One of the recruiters, "Diamond 7," escorted William deeper into the circus,
and along the way, William casually displayed his social prowess, chatting with the recruiter without regard for the potential dangers of the circus. He even began by asking about the ’poker face’ question, wondering if the suits and numbers symbolized status.
Impressed by William’s performance, the recruiter secretly determined that he was likely to pass the upcoming scrutiny and beco a magician’s assistant, so he candidly answered.
The so-called recruiters are internal managent personnel of the circus, that is, they are promoted from ’receptionists.’ When this recruiter spoke of receptionists, the patterns on his face squeezed together, obviously reluctant to recall that painful past.
When a receptionist completes fifty years and ets the standards, they can be promoted to a poker face.
The initial point is [1], which represents the manager’s authority in ascending order. His current 7 is already a higher rank, and he had been in charge of the entire recruitnt team before.
As for the suits, they represent different functions:
Spades – Oversees the circus’s internal rules violations, mistakes, and their adjudication and punishnt.
Hearts – Oversees the planning and arrangent of the circus’s various projects, including the design of venues for each performance, lighting control, and program scheduling (in consultation with the corresponding perforrs).
Clubs – Manages the recruitnt of personnel, as well as the distribution and arrangent of low-rank employees’ work.
Diamonds – Takes care of finances and the procurent of materials from outside.
After the manager’s introduction, William had a basic understanding of the circus’s grassroots structure and continued to inquire:
"So, what about the poker faces with numbers above ten?"
"They are venue managers, second only to the ringmaster and the main perforrs of the shows. They are the core of the grassroots work, conducting the most efficient scheduling for us managers.
Any poker face above ten, if placed in a Neutral City, would be sufficient to beco a city manager. Their abilities are exceptionally outstanding."
"So you could possibly get promoted up there too?"
"Yes, as long as I can reach [10], I can participate in the yearly competition for managers. If I succeed in the competition, I will be assigned a managerial poker face of [J], [Q], or [K], based on my functional expertise."
"I see. I hope you get promoted to manager soon.
Also, I have one last question. The audience doesn’t have to pay any fees to watch the grand and gorgeous performances at the circus, so how does the circus make a profit?"
Upon discussing this, the poker face shook his finger.
"Mr. William, it seems you have misunderstood sothing. Audiences don’t have to pay when entering, but during the process of watching, they have already paid a sufficient ’fee.’
This ’fee’ is enough to sustain the operation and expansion of the entire circus."
"The audience’s physical and souls?"
"No, no, no, we are not so superficial.
If that were the case, what difference would there be from a slave market? Moreover, these infected humans are protected under the ’Protection Order.’ If we mistreated them and trafficked people, we would be hunted by multiple Source Epidemic Areas.
Since you’re likely to beco one of us, please rember this.
We serve ’Fear.’
Fear is the fee, and all our performances are based on fear. The fear that spills out from deep within the audience who watches the show and cannot contain their fear will be paid to the circus as a fee.
This new type of virtual currency is even of great interest to the Duke."
"Fear, huh..."
William also realized that the mont he took the ticket and accepted the invitation, a seed related to fear had been planted deep within his Madness Brain.
At this point, Poker Face stopped.
"Mr. William, you will arrive at the Magicians’ Preparation Room by taking the elevator ahead. Information about you eting the preliminary conditions has been sent over. Once you get on, you will undergo the formal assistant review. Good luck."
"Okay."
William stepped onto the special elevator marked with a Magic Hat label without feeling much nervousness.
Because of the Circus’s star magician, the current Magician - Jian Kiruiet, William had already seen him in nightmares and even had a verbal conversation with him.
William chose the position of ’Magician’s Assistant’ not just because he knew the magician or because he was proficient in the relevant illness techniques.
It was because during a previous visit to the Cancer Palace, he had casually heard from Lady Oreina that the current magician was a special being who had crawled out from the Abyss. This piqued William’s interest, sensing an opportunity possibly related to his own path.
