Chapter 1824: Chapter 1821: Magic Show
Staring at one prop after another pulled out by the magician, Han Dong felt a pang of anxiety in his heart.
“Quite a few people are going to die, and it’s likely not just as simple as ‘death’… If I’m selected again, I might need to consider using the [Demon Eye] as my trump card. Such tools, akin to torture devices, are unbearable on a common body.”
Han Dong also silently prayed not to be chosen, but deep inside there was a desire to try it out.
In the end, reason suppressed the desire, and he did not raise his thin arm… After all, he needed to be in full condition to deal with the clown later.
About five minutes passed.
Crack!
A bright spotlight shone solo on the magician, and he immediately got into performance mode.
Raising the black top hat above his head, he let go… Everyone thought the hat would fall on his head.
Who knew!
The ‘black top hat,’ as if breaking free from the magician’s restraint, grew serrated teeth inside, transforming into a creature akin to a lamprey.
As it fell, it devoured the magician completely.
Just as the audience gasped.
Crack!
Another spotlight illuminated, pointing directly at the “entrance” of the main venue.
The magician’s real self was somehow already standing there, bowing to thank the audience again.
While bowing, he noticed that his right arm was incomplete, and a large chunk of flesh was missing from his waist and abdomen.
Seeing this,
the magician immediately reached into the black hat and rummaged around, finally retrieving the missing right arm and some pieces of meat from the waist and abdomen, quickly reattaching them to his body.
“Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to tonight’s ‘Deadly Magic’ presented by me, Lebron Collum.
As I have no assistants, this meticulously prepared grand performance requires enthusiastic assistance from the audience on-site.
Since I’m quite demanding about ‘participants,’ I won’t take volunteers but will personally select suitable audience members to come on stage as my assistants.
Like a stage play, as long as you participate in my show, you will eventually win rewards.
Of course… only the living can receive them.”
The magician, with spiral spike-structured feet, moved through the aisle.
Ding~ Ding~ Ding~
The socket, filled with hundreds of floating red threads, was slowly choosing any suitable magic assistant… Once selected, it would extend its whole head into the audience compartment.
The selected audiences were all stunned, their whole bodies soaked in cold sweat,
But according to circus rules, they had to follow such an invitation, or they would be executed directly.
They believed that going on stage at least offered a sliver of hope for survival.
In the end, a total of 18 audience members were chosen to go on stage, each possessing a distinct trait such as a single eye, a single leg, tall stature, or dwarfism.
Under the magician’s arrangement, these assistants headed to different props… It seemed that all the magic would be performed simultaneously.
Han Dong was not chosen and appreciated the performance from below the stage, quietly taking out 10% of the Demon Eye to observe the mechanisms of these magic props.
“Hmm? Is it because I can’t see through them?”
Han Dong continued to enhance the Demon Eye’s effect to 20%… Yet, he still could not discern where the ‘mechanisms’ of the magic props were, or rather, there were simply no mechanisms at all.
“If there are no mechanisms, then these cannot be called magic props, but torture devices, right?
In the case of ‘truth sealing,’ at most, some basic special trait power can be used; it’s simply impossible to use space magic to achieve magic effects.
Playing around like this would turn into pure [slaughter], completely lacking the show effect a magic performance should have.
Would the circus really allow such low-quality performances on stage?”
Han Dong had already envisioned the bloody scenes that would follow in his mind; such meaningless carnage and disgust were, in his opinion, the lowest level of performances.
When all the assistants were in position,
the magician pulled out a master remote control from the black hat and pressed the red button.
In a moment, the sounds of metal gears, iron chains, chainsaws, and other mechanism noises spread through the venue…
The temporarily fixed assistants could only pray silently,
hoping that the magic performance they were about to experience would, like what they usually saw, appear dangerous but ultimately be completed through magical sleight of hand.
However…
The bald man fixed on the cutting table clearly felt the chainsaw tearing his scalp, slicing through his skull.
The woman imprisoned in the water tank tried to find internal mechanisms to escape but found there were none and that the internal green liquid was corrosive.
The dwarf fixed on the guillotine had not prepared at all… Crack! His head fell into the wooden bucket in front of him.
A brutal performance that couldn’t be broadcast outside unfolded on stage.
Except for the guillotine’s relatively quick ‘magic,’ the others proceeded very slowly.
Almost as Han Dong had imagined, he held such performances in disdain, yet, due to circus rules, he had to keep his eyes fixed on the stage.
“If this really is the performance, the circus is too lame.”
When all performances concluded, the scene was completely stained with blood, akin to a slaughterhouse in hell, and the air still echoed with heart-wrenching screams.
At this moment.
The magician first approached the body dismemberment device and covered the audience segmented into six pieces with a black cloth.
Whoosh!
In just three seconds, the cloth was pulled away.
“Hmm!?”
The once-bored Han Dong suddenly stood up, shocked by the scene before his eyes.
The audience, whose head had been cut open, body severed into several parts, and blood flowed all over the ground,
miraculously appeared ‘intact’ before everyone… merely a bit pale, with slightly murky eyes.
Following that, the magician used a larger black cloth to cover the water tank.
This time it took a bit longer, about ten seconds.
The female audience who had already been corroded beyond human shape miraculously appeared alive on top of the water tank… Her skin even smoother and fairer than before, even though these skins weren’t her own at all.
The guillotine was simpler, perfectly restored in just a second… The only change was paler complexion and slightly vacant eyes, given that a lot of blood had been lost.
Within five minutes,
all the audience members seemingly killed by the props reappeared ‘intact.’
Wow! Wow! Wow!
Thunderous applause erupted from the whole venue; they had never witnessed such a realistic and unbelievable magic show.
Just as the applause ended… Ah! Ah!
Screams suddenly erupted from the stage, as the sawed-off guy frantically lunged at another spectator, biting down like a mindless bloodthirsty zombie.
Several other spectators had misaligned limbs, appeared to suffer severe psychological trauma, and kept screaming as they recalled their recent experiences.
Two others seemed to have wrongly connected internal organs and died on their own after a few seconds.
“Oh dear~ Too short on time, so some parts couldn’t be reattached correctly? Must practice more. Luckily, I swapped sequences with the clown, preventing me from being the finale… Otherwise, the troupe leader might scold again.”
The magician immediately released a monster-like black hat, swallowing the frenzied temporary assistant in one gulp, then locking onto other ‘failures’… Of the initial eighteen on stage, only five seemingly normal ones remained.
However, the magician had no intention of letting them leave.
“Please rest for a while, you five, as the next round of magic will start later… With fewer people, I’ll need to re-select some audience members to fill the assistant positions.”
At this point, Han Dong understood and showed a mad laugh expression.
“On the surface, a magician, but actually an extremely skillful surgeon?
Turning the nature of magic into a surgical show, letting the audience wander between life and death, experiencing the most primal pain and fear, you’re truly something. Here, everyone is indeed top-level talent!”
Thinking of this, Han Dong raised his hand again, waving continuously.
When magician Lebron looked this way,
he seemed to see a grotesque figure holding a red balloon, with another blood-soaked arm waving at him.
Lebron immediately showed a disgusting expression, not responding to Han Dong.