The Death Performer

Joshua's suggestion worked. In the end, the Bone Duke gladly accepted Joshua's request, turning Joshua and his group from rude intruders who had trespassed into his territory into distinguished guests who had traveled a great distance to attend his concert.

However, from a human perspective, the live experience of this concert was... a little creepy.

In the Castle, the Bone Duke had a dedicated performance room with a full range of instruments, from pianos to violins, perfectly suited for a grand Classical Music Concert.

Some of the musicians playing these instruments were skeletons, while others were decaying corpses with a few scraps of flesh still clinging to them.

Their attire was somewhat similar to British Gentlemen from the Victorian Era of the nineteenth century, a look that made them appear graceful when holding their instruments.

The only drawback was the lack of flesh on their bodies. Their skeletal appearance alone couldn't be described with words like "elegant gentleman," let alone the decaying corpses whose eyeballs had fallen to the ground.

The Bone Duke was not the conductor of this special orchestra; he was the pianist in this Performance!

His long and excessively white fingers struck the Piano, and a series of eerie melodies flowed from it, officially beginning this Classical Music Concert hosted by the undead.

"What's going on..."

Ciri didn't understand how to appreciate Classical Music. She just felt a bone-chilling cold when these notes entered her ears, making her shiver slightly. Because of this, Ciri had to hug her arms.

One should know that just moments ago, standing in a snow-covered forest, Ciri hadn't felt the slightest cold in her current attire. But these strange notes actually made her feel like she had been thrown under a layer of ice.

Even worse, in the dim lake beneath the ice layer, an unknown Water Monster was staring intently at her!

This feeling made Ciri shiver.

"Hugging your arms won't help. Try to imagine things like the sun or Flame," Joshua said to Ciri.

"It's impossible to imagine anything good while listening to this Performance!"

Ciri's complaint also expressed Joshua's true thoughts.

From the beginning, Joshua had noticed that this Performance was fundamentally different from anything he had heard before.

The Bone Duke's Performance was not an ordinary concert. Joshua didn't just perceive the notes flowing from the Bone Duke's Piano with his sense of 'hearing'; he also understood the meaning the notes were trying to convey through touch, sight, taste, and other senses...

Cold, silent, like the loneliness of swimming beneath a frozen lake, chilling one to the point of wanting to suffocate.

Joshua's skin seemed to be covered in frost, and his mouth was filled with the cold lake water.

Magic that can affect others' minds?

When the piece ended, Joshua finally snapped out of the bone-chilling sensation. He found that his hands were already covered in white frost, and his body temperature was frighteningly low.

This was no longer just affecting the mind! Joshua wiped the white frost off his arm with his hand, and the cold breath he exhaled turned into white mist.

If the Bone Duke continued to play, the listener's body temperature could drop directly to hypothermia, and even their life could be taken!

Death Singer? This term inexplicably appeared in Joshua's mind.

As a Chaos Demon, Joshua's physique could still endure, but Ciri's condition was a bit worse.

Her lips were starting to turn pale, and frost appeared on her long eyelashes, looking completely as if she had been walking for several hours in a harsh environment of minus ten degrees Celsius.

Joshua decisively took off his outer coat and draped it over Ciri.

"You... your clothes... are wet!"

Ciri's trembling voice was almost crying, but if her tears were to fall, they might freeze into icicles.

Joshua held Ciri's hand and found it was as cold as ice.

If this continued... Ciri would die from body temperature imbalance!

It seemed that appreciating the Bone Duke's performance was not as simple as just buying a ticket. If one wasn't strong enough, they would have to pay with their life as the price for the ticket.

"You don't even have the ability to listen to one performance? The human body is truly weak and vulnerable."

The Bone Duke noticed Ciri's weakened state. He stopped playing the piano, and the frost that had condensed on his bony fingertips fell off.

The moment the music stopped, the symptoms of hypothermia on Joshua's body eased slightly.

At this moment, Joshua clapped his frozen hands. It wasn't because the performance was outstanding, but simply the most basic courtesy as an audience member.

Hearing Joshua's applause, the Bone Duke's expression improved slightly... No, it shouldn't be called an expression, but rather the soul fire flickering in his eye sockets became more stable.

"Duke, your performance is truly extraordinary. After listening, I feel completely immersed..."

It was more than just immersive; if he kept playing, Joshua would have been frozen to death.

Joshua actually experienced the virtual sensory experience that countless game designers on Earth hoped to achieve in this performance.

"But Duke, your performance is not just for humans; perhaps most humans in the Demonic Realm cannot appreciate it to the end."

Joshua could swear that if the Bone Duke went to the Capital to play the same piece, more than half of the residents in the Capital would be frozen into ice blocks.

"They are the ones who lack the ability."

The Bone Duke was completely an arrogant classical musician... He didn't think there was anything wrong with his performance, it was just that those ignorant and weak fools didn't have the ability to appreciate it.

"It's true that they don't have the ability to appreciate your performance, Duke, but... Duke, don't you feel a little cold and trembling yourself?"

Joshua first admitted that the Bone Duke's performance was quite good.

The piece itself had a quiet, cold, and lonely feeling. If this piece were used in the music of a horror game, it would definitely be music that could enhance the overall atmosphere of the game.

Joshua had always believed that music itself had no distinction between good and bad, except for some noise. No matter what kind of music it was, there was a group of people who appreciated it, just like some people liked classical music and stayed away from electronic music, while others liked pop music but weren't very interested in traditional folk songs.

No one could distinguish between good and bad for different genres of music. If someone really did that, they would be arrogant and conceited!

Whether it was good or not was a matter of personal perception.

If the Bone Duke's performance hadn't been too 'real', so real that Joshua wanted to listen while hugging a heater, Joshua would have definitely appreciated it to the end.

It wasn't just Ciri and Joshua who were affected; even the performer himself was affected.

For example, the Bone Duke's fingers were already covered in frost, forcing him to move his fingers to remove it.

"This is a necessary effect of the performance."

The Bone Duke did not deny Joshua's statement.