The clown wiped the sweat from his forehead, awkwardly pulled a silly face, and waved his arms dramatically at the children.
“Hello, kids! I’m Bubble the Clown. I heard it’s Jack’s birthday. Which one of you is Jack?”
Jack immediately stopped crying and broke into a smile.
Even through the thick layer of makeup, he recognized his father’s voice.
He rushed forward and wrapped his arms around the clown’s leg.
Liam breathed a sigh of relief.
Kids this age were especially hard to cheer up once they got upset.
Just then, two children came over to him.
“Liam, I’m Sean, and this is Rick. We’re both huge fans. Can you tell us about some of your adventures?”
That was exactly what Liam wanted to hear.
He immediately launched into stories about everything he had seen and experienced over the years.
Secret urban legends, brutal medical experiments, obscure pieces of history.
The more he talked, the more excited he became.
It wasn’t until he noticed the children starting to look frightened that he reluctantly stopped.
“All right, that’s enough for today. Anything else you kids want to ask?”
Sean eagerly raised his hand.
“I want to know if the Skinwalker is really real. Did you catch it in the end?”
The other boy immediately followed up.
“Yeah! Is the person who got taken still alive? Who won in the end, you or the Skinwalker?”
“What kind of question is that? Liam obviously won. He had a gun.”
“But that Skinwalker kept appearing out of nowhere, and it was really fast.”
Listening to the children debate who would win in a fight, Liam felt incredibly pleased.
It had been a long time since he had been surrounded by so many people who understood him and actually believed what he said.
Then the Events Logbook suddenly updated.
[The Clown’s Skin]
[Event Level: C]
[Exploration Progress: 1%]
Huh?
Clown?
Liam turned toward Kent, who was currently fooling around with his son.
He hadn’t paid much attention before, but now that he looked closely, there was something very strange about Kent’s clown costume.
An ordinary clown costume was made from cheap fabric and cut loose and baggy.
One glance was usually enough to tell that it was nothