Despite the Chief’s scream, the clowns on stage began to tie him up to a huge wooden post they had brought from somewhere.
And beneath his struggling feet, piles of firewood kept stacking up.
It looked just like a medieval witch hunt.
“Let me go! You crazy freaks!!”
[Isn’t there a plot where the Chief gets killed here?]
‘But a plot where the Chief gets nailed by a monster makes sense, right?’
In that moment, one of the clowns next to me handed me a clown mask.
As if implying to cover my bare face.
Not wanting to be exposed for no reason, I politely took the mask and put it on my face.
The moment I covered my face with the mask, Elcia shouted again.
“This offering was brought from the back mountain, where a pig fell and was struggling!!!”
“I’m not a pig! I’m a person!!!”
“Look! It’s the evil spirit of coins dwelling here!!!”
Then she raised a torch high like a holy flame.
In one hand, a torch. In the other, a microphone.
Holding two unrelated items, Elcia proclaimed in a solemn voice.
“Everyone!!!! We are heading towards a new all-time high today!!!”
At that moment, the numbers above the many clowns’ heads began to rise one by one.
The clowns around me were no exception.
As a result, countless mirror fragments surrounded me.
[Are you gonna watch this?]
‘……I think I can guess what it’s like.’
Everyone raised their phones high, and as if promised, they started to shout in unison.
“””””Please, please. Let us break through the all-time high!!!!”””””
“Your passion is lacking!!!!! Shout it one more time!!!!”
“””””We’re heading for an all-time high!!!!! Full throttle!!!!”””””
“Louder!!!!!”
The moment everyone’s fervor reached a peak, Elcia began lighting the firewood under the Chief.
As the flames slowly rose, the Chief started to shout hurriedly.
It seemed he felt the heat beneath his feet and realized this was the real deal.
“Put the fire out now!!!! I am the Chief!!!!”
But the Chief’s words fell on deaf ears.
Everyone ignored him as if the screaming of a sacrifice meant nothing.
At that moment, Elcia suddenly pointed at me and called me to the stage.
“You there, the clown with the mask!!! Come up!!!”
All the surrounding clowns stepped back to give me space.
With their cheers and applause behind me, I slowly walked up to the stage.
As I fully stepped onto the stage, the cheers and applause of the clowns became so grand that I couldn’t hear anything else.
It almost felt like a grand religious ceremony.
In that moment, Elcia recognized me and tried to speak.
“Honey-.”
[Hey! That pig’s ears are still open!]
‘If I get caught, I’m screwed.’
I hurriedly reached out and covered Elcia’s mouth, whispering just loud enough for her to hear.
“Shh, stop. Don’t say a word, my sweet little cat.”
“Okay…”
With a dazed expression, Elcia softly replied through the gap between my fingers.
As soon as I removed my hand from Elcia’s mouth, she grabbed the microphone again and spoke.
“The clown who stepped up here has something to say to you all!! Please listen!!!”
With that, Elcia handed me the microphone.
I took the mic and began to meet the gaze of countless clowns staring at me.
Suppressing my rising anxiety, I cleared my throat and spoke.
“Everyone. They say you should invest in coins or stocks with money you don’t mind losing.”
Instantly, the atmosphere started to sink.
The glimmers of hope and passion in the clowns’ eyes began to change into hatred and disdain.
In those piercing looks, Elcia was watching me with an anxious expression.
Soon, she started to manifest butterflies around us.
As if ready to escape if things went south.
An uncomfortable silence and unvoiced grievances took over the square.
In that atmosphere, where it felt like a knife fight could break out any second, the Chief began to mumble as if deep in thought.
“Wait a minute… that voice seems familiar…”
[Hey! At this rate, that pig might catch on.]
‘Shit, that would be seriously dangerous.’
I slightly lowered my voice and shouted with authority.
“But I’m not saying you should disappear!!!! Am I wrong!!!!”
“””””That’s absolutely correct!!!!!”””””
The flames of madness reignited among the clowns.
It seemed like there was no turning back now.
Having come this far, I decided to run with it till the end.
“Everybody!!! Have your coins broken through the all-time high!!!!”
“””””No!!!!”””””
“Even after offering something, there’s no sign of it rising!! What should we do!!!!”
“””””Enlighten the fools!!!!”””””
Countless hopeful gazes turned to me.
Standing tall against those eyes, I squeezed my throat and nearly screamed.
“Is this little flame gonna do it!!!! We need a bigger fire!!!!!!”
“””””Burn it! Burn it! Burn it!”””””
“Please, stop!!!!”
Ignoring the Chief’s cries, I poured all the oil prepared behind the stage onto him.
As a result, flames roared more fiercely than before.
The sight made the clowns erupt in cheers as they looked at their phones.
Soon, they began to shed tears of enthusiasm.
“It really went up!!!!”
“I went from -81% to -40%!!! Please, let’s keep this going!!!”
“Are you all still waiting to buy!!! Can’t you see the time to fully invest?”
