When Cheng Shi opened his eyes again, he found himself sitting high up in the circular stands. Below him was a dense sea of heads and the central stage, while cheers and laughter filled his ears.
Onstage, seven or eight extravagantly dressed "giants" were performing acrobatics.
"What is this..."
His teammates gradually opened their eyes. Seeing the scene before them, they cried out in surprise:
"A circus?"
"Ugh... It stinks."
"Wow, they're huge."
"Bilius Circus. Someone shared information about Bilius Circus on the Singer Channel. He said the thing that left the deepest impression on him was the 'giant acrobatics' act, because those giants aren't giants at all. They're 'fakes' skillfully assembled from more than a dozen dwarves."
Fang Shiqing once again displayed the erudition of a Truth believer. Her wealth of knowledge truly lived up to the words "widely learned."
"There are more than a dozen dwarves under the clothes?"
A'ming arrived last. Although he had only heard part of the explanation, he still stared at the stage in stunned disbelief, trying to spot a flaw.
Unfortunately, the giants were flawless. Their limbs moved without the slightest hitch or awkwardness.
"Now that's something!"
"Don't you smell something strange? Shouldn't we move somewhere else before discussing this?"
"Dwarves, huh? I suppose that works too..."
Everyone was still immersed in the joy of cracking the first layer of the Memory, completely unaware of how serious the problem was. Only Cheng Shi and Fang Shiqing's expressions had darkened slightly.
Big. Too big.
This circus performance venue was far too large. There were almost dozens of times more people than in the tavern from the previous scene. Finding the "error" among so many targets would be a massive undertaking.
Cheng Shi lowered his head and glanced at his Pocket Watch. It was 9:56. Two hours had already passed.
"Which do you want to hear first, the good news or the bad news?"
Everyone stared at Cheng Shi in bewilderment. Fang Shiqing frowned slightly and said softly:
"Start with the bad news. That way, we can prepare ourselves."
Cheng Shi nodded. "The bad news is that the hour has passed. The doctor forgot to record your conditions, so if you fall ill later, we can only use 'Accelerated Metabolism' to treat you."
The Priest profession had two skill blessings related to time. One was Rewind Condition, which returned the body to the state it had been in at the last recorded hour.
The other was Accelerated Metabolism—the skill Fang Shiqing had warned him not to use recklessly on NPCs. It greatly accelerated a target's metabolism, using time to heal injuries or negative physical conditions.
It was precisely as the saying went: time healed all wounds.
But strictly speaking, Accelerated Metabolism did not resemble a method of healing. It was more like accelerating forgetfulness. It did not truly cure anyone; it merely allowed them to move ahead of their suffering.
"What's the good news, then?"
"The good news is that the 'giant acrobatics' act has just begun, so we can watch the whole thing." Cheng Shi sounded delighted.
"???"
How was that good news?!
Didn't they lack time!?
Xu Lu's face fell. She pinched her nose and tried to leave, but when she saw that Fang Shiqing had not moved, she raised her butt several times without managing to stand.
Fang Shiqing burst into helpless laughter, then began assigning everyone their tasks.
Because Cheng Shi was socially anxious, he was assigned to the center of the stage. His task was to investigate the entire circus troupe.
"Big Sis, you're really flattering me."
Fang Shiqing shrugged and left with Xu Lu.
A'ming spent several seconds torn between comforting Cheng Shi and hurrying off to investigate. In the end, he merely told Cheng Shi, "Good luck," before quickly leaving.
Only Bailing remained seated where she was, making no move to leave.
Seeing her like that, Cheng Shi smiled and said:
"I knew you had the best taste. Want to watch it to the end together?"
Bailing pressed both hands against her lower abdomen, bit her lip, and said coyly:
"Compared to watching a circus, I'd rather have a horseback show... Want to come?"
"?"
Cheng Shi's expression stiffened, and he turned around and left.
You'd better mean a horseback show!
The Filth and Decay believer could no longer restrain her nature. Who knew which lucky person would join her and throw himself into Filth and Decay's embrace?
Since one member of the team had yet to enter the second scene of the Memory, the Memory Gate had not disappeared.
As Cheng Shi passed it, he silently memorized its location. Logically speaking, this should be where that waiter had been sitting.
If they could guide the waiter into recalling his experience in the tavern, then at the very least, within this scene and his field of vision, there should be something familiar to him.
But what could there be in a circus that was connected to a tavern?
Cheng Shi walked on while pondering. Before long, he reached the backstage area.
The circus's backstage was directly beneath the VIP seats on the western side. Outsiders were not prohibited from entering, and it was every bit as lively as the main venue.
