“So it’s just a game, you’re not married?”
Bai Lixin: [That’s what you’re focusing on?]
Clown: “What else should it be?”
The players once again heard the clown talking to himself.
The Golden Shield player curiously observed the seemingly mentally unstable man in front of him, only to see the clown cast a glance in their direction.
The clown’s hideous smile added an extra layer of terror in the dark corridor.
The clown before them resembled the humanoid monster from a horror movie that suddenly appears and drags passersby into a dark alley.
This fear didn’t come from the fear of the clowns himself but was a product of their imaginations running wild.
Just as the players were getting creeped out by the clown’s stare, they heard him muttering to himself again.
“Take them along? They’re an eyesore, no.”
“…These guys are useful to you? Fine.”
The clown finally gave them a proper look. “Follow me.”
The players looked at each other and, after a brief hesitation, quickly decided to follow him like little tails.
They were afraid of the clown, so they kept their distance. They followed him at a distance of about two meters, not too close, not too far.
The clown seemed to be searching for something in the corridor. Every time he passed a room, he’d poke his head in, look around, and then continue walking without lingering.
He also muttered to himself from time to time.
“Not this one.”
“Not this one either.”
“This one’s not it.”
They walked for a while until the clown suddenly stopped in front of a private room. “Seems like this is the one.”
He pushed the door open and walked in. The players behind him stretched their necks to look inside.
It was a room designed to resemble a primitive grassland. A white screen hung on the wall, and the projector’s lens facing it was glowing fluorescent green.
The players didn’t dare enter the room and just stood at the door.
They watched as the clown casually found a clean stone to sit on, his long legs slightly angled, one hand propping up his chin in a relaxed pose, as if he was planning to watch a movie to pass the time.
The Golden Shield player gathered his courage and asked, “Um, Boss, is there something special about this room?”
The clown lazily leaned against the stone. “It’s perfect for watching movies.”
Golden Shield: ???
When a lion approached from a distance, the skeptical players had no choice but to believe the clown.
He really was watching a movie, and it was “Animal World”.
Ah, this.
The Golden Shield player could guess with his toes that there was a bloody storm outside, yet his queen was sitting calmly in a private movie room, watching Animal World!
Is this movie really that important? If you really want to watch, couldn’t you pick another one?
…
Bai Lixin, who was nestled in the clown’s shirt pocket, opened the system to check the rules for the second round of the [Queen’s Defense] game.
Before the first round of the Queen’s Defense, there were 285,000 players, but after the first round, only over 190,000 were left, a decrease of nearly 100,000 players.
Because of the decrease in the number of players, the number of factions in the second round also decreased accordingly, from the original 100 factions to 80 factions, with about 2,435 players in each faction.
Bai Lixin opened the player rankings and noticed subtle changes in the rankings. Some players’ names had moved up, which meant that the players originally ahead of them had died.
Normally, expert players on the leaderboard wouldn’t die so easily, but it was a different story if their team failed.
An excellent and powerful soldier got a rookie queen, and the soldier became a sacrificial pawn.
Suddenly, 100,000 players were gone. Some were killed by other players, while others were eliminated by NPCs.
Rather than a massive battle royale, it seemed more like the horror game was deliberately cutting down the number of players.
[Sister System,] Bai Lixin called out to the escape system in his mind, [Have any new players entered the horror game recently?]
Escape System: [No new players have entered the horror game in the past month, Master.]
Coincidentally, Dijia had also been missing for almost a month.
[Clown, I have a question for you.] Bai Lixin patted the clown’s bony chest through his shirt. It was so hard that it felt like he was touching bones and he wondered how skinny the clown was underneath his clothes. [There’s this place… uh, a breeding farm. Yes, a breeding farm that’s been running for many years.]
[The farm has 300,000 sheep. The sheep aren’t living great lives, but they’re growing slowly. When a sheep grows large enough, the farm opens its gates and lets it return to freedom. The farm has been running like this for many years. Then one day, the farm stops bringing in new lambs and starts slaughtering the flock. The 300,000 sheep quickly become 200,000, and the slaughter continues.]
[What do you think caused this sudden change in the farm?]
The clown tilted his head slightly, his eyes unblinking, listening attentively, “Went bankrupt?”
Bai Lixin: [What would be the consequence of bankruptcy?]
Clown: “Without funds to maintain the farm, all the sheep would be slaughtered.”
Bai Lixin: [Are there any other reasons?]
The holographic movie in the room created an immersive experience. Two lionesses crouched in the grass, ready to ambush.
Soon, a herd of antelopes appeared in the distance. As they drew closer, the two lionesses shot out like two golden bullets, pouncing towards the herd.