“What about those idiots who haven’t sold yet!!! Put more into your seed money!!!”
“Hey, get those guys who dug their own graves!!! They’re rising now!!!”
“Let’s only walk the path of flames!!!!!!!”
Elcia was no different in her craziness.
Holding her phone tightly, she was cheering with bloodshot eyes.
“Go, goat! It will definitely rise later, but it’s okay to rise now!!!!”
Feeling at ease, I looked around and saw the Escort Elf in the distance.
Although she wasn’t dressed as a clown, she was undoubtedly in the same situation, holding her phone.
[Wow, they’ve lost it.]
‘Usually, the crazy ones are the ones leading the world.’
I was genuinely happy to see the Elf coin I was invested in also soaring.
Even though it seemed now wasn’t the time Elcia had previously mentioned, I figured there was nothing to lose if it went up.
Holding that feeling close, I approached the fiercely burning Chief.
“Ughh!!!”
“Are you in pain?”
“Help me!! Please!!”
“I will relieve you of your pain.”
“Really!! Please!!!”
[You’re a bit of a saint, huh? Letting even such a villain off.]
‘Watching him writhe in pain isn’t exactly enjoyable either.’
I stood beside the Chief with a serious expression.
Though he couldn’t see me, I sensed he turned his head toward me upon hearing my voice.
He looked like he was clinging to a glimmer of hope.
To respond to that hope, I began to burn off the remaining hair on his side.
– Fwoosh!
“Ahhh!!!!!”
[You crazy son of a bitch! Crazy son of a bitch! Crazy son of a bitch!]
‘This is the shortcut to relieve the pain.’
Suddenly, the Chief let out a massive scream.
The clowns raised their heads from their phones, puzzled by the sound.
Then they saw the hair on the Chief’s side burning and erupted into cheers.
“””””Burn it up!!!”””””
“You!! Why are you doing this!!!”
I took the microphone and shouted to everyone.
“Everyone!!!! What is the root of your suffering!!!”
“””””The brain!!!”””””
“So what should we do!!!”
“””””Destroy it!!!”””””
“You idiot! For such a ridiculous reason!!”
The Chief’s side, covered in flames.
At that moment, he could be called a flaming Heihachi.
Whether it had some effect or not, the coins began to soar up.
Now, every clown began to kneel down right there and began to pray earnestly.
‘Human sacrifices seem to still work.’
[Is this an Academy or an Aztec thing?!]
‘Both start with “A”, so let’s just consider them similar.’
However, our joy didn’t last long.
A single drop of water fell from the sky.
And then, as if that was a signal, a heavy downpour began.
Thanks to that, the fire on the Chief was completely extinguished, leaving only thick smoke rising.
If that was the signal, all the coins began to crash as well.
Like rain falling from above in a nearly straight line.
“Stop, damn it!!!!!!”
“Goat, don’t get hurt. Goat, don’t get hurt. Goat, don’t get hurt.”
“Damn it! I only have one kidney left!!!!”
“Saving those who are about to be buried alive!! Two slots available!!”
“It’s really over!!!!! Oh~ my life has ended!!!!! I’m so fed up!!!!”
But it wasn’t just the clowns’ joy that got washed away by the rain.
The clowns’ makeup began to wash off one by one.
The true forms, hiding behind their anonymity and spreading madness, were now being revealed.
In the end, everyone hurriedly started to flee the square.
Elcia’s situation wasn’t much different.
Her wig was askew, and her makeup was washing off.
In the end, all that remained on stage was the Chief, puffing smoke like a bonfire, and me, wearing a mask.
Just the two of us.
‘What a waste, it was about to be grilled.’
[More like it turned into smoked meat.]
‘But seriously, it’s raining.’
[Is it because the Chief is a pig that we had a rain ceremony?]
I checked the Chief’s unconscious state.
Though his clothes were burnt in some places, there was hardly a trace of soot on his body.
Even on his head, only a little hair had burned away, leaving the rest intact.
‘… He’s a lump of fat, and not a bit of him burnt?’
[Is this what they call fire-resistant fat?]
I subtly reached out to the unconscious Chief.
And I plucked all the remaining hair on his side.
[What kind of malicious act is this!!]
‘Burning isn’t good for your health.’
After tidying up the Chief’s remaining hair as if Brazilian waxing, I left him and stepped off the stage.
Naturally, I didn’t see Hyeji.
She probably ran back to the dorm when the rain started.
I too had no reason to stay any longer, so I quickly dashed to the dorm.
The Chief was rescued not the same day but the next day.
The one who discovered the Chief was the cafeteria’s dog.
Thinking it was smoked meat, it began to gnaw at him and found him lying there when the kitchen staff came looking for him.
The dog suffered from food poisoning but was reportedly back to health after a stomach wash.
That day, a brief article appeared in the campus newspaper.
Only, it seemed the writer got caught in the coin frenzy, so the article rather consoled the clowns.
– Why do we fall… It is for us to rise again.
