Chapter Summaries

William attended the Demon Feast for the first time as an unusual participant, but the Boss added a last-minute rule requiring everyone to cook with meat. After choosing dangerous Scalp Meat, William began studying the processing manual and planning a new dish.

• William learned from Jain that participants had to serve their dishes between 17:45 and 18:00, then saw Poker Faces building fearsome tables in the banquet hall.
• William arrived in the kitchen with Jain, and Chef Timmy expanded the space by crushing a crystal bead of Primal Fear.
• Chef Timmy announced that every participant had to include meat in their dish and could choose only one piece.
• William waited until the others chose, then selected a strange, pore-covered piece of Scalp Meat from the cabinet.
• Chef Timmy warned William that Scalp Meat was dangerous, that stray hairs could disqualify him, and that at least ninety percent of the meat had to remain in the final dish.
• William wrapped the Scalp Meat in his clothing, read the Fear Meat Processing Manual, and began designing a new dish.

William developed a new way to prepare Boss’s highly active Scalp Meat for Demon Feast, using Little Grape’s heat to render it into cracklings and make a Chinese-style dish. The aroma reached the imprisoned Mysterious Figure, who began moving toward the banquet hall in anticipation.

• William’s Scalp Meat caused the Meat Grinder to explode, and he used Ash Eyes to stop the flying fragments from hitting the other cooks.
• William restrained the meat with Gentleman's Attire and Little Grape, then accepted the villain in his mind’s advice and sliced the Scalp Meat at the cost of his left palm.
• William used Little Grape’s ember heat to render the meat into cracklings, drawing the attention of Mr. Rabbit and Chef Timmy with the intense heat and unfamiliar aroma.
• William combined cracklings, diced lean meat, vegetables, seasonings, lard, and wrappers made from Gentleman's Attire to prepare his dish.
• The fragrance reached the imprisoned Mysterious Figure, who was carried in a wheelchair toward the banquet hall before Demon Feast began.

William brought an unusual clay-pot dish to the Demon Feast and faced Boss’s scrutiny before the tasting began. After Mr. Rabbit’s appetizer received Boss’s praise, the feast continued with William’s dish still to be tasted.

• Chef Timmy announced the serving deadline, and the head chefs carried their dishes to the Banquet Hall while William continued cooking in a clay pot.
• William carried the pot into the hall just before time ran out, and Boss warned him that his unusual serving method could cost him his Demon Feast privileges if keeping the food warm proved unnecessary.
• Boss began the tasting with Mr. Rabbit’s Muscle Rabbit Aspic, and William experienced its cold-themed effect and praised its preparation.
• Boss praised Mr. Rabbit’s appetizer, and Mr. Rabbit accepted the compliment.

William endured the dangerous, immersive effects of Gian’s Thousand-Layered Pork Magic Rice Bowl and eagerly awaited the next dish. Clown Art then served an enormous fried meatball that seemed to urge William to eat it.

• After eating Mr. Rabbit’s Boss Meat, William experienced a terrifying vision of being crushed, and Catherine warned him to suppress the dish’s plague effects.
• Gian served Thousand-Layered Pork Magic Rice Bowl, and William’s vision showed him being sliced into a thousand pieces on a circus stage.
• Catherine pulled William back to reality, but he continued eating until the bowl was empty and his body was covered in shallow cuts.
• Boss praised Gian’s dish, and William wiped away his blood and sweat as Poker Face brought out the third dish.
• Clown Art presented a Super Super Super Enlarged Red Stew Fried Meatball and suggested eating it whole, while Catherine warned William to eat it slowly.
• William saw the meatball’s surface form a human face that urged him to eat it.

William endured Yate’s dangerous meatball and continued tasting the Feast of Demons’ dishes, surviving each dish’s strange effects. After the other chefs’ offerings, the diners turned their attention to the casserole William had prepared.

• Yate served William a meatball whose whispers and sinister illusions urged him to eat, while Yate prevented Catherine from warning him.
• William ate the meatball and endured a balloon-inflation illusion, but his body withstood the swelling and the Birth Gate vented air to restore him.
• William praised Yate’s dish, and Boss approved of it before Zoke served deep-sea-style fish-brain soup that activated William’s deranged brain.
• William ate the Natalie Sisters’ meat pasta and Mosander’s ham chicken burger, experiencing intense illusions from both dishes.
• William sampled Catherine’s meat-brain octopus, Halida’s curry omelet rice, and Calopes’s barbecue skewers.
• The diners turned toward the large casserole William had placed in the center of the table.

William served Red Oil Dumplings at the Demon Feast, sending the diners into vivid hot spring fantasies filled with massages and side dishes. While everyone was distracted, the Inhibiting Golden Needle failed to suppress Boss, and her Black Hair began to overrun the Banquet Hall.

• William presented Red Oil Dumplings made with Boss's Scalp Meat, explaining how he cooked them and keeping the filling secret.
• Mr. Rabbit bit into a dumpling and experienced a hot spring fantasy with a massage and a feast of wrapped side dishes.
• The other diners entered similar fantasies, and Catherine requested an intimate mouth-to-mouth serving from her attendant.
• Chef Timmy awoke to the sound of an Inhibiting Golden Needle behind Boss's wheelchair and tried to stop it from reaching her neck.
• Black Hair cut Chef Timmy's tongue and stopped his spare needle, leaving Boss unsuppressed as her rotting flesh expanded through the Banquet Hall.

The Boss lost control during the Demon Feast, but Mr. Rabbit stopped the transformation and the meal resumed. William’s dumplings placed second, and the Boss offered him a chance to earn main-member status by performing the intermission at the upcoming Formal Performance.

• The Boss began transforming, so Jiane raised a Black Curtain while Mr. Rabbit struck her neck and pushed the trapped gold needle deeper, restoring her body.
• The Boss apologized for the interruption and praised William’s dumplings, then the diners finished their meal and prepared to score the dishes.
• The Boss announced the rankings, with Jiane’s rice bowl in first place, William’s dumplings in second, and Yate’s meatball in third.
• The Boss assigned William the fifteen-to-thirty-minute intermission performance at the Formal Performance, promising main-member status and a new department if he impressed the audience and generated genuine fear.
• William accepted the opportunity and promised to complete the performance.

At the Demon Feast, Boss gave William one day to prepare an intermission performance, a near-impossible test of whether he deserved to lead a new circus department. William chose an audience-focused performance and arranged to gather information through a student while Catherine searched for replacement spectators.

• Boss announced that William's performance would take place during the intermission of the circus's opening show and ordered him to prepare by the next day.
• The circus members praised William's cooking and talent, while Boss explained that the intermission would test whether he could impress the audience despite the difficult timing.
• After the feast, Catherine returned to the Clown House to find replacement audience members for the show.
• William revealed that he would perform among the audience and interact with them, since he lacked time for a proper rehearsal.
• William asked Catherine to take his indoctrinated student to help screen replacement spectators and report what she learned back to him.
• Catherine agreed to help after William hugged her, warning him that she would kill his student if she threatened the circus.

William chose to perform after the acrobatics troupe despite Mr. Gian’s warning and secured the kitchen’s ingredients, workers, and equipment for his act. He fell asleep to project his consciousness into The Memory Palace, where he asked Yi Chen for help with the performance.

• William chose the intermission after the acrobatics troupe’s show and told Mr. Gian he would perform alone.
• William went to the kitchen and asked Chef Timmy to lend him ingredients and Poker Faces, with the costs charged to his tab.
• Chef Timmy agreed, provided William repaid the debt within a year, avoided using Boss Meat, and made Red Oil Dumplings weekly.
• William assigned the Poker Faces their kitchen duties through brainwaves, then fell asleep instead of joining the preparations.
• William projected his consciousness into The Memory Palace and asked Yi Chen to help with the upcoming performance.

Unusual activity in the Tumor Mountains prompted the Cancer Palace to send Tumor Knights to investigate, while William prepared for his final circus performance by arranging a prop and planning to cook at dawn. The chapter ended with William going back to sleep as Chef Timmy reluctantly waited for the performance.

• A wave of visitors began climbing the Tumor Mountains, and the city lord of Tumor City tried to report the disturbance to the Cancer Palace before a Nightmare Flower made him forget the emergency.
• The Cancer Palace dispatched three Tumor Knights to investigate Tumor City, and they crossed Pus Lake on mounts grown from Tumor Tissue.
• After sleeping for ten hours, William left the back kitchen to borrow a special Magic Box from Mr. Gian.
• William showed Chef Timmy the sealed Prize Draw Box and explained that it would be a prop for his intermission performance.
• William said he would sleep again and cook fresh dishes at dawn, and Chef Timmy reluctantly agreed to wait for his performance.

