eyes, perhaps because his abilities were of little use? He drew a card. It was the King of Clubs.
The clown placed the King of Clubs into the deck, discarding the remaining cards the young man hadn't drawn. "Now, there are only four Kings in this deck. Four Kings, that's a bomb!" There were now forty cards.
The clown chuckled, shuffled the cards, and handed them to the young man. "If you're not comfortable with that, you can shuffle them again. Then... we'll take turns drawing cards from each other's hands, one card each round, and discarding one card except for the King. Once someone collects four Kings, then... this Exploding Poker will become a bomb! Isn't that interesting?"
"What? What if I draw four Ks right from the start?!"
"Isn't this the best part of the show? Hahahaha... Just kidding, how could it be?" The clown laughed.
Luck? Mu Anqi frowned as he looked at the high-definition image on the big screen.
"First come, first served. You can decide whether you go first or I go first."
"You…I'll go first." The young man hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said. He had shuffled the cards several times, and his hands were still trembling slightly when dealing. Under the watchful eyes of so many Ghosts, he dared not cheat. Himself, the Joker, himself, the Joker…
Twenty cards isn't many; they were dealt out in no time.
"Now, Circus enters silence," the Joker announced with a laugh, and then Circus fell silent. The enlarged screen split into two parts, one showing the Joker's perspective and the other showing the young man's perspective.
Mu Anqi thought Ghost would do something sneaky, but she was shocked to find that the Joker had three Kings, while the young player only had one!