The Gentleman at the End
Chapter 491 - 489: Accident

Chapter 491: Chapter 489: Accident

"The Nightmare Rehearsal" ended.

Swoosh~ The tentacle-like extension withdrew from the port at the back of William’s head and retracted back into Catherine’s octopus-like brain.

"Wow, that was thrilling! William, you actually came up with such a ’performance-based’ program. If we can recreate the rehearsal effect live, we might achieve ’Max Awesome’—maximizing fear. That is, making the entire audience surrender all their Fear and fully immerse themselves in the rhythm of fear."

Sigh~

William closed the bone flap on the back of his head and took a deep breath as he reviewed the Dream Rehearsal.

He had a rough idea of the upcoming performance, but he was well aware that reality would undoubtedly present more variables, and he couldn’t afford to take it lightly.

William’s peripheral vision also caught something on the side, "Hm? This mural... did it form while our brains were connected?"

"Wow, it’s so pretty! Looks like our brains are really compatible~ Hehe, let’s keep this mural in your room forever, that way, William, you’ll always be reminded of me."

"Alright, Catherine, go up there and inject the audience with the nightmare substance so they can get into the scene better."

Before leaving, Catherine playfully bumped against William’s waist with her arm, "Hey! I’ve been training with you and painstakingly injecting this nightmare substance, you can’t just say ’thank you’ and be done with it, right?"

"What do you want?"

"Didn’t you always remind me not to fall under Art’s evil influence? Then spare some time to let me be influenced by you; let me become more human-like, more susceptible to sinking into those lowly desires, how about that?"

"Let’s talk about it after the performance is a success."

"Then I’m heading up. The grand finale is probably in two hours. You’d better adjust your state quickly; you can’t afford any mistakes."

Catherine hopped away from the Magic Area; she seemed happier than she had been in a long time.

Minutes later, Catherine, dressed as a server, appeared in the performance area with a tray of freshly baked octopus cookies and began distributing them to the audience.

Whether it was audience members already in poor condition and mentally distant, or those with strong consciousness who were temporarily unaffected by the Circus’s influence, once they smelled the cookies and set eyes on the wriggling octopus cookie surfaces, their hunger was instantly triggered.

They took the cookies and popped them into their mouths.

As they reached for additional cookies, Catherine’s whip would come down, taking away the pain and sweeping their gluttonous desires clean, "You can’t eat too much~ What William wants is a state of ’half-asleep, half-awake’, fully dreaming would actually be detrimental to the upcoming performance."

By the time Catherine had covered half the audience with cookies, a disturbing aura and the sharp sound of tap-tap-tap!—like some kind of "high-heeled shoes"—were approaching her, a primary member of the Circus.

"Catherine...rin, you’re actually doing something against the ’Rule’ here."

The voice was strange, as if two frequencies were speaking at once—one as piercing as a sword to the ear, the other like a long finger probing the throat.

"You! What are you doing here?"

"You are a primary member here, why can’t I be here? The originally scheduled grand finale was supposed to be performed by a young troupe under my command, they had been practicing hard for days.

But just yesterday, Mr. Jian suddenly reported an interesting magic Performance, replacing my team.

So I came here today to check, and I didn’t expect to find you up to some rule-breaking behavior, warming up for the upcoming Performance. That won’t do, primary members can’t interfere with trial operation performances, that’s an established Circus Rule.

If you take these rule-breaking cookies and step down now, I won’t hold it against you. But if you continue with this rule-breaking behavior, I’ll have to report you to the boss."

Catherine felt a tightness in her chest; what she was doing seemed like a trivial matter, but if it reached the boss’s ears, it could turn into a big problem and possibly haunt her for a long time.

"Ha-ha, all the remaining cookies are for you~ They’re all passionately cooked by me, and they taste great.

Big sister, you should definitely come and play at the Clown House."

Catherine handed over the rest of the cookies and swiftly exited through the nearest departure.

Once Catherine was out and grinning broadly,

Swish! She ripped off the entire scalp in one move, revealing the ferociously grim faces within Catherine’s head, one by one.

But having thought it over, she could only suppress her rage, "This woman... I can’t confront her now~ I must let this go and hurry back to inform William. Without cookies to plant nightmare seeds in advance, the audience will struggle to enter the dream."

On the audience stand.

The mysterious woman threw Catherine’s cookies, along with the plate, straight into the trash bin and walked down the aisle with a model’s stride,

Her fingers sequentially touched the foreheads of the audience members who had eaten the cookies, snapping them fully awake, even more so than their usual state.

The awakened audience members immediately found themselves drawn to the woman’s figure, unable to shift their gaze, but...

As they continued to stare, they began to feel increasingly strange,

For it seemed as if this apparently perfect woman somehow accumulated an ’extra part of the body’ as she moved, and it was definitely not an issue of vision, but actual superfluous limbs.

Sometimes an extra leg appeared as she moved,

Sometimes as she touched their foreheads, though it was clear she only had two hands placed at her thighs, a third hand would stretch out,

And sometimes when she shook her head, two heads could be vaguely discerned,

The more one indulged in her form, the more dissonance one felt, with a sense of the uncanny valley spreading relentlessly in their minds,

And when they finally averted their gaze, they still felt the presence of some bizarre female figure climbing over them, constantly reminding them to stay alert and not to fall hypnotized or asleep.

"If you want to be the grand finale, you should show some real talent, not resort to such petty tricks. Let’s see what kind of performance the newcomer from the Magic Area will bring?

Will he embarrass himself in front of so many people? Hahaha... I’m truly looking forward to it."

Under her apron, four fair and beautiful legs grew, three of which rested upon the fourth, as she sat alone in an empty seat among the audience,

Besides the normal woman’s head that grew on her neck, her four arms together cradled another head.

Circus - Assistant Leader No. 2

[Soft Skill - Natalie Sisters]

Or rather, the former head of the Circus, and a long-time personal maid of the boss,

But it was only after Mr. Rabbit arrived that the acrobatic crown was removed from her head.

Yet, this one-time queen of acrobatics remained the core pillar of the entire Circus, with her troupe’s contortionist performances still shining in official competitions.

She went from initially loathing Mr. Rabbit to a complete transformation in attitude; she came to see Mr. Rabbit as the one she admired and loved the most.

So much so that she began to despise those who might threaten Mr. Rabbit’s position, with Chief Magician Jian being the most prominent among them.

That’s why, when she learned about the change in the Magic Area’s final performance, she came to deal with it personally, convinced in her heart that Jian was deliberately targeting the Circus.

...

Magic Area.

With everything ready and about to go on stage, William stepped out the door only to receive the bad news from Catherine.

He could only shake his head helplessly, "I had previously considered all kinds of accidents that could happen during the performance, but I didn’t expect there to be one before the performance started..."

"What can we do now? This woman is extremely petty! Given her personality, she will definitely clear out all the nightmare seeds, and she might even reverse and give the audience mental enhancements."

"Is that so... which means entering the dream is practically impossible now."

"Right, even if I share my nightmare ability with you right now, that woman is bound to notice and report it to the boss.

The only way now is to go find Uncle Jian and ask him to have the other assistants in the Magic Area help you with all their might. That way, the performance could proceed smoothly."

"No... It’s enough trouble for Mr. Jian to deal with the stage setup. If I have the whole Magic Area wiping my butt for me, I won’t have the face to stay here afterwards, and everyone will naturally look down on me.

Catherine, do me one last favor, help me create a big enough tool within ten minutes and get it installed on stage."