"All right, dear audience, that concludes today's performance. We look forward to seeing you again tomorrow," the magician said.

The curtain fell, cutting off the audience's laughter and chatter.

Mo Bai stood upright where she was. The magician walked over and whispered in her ear, "Why aren't you leaving?"

Without waiting for her reply, he answered himself. "Ah, right. You can't see."

He placed a hand on her shoulder. From the angle and the pressure, Mo Bai could tell that he was about half a head taller than her, over 180 centimeters.

She could have avoided his arm.

But she didn't.

Right now, she was a piece of meat on the chopping block. Anyone in the Smiling Circus could be the knife, and dodging would be meaningless. Who knew what else might be lurking beside her?

Besides, the magician carried no killing intent. If he truly meant to kill her, he wouldn't make such an intimate gesture.

So even though she knew he possessed an ability akin to "exchanging the five senses through physical contact," Mo Bai didn't evade him.

Seeing that she didn't dodge, the magician's voice carried a hint of admiration. "There are many blind performers, but almost none as calm as you. You just escaped death. Aren't you angry? Afraid? Shouldn't you be screaming? Crying your heart out? Calling me a villain?"

"I'm hungry." Though she couldn't see, Mo Bai still faced the direction of his voice, her unfocused eyes fixed steadily that way. "Everything you mentioned wastes energy. I don't want to spend strength on meaningless things."

Besides, she had faced life and death several times already. Escaping by the skin of her teeth was practically routine now. It wasn't something worth celebrating or raging about.

"Then may I have the honor of becoming your cane, my lady, and guiding your way?" the magician asked with polished courtesy.

"That would be wonderful," Mo Bai replied.

She reached out, groped through the air, found a large hand, and calmly placed her own on top of it.

The hand wore gloves.

During the brief moment when her vision had returned, she'd seen the magician wearing white gloves. She didn't know whether the ability to exchange senses came from the gloves or from the monster himself.

If she pulled them off… could she take that ability away?

Of course, it was just a thought. She wasn’t that reckless.

If the gloves truly were the source of his power, he would never allow anyone to touch them so easily. It might even be a trap, baiting her into trying to snatch them.

The title "magician" hinted at his abilities. A magician's hat, gloves, and costume were usually specially made props. Who knew what might be hidden inside? If she pulled off the gloves, perhaps she would trigger some mechanism. Maybe a tiger would spring out and bite her.

As the thought crossed her mind, the magician glanced at her and said slowly, "Not a tiger, but a venomous snake. My sleeves aren't big enough to hide something as large as a tiger."

Mo Bai's heart tightened. Instinctively, she tried to pull her hand back, but the magician gripped her palm firmly, not letting go.

"You can read minds?" Mo Bai asked. "Through physical contact? Or because of the gloves… No. Neither. It's an ability that works within a certain range."

She recalled mistaking the trap behind her for Ding Xun earlier. Whatever that thing had been, every movement aligned far too perfectly.

Now that she thought about it, the process of "reuniting" with Ding Xun had been riddled with flaws. Ding Xun was straightforward, but not brainless. There was no way she would have flailed about beside her like that.

She had sensed someone moving near her and thought, Could that be my teammate? After that, every movement from the person beside her perfectly matched her expectations, leading her to misidentify them as Ding Xun.

Even the impression that the person was 180 centimeters tall was perceived that way because she wanted it to be Ding Xun.

She longed to regain her sight and only Ding Xun had that ability. So she'd hoped that the first teammate she met would be Ding Xun, and her mind had filled in the rest.

While she'd been thinking all that, the magician must have been standing nearby, listening to her thoughts, manipulating whatever was beside her to act according to her expectations.

The magician's helpless voice sounded in her ear. "It wasn't 'whatever was beside you.' It was a puppet, controlled backstage by a puppeteer."

Mo Bai ignored him and continued thinking. She couldn't see anyway, and he could hear her thoughts. Nothing she did would matter. She might as well think openly about what to do next. If she touched on something he wanted to respond to, he would speak up himself.

"Miss, even if I can hear your thoughts, this is rather rude, you know? It feels like I'm performing a one-man show and you're not even acknowledging me," the magician complained.

Mo Bai paid him no mind. Instead, she thought, she was already in a hopeless situation. If he dared torture her or provoke her too far, she would release the Ultra-Star Rank monster inside her and destroy the circus.

"Hey, hey, hey!" The magician's always composed voice finally turned anxious. "What on earth are you hiding inside you? Let me listen… Good heavens, you're not lying. It's real!"

Mo Bai felt more at ease. No one liked Ultra-Star Rank monsters, not even other monsters. Especially not the kind that devoured everything like the one inside her.

Wait.

She remembered that Disease Town was an S-rank instance formed from multiple merged instances. That meant the Smiling Circus was just one of those instances.

Earlier, the whip-wielding man mentioned two things that caught her attention: the audience members were all sick, yet the director insisted on daily performances; and the man himself had been coughing, saying he might have been infected.