The clown shifted to a more comfortable position, “Another reason could be that the sheep have fattened up, and it’s time to slaughter and sell the meat.”
The two lionesses worked together to corner an adult antelope. They leaped onto it, biting its throat and legs. The antelope let out a desperate cry, which gradually faded as it convulsed and fell to the ground, its eyes lifeless.
The lionesses began tearing into their prey, gutting it and savoring the most primal of flavors.
“If it’s not a breeding farm, I can think of another scenario.” The clown watched the one-sided hunt with boredom. “If it’s inside an ecological box, there wouldn’t just be sheep. The sheep would become prey for higher predators like lions. If the lions suddenly had a big appetite, the number of sheep would decrease rapidly. This is the law of the food chain, where the strong prey on the weak.”
The lionesses had sharp teeth and easily ripped through the antelope’s skin and started devouring the fresh, tender meat inside.
“Let’s change the environment again. If it’s neither a farm nor sheep, but a poison tank where various poisons are placed inside. The poisons attack each other and the last one standing becomes the king of poisons. This is the law of evolution through competition and selection.”
[…] Bai Lixin, [So, what do you think is happening in the farm I mentioned?]
Clown: “Since it’s a farm, it must be a profitable business. A mature businessman wouldn’t feed his assets with free fodder and then release them for no reason, unless it’s a stock concept.”
“A farm with 300,000 sheep is a large industry. Every once in a while, a few sheep are released to inspire the rest, so that they can eat desperately and grow strong, hoping that they can be released in the future. But most of the sheep won’t be released. From the moment they entered the farm, they became the businessman’s priced assets. Once they grow to a size that satisfies the businessman, they’ll be weighed and turned into his profits.”
“A businessman will never engage in a losing business. The foolish sheep only see the lucky few that get released, but they don’t see the businessman manipulating their thoughts behind the scenes.”
The players standing awkwardly at the door looked at each other.
They huddled together, whispering.
“Why do I feel like the clown’s farm analogy is alluding to the horror game and us players?”
“300,000 sheep, 300,000 players.”
“Every once in a while, there are sheep that are released, and every once in a while, there are lucky players who reach the maximum progress and leave the game.”
“Most of the sheep won’t be released, and most of us players are trapped here, with only a few leaving.”
“Does he mean we’re being played by the horror game? From the moment we stepped into this game, the horror game never intended to let us go?!”
The clown in the room spoke again, “Actually, there’s another possibility. It’s neither bankruptcy nor the laws of the food chain and evolution, but transformation.”
“The businessman has made enough money from the farm, and he doesn’t want to be stuck in this boring business forever, so he tries to make a change. At this point, the farm that once made him a lot of money becomes a stumbling block, and naturally, he chooses to dismantle and destroy it.”
Bai Lixin listened carefully: [What direction do you think the farm will transform towards?]
Clown: “That depends on what the businessman wants.”
“But I think someone skilled at manipulating minds, as his ambition grows, may no longer be content with just playing with the thoughts of lower beings. He might want to control the minds of equals. He might want to become a politician. If that’s the case, that farm with 300,000 sheep could become his shame. After all, a clever schemer wouldn’t want others to know that he once mingled with low level sheep.”
Bai Lixin frowned: [So he’ll wipe out all the sheep. He’s undergoing a level transition.]
The Queen’s Defense Battle is the horror game’s way of wiping out these players.
It constantly absorbs players into the game space and feeds on their thoughts and energy. Once it becomes strong enough, it completes its level transition, evolving into a more powerful existence.
So this is the true purpose of the horror game.
Bai Lixin: [Clown, what if the sheep don’t want to die?]
Clown: “Kill the businessman. If the sheep don’t kill him, he’ll kill the sheep.”
Bai Lixin: [What if the businessman is cunning and hides? How can the sheep find him?]
Clown: “No matter how cunning a fox is, it will reveal its tail. The hidden businessman is just hiding, not gone. Find him, then kill him.”
Bai Lixin: […]
Yes, the main brain is just hiding, it hasn’t disappeared.
As long as he finds the main brain.
When he was advancing through the floors, he would take time to explore each floor thoroughly.
It wasn’t just to familiarize himself with the terrain, he was also quietly searching for the hidden main brain.
He had climbed from the first floor all the way to the 950th floor, and he had searched through the first 930 floors.
Only the floors above 931 remained unsearched.
After the lionesses were full, they burped and left. The hyenas hiding in the corner came out to gnaw on the remaining meat, while vultures circled overhead, waiting for their turn to feast.
The clown lazily stood up and walked towards the door.
The players were listening to the clown’s monologue with great interest. Suddenly, they saw the clown walking over, and instinctively took several steps back, giving him plenty of space and respect.