All kinds of races, beasts, and elemental creatures waited backstage and chatted with one another. The noise rivaled that of a market.
Cheng Shi only glanced inside before realizing that the target this time definitely wasn't someone from the circus troupe. It was one of the spectators in the stands—perhaps even a specific spectator who wasn't particularly wealthy.
Because the floor of the VIP seats and the ceiling of the backstage preparation room...
Had clipped through one another.
The entire backstage ceiling was transparent and crisscrossed with overlapping surfaces. Cheng Shi could even see the soles of the VIPs' feet and... their butts.
This was an extremely obvious memory error. Such an error could only appear when the Memory's source was extremely unfamiliar with a certain corner—or had never seen it at all.
Of course, under normal circumstances, the possibility that someone had cast a spell could not be ruled out. After all, this was a world with all kinds of strange skills.
But Cheng Shi wandered around inside for a while and discovered that not one person had noticed the VIPs' butts overhead. This proved that the Memory's source truly did not understand the circus's backstage or the VIP seats.
Now this is interesting. Let's see these VIPs' butts... Ah, no, let's see what clues there are here.
Cheng Shi then interviewed several kind-looking performers and chatted nonsense with them for a while. Before long, he determined which VIP each butt belonged to.
The most distinguished spectator was undoubtedly Duchess Dilar, one of the rulers of this town, Duke Brooks's wife.
Apparently, she loved watching dwarf circuses. In particular, she had been visiting the troupe extremely frequently lately.
The noblewomen from various aristocratic families sat beside her.
Clearly, this was a gathering of close friends.
Behind them sat the nobles' attendants and guards, followed by the town's middle class—the owners of the various factories.
Cheng Shi observed them for a long while and noticed something very interesting.
The guards sneered at the factory owners sitting behind them, while the factory owners looked down on the lackeys sitting in front of them with undisguised contempt.
The two sides despised each other, yet both coveted the other's status.
"Even in the Isle of Hope, people's relationships are just as complicated as in reality..."
But when Cheng Shi saw the next scene, he exclaimed in shock:
"...No, they're even more complicated than in reality."
He had seen the guards behind Duchess Dilar secretly reaching their hands toward her butt.
Because time was "tight," Cheng Shi left after watching for only three minutes, still thoroughly engrossed.
Now that he had narrowed down the range of the Memory's source, he naturally had to inform his companions and change the direction of their investigation.
He glanced at the time. Another half hour had passed. Turning toward the audience stands, he saw that the Memory Gate was still standing there and had not vanished.
"Strange. Why is Uncle Huang still in the first scene?"
The thoughts of a chaotic believer could not be judged by ordinary standards. Cheng Shi did not dwell on it. He simply followed his own theory and walked toward the stands farther from the VIP seats.
As he passed one side of the stage, he saw several goblin dwarves changing clothes behind a huge curtain.
Calling it changing clothes was probably inaccurate. They were actually "changing skins."
Five people were stacked together. The person on top carried a massive skull, two people formed the arms and chest, and the other two formed the abdomen and legs. Then they pulled an Orc girl's skin over themselves.
Cheng Shi stopped to watch secretly for a while. Only then did he realize that the Orc girl's skin belonged to a female orc.
The skin was so complete and the texture so clearly defined that it had obviously been flayed alive by a highly skilled executioner.
After the dwarves put on the skin, they donned a slightly conservative hide skirt and walked out from backstage.
When the "Orc girl" saw Cheng Shi standing outside, her bearing suddenly became coy.
The hide wrapped around the skull without the slightest flaw. Instead, every expression was performed with lifelike precision, making it impossible to tell that she was fake.
If Cheng Shi had not seen them changing clothes, he would most likely have believed that this was a genuine orc girl.
Even her voice sounded convincing.
"Oh, a new customer. Why are you in such a hurry? You shouldn't be here. Hurry back to your seat. I promise I'll come over to you before the show ends."
As she spoke, she even winked flirtatiously at Cheng Shi.
"..."
The more Cheng Shi looked, the stranger it felt, like watching a lion dance performance. He forced a couple of fake laughs and pretended to ask eagerly:
"What other services do you offer?"
The Orc girl gave him a suspicious look, then lifted her hide skirt, revealing an exaggeratedly rounded rear.
Cheng Shi focused his eyes!
That part!
Wasn't it the head of one of the two dwarves at the bottom...?
"Hiss—"
This didn't seem like a proper service.
His expression tightened, and he immediately turned around and left, looking as though he were constipated.
What was this supposed to be?
An orc circus?
Bailing had really been right. There truly was a horseback show here.
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