On top of that, the circus performances were bizarre.

Mo Bai didn't believe her earlier performance could truly make anyone laugh. Even if someone enjoyed that sort of act, it would evoke excitement, like beast fights or death matches, stirring primal hunting instincts. It was unlikely to produce genuine joy.

The magician kept emphasizing smiles. He wanted the audience to laugh, as though the Smiling Circus could only exist if the audience laughed.

Right. The Smiling Circus itself was an A-rank instance, a domain. And domains had rules.

But Disease Town, as an S-rank instance, must also have its own domain. What was the relationship between the two?

Recalling what the whip wielder said about the audience constantly falling ill and infecting circus staff…

Through that single detail, Mo Bai reached a conclusion: Disease Town and the Smiling Circus had a big-fish-eats-small-fish relationship.

The Smiling Circus had once been a carefree little fish, occasionally brushing against other little fish, like Count's Castle or Biological Research Institute No. 7. Just brief contact with no real impact.

But Disease Town was a big fish. It had swallowed all the little fish connected to Biological Research Institute No. 7, attempting to grow into something even more terrifying.

Small fish had survival tactics, too. They possessed their own domains, whose power could resist the big fish's "digestion."

Yet at the same time, the big fish's digestive power constantly eroded those domains.

The Smiling Circus knew its audience was sick, knew they would infect its staff, yet it continued daily performances to sustain its domain and resist Disease Town's digestion.

But by continually opening its doors to the townspeople, it inevitably invited Disease Town's erosion, as the whip-wielding employee's illness proved.

In this world where the strong devoured the weak, higher-level monsters naturally had stronger resistance.

The whip wielder was probably only a C-rank or B-rank monster, which was why he'd been infected. His sickness showed that lower-level monsters within the circus were already being contaminated. It would only be a matter of time before higher-level monsters were infected too.

Once the higher-level monsters were infected, they would no longer be able to maintain the domain's rules.

Domains and monsters sustained each other. Domains protected monsters, while monsters maintained domains. Once the monsters fell ill and the rules stopped functioning, the domain would collapse.

And when it collapsed, Disease Town would completely consume the Smiling Circus. At that point, every monster would become part of Disease Town.

Would the circus monsters turn into grotesque virus creatures covered in tumors and oozing pus? Or would they simply die within Disease Town, becoming nourishment for the Ultra-Star Rank monster about to be born?

Mo Bai pictured the magician's handsome face covered in tumors and running sores. She'd played plenty of intense games and watched more than enough grotesque horror films. Her imagination supplied the rest easily.

Anyway, her tolerance was high, so she felt no disgust.

Mo Bai could handle it, but others could not.

The magician could no longer maintain his courteous tone and exclaimed, "That's enough!"

Mo Bai ignored him and continued thinking about what she should do next.

Her plan was actually quite simple: act shameless in the Smiling Circus. At the slightest dissatisfaction, she would threaten to release the Ultra-Star Rank monster.

As long as she could cling to the Smiling Circus and outlast it until Disease Town finished eroding it, she would absolutely be the last one alive in this domain.

Her title could resist mental contamination. Presumably, it would grant her strong resistance against Disease Town as well.

They could all compete in longevity to see who outlived whom.

"If you provoke me again," the magician said darkly, "I really will kill you."

"Oh?" Mo Bai finally spoke. "Seeing how little you care whether I live or die, treating human lives as stage entertainment, I thought you weren't afraid of death at all. Oh, so it's not that you're not afraid of death. You just don't mind others dying, cause you only fear your own death."

"You'd better keep quiet," the magician replied. "You're more irritating when you talk."

Mo Bai deliberately did the opposite of what he wanted. "There's no need for you to tolerate me. You could just kill me, couldn't you? I'm an unstable element. Keeping me in your circus is troublesome, isn't it?

Oh, I get it. You want to kill me, but the domain's rules don't allow the circus to slaughter its staff or performers.

But during performances, you can design 'dangerous' acts. Employees who die in 'accidents' don't count as violating the rules. Am I right?"

The magician didn't answer, but Mo Bai knew she had guessed correctly.

She had already gone through a death act and survived today's crisis. If the magician wanted to kill her, he had to wait until next time.

"Then I wish you better luck next time," Mo Bai said sweetly, determined to irritate him to death. "But I'm hard to kill. The first time, I had just gone blind and didn't understand what was happening. That was your best chance. Now that you've missed it, it won't be so easy again."

"What a pity," the magician said regretfully. "Why didn't I place the safe path on your right?"

"Because you truly wanted me dead," Mo Bai replied. "The right side was the path I just walked and confirmed as safe. The left side was unfamiliar territory. People instinctively choose the direction they've already verified. The odds of me choosing the right were much higher."

"And yet, at the last moment, you chose the left. You really are difficult to kill." His tone carried another trace of admiration. "Next time, I'll choose a smarter way to kill you."

"Are you sure you'll get a next time?" Mo Bai asked. "I have twenty-four hours to 'break out,' after all."

