There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

Gray finished his Coke, still wanting more, shook it vigorously, poured out some ice cubes, chewed them, and then caught up with me.

"...We still have two coupons, we'll take you to get turkey legs later!" I couldn't help but say, feeling a pang of sadness for this country boy who had never seen the world.

"Thank you, Boss Marcus!"

Great, very energetic!

Gray's morale has visibly recovered!

After merging into the bustling crowd, I heard the child next to me incessantly pestering his parents: "Mom and Dad, I want to see the carnival! To see the floats! Take me there now!"

The father, dressed in a suit and tie, probably came straight from his work post. He looked at his child with a slightly indulgent gaze and said, "Okay, sweetheart, I promise you'll get the best seat!"

He then picked up the child with one arm and held his wife's hand tightly with the other, and together they walked towards the open-air theater.

Another group of young people, however, had some disagreements.

One person said, "There are very few people queuing at Castle Horror now! Let's hurry over!"

The other one said, "No, you guys go ahead. I promised my girlfriend I'd go to the party."

Then, both of them turned their gazes to the last young man. After thinking for a moment, the young man, who had a girlfriend, said, "Then I'll go to the carnival too! Horror Castle is boring. It would be so much better if Midnight Hospital were still open..."

A thrill-seeking young man clicked his tongue and said, "I'd love to go to the Midnight Hospital too... It's a shame it's been closed for renovations since that accident, and I doubt it'll ever reopen..."

Hearing this, I recalled Gray's earlier experience and quickly stopped the group of young people, asking, "Excuse me, could you tell me what happened at the place you were talking about? Why isn't it open?"

The young man looked at me with a puzzled expression, then suddenly asked curiously, "Wow, are you guys dressed up for a party? Cool!"

I looked at this guy who'd rather eat dog food than care about single people and said, "This set of silver scale breastplates I have is a one-piece set, first come, first served, while supplies last. Want to buy one?!"

"...No, you look terrible in that outfit. I meant your friend's tribal attire was really cool. As for the haunted hospital you asked about, there's nothing to hide. Apparently, two months ago a madman sneaked in, dressed as a doctor and carrying a sledgehammer, chasing after haunted house staff and even injuring a tourist."

"Okay, I hope you get your fill of dog food, you little rascals!"

I bid farewell to the young people in a refined and amicable manner, and led Gray toward the horror zone where the Midnight Hospital haunted house was located.

"Boss, didn't you say you were going to see the carnival?" Gray asked.

I smiled slightly. Some things are the opposite of what they seem, but it's not convenient to explain further.

The previous report revealed some unusual information, confirming that this midnight revelry was anything but ordinary. But this only enclosed haunted house is particularly intriguing…

As we passed a road intersection, we finally separated from the throng of people and turned into a quiet alley where only two or three people were sitting and resting.

A huge display case stood by the roadside, showcasing counterfeit gold and silver jewelry to create the atmosphere of a bustling street. Gray glanced at the case as he passed by, froze, and grabbed my arm tightly.

I instinctively turned around and suddenly saw a clown face covered in hideous paint, sitting by the window with an exaggerated and pretentious expression!

This face kept changing expressions, so exaggerated it was almost like it was going to tear the skin off. When it grinned, it revealed sharp, yellow teeth and looked at us with a mocking and evil gaze, emitting a silent, maniacal laugh!

Without hesitation, I took a step back and righteously condemned the cabinet, my voice easily carrying to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

"You're smearing the Joker's reputation! Where are the security guards?! Where are the security guards?!"

Well, in a sense, I really don't want to use that phrase on a ridiculously horny, fat man—it would make me seem like I have strange tastes.

At my call, a team of fully armed security personnel rushed out from the street corner and began kicking down the locked doors of the shops, while shining flashlights into the windows, quickly surrounding the building.

The clown in the shop window glared at us with a resentful expression, then quickly disappeared into the darkness of the house, concealed by the popping of a balloon.

"...Is this the clown you just saw?" I asked Gray.

Gray shook his head. "It's the Joker, but not quite the same. The one I saw was... paler."

It seems there's more than one clown...

That makes sense, though. Being able to impersonate Gray in front of me and then impersonate a security guard in front of Gray is something no single person could do.

“Our route has been exposed again, Gray. Let’s go back to the party.” I shook my head helplessly and returned to the crowd.

This time, the crowds were even larger, with people packed shoulder to shoulder. Most of the rides no longer had queues, as if everyone had gathered together, waiting for the carnival to begin.