The clown seemed crazy, but his words were truly thought-provoking!
This guy was definitely a boss!
The group eagerly followed the clown, tailing him all the way to the exit, where they watched him press the elevator button.
When the elevator doors opened, they hurriedly followed the clown inside.
No one would dare hesitate when trying to curry favor with a boss—not even for a second.
After the clown entered the elevator, he didn’t press any buttons for a while.
He stood there in a daze for a moment, then finally pressed the button for the 850th floor.
Besides the clown, there were six other players in the elevator.
Aside from the player with the golden shield above his head, the other five players had different emblems above them.
Seeing the clown press the button for the 850th floor, the player with the white cloud emblem immediately gasped.
“850th floor… That’s a height someone like me could never dream of. He really is a boss!”
“What’s the 850th floor?”
“How would I know? I’m just a newbie too.”
“You guys are hopeless! Don’t you ever read the game manual? To make the game more interesting for players, there’s a special entertainment floor every 50 floors. The 850th floor is a chapel.”
“A chapel? That doesn’t sound too bad—it’s pretty normal, actually.”
“At least it’s better than the 400th floor cinema with all those realistic monsters.”
The elevator ascended from the 400th floor. The numbers flashed by like a blur, but the players couldn’t feel it moving.
When the rapid flickering stopped, the number settled at the 850th floor.
“Ding!”
The elevator made a crisp sound.
The players stood on tiptoe, filled with curiosity about the chapel they had never laid eyes on before.
The moment the elevator doors opened, curiosity was replaced by fear.
The six players huddled together skillfully, screaming hysterically, “Close the door! Close the door! Hurry!”
A huge blob of flesh was squeezed in front of the elevator doors, its rough, lumpy skin deforming the door frame. Two huge eyes were stacked one on top of the other, and the eyeballs inside rotated erratically within the swollen skin. The two eyes moved independently, adding to the unsettling strangeness.
The fleshy mass pressed against the door frame, emitting a low whimper.
It appeared out of nowhere, scaring the players out of their wits.
After swiveling aimlessly in the air for a few seconds, the eyeballs finally locked onto the clown at the front.
The tumor-like monster was covered in hideous, terrifying lumps. It let out a low whimper as its soft body strained to squeeze into the elevator.
But strangely, though there was still space in the elevator, and its body was soft enough, something seemed to be blocking the monster’s path, preventing it from advancing even an inch.
“Get out.” The clown ordered in a low voice.
Usually, other monsters would back off immediately, but this grotesque monster showed no fear of the clown.
Not only did it not retreat, but it intensified its efforts to force its way into the elevator. Its whimpering grew louder, sounding like the cry of a child.
Impatience flashed in the clown’s eyes, and with a pinch of his fingers, a joker card appeared in his hand.
The players only saw a flash of white light, and the massive, tumor-like monster split down the middle, slowly dividing into two halves.
“Help… me…”
In a daze, the players seemed to hear a faint cry for help.
The soft body collapsed to the ground, gradually turning into two piles of meat paste, losing all signs of life.
Finally, the players could see the scene outside through the gap.
If they thought it couldn’t get worse, they were wrong.
This was supposed to be a sacred and noble chapel. From afar, they could still see the white cross hanging in front of the stained glass windows.
White angel statues with serene expressions clasped their hands together in prayer, like the most devout believers.
The walls of the chapel were inlaid with beautiful stained glass, colorful and radiant, as if bathed in holy light.
But at this moment, the sacred chapel had turned into a hellish scene.
The floor was crawling with tumor-like monsters similar to the one they had just encountered. At first glance, their bodies appeared to be round, but upon closer inspection, their bodies were irregularly shaped, covered with eyes all over, like human tumors removed on an operating table. They were disgusting and nauseating.
Not only were they crawling on the floor, but the ceiling was also filled with these tumors. However, the tumors on the ceiling had grown wings—tiny wings that looked absurdly mismatched with their bulky bodies. The small wings flapped desperately, trying to support the massive forms beneath them.
The scene was utter chaos.
The tumors on the ceiling were attacking those on the ground, while the ones on the ground ran frantically throughout the chapel. Amidst the tumors, players were also fleeing in terror, each busy with their own survival.
The clown took a step out of the elevator.
The other six players huddled together in the farthest corner of the elevator.
“Boss! Do we really have to get off this elevator?”
“Boss, maybe we could just wait here for you?”
The clown ignored them and stepped out with his other foot.
As soon as the clown left, the elevator doors began to close slowly.
At the last second, just before the doors fully shut, a hand suddenly pressed the open button, and someone rushed out, betting everything on this risky move.
