Clown Game
Chapter 316 - 303: Confusion (Part 5)

Chapter 316: Chapter 303: Confusion (Part 5)

Identical!

The shape, style, the color of the painted bricks on every wall, the decorations hanging outside the door, even the flowers placed in front of the second-floor window, were all exactly the same.

This was the same house, just appearing in different places.

"This... must be a coincidence, or perhaps the photo has been edited..." Bai Xiong tried to convince himself, but he couldn’t succeed. Even if it was some kind of Photoshop technique, why would anyone go to the trouble of coming to this small town to move an ordinary building onto a magazine page?

"Alright, now you might understand what I meant," the vagrant said and turned to walk into the bedroom.

Bai Xiong steadied his mind and followed him in.

The flies were still excitedly buzzing around the corpse; the vagrant waved his hand, but couldn’t drive them away, and had to let them continue buzzing.

"Dead for nine days now," he said naturally.

"How do you know?" Bai Xiong covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve, but the foul stench still aggressively invaded his nostrils.

"I killed her..."

the vagrant said indifferently,

"And I took their phones..."

...

...

It was as if all the flies in the room suddenly burst into Bai Xiong’s brain, causing it to explode with a buzz... but then, in a very bizarre twist, his mind accepted this reality in the next instant.

"Uh... this... what’s happening?" He seemed utterly bewildered.

"What’s wrong?"

"I... don’t seem to be scared."

The vagrant pondered for a moment,

"I don’t know; I suppose it’s because your consciousness and your body have dissociated."

Bai Xiong stood up straight, "Alright, murderer, although I know I should be getting away from you right now, but... what do you want me to see?"

The vagrant smiled unnaturally, "I’ve been observing these corpses for a long time, from the moment they died, until they were covered in maggots."

"That’s disgusting."

"It is disgusting, but I still did it, watching them every single second without pause... and I realized... they decay without process."

Bai Xiong furrowed his brow, "Without process?"

"Yes, these skins, it’s as if in an instant, they transformed, from being elastic to becoming decayed, then suddenly festering, just like some images abruptly replaced, without being accurate to every frame, and these flies..."

Bai Xiong already looked quite uncomfortable, but he still asked a question, "What about the flies?"

"They appeared out of nowhere."

"What?"

"There were no flies in this room. I cleaned it thoroughly and even used insecticide. Look at the windows and the door, they’re all sealed. The most crucial thing is, I never saw any flies or bugs land on the body, but these maggots just materialized out of thin air. They clung to the decaying flesh. Around 4 p.m. three days ago, the first maggot appeared here." He pointed at a spot on a body’s stomach. "There was no warning, it just appeared in the blink of an eye, not hatching from an egg or burrowing out of the flesh, but materialized abruptly, and then, like an explosion, they continued to appear everywhere. And then the flies, within just a few hours, began to buzz around chaotically. I didn’t even see them curl into pupae."

Bai Xiong was still relatively calm, but upon hearing the other person’s description, he felt nauseated. Yet, deep down, he was beginning to realize something.

"So what exactly are you trying to say?" he asked, panicked.

The vagrant spread his hands: "See, you’ve noticed it too, haven’t you? There’s no process to any of this! This world has only given us a cognitive outcome! Just like bodies decay, everyone knows that, so now you can see a decaying body, but very few people witness the process of decay in each inch of skin, and these flies. When the first one shows up in your house, and it buzzes past your ear, you know the flies are here, but no one knows where they come from, and few have seen their breeding and evolution process, so we don’t get to see them!"

"...So...?"

"So this world can’t be too meticulous, it’s fake, it only shows us what we’re supposed to see, deceiving us, but it can’t take care of every detail."

"You... you’re talking nonsense!"

"You’ve been deceived, nothing here exists, we’re trapped. This must be a segment of collective consciousness, that’s my guess. Something has seized a lot of people, sucked up their memories and thoughts, and merged them together to create this world. Those buildings, this street, might just be scenes from someone’s memory. That’s why there are things like photographs and magazines. Because none of the people among this group has seen every process of a body decaying, it can’t be shown to me. The same goes for flies and maggots. Also, we get hungry, we get thirsty, but we still live on, because no one knows what it’s like after death. ... You and I are just two among those people, we’re no longer an individual entity. We’re sharing thoughts, like swarms of insects, ants, bees, a highly unified form of social structure."

"Nonsense, you’ve gone mad!" Bai Xiong started to shout, even more agitated than when he had learned the other man had killed someone: "I’m thinking on my own, I know that!"

"That’s because you haven’t been completely assimilated yet, maybe we’ve been absorbed for only a short time, but it’s also possible that we’re no longer ourselves already. You’re not some factory worker, but you’ve forgotten, your memory isn’t yours, maybe you were a soldier, or someone else accustomed to bloodshed, that’s why sometimes you don’t react when you see someone die! It’s the same with me, I felt no fear when I killed someone, I definitely can’t be a vagrant!! I know!! Anyway, if we don’t do something, we’ll eventually lose ourselves and become a part of this collective consciousness."

Bai Xiong gasped heavily: "I... I don’t want to talk anymore, I’m leaving, you murderer, madman!!!"

He roared.

"What’s your name?" the vagrant suddenly asked.

"What?"

"Your name!! Your name!"

"Bai... Bai Xiong!"

"Alright, I’ve never heard of it, my name is Chen Xiao, does that ring a bell?"

"Of course not, I don’t know you!"

"Alright... you don’t know me! I don’t have any relatives, no friends, and I’m a murderer!" he said, pulling out a knife from behind his waist and handing it to Bai Xiong: "So... kill me then!"

...

"What?? You really are crazy, it’s illogical!!" he yelled, turning to leave.

But just as he turned around.

"Alright..." the vagrant muttered helplessly: "then I’ll do it myself..."