Chapter 835

Theater Actor: Kraun

"Oh? Is that so? It seems my memory isn't very good; I forgot as soon as I heard it."

Cheng Shi smiled, reached out to tidy the only collar on Kraun's tattered cotton coat that looked somewhat clean, except Kraun's collar was already straight, and he deliberately made it crooked.

Not only that, while moving, he accidentally dropped two scalpels from his left and right sleeves; the scalpel tips stuck into the ground just 1 centimeter from Kraun's toes, the crisp sound of breaking ice making Kraun break out in a cold sweat.

Kraun could see it; these three weirdos were not to be trifled with.

But he knew how to assess the situation, knowing that he couldn't resist at all right now, so he remained motionless, letting himself be manipulated.

Until Cheng Shi dropped a few more scalpels with a clatter, scaring Kraun so much his legs started to tremble, Zhang Jizu on the side sighed, unable to watch anymore, and rescued Kraun from Cheng Shi's hands.

"We originally had a more convenient way to confirm your identity, but... considering you might be that key, I'll give you a chance.

Repeat after me: I am Zhen Xin.

If you say it right, I'll let you go."

Kraun was terrified; his whole body was trembling, but even so, he didn't drop the flyer in his hand; he looked at Zhang Jizu's eyes, which were squinted into slits, and endured the fear to repeat:

"I am Zhen Xin."

A lie, an expected lie.

The three didn't seem surprised; Cheng Shi glanced at Zhang Jizu and smiled: "You seem to have been certain long ago that he isn't Zhen Xin?"

Zhang Jizu nodded pragmatically: "Any place I can think of, she would never hide here, but still have to be careful; she arrived much earlier than us, and since we didn't see her in front of the door, it means she must have already entered.

It's just...

I don't know how many theater doors she has passed through."

"Old Zhang, do you think there are doors behind this door?"

Zhang Jizu didn't respond, only nodding; he indeed felt this way, even feeling that what they wanted was hidden behind that theater door, just that before contacting the real door, he didn't know how many doors there were to walk through.

Thinking of this, Zhang Jizu took the initiative to let Kraun go; Kraun escaped control, fell to the ground with a pale face, crawled up the steps with hands and feet, and rushed toward the theater without hesitation.

The three raised their eyebrows and followed closely; when they saw this flyer-distributing young man rush into the door, a strange brilliance flashed on the imposing door, as if triggering some new change.

"It really is him." Ai Si nodded, dragging her giant blade and wanting to walk inside; just after taking one step, she found the other two looking at her with expectation, as if waiting for her to test the waters for the team.

Ai Si's face darkened, but she didn't refuse, instead snorting coldly and squeezing through the gap, looking like she wanted to compete for the lead in this three-person team.

And after the Inspector disappeared, Cheng Shi raised his eyebrows and asked meaningfully: "What I'm curious about now is where the real Inspector went; what do you say, Dragon King?"

A glimmer of light flashed in Zhang Jizu's eyes; he turned sideways to look at Cheng Shi and asked back: "Are you certain Li Jingming also came?"

Cheng Shi glanced at Zhang Jizu casually, seeing the other party refuse to admit it, chuckled, patted his shoulder, and walked into the door gap a step ahead.

Zhang Jizu looked at his patted shoulder, shook his head and laughed, then followed with big strides.

This trial is becoming more and more interesting; 【Deception】 and 【Memory】 are mixed, lies and truth coexist, everyone's identity seems fake, but exactly how much is fake, perhaps no one can say for sure.

When Cheng Shi and Zhang Jizu passed through that door, Ai Si had already walked very far ahead, and the marketplace in front of them had changed, becoming the interior of the town with crisscrossing paths.

Pedestrians on the road were walking in a hurry, muttering words like "survival"; the three walked on the road and listened for a while, discovering that today was the day the residents of Sandlais were grateful for surviving in this world.

Every month on this day, they would initiate a gathering to be grateful for the greatness of life, but in fact, it was just everyone gathering together to huddle for warmth and give some comfort to these endless days.

The days were not bad, and the citizens' grateful hearts were also very sincere, but among these sincerities, there were always some anomalies, such as... that theater actor Kraun who was distributing flyers.