"I can read every thought you have. What method could you possibly use to escape?" the magician snorted.

Mo Bai didn't respond as she considered her chances of escaping.

Mind-reading was troublesome, but it was also a foreign element. Once her sight returned, she could use Environmental Rejection to remove it.

After removing it, she could think about how to escape.

To prevent the magician from gaining more information through mind-reading, she stopped thinking strategically and instead filled her head with images of him infected by disease, then casually imagined Sheng Yan blowing up the entire circus with Bomb Crafting.

Just as she'd thought before, the Smiling Circus was only an A-rank instance. She was carrying four A-rank cards, so flattening this instance would be easy.

Ah. The sight of the Smiling Circus exploding would really look like fireworks in the sky, she mused leisurely.

"…Are you deliberately provoking me?" the magician asked.

"Yes," Mo Bai replied cheerfully. "Because I just realized something. You… actually need me, don't you?"

"Oh? And why is that?" he asked.

"That whip-wielding guy is infected. That's a sign that the domain is being eroded. If he stays inside the domain, he'll infect more people.

Bound by the domain's rules, you can't even kill me, so you certainly can't kill that employee, either.

If I were you, I'd have him guard me tonight and subtly encourage him to hurt me.

I was badly frightened on stage today. I've got a lot of pent-up anger. If someone tries to harm me again tonight, I'll definitely kill him.

That way, you could conveniently remove a hidden danger from your domain.

Following that logic, you might not even want the players to die. Besides me, three other players will enter the Smiling Circus. I don't know whether I was the first to perform, or where the others are…

The best solution would be to separate us and assign each of us to a different infected employee. That prevents us from joining forces to damage your domain, and also lets you eliminate your risks."

The magician released her hand.

Covered in dirt, her eyes unfocused, Mo Bai stood before him with astonishing composure and asked calmly, "What's wrong? Are we at the cafeteria?"

The magician let out a self-mocking chuckle.

"I was just thinking," he said softly. "On stage earlier, you were filled with rage. You wanted to kill me and kill the audience.

At that time, there was still a trace of fear in you. The instinctive terror when death knocks at the door, and the helplessness of not seeing the world around you.

But now, merely on the walk to the cafeteria, it feels as though our positions have completely reversed.

A moment ago, you were a trapped beast in my cage. A tiger with its teeth and claws pulled out. My plaything.

Now, you're a time bomb in my house, capable of destroying it at any moment.

I imagine your next move will be to threaten me in return, won't it? Demand that I hand over your companions and cure your eyes. Otherwise, during tomorrow's performance, you'll break the rules, shatter the domain, and invite the contamination of Disease Town inside."

Mo Bai smiled approvingly and clapped. "Congratulations. You've learned to answer ahead of time."

The magician said coldly, "You keep using Disease Town as leverage against me. But what if I tell you that your blindness wasn't my doing? That it was caused by the contamination of Disease Town? That the Smiling Circus has actually been sheltering you? How would you threaten me with Disease Town then?"

He expected her to fall into a passive position and be afraid.

Instead, Mo Bai replied fearlessly, "I came here to destroy Disease Town in the first place. It's something I must face. Do you think I'd avoid a greater danger by hiding in a slightly lesser one and let you bully me?"

"So you insist on mutual destruction?" the magician asked gravely.

"Of course not. I'm looking for a win-win solution," Mo Bai said.

"A win-win? Between monsters and players? What kind of joke is that? We're mortal enemies."

Mo Bai smiled. "Not exactly. The players' objective has always been to fulfill the wishes of the instance monsters. If we could simply grant your wish, who would choose to fight to the death in killing instance bosses?

It's you monsters who are always so extreme, creating survival-rate requirements, taking pleasure in torturing players, and insisting that a certain number of us must die before the instance is cleared.

"Take Count's Castle, for example. Count Leon just wanted a living doll to be his friend. How hard was that? If he'd told me that wish from the beginning, I could have handed him the hunter among the players. He'd let the rest of us leave the instance. Everyone wins. Why not?"

"But the friend Count Leon wanted was you," the magician said coldly.

Mo Bai spread her hands. "Well, that's unfortunate. Friendship goes both ways. I didn't want to be his friend, so I had to kill him.

But if your wish doesn't harm players' lives, and doesn't involve some ridiculous survival-rate condition, I can help you.

The problem is, I'm blind right now. I can't see the system prompts. I don't know your mission. I can't help you."

She looked genuinely regretful.

"You're trying to coax me into curing your eyes," the magician said.

"Not coaxing, it's negotiating," Mo Bai corrected.

From the moment she suppressed her anger, assessed the situation, examined her leverage, threatened mutual destruction, and then calmly discussed mutual benefit, every step had been preparation for negotiation.

The magician had something she wanted.

No matter the method, she would obtain it.

But she would never beg. So she increased her leverage, securing herself a seat at the table.

When your hand is strong enough, you start with incentives, then apply pressure.

At the moment, she was only at the incentive stage.

"What a brilliant reversal," the magician said, applauding.