The Last Gentleman
Chapter 494: 492: Praise and Profession

Just three hours of performance, yet through an illusion technique hypnosis, the audience spent a lifetime in a closed space of despair, achieving the maximization of fear.

Applause erupted from the audience seats,

First was the clapping from Magician Jian, who highly praised William’s performance, followed closely by Catherine.

Lastly,

The Natalie sisters, who initially came to see the magic troupe make fools of themselves, also widened their eyes in shock. It was the first time they had seen a ’life movie’ type of performance, and two of their four hands began to clap.

The performance ended.

The audience, whose brains were thoroughly penetrated by the concept of death and whose internal fear had been completely drained, walked off the stage like zombies,

They had judged themselves dead in the depths of their hearts. Their consciousness couldn’t coalesce, and the draining of fear meant they could no longer produce any emotions, essentially becoming ownerless husks.

The inevitable end for them was to be uniformly dealt with by the circus, killing the physical bodies and burying them collectively.

However, just as the receptionist was about to clear out these zombie-like audience members,

William suddenly raised his voice, "Wait a moment, it seems too wasteful to just dispose of them. The audience will be discarded by the circus anyway, right? Could you sell them to me? I am willing to pay with the Fear Solution I earned from this show to purchase the usage rights for these husks."

The host for this trial run, Red Heart Q, scratched the poker card on his face in confusion, "I’ve never encountered such a request before, please wait a moment, I need to confirm the specific expenses with the finance department."

The poker-faced receptionist seemed able to communicate mentally across the circus, and soon received a response.

"It has been communicated, after deducting the cost for constructing your stage, an additional 10% will be taken as the purchase fee for the audience’s physical bodies. If you agree, you can dispose of these husks now."

"Alright."

Red Heart Q, the host, assumed William might be a Puppet Master or some other type of patient wanting to use these husks as materials.

Who knew, something beyond her imagination happened again.

William stood in front of all the audience members, using a type of mental attraction to make all the audience face him... Click! Opening their skulls to reveal the Black Insane Brain inside.

When the zombie-like audience saw the Black Insane Brain, their undefended consciousnesses were ’educated’ in an instant,

And as the education completed, vibrant colors returned to the eyes of the audience,

The influence of the death concept on them was swept away, and a strong desire for knowledge forced them to reconstruct their consciousness.

Although the negative effects of their drained fear still lingered, rendering them incapable of generating various emotions, the ’desire for knowledge’ provided them with a clear direction to strive for a life in the Old World, to gain more knowledge.

After doing all this, William asked the host behind him, "They should be able to leave the circus now, right?"

"No, they can’t leave! They did not endure to the end, it is only because of your ability that they recovered consciousness. Once they leave, they might leak some of the circus’s secrets."

"They have been enslaved by the Madness Brain, and I have also erased all their memories related to the circus from their brains, there will be no leaks."

"Just verify their memories, and you will know."

"I cannot make that decision; it needs to be escalated."

As the host was about to contact the management team again,

Buzz! Waves of primal fear aura seeped out from the floor.

A distant and profound voice came up from beneath the circus, reaching the heart of every person present,

"The Madman’s mental enslavement carries with it absolute dominion, the likelihood of leaking secrets is indeed minimal, they may leave. However, should any leaks related to the circus occur and be traced back to this group, you will bear primary responsibility."

Everyone present, whether it was Red Heart Q, the host, or the three main members, bowed their heads,

This was the boss’s voice, and no one had expected Him to personally interfere with the minor matters of the trial operation.

"Good!"

With William’s agreement, the audience members whose brains had been marked with the word ’Madness’ left one after another, riding their bicycles back to the town.

As the audience departed, the boss’s voice came through again.

"You employed an innovative type of performance and achieved a ’Max Awesome’ with an extremely high level of completion during the grand finale act. Your talent for performance is outstanding.

As a reward for maximizing the presentation of fear, you will receive a ’Magic Banquet Experience Voucher’, allowing you to join in the next magic banquet as a diner.

However, this grand finale act can’t be fully considered magic. To some extent, it diverged from the theme of the Magic Area and was more like an immersive ’stage play’."

"In the future, you can enhance training in stage play and even cultivate more performers with disguise and acting abilities,"

"Okay."

As William gave an affirmative response, the primal fear emanating from underground dissipated, and the floating black hair between the floorboards retreated.

Magician Jian had already stood beside him at the first instant, patting his shoulder, "The boss seems to like you... and his words just now seem to suggest he wants you to set up a new department within the circus.

That is, the stage play department you performed."

"Ah?"

"Since the boss has already made his stance clear, I will support your development as well. Go to the back and settle the total value of fear you won from this performance, buy some necessary supplies, and continue practicing.

I believe in your ability to take on such a position. As for your needs concerning the Abyss, I will satisfy them as much as possible, well done!"

With a flick of his fingers, a string of playing cards danced around Jian before disappearing into the performance area.

"William! You..."

When Catherine bounced over, her twin ponytails seemed to fly up, her legs forcefully wrapped around his waist, and her arms tightly hugged his neck.

"The boss actually communicated with you personally during the trial run, wow! If you really manage to establish a new department because of this, I might be able to benefit from it too."

"Benefit? Aren’t you the Assistant Clown?"

"If you’re the head of the new department, doesn’t that mean I have another supporter? Next time the bunny bullies me, I won’t be scared at all."

As Catherine uttered the word ’bunny,’ a piercing voice immediately came from the other side.

"No matter how many chief members guard you, if you violate the rules, it won’t do any good, Mister Bunny is second only to the boss. Catherine, if you dare say such offensive words about Mister Bunny again, I’ll rip your tongue out."

Accompanied by the sound of high heels, the Natalie sisters walked over from the opposite section of the audience seats.

The sisters overlapped their bodies, momentarily appearing indistinguishable from an ordinary person, but with both their heads outside... It was the elder sister held in embrace who issued the warning.

Just as Catherine was about to retort, and when conflict seemed imminent, William stepped between them.

He then lifted the overlapped arms of the sisters and gently kissed the back of their hand.

"Natalie sisters, I presume you are the second troupe leaders of the circus, an honor to have you witness my performance. I will certainly visit the circus more in the future."

The Natalie sisters’ anger was quelled by William’s etiquette, and they were themselves captivated by such an impressive performance, recognizing this newcomer capable of turning the tide.

"Hmm... Your performance of multiple roles was quite good.

But remember, your hypnosis subjects this time were only the lowliest of infected humans. When it comes to the official performance, the audience that will come are those who have completed Open Source and even hold a certain prestige in the Old World. They won’t be led by the nose as easily."

"I understand! I will gradually improve my training."

"That’s the spirit~ As the boss said, it was a wonderfully unique performance, we really liked it~ Make sure to visit the circus often, the sisters will give you a personal reception if we’re available."

"Certainly."

As the Natalie sisters left with a catwalk gait, William also faintly noticed the uncanny valley sign of their legs switching between 2 and 4, but he wasn’t scared; his gaze never wavered.

Catherine, who couldn’t stand it anymore, hurriedly blocked William’s view with her palm.

"Hey! How long are you going to watch? Do you want me to saw off both sisters’ legs and make a specimen for you to gaze at your fill?"

William said with a serious face, "This is the first time I’ve seen conjoined sisters with an embedded form, don’t get me wrong, my taste is not that extreme."

"Pah! Your eyes were glued to them! Let me warn you in advance, don’t be fooled by the sisters’ fair skin and beauty, they are some of the earliest employees of the circus, once the overall troupe leader of the circus, with at least thousands to tens of thousands of years of age.

If you like such old women, you better hurry up and go after them."

"Alright~ Speaking of which, where’s the backstage? How about you accompany me there, Catherine? There are some aspects of spending I still don’t quite understand; I’d like to make every penny count."

As the two made their way to the backstage,

the circus’s gate suddenly swung open, accompanied by an evil aura and the sound of flesh rubbing,

Art returned.

A wired smile hung below his aquiline nose, and his clown costume bore a conspicuous slash.

"William, your friend is quite impressive."