Ding Dong!
A broadcast announcent ca - "You are about to reach the Magic Layer’s ’Transfer Room.’ The greatest magician of this century, Mr. Jian Kiruiet, will conduct the assistant review for you."
The elevator door opened.
A musty, tallic scent mixed with the stench of rotting corpses flowed towards William’s nose and mouth but was effectively filtered by his scarf.
Before him was not the anticipated room filled with various high-rank magic tools, grand and tidy, but rather sothing resembling a cluttered basent storeroom that seed to have been left untouched for a long ti.
Various types of old chanical devices, like bird cages, canes, or traditional prosthetics,
as well as jars filled with living organs, were placed around the room,
even tools for restraining human bodies, like water tanks and cutting kits, among others,
These items all seed like props corresponding to traditional magic and had nothing peculiar about them. Just as William stepped forward, the wooden door at the end of the room swung open.
Mr. Jian, under a dod top hat, was wearing a Guy Fox mask and stepped into the Transfer Room, leaning on a cane with white gloves.
Before William could open his mouth to greet, a voice ca from beneath the mask:
"Hmm, the look barely passes, and since those poker-faced let you co in, it does an you have so small skill.
But I can’t see any trace of magician’s training on you, nor can I feel any aura of Fear or potential.
The circus is currently in an expansion phase, and we don’t have the spare energy to train an unknown rookie from scratch, you may leave now!
Just follow the way you ca, and you need not worry, having passed the preliminary assessnts, those poker-faced will only subject you to a simple mory wipe before escorting you out of the circus."
Having said that, Jian turned to leave.
"Wait, fake Mr. Jian, there is a problem with what you just said."
William had deliberately prefixed Jian’s na with ’Fake’.
This made Jian, who had turned his back, stop in his tracks, his tone grew stern, and the Transfer Room they were in started to shake, with many of the tools falling to the floor.
"If you cannot point out the problem with my statent in five seconds, as a penalty for the offense against
and the circus, you’ll need to pay a sufficient amount of Fear to leave.
5,
4,
3,
2,
1!"
When the five-second countdown ended, William offered no verbal response.
Jian’s face turned fierce, his high bridge of the nose even began to contort, and the fake body stuffed inside liquified with anger, slowly dripping from the nostrils, with the whole mask lting.
However, the mont Jian turned his head, the scene before him stopped him cold.
William was suspended in air, a cruciform shape bound by iron chains,
’Dead Man Makeup’ activated,
Hand Axe had already cut open his own skull, plop—a half of his brain slid to the ground... The image of the cross and severed skull seared into Jian’s mind, as though dragging him to the depths of the Original Tomb to witness the primal Death.
A wave of fear overflowed from within Jian, his mask and disguised appearance completely dissolved, revealing an aged and ugly visage.
Pop!
William snapped his fingers.
The iron chains retracted, the head pieced back together—his own state also returned to normal.
The circus personnel in front of William, disguised as Jian, also returned to reality from the pull of death, their bodies covered in the foul-slling sli left behind from the dissolved disguise.
William smiled and said, "I do have a certain understanding of Fear, after all, my childhood was spent in fear.
Sorry I haven’t introduced myself yet. My na is William Behrens, and it’s a pleasure to et a Skin Slave like you here. We could exchange so information about ’Skin’ later if possible."
When William ntioned skin, the old master of disguise visibly recoiled, but William’s demonstrated abilities indeed shocked him.
"Just call
Ulysses. I’m rely one of Lord Jian’s assistants. You barely pass the review. However, whether you can truly beco an assistant still requires Lord Jian’s personal confirmation.
Co with ;
Lord Jian is very busy, having to design and think of new magic every day, he has no ti to see you.
You need a lot of patience;
I myself waited for seven days and nights in front of the Lord’s door when I first ca to the circus."
"Alright, please lead the way, Mr. Ulysses."
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