230: Chapter 231 The Gray Carnival of [Disorderly Man] and [Dreamland]

With only five days left until the start of the Battle of Sequences, the captain of the Carnival Circus, one of the top ten Dream Teams—Carnival Clown—had arrived at the "Permanent Dream Mission World—Dreamland," a place highly esteemed by low-to-mid-tier Hosts.

Carnival Clown wore a crisp purple suit with a crooked green flower pinned to the lapel. His face was painted with the classic pale base, scarlet lip lines, and ink-black eye markings, almost perfectly replicating the image of that notorious clown from Gotham City in the animated series "Batman." Only those chilling, smiling, squinting eyes suggested that he was more than just a clown impersonator.

Hanging from his waist was a palm-sized vintage toy box, painted with a grinning clown mask. The unlocked lid would occasionally crack open, revealing colorful lights from within—this was strange, the exclusive Dream Spirit belonging to him, the wielder of the A-rank Talent, The Disorderly One.

"Tsk! To think it actually wants to extract my negative emotions? What a dreadfully boring paradise!" Standing before the giant candy archway at the entrance of the "Permanent Dream Mission World—Dreamland," Carnival Clown sniffed the sweet, cloying air. His ears were filled with the sounds of laughter from the park, and as he felt the park constantly attempting to extract his negative emotions, a playful yet crazed arc curled at the corners of his mouth.

The colorful clown receptionist at the entrance tilted its head. Its colorful, curly hair was fluffy and soft, and a standard sweet smile hung on its face. Looking at this uniquely styled clown in the purple suit before it, a flicker of confusion flashed in its eyes.

Carnival Clown walked up to the colorful clown with an exaggerated, gentlemanly stride. He elegantly placed his right hand behind his back and extended his left, offering a standard Western handshake.

The colorful clown subconsciously raised its hand to respond. Just as its fingertips were about to touch the other's glove, Carnival Clown abruptly pulled his hand back. In the split second the colorful clown was stunned, he quickly raised his hand and precisely slapped the colorful clown's palm. "Pfft—" Carnival Clown held his stomach and burst into hearty laughter, then turned and strode into the park, leaving the colorful clown standing there in a daze.

The colorful clown puzzledly opened its palm. A grey toy marble, imprinted with a clown's tongue-sticking grimace, lay quietly in its palm. It curiously raised its hand to bring the marble closer to its face, wanting to see the pattern clearly, but in the next second—

"Boom!" A violent explosion suddenly rang out, and the colorful clown was enveloped in a cloud of thick, grey smoke. When the smoke cleared, the once brightly colored clown had changed: its skin and clothes were dyed grey, its black lip lines were stretched extremely long, its eyes had turned into a pair of grey toy marbles, and its mouth was upturned in a crazed arc that defied skeletal structure, emitting a chilling, "Heh-heh-heh" maniacal laughter. The grey clown shook its body, which had been stiffened by the explosion, and like an out-of-control electric toy, sprinted into the park.

This ability to turn a colorful clown into a grey clown was precisely a meme virus called "Disorderly · Grey Carnival," which Carnival Clown had endowed upon the marble taken from the strange toy box using his The Disorderly One Talent.

The grey clown collided with another passing colorful clown. Merely brushing against the other's shoulder caused the grey hue to spread like a tide. In a mere few seconds, another grey clown was born, joining the ranks of the grey carnival.

Like a snowball rolling downhill, the number of grey clowns grew rapidly. Through physical contact, they dyed the colorful clowns responsible for guiding and service in the park grey one by one. Dreamland, once filled with laughter and joy, was quickly submerged by wave after wave of maniacal laughter.

"Heh-heh-heh!!!" The moment the 666th laugh fell from a grey clown, its body suddenly swelled and exploded with a "bang," turning into a cloud of grey smoke. As the smoke cleared, two grey clowns, only half the size of the original, stepped out, their mouths still wearing exaggerated smiles, continuing to laugh endlessly.

"Heh-heh-heh!!!" A half-human-sized grey clown exploded and split again, turning into two grey clowns only as tall as a calf.

The sounds of maniacal laughter and explosions intertwined constantly. The grey clowns became smaller and smaller as they split, shrinking from their initial adult size down to calf-height, then knee-height, and finally, they were merely the size of a thumb.