William roused the Poker Faces to prepare a strange feast for the circus’s twenty-four-hour performance, impressing Timmy with his plan. The audience arrived, received the circus rules, and watched Zoke Atkin begin the opening performance, “Depths of the Cave.”

• William woke the Poker Faces, gave them brain-marrow injections, and led them in cooking while fighting Black Hair with Little Grape.
• Timmy watched William work and realized the dishes would help combine food, performance, and fear, then went to sleep.
• The circus prepared a larger venue for 800 audience members and gave them gold audience cards and rules for the performance.
• Ace of Spades and Ace of Hearts introduced the show and announced Zoke Atkin’s opening performance, “Depths of the Cave.”
• Zoke Atkin’s performance transformed the venue into a cavern filled with rocks, shrieking beasts, and enormous creatures looming over the audience.

Zoke unveiled the Primal Beast by giving birth to it onstage, where it began devouring the zoo’s beasts as it grew and terrified the audience. Backstage, Gian won a wager with Art, while William arrived with props for his own upcoming performance and Mr. Rabbit prepared for the acrobatics act.

• Art criticized Zoke’s routine and bet Gian that its fear harvest would fall short of the previous performance, wagering one chance to go out.
• Zoke gave birth to a pale beast larva onstage, and it inherited his mask as it separated from his body.
• The Primal Beast devoured a bull demon, grew stronger, and began a beast massacre while Zoke warned the audience to stay still.
• Gian recognized Zoke’s creation as the original Primal Beast and claimed his one-day vacation after Art conceded the bet.
• William arrived backstage with the Poker Face team and food-filled Dining Cars, then told Catherine the dishes were props for his performance.
• Mr. Rabbit watched the Primal Beast briefly before returning to prepare for the acrobatics troupe’s performance.

After the Primal Beast’s feeding performance ended, the circus cleaned the venue and prepared its next major act. The Acrobatic Troupe built a vast Human Maze from thousands of Folded People, leaving William and the audience stunned as they awaited the directors’ performance.

• The Primal Beast finished feeding, entered a gestation state inside a giant egg, and Zoke carried it back to the zoo.
• The hosts gave the spectators a half-hour intermission, during which Halida performed a quiet, terrifying ventriloquism story.
• Mr. Rabbit, the Natalie Sisters, and Mosander began constructing an elaborate stage for their joint performance while William and others watched backstage.
• The audience noticed that the venue had expanded, then watched pale, blind performers assemble themselves into the Human Maze.
• Catherine told William that the Folded People belonged to the second troupe and had trained in Folding Jujutsu under the Natalie Sisters.

The Acrobatic Troupe announced the rules for its three-hour Great Maze Escape, a dangerous maze in which the audience had to keep moving and avoid the Human Wall, Broken Feet, Sister Flowers, and Rabbit Troupe Members. As the audience entered the maze, Rabbit Men killed one participant and began searching for another target.

• The host explained the Great Maze Escape rules, including the exit at the maze’s center, rewards for catching Broken Feet, and threats posed by Sister Flowers and Rabbit Troupe Members.
• William asked Catherine what would happen to audience members caught by the maze, and Catherine said they would receive special treatment and lose much of their Fear Value rather than be killed outright.
• The audience began moving through the maze, with some finding promising routes and others encountering Rabbit Men.
• A team of rainbow-hooded Rabbit Men launched a muscular Rabbit Man at a participant whose condition made his muscles harden, crushing his body.
• The Rabbit Men tried to transform the injured participant by exposing him to their muscle-based disease, but his brain exploded before the transformation was complete, and they searched for another target.

William watched Rabbit Man’s performance and learned that Mr. Rabbit’s disease could spread through displays of the body and influence its victims. In the maze’s final fifteen minutes, Mr. Rabbit used a rhythmic dance to destroy a group of twelve spectators, while William danced along backstage without deteriorating.

