Chapter 18: Death Acrobatic Troupe 18 Part 3

The Viewers in the Livestream Room were all anxious for Jian Bumian.

【Ahhh Jian Bumian, do something quickly!! If all else fails, pinch the Malicious Ghost’s mouth and force him to confess!】

【Wifey, how about just kiss him? The distance is so close anyway, maybe you can kiss him into a daze and it’ll work hehehe!! Just not sure if wifey knows how to kiss _(:з」∠)_】

【Mianmian’s personality is too slow!! Watching makes me so anxious aaaa! If only I were Mianmian’s teammate Orz】

【Last minute, life or death on the line again. Ah, I’m dead.】

Jian Bumian couldn’t see the Bullet Comments.

He glared at the Malicious Ghost for a moment, full of fury, then abruptly let go of the tie controlling the other’s neck.

The Silver-haired Man straightened up and tidied the suit tie that Jian Bumian had messed up. His movements were unhurried, without any anger at his clothes being disturbed.

But on his suit, he felt his hand covered in fresh blood, cold and scarlet.

“Hm…?”

The man finally showed a trace of confusion. He tilted his head and saw a silver-white Butterfly Knife prominently stabbed into the position of his heart!

Blood rapidly soaked out from the wound where the Butterfly Knife was embedded, staining the pale white suit, dripping down the fabric and pattering onto the wooden floor.

The Viewers in the Livestream Room momentarily thought they were seeing things.

Jian Bumian had used the Butterfly Knife with the threat function unlocked… on the Strategy Target?

The function of the Butterfly Knife had been explained earlier. If the target was too powerful, the use would fail, and the Player would face backlash and be Erased.

The Silver-haired Man’s expression held a hint of shock. He hadn’t expected this little Player to be so bold and interesting.

Jian Bumian chuckled lightly, raised his hand, and abruptly pulled out the knife embedded in the man’s chest.

The blocked blood gushed out from the wound, splattering onto Jian Bumian’s fair cheek.

Jian Bumian stuck out the tip of his tongue and licked the fresh blood splattered on the corner of his lips.

“Weren’t you very regretful earlier that this knife didn’t stab me? Now I’ve used it on you. How is it?”

He was very satisfied with this piece of food’s fresh blood and couldn’t help but smack his lips.

The red wine-flavored liquid contained a full, rich, powerful energy, making his entire being brim with warmth and pleasure.

Not to mention what it would feel like if he could completely devour this piece of food.

That feeling would probably be like a person, starving with hunger, suddenly stumbling upon a small mountain piled high with red wine-flavored red velvet cake.

The Butterfly Knife was now glowing with a faint golden light. The cold System notification sounded in Jian Bumian’s mind.

Simultaneously intertwined with the even more urgent Countdown System notification.

【…………Beep. Detected Player Jian Bumian activating the threat power of the Item “Butterfly Knife”…】

【Conquest Mission End Countdown: 00:00:59】

【Threat power activating…】

【Detecting the power of the targeted NPC… (Note: If the NPC is too powerful, the threat will fail! After three failed threat attempts, the Item will backfire against the Player! The Player will be Erased!)】

【Power detection failed. Exceeds the System’s cognitive range. Unable to detect…】

【Conquest Mission End Countdown: 00:00:40】

【This Item is beginning its first threat attempt… Threat failed.】

【This Item is beginning its second threat attempt… Threat failed.】

【In twenty seconds, the third threat attempt will be carried out.】

Both threat attempts, just as the Viewers had predicted, had failed.

If the third one also failed, then Jian Bumian would also be Erased as a result.

Even if by chance Erasure wasn’t successful, Jian Bumian would also be Erased for failing to complete the Conquest Mission.

Only a pitiful thirty seconds remained until the complete end of the Conquest Mission.

Jian Bumian’s expression still showed no change. The Viewers saw him pull a large stack of Blank Photos from his suit pocket!

These were the group photos he had found in the Acrobatic Troupe Honor Hall!

The Acrobats in the photos had run onto Jian Bumian’s person, leaving the photos empty and blank.

But Jian Bumian had still kept these photos on him.

Novice Instances in the Infinite World didn’t completely block the Players’ paths to survival.

With a little care and patience, clues to survival could always be found.

The Acrobat group photos hidden in the Acrobatic Troupe Honor Hall were one such survival clue.

