The boy raised an eyebrow, about to say something, when a flash of light shot from the mansion behind him into the sky.
"So, the world has quite the prejudice against us..." The boy waved his hand casually. "I won’t argue with you. You’ll understand one day."
Han Meng narrowed his eyes and immediately pulled the trigger!
The deafening gunshot rang out, the wind whipping up the hem of his coat. The deconstructing bullet, capable of annihilating everything, pierced through the boy’s body, leaving a hole the size of a head!
Yet, as the bullet passed through his body, not a single drop of blood was spilled. The boy’s figure gradually turned pale, like a fading piece of paper.
"Han Meng, right? I’ll remember you... See you around."
The boy’s body became flatter and flatter, and within seconds, he turned into a simple, two-dimensional portrait with no thickness. The cold wind blew the portrait onto Han Meng’s face.
Han Meng frowned deeply. He took the portrait off his face and saw the boy with the white paper mask sitting cross-legged in the drawing, giving him the middle finger...
He immediately tore the portrait into shreds.
Han Meng took a deep breath, glanced in the direction of the mansion, and walked straight toward it.
Unhindered, Han Meng soon arrived at the mansion’s gate. He pushed the door open with force.
Amid the creaking sound, a scene of carnage greeted his eyes. The blood-soaked ground was littered with corpses, and nine silver coins were scattered among them...
The Ice Spring Street celebration had a total of twenty-two attendees. None survived.
---
Chen Ling slowly opened his eyes.
He saw the spotlight above him and shielded his eyes with his hand, but he didn’t get up immediately... He lay on the stage floor, as still as a corpse.
In just a few hours, he had experienced too much.
Chen Yan’s disappearance, the cruel truth, furious revenge, the redemption he thought he could grasp, then despair, and then a glimmer of hope... All of this left Chen Ling numb and hopeless.
He wished it had all been a dream. That upon waking, his mother would call him for breakfast, and he’d hurriedly put on his clothes and work badge, heading to the theater to continue his mundane life.
But alas... What awaited him was still that eerie, lifeless theater.
After a long while, Chen Ling finally sat up. He looked at the dense sea of crimson eyes in front of the stage, his emotions a tangled mess.
Even if he had stepped onto the Path of the Performer... could he truly escape the grasp of these "audience" one day?
Or, in their eyes, had he simply become more entertaining?
Chen Ling had no answer.
But at least, he now had a faint reason to keep living.
He stood up from the floor and walked to the large screen at the center of the stage. A series of characters came into view.
[Audience Expectation +1]
[Audience Expectation +1]
[Audience Expectation...]
[Current Expectation: 77%]
[Detected loss of actor connection. Performance interrupted.]
[Audience Expectation -50]
[Current Expectation: 27%]
These were the changes in expectation that had occurred in the mansion. After Qian Fan shot and killed him once, he had lost a connection, resulting in a 50% deduction in expectation.
But perhaps because the expectation value remained above 20% even after the deduction, none of the "audience" had fled.
"As long as I control the total expectation value, even if I die, it won’t lead to a situation like last time where my body was usurped... This is a chance at resurrection."
"However, getting the expectation value above 70 isn’t easy..."
Chen Ling’s gaze fell on the corner of the screen, where the bouncing treasure chest icon had reappeared.
He lightly tapped it, and lively music began to play, accompanied by stage lights. When Chen Ling turned to look, a table had appeared at the center of the stage.
"Detected that audience expectation has surpassed 70% for the first time. Achievement unlocked—'Special Praise'!"
"You have gained an additional draw opportunity."
"Upon use, you will randomly draw one character skill from all the roles that appeared in this performance."
Chen Ling walked to the table. Cards of various colors and patterns appeared on the table. Like last time, most were white and gray, but the number of blue cards had increased compared to before...
This was likely due to new characters appearing, which in turn increased the number of skill cards.
With a wave of Chen Ling’s hand, all the cards flipped face down. The backs of the cards flashed at an astonishing speed before neatly settling in place.
Last time, Chen Ling had drawn Han Meng’s [Dance of Slaughter], which had completely changed his fate... This time, would the god of fortune still favor him, granting him a skill card that could turn the tide of battle?
Chen Ling hesitated for a moment, then raised his finger and tapped on one of the cards.
The card flipped over.
A blue hue appeared before Chen Ling’s eyes.
Skill: 【Secret Eyes】
Affiliation: Path of the Healer, [Blood Butcher] Path, First Tier
Character: Chu Muyun
The moment Chen Ling saw the card’s information, his eyes narrowed slightly...
Drawing Chu Muyun’s skill card wasn’t entirely unexpected, but the bold words [Blood Butcher] made him deeply suspicious.
Was this path really part of the "Path of the Healer"??
As Chen Ling absorbed the card, the method of using [Secret Eyes] appeared in his mind.
Unlike the [Dance of Slaughter] from the "Path of the Soldier," [Secret Eyes] was more of a support skill. Its purpose was to help the user better capture, analyze, and discern details...
A good doctor could judge the severity of a patient’s condition based on their behavior and demeanor. Even psychologists could determine a person’s thoughts and predict future actions through microexpressions.
[Secret Eyes] elevated this ability to its peak.
After Chen Ling finished drawing the skill, the cards on the table disappeared, but the table itself remained.
"...What does this mean?"
Chen Ling walked forward and noticed a new piece of paper on the table.
The paper also had a few lines of text.
"Congratulations on completing the performance, Initial Chapter—'Heartless.'"
"Highest audience expectation for this performance: 78%"
"You have gained a designated draw opportunity."
"Upon use, you may designate a character from this performance and randomly draw one of their abilities. The probability of drawing a rare skill is related to the overall audience expectation of this performance."
After reading all the text, the table under the spotlight suddenly produced sheets of paper, filled with countless words.
["Who... am I?"]
[Boom—]
[Pale lightning flashed through the ink-black clouds, rain poured down, and a divine storm drenched the muddy earth...]