But the atmosphere was getting increasingly strange.

I sensed a subtle yet slightly eerie atmosphere in the air, somewhat like the sweet scent of an apple ripe for its last rot, constantly seeping into our nostrils and stimulating the nerves of the tourists.

The surrounding tourists became increasingly excited. They started jumping and shaking their heads to the rhythm of the music, cheering hysterically for every fire that appeared on the stage. Regardless of age or gender, they were all filled with hope due to some unknown emotion, with extremely sincere smiles on their faces.

Gray and I were gradually caught up in the atmosphere and quickened our pace, moving forward with the flow of people, eager and longing to see the stage at the end of the road and witness this exciting carnival!

I felt suffocated by the crowd and couldn't help but look up at the rooftops in the distance to confirm my location.

On a building designed in the style of the industrial era, a light suddenly turned on in one of the windows.

Then I saw it: in the roof window of this building that served as a scenic structure, a face with an exaggerated and eerie smile suddenly appeared. Under the light, a short, fat, and ugly figure was also projected onto the wall, dancing wildly in the empty house until its limbs were torn apart and blood splattered on the windowsill...

In that instant, I was shoved hard and lost sight of the strange occurrences.

I noticed that the anxiety and eerie atmosphere were becoming more and more obvious. The people's queue did not last long, and gradually turned into pushing and shoving each other, and finally it turned into an extremely dangerous shoving and cursing!

Nearby, I saw my father, dressed in a suit, his eyes bloodshot, loosen his tie and kick the person in front of him hard in the back, furious at their congestion and stagnation. The child in his arms, with a childlike, innocent wickedness, cheered on his father's barbaric act.

The man's wife had been pushed aside by the chaotic crowd at some point and was now lagging behind, frantically attacking those who blocked her way with her long fingernails.

Looking past the crowd, I saw the young men from earlier on the roadside.

They may have been pushed out of the mainstream by the crowd, but this only made them display the style of thugs. Holding up signs and umbrellas stolen from the roadside, they frantically attacked the tourists on the outermost edge, mercilessly crushing the bones of strangers, and then dragging them out of the crowd with their hands covered in blood, trying to squeeze themselves in.

Within my line of sight, everyone was in a trance-like state, unmoved by any cruel attack they suffered, and could casually inflict the same attack on the tourists in front of them.

As the bell suddenly rang out.

carnival……

it has started!

Chapter 489 Doomsday Amusement Park

The massive crowd, reeking of blood, rushed towards the bottomless abyss, wailing and howling. The more crowded it became, the slower the procession moved, but this very slowness became a catalyst for the tourists' frenzied emotions.

The hustle and bustle of the amusement park reached its peak after the bell rang, and the cloying aroma of rotten apples poured in from all directions, flowing through the sea of ​​people.

Tourists wandering around, with a morbidly intoxicated look on their faces, take deep breaths as if they have recovered their energy from the depths of their souls. Then they use their handbags, umbrellas, keys, or anything else at hand to clear a path for themselves, knocking open the skulls of those who block their way, letting brains and blood splatter on their faces.

The collapsed corpse was quickly buried in the chaotic footsteps, swallowed up by the crowd without even making a ripple.

These bloody and violent acts further ignited people's inner fear and anticipation. A subtle and terrifying atmosphere hovered over the Penneland amusement park, soaring low as if it were a tangible thing, causing visitors to experience an uncontrollable thrill from their toes to their hearts with each visit.

The streetlights on both sides had turned into a dim, yellowish glow, laboriously and dullly illuminating the road. All the lights in other areas were turned off, leaving only the main road shining like a road to overthrow.

The road was seemingly within reach, yet suddenly countless steps appeared. But everyone felt a sense of direction—about how to reach that suffocating open-air theater.

The dim yellow light projected from the streetlights shone directly on the heads of two rows of workers holding hands and on guard duty. Their faces were obscured by the light, making them impossible to see clearly. Amidst the buildings and streets, these dark, sinister faces stared at each other and whispered amongst themselves.

Their faces still wore bright smiles, but these smiles, which used to be so comforting, seemed particularly out of place in this scene of ecstatic joy.

These guard actions were also meaningless—more about preventing tourists from leaving the group than maintaining order. Occasionally, a tourist would be awakened by excruciating pain, screaming and trying to escape this path of death.

But they were immediately stopped by staff members on both sides.

They still smiled and said to the tourists, "Welcome to the park, this is your home!"