These miniature grey clowns were like a swarm of locusts, crazily destroying everything in the park: the candy-built carousel was dismantled and scattered; the Chocolate-made tracks were gnawed until pitted; the Marshmallow castle was crushed by giant Chocolate balls; and the Dream World specialty desserts and drinks that had been at various stalls were treated as toys by the grey clowns, tossed around in the chaotic, disorderly grey frenzy. Sweet, syrupy juices and broken candy shards littered the ground of Dreamland.

The Hosts and Dream World natives who had been relaxing and enjoying the entertainment in Dreamland were terrified by this sudden chaos of grey clowns and fled rapidly.

Many low-tier Hosts screamed and shoved, running desperately toward the park entrance, wanting to escape this land of disorder. Dreamland's ability to extract negative emotions was still operating, but the grey clowns' disorderly destruction and chilling laughter, along with the fear, anger, and irritation brought about by the chaotic scene, constantly stimulated the Hosts' nerves, making the speed at which they generated negative emotions far faster than the extraction rate. In less than half an hour, the original "Dreamland" had turned into a "Nightmare Disaster."

At the top of the rainbow candy Ferris wheel, Carnival Clown sat casually on the edge of a cabin, his feet dangling in the air, the soles of his shoes brushing against the crystal-clear frosting coating. He looked down at the "grey tide" composed of countless thumb-sized grey clowns below, watching the panic-stricken Hosts and natives, laughing so hard he rocked back and forth, tears streaming from the corners of his eyes.

"Hahaha! Too interesting! This is the 'Disorderly Carnival'!" Crazed light flickered in Carnival Clown's eyes, and various chaotic, disorderly, and incomprehensible thoughts surged in his mind. As these thoughts combined with the massive amount of negative emotions provided by the Hosts below, he felt an increasingly strong resonance between his The Disorderly One Talent and the "Source." A surge of immense energy churned within his body. The Dream Spirit strange, which he held in his palm, had its toy box lid opening and closing with a "click-clack" sound, as if laughing along with its master, while various colored lights and smoke emerged from the box from time to time.

Suddenly, a powerful wave of Dream Power that made the Soul stagnate erupted from Carnival Clown's body. Like a tsunami, with him as the center, it surged out to submerge the entire Dreamland.

Those thumb-sized grey clowns swelled rapidly like balloons, lifting off the ground one after another and flying toward the sky. Soon, the dense mass of grey clown balloons covered the entire sky of Dreamland, blocking out the originally dreamy colorful sky completely, leaving only a patch of oppressive grey.

Carnival Clown grinned, took out a grey grimace marble—identical to the one he had previously given to the colorful clown—from the strange toy box, and tossed it toward the ground.

"Patta—" The crisp sound of the marble hitting the ground rang out, followed immediately by a continuous series of explosions in the sky. The grey clown balloons popped one by one, turning into colorful paper scraps dancing across the sky, like a magnificent rain of paper. These colorful paper scraps seemed to be guided by an invisible force, slowly landing on the ground and piling up into small heaps of paper.

The paper heaps gradually wiggled, and colorful clowns crawled out from them, their eyes still carrying a hint of confusion. When they looked at the mess of a park before them, they didn't hesitate at all and immediately threw themselves into the restoration work: the candy carousel quickly reassembled, the Chocolate tracks automatically healed, the Marshmallow castle was reshaped, and the broken desserts and drinks turned into energy and were tossed into trash cans.

Carnival Clown leaped down from the top of the rainbow candy Ferris wheel. The moment he touched the ground, it seemed to turn into a trampoline, bouncing him back up. With each rise and fall, Carnival Clown walked briskly toward the park entrance. He stepped over the ruins of the giant candy archway, and at the very last moment before leaving, he looked back at Dreamland, which was being rapidly restored by the colorful clowns, and a meaningful smile curled at the corners of his mouth.

"Hee-hee-hee~ The carnival is over! Clean up the mess well!" His tone carried a hint of mockery. "It reached the 'Source Contact' stage so easily~ I haven't had enough fun yet~"

As his voice faded, Carnival Clown's figure disappeared at the park entrance, leaving only the colorful clowns busy with repairs.