The “Death Acrobatic Troupe” in this Instance was likely a real Acrobatic Troupe that once existed in the Real World.

The Acrobats in those photos had once been real Acrobats in this Troupe. Each one was a living person, harboring acrobatic dreams full of expectation, who had joined this Troupe.

Initially, the Acrobatic Troupe had arranged their training and performances step by step. The training equipment and trainers ordered were the most common, most standard kind available on the market.

Until one time, the equipment for the Tightrope Walking act wasn’t inspected on schedule.

An Acrobat, during the tightrope walk, had his safety harness loosen, and the steel wire was almost about to snap.

This was clearly behavior completely unworthy of encouragement.

Yet the Viewers’ reaction was unprecedentedly passionate, as if the Acrobats’ lives were merely toys to amuse them.

Compared to ordinary, safe acrobatic performances done step by step, they were more willing to pay for thrilling, dangerous Death Acrobatics.

From then on, this Acrobatic Troupe completely changed.

The content of acrobatic training, the training equipment—they held no safety whatsoever, even leaning towards torture.

Yet this, in the eyes of the Viewers, became another kind of thrill and excitement.

More and more Acrobats died during performances.

But precisely so, the Acrobatic Troupe’s ticket revenue grew larger and larger, the Viewers’ fervor increasingly high.

Every night, the Acrobatic Troupe was filled with the screams and cries of Acrobats and the cheers of the Viewers.

From then on, in this Acrobatic Troupe’s annual group photos of its members, the number of people decreased each year.

But the corresponding trophies and medals increased more and more.

This was the background story of the Instance that Jian Bumian had deduced.

…As for why he was carrying these group photos.

There was definitely another use.

Those Acrobats had died in the acrobatic acts they loved most.

To be precise, those acrobatic acts could no longer be called acrobatics. They had been designed by the Acrobatic Troupe into twisted, cruel Death games.

…After Death, what they hated most, besides the Acrobatic Troupe, were the Viewers who treated them as playthings.

Jian Bumian remembered that last time, when he was wearing the Guest’s suit Coat and accidentally fell into the corpse disposal pit…

Those dead Acrobats, probably mistaking him for a Guest, attacked him crazily.

It was clear how much intense Hatred they held for the Viewers who came to watch the acrobatics.

This grudge-formed resentment bound them to the Acrobatic Troupe they had lived in, never able to pass on.

They could only watch as batch after batch of Players arrived here, became Acrobats, and then died batch after batch from the acrobatic performances.

The saddest thing was undoubtedly that the dream they had once loved and cherished most had become a harmful weapon used by some to make money.

Jian Bumian knew that NPC ghosts and monsters in the Infinite World were divided into many types.

Ghosts crazily addicted to slaughter, ghosts full of resentment, ghosts disguised no different from ordinary people…

And what was another type?

Good ghosts.

The ghosts in the group photos, who had run onto Jian Bumian’s neck, might not have done so to hurt him, but just to warn him.

In the corpse disposal pit, those ghosts had tightly gripped his neck, also likely just to convey a message—

Don’t stay here anymore.

Leave quickly.

Leave quickly.

…Even though this place was once their most cherished, dream-filled land.

Jian Bumian came back to his senses. He was still on the Performance Stage, confronting the Malicious Ghost.

Simultaneously, he looked with deep meaning at the stack of group photos in his hand.

【Conquest Mission End Countdown: 00:00:20】

【This Item is beginning its third threat attempt…】

【…】

【…】

The next second, Jian Bumian, without hesitation, tore the photos in his hand to shreds! Countless pieces of white shredded paper were thrown high into the air! Then they drifted down like falling snow!

These group photos recorded the appearance of every single Acrobat each year. On the back of the photos, there were even their names.

Now the photos were torn to shreds by Jian Bumian.

His action was tantamount to telling them—there is no longer anything to prove whether you belong here. You are no longer members of this Acrobatic Troupe.

From now on, you will be free, unfettered.

The falling pieces of white photo paper, in that instant, transformed into warm, white Orbs of Light. With a warm, gentle temperature, they drifted down onto the Performance Stage.

And then they completely surrounded the Malicious Ghost in the center of the Performance Stage.

Jian Bumian suddenly heard the sound of many people speaking. Men and women, old and young. But in the void, they were all conveying the same words to him.