Then came the second, the third… When the sixth person finally gritted his teeth and followed, the elevator doors closed completely.
In the melee, the tumors noticed the extra people near the elevator.
The players who were chased by the tumors also saw these people.
The tumors were all stunned for a moment, and the players were also stunned.
Was something wrong with these people?
Anyone standing at the elevator door and seeing this scene on the 850th floor would not be stupid enough to step out of the elevator!
These people must be a bunch of fools!
The six players who were now being stared at wanted to cry but couldn’t shed any tears. They wished they could find a hole to crawl into.
Stop scolding, stop scolding, I heard you.
The chaotic tumors were stunned for two seconds, then suddenly all turned around and rushed towards them like a tidal wave.
The clown calmly took off his gentleman’s hat and tossed it into the air. Dozens of cards flew out of the hat, scattering throughout the chapel.
A card struck a tumor, and the next second, the tumor was sliced in half.
A card swept across a tumor in the air, cutting off its wings, causing it to crash heavily to the ground.
The skinny clown took long strides and slowly walked forward while leaning on his gentleman’s cane.
His makeup was exaggerated and terrifying, but his steps were full of elegance and gentlemanly grace, as if a refined count was leisurely strolling in his own garden.
Playing cards flew around, and in a daze, the constantly flipping cards seemed to turn into blooming roses.
The ugly face couldn’t conceal the man’s cultured and classical demeanor. His white-gloved fingers casually plucked a three of hearts out of thin air, pinching it between his fingertips.
The eyes of the golden shield player glowed red and he shouted fanatically, “Aesthetics! This is the epitome of elegant aesthetics!”
“He’s so handsome! Ahhhh, did you see that? The queen of our Star Shield faction is so handsome!!!!”
In a distant corner, a player with a white cloud crown on his head was hiding. His messy hair was stuck to his face, he was covered in sweat and he looked as disheveled as one could be.
When the white cloud player next to the golden shield player saw the White Cloud Crown, the other party also saw him.
The white cloud player’s eyes suddenly brightened. He took a deep breath and ignoring the terrifying tumors, he immediately rushed towards the White Cloud Crown.
Using all his strength, he dashed in front of the White Cloud Crown, and without waiting for him to say anything, he lifted him up and ran back the way he came.
A distance of dozens of meters was covered in mere seconds thanks to his extreme effort.
After carrying the White Cloud Crown back to the group, the white cloud player patted his wildly beating chest and let out a long sigh of relief, “Damn, that scared me to death. I actually saw the queen of our faction here. I thought you were almost dead, and if you died, I’d be done for too.”
The White Cloud Crown looked at the white cloud player gratefully, “Thank you, luckily you came in time. I thought I was dead.”
The white cloud player was shocked, “You must not die! If you die, I’d have to go with you.”
The White Cloud Crown smiled awkwardly. Feeling a rare sense of security, he observed these people and the strange clown curiously.
He noticed that the clown had no emblem above his head and asked in confusion, “Is that clown with the makeup an NPC?”
The golden shield player immediately refuted, “He’s not, he’s the queen of our Golden Shield faction.”
The White Cloud Crown: “But he has no emblem above his head.”
The golden shield player: “Because he’s a boss! He must have used some prop to hide his emblem.”
The White Cloud Crown frowned slightly, “But…”
The golden shield player kept his eyes glued to the elegant clown, and interrupted impatiently, “But what? I used my soldier skill to check, he’s definitely my queen. Could the skill be wrong? If our queen hadn’t shown up in time, you’d be dead by now. You don’t even know how to be grateful, and instead, you’re full of doubts. What’s wrong with you, Brother?”
The White Cloud Crown blushed. He opened his mouth to speak but then closed it again. Finally, he bit his lip and whispered, “Sorry, I was too abrupt. He saved me, I shouldn’t have doubted him.”
The golden shield player cupped his chin, “Other queens run from monsters, but our Golden Shield queen just deals with them. Long live the Golden Shield queen!”
white cloud crown: “…”
‘Long live, my foot! Don’t you notice something is off?’
‘Have they all forgotten that [the queen] can’t attack NPCs at all?!’
Earlier, he had no choice but to run when faced with these monsters, yet this clown’s playing cards had nearly wiped out all these tumors!
Does that seem reasonable to you? Does it?!
More tumors kept falling from the sky.
The tumors on the ground kept turning into meat paste.
The number of tumors rapidly decreased before their eyes until only a few were left.
“Brother! Wake up, I’m Sun Ning!”
“Roar!”
Inside the chapel, a monster suddenly roared as it died, followed by a shrill female voice.
The author has something to say:
Clown: Am I ugly?
Bai Lixin: So handsome!