• Catherine told William that Mitochondrial Encephalomyopathy spread through bodily displays and made its victims physical slaves to Mr. Rabbit, then shared rumors about Mr. Rabbit’s origins.
• William watched the performance until Mr. Rabbit appeared as Tie Rabbit during the final fifteen minutes.
• A group of twelve spectators tried to flee Tie Rabbit, then attacked him when his speed prevented their escape.
• Mr. Rabbit danced to a powerful rhythm that made the spectators dance until their bodies disintegrated.
• Mr. Rabbit sprinted toward the nearest spectator, while William danced to the same rhythm backstage without showing signs of physical deterioration.

William began his live feast after the Acrobatic Troupe’s performance, using his voice and supernatural influence to get the audience to participate in a meal lottery. The first diner ate Mushroom Chicken Noodles and was swallowed by a forest of delicacies, leaving the audience facing the feast’s true danger.

• William finished his warm-up dance, forced on his sweat-soaked attire, and received Yellowhide’s instruction to seize the opportunity.
• William led the Poker Face team into the venue and announced a live feast, threatening anyone who refused to draw a dish.
• William used his aura and voice to frighten the audience and make the receptionists’ maggot food seem disgusting.
• William chose a weakened stand-in audience member to sample the feast, and the man drew Mushroom Chicken Noodles.
• The stand-in ate the noodles, burst out of his attire, and became trapped in a forest of delicacies.

William forced the audience to eat dishes seasoned with his ground-up brain, claiming the additive restored their brains and Fear Value. Those who failed to finish were marked for punishment, and he led the rest into an aquarium inside the brain, where the missing spectators were being turned into mermaids.

• William announced strict rules for drawing and eating the dishes, then used the Magic Box to distribute lottery slips and had Poker Face deliver the food.
• The audience discovered black particles resembling brain tissue in the dishes, and William revealed that he had ground up his own brain and used it as seasoning.
• When a planted spectator raised a hand to complain, William's psychological counseling drove the man to eat food he had vomited, frightening the others into following suit.
• William pressured the audience until most finished eating, while those who failed the requirements were marked for punishment.
• William snapped his fingers and drew the audience's consciousness into a dark passage, then introduced an aquarium where his friend was turning the marked spectators into mermaids.

William’s improvised performance drove many spectators to vomit and lose their fear, while Art recognized signs of William’s emerging Phobia. As Gian began his magic act, he twisted the entire venue with a strange cube.

• William used Yi Chen’s memories to take the audience on a disturbing journey through his brain, causing widespread vomiting and a drop in audience retention.
• William returned backstage, where Catherine congratulated him, and the venue extended the intermission while receptionists treated the audience.
• Art questioned William about the sudden loss of fear, and William explained that his performance revealed different layers of himself.
• Art said William’s Phobia was beginning to form around communication and contact, while Catherine ignored his remarks.
• Gian began his magic act with a pitch-black cube, twisting the venue and backstage as Art worried that the audience would be depleted before his own act.

Jaan’s Falling Play sent the audience plunging through an abyss, and William deliberately joined the fall to pursue his Pathway. After reaching the abyss’s bottom, William lay broken and bleeding, but his painted face wore an eerie smile.

• Jaan used his Magic Cube to overturn the circus venue and begin a performance in which the audience fell into a seemingly bottomless abyss.
• Jaan gave each audience member a candle and warned them to keep it burning, while a falling figure from the aquarium frightened the crowd.
• William activated the Birth Gate and used its spatial reaction to pass through the stage floor and join the audience in the abyss.
• William resisted the darkness with help from Little Grape and Yellowhide, applied Dead Person Makeup, and used the Birth Gate’s liquid to enter a state between life and death.
• William fell until his body suffered crushing fractures, then declared that he had finally reached the bottom.

William confirmed that his pathway was connected to the abyss after finding a passage in its deepest level, but Mr. Gian pulled him out before he could enter. Backstage, William celebrated and invited Catherine to join his journey to the true abyss, while Art noticed the Tumor Knight’s arrival.

• William recovered from being smashed apart in the abyss and tested how far his light, Mental Power, and Thorned Iron Chain could reach.
• William wandered aimlessly until he recreated the lighthouse in his mind, whose directional light led him to a living black door that became a passage.
• Mr. Gian pulled William, the audience, and the Magic Cube out of the abyss before William could enter the passage, and most of the audience had been devoured.
• William returned backstage, confirmed to Catherine that his pathway lay beneath the abyss, and asked her to accompany him to the true abyss, but she refused.
• Art ended his performance early after the abyss reduced the audience, then smelled that the Tumor Knight had arrived.