The poor man was then overwhelmed by the thugs behind him, becoming an insignificant wave in a sea of ​​blood.

After staff entered to "maintain order," the tourists at the very end of the line, perhaps less affected by the mysterious gas, showed obvious signs of fear and panic. They finally started screaming against the flow of people and ran wildly out of the line, trying to find a place to escape.

But they accomplished nothing except making a negligible commotion—because no one could find the exit of the amusement park!

I dodged the attack from behind, grabbed the man by the neck, knocked him unconscious, and shielded him behind me before turning to look at Gray.

To my surprise, Gray's eyes were still clear. Perhaps sensing something was wrong, he had completely stopped breathing, his abdomen was slowly heaving, and after a long while he exhaled a breath of hot air, then continued his strange breathing that only took in air and didn't exhale.

His body radiated an astonishingly high temperature, scorching the skin of nearby tourists, seemingly threatening to set their hair on fire at any moment. Clearly, Gray was using this method to resist the corrosive effects of the mysterious gas.

But Gray looked even more surprised than I was. Based on what I knew of him, he was undoubtedly thinking, "Boss, how come you're not affected at all?"

I wiped away the tears from the corners of my eyes and patted his shoulder: "Because I was playing a NetEase Cloud Music playlist in my head!"

The open-air theater rose higher and higher, eventually becoming a pilgrimage temple. The jubilation inside indicated that a strange divine drama was unfolding, where actors used self-harm, dismemberment, hallucinations, and delirious ramblings to get closer to the gods, while incidentally driving the frenzied audience into a state of ecstasy.

I vaguely saw this temple, vanished in the river of time yet reappearing in the modern world, enshrining some long-lost deities. They resided within some indistinct, enormous structures, with countless black, colossal stone pillars rising from a damp swamp, reaching high, shrouded in mist, beyond my sight!

Behind the theater's half-open doors, many blurry, ghostly figures lingered, as ancient as the blasphemous temples and the faintly visible pillar totems, revealing a malevolent smile...

The crisis was drawing ever closer, and even though Gray was in a strange, reversed breathing state and couldn't speak, he kept conveying the same message to me through his eyes:

"If we don't run now, we'll never be able to escape again!"

I know things aren't right, but according to my horror movie survival theory, there's still no suitable opportunity to break out—those who forcefully create chaos at this point often become the first to stick their necks out and get shot down.

Fortunately, our line soon split into two narrow columns, each heading in a different direction, as if the crowds were entering through different ticket gates...

One column disappeared into the narrow alleyway on the left, leaving only terrifying howls. The other column entered through a huge iron gate, from which came maniacal laughter and roars.

Out of the corner of my eye, I kept scanning the roadside, searching for a familiar figure. Finally, I spotted a piece of paper with a smiley face drawn on it...

"Take advantage of the chaos to run! Listen to my countdown: three, two, one... Khaki, get out of here!"

Just then, as I expected, a burst of light appeared in the distance, causing chaos in the security team's human chain. I kicked aside the person next to me and threw the unfortunate guy who had been taking the knife for me behind me like a punching bag, creating a gap in the chaos that allowed us to break out of the line and plunge into the entrance of an amusement park ride.

Gray finally exhaled the scorching air from his lungs, so much so that the doorknob warped from the heat. I calculated that he could hold his breath for up to twenty minutes while simultaneously sprinting a hundred meters…

Good heavens, is this kid even human?!

"Boss, what were you waiting for?"

I didn't have time to explain further to him, because I suddenly realized that this amusement park ride called "Castle of Horror" didn't seem like a good place either.

But now there are only two choices: one is to go back outside and participate in the death march, entering that eerie theater; the other is to hide inside this amusement park.

Hearing the footsteps chasing behind me, I knew the security personnel had caught up, so I made a decisive move and slipped through the castle's hinged iron gate.

We sat outside the door and listened for a while, and then noticed that the footsteps lingered outside the door for a moment before finally leaving.

“Let’s go. Since we rarely have the chance to visit an amusement park, I’ll take you to the haunted house!” I said to Gray with a smile.

Gray hesitated, taking a step back. "No...no, let's just hide and get out of here quickly..."

Huh? Is this guy afraid of ghosts?

"No discussion! I only get to eat a hamburger and visit a haunted house once in my entire life, so get in!"

Without any hesitation, I dragged him through the gate and began our stolen moment of leisure for some amusement.

Upon entering this ancient castle, one is greeted by a series of strange sights.