The young lad didn't follow the flow of the crowd to go anywhere, but stood firm at the foot of the steps in the cold wind, continuing to distribute flyers.

Passersby looked at him with great disgust; not a single person took the flyer, but Kraun was not discouraged at all, still smiling and full of energy.

Until...

He saw the figures of those three weirdos approaching again, his face changed, and he hurriedly covered his face and ran toward the theater, as if that theater was the place that made him feel most at ease.

The three didn't rush, chasing him again and crossing the third door.

This time the scene changed again; the wind and snow were greater, there were fewer pedestrians, and the entire town seemed to have entered "winter."

But even under such harsh conditions, Kraun was still distributing flyers at the theater entrance.

This time the three didn't walk directly to Kraun's opposite side, but under Cheng Shi's signal, changed their method, put on bloated cotton clothes, and then quietly passed by the theater entrance in the posture of locals.

When the three approached, Kraun was distributing flyers to a bearded man; the bearded man took the flyer, glanced at it casually, sighed, and said:

"Little Kraun, are you still recruiting audience members for your uninteresting comedy?

Give it up, no one will like your performance; with that effort, it's better to come to my shop and help me out; the salary is much more than the two silver coins you beg for standing at the door, how about it?"

The smile on Kraun's face remained unchanged; he seemed very proud of his profession.

"The tips from the audience are enough for me to survive; thank you, Melwed, I run the theater not to make money, I want to spread joy."

"But your jokes won't make people happy at all, they'll only make people feel colder."

"This is called a cold joke, a new form of comedy; I think it has great development prospects, and I'm preparing to promote it in Sandlais."

"..." Seeing that he couldn't be persuaded, the bearded man laughed dumbly and stuffed the flyer back into Kraun's arms, "Sandlais is already cold enough, you'd better think about how to warm everyone up."

Saying this, the bearded man left.

And the moment the bearded man left, looking at the sparse flow of people on the road, Kraun's smile froze on his face.

He turned around desolately and walked into the theater in low spirits.

After seeing these three scenes, the three players had gradually tasted the flavor; they looked at each other, didn't speak, only followed silently, continuing to witness the... life of this theater actor.

Kraun persisted in smiling and welcoming people in the wind and snow of Sandlais, yet his enthusiasm was treated coldly time and time again.

No one liked the Joyous Theater; compared to joy, people were more inclined to embrace warmth; they almost had no extra energy to seek joy.

Kraun didn't complain either; the only thing he complained about was that his comedy skills weren't good enough.

This scene had no changes day after day, so much so that after crossing that door countless times, the three players' expressions were almost numb; at some moment, they even felt they had been trapped in the past of Sandlais.

Later, Ai Si didn't even bother to act; she directly threw away the giant blade, scratched her head irritably, and complained:

"Is it over yet, is it over yet!?

Aren't you two tired of it?

The one surnamed Cheng, Zhang Shenxuan, did we come here to watch a TV series?"

The other two weren't surprised by her change; Cheng Shi looked at this impatient Inspector with a half-smile, his tone playful: "Then why don't you leave?"

"..." Ai Si was silenced.

Leaving was impossible; the sunk cost was too high; having drilled through so many door gaps, if she left now, wouldn't it be a huge loss.

So everyone could only calm down and continue following; and just after passing another few ordinary "days," the change finally came.

That day, it was another Thanksgiving Day; when there was almost no one on the street, Kraun turned into an alley, leaned into the shadows, and secretly went to the bathroom.

And just as he was turning his back to sprinkle water, a manhole cover behind him was suddenly lifted, and a stranger dressed in local Sandlais clothing quickly crawled out from the shaft, leaving in a hurry before he could observe the surroundings.

The three players stood in the shadows of the alley entrance, watching that stranger run toward the direction where the crowd was gathering with big strides; a glimmer of brilliance finally flashed in their numb eyes.

"Scholars of the Tower of Rationality... it seems this is how they influence this town.

But this time, they made a mistake."

Saying this, the three's gazes looked at the manhole cover in the alley that hadn't been covered tightly.

And at the same time, Kraun, who was hiding in another shadow and didn't dare to move after hearing the sound, also turned his head quietly, discovering the abnormality behind him.