“Leave this place quickly.”

“Leave this place quickly…”

The Silver-haired Man’s identity as a Noble Guest was, in their eyes, one of the Viewers who had once caused their deaths.

They could not allow new Acrobats to be harmed. The intense Hatred latent in their Souls urged them to attack this “Noble Guest.”

A new System prompt sounded again.

【Ding! Detected the target’s power has been weakened. Re-evaluating power detection…】

These Acrobats might not be able to truly weaken the power of a Roaming-Class Boss.

But as long as its power was weakened by even a negligible, tiny bit, even if only by a few milliseconds, the excellent Item created by the Infinite World would have a chance to exploit this gap and carry out its threat.

【Power detection complete.】

【This Item is beginning its third threat attempt…】

【…】

【 …】

【Congratulations, Player Jian Bumian. Your Item has been used successfully.】

【Threat power has taken effect on the NPC. What would you like to threaten it with?】

Jian Bumian didn’t hesitate. “I want him to have a mutual love confession with me.”

【Ding! Threat effect has been generated!】

The Malicious Ghost, shrouded in the dazzling light, had never imagined that this little Player would give him such a surprise.

Interesting. Truly, very interesting.

Hearing Jian Bumian’s words, the smile on his lips widened more and more. His red eyes flickered with an excited light.

“A mutual confession? Very well.”

The man abruptly wrapped his arm around Jian Bumian’s waist, pressing the youth’s slender figure against his own. He allowed his dripping blood to stain the other.

He leaned against Jian Bumian’s shoulder, lazily lifting a strand of the youth’s hair by his ear. His thin lips brushed against the other’s flushed ear tip.

Using a low, husky, deep voice, he spoke the words the Livestream Room Viewers had been fixated on for the entire Instance.

“I love you.”

But this, compared to a true confession, was more like a declaration of claim over prey.

“Oh?” Jian Bumian hadn’t expected this Malicious Ghost to actually confess first.

Was the threat power really that formidable?

He quickly and simply returned the other’s words.

Who didn’t love delicious, tasty food?

The last second. As soon as the words fell.

【Ding! Strategy System 001 congratulates Mr. Jian Bumian! You have successfully completed the No.1 System Mission!!】

Jian Bumian had little reaction. …Because he had something even more urgent and important to do.

He was going to devour this Malicious Ghost.

Hm… start eating from the Malicious Ghost’s stabbed heart.

The Malicious Ghost didn’t know what Jian Bumian was about to do, but was very curious, watching the other’s movements with a slight frown.

Jian Bumian raised his hand, wanting to forcefully tear off the Malicious Ghost’s obstructive suit.

But he suddenly noticed that the Orbs of Light, transformed from the Acrobat NPCs, were still on the Performance Stage, quietly watching them.

Jian Bumian didn’t quite like everyone watching him eat…

His eating manners might be very messy.

Because he was really too hungry.

Jian Bumian winked at the Orbs of Light huddled in the corner. His voice was soft and gentle.

“You can leave this place now. There are even more, better stages outside.”

He curled his lip. “Also, you are all amazing. You are the best Acrobats I’ve ever seen. Your performance tonight was spectacular.”

The Orbs of Light, huddled together, froze.

Soon, like a group of fireflies, they scattered and flew apart in mid-air, until they disappeared.

Jian Bumian fixed his gaze onto the Malicious Ghost.

The blood from the Silver-haired Man’s chest wound was gushing out more and more, already completely soaking his white suit.

His pale, handsome face was stained with dots of scarlet blood. Combined with his expressionless face and blood-red eyes, his entire person appeared exceptionally strange… and mad.

No one knew what he was thinking.

But Jian Bumian couldn’t be bothered with that. He fiercely grabbed the man’s shoulder and slammed him against the wall.

He bent down, wanting to bite toward the man’s chest wound where the Butterfly Knife had stabbed—

The excited blue light flickering madly in his eyes unknowingly enveloped his entire body. The blue light transformed into tentacle-like silhouettes, surging toward the Malicious Ghost, who purposely remained motionless.

The scent of red wine filled the entire Performance Stage. The rich, fragrant aroma made Jian Bumian’s entire body go weak.

He was very hungry.

Very hungry.

He was finally about to eat the delicacy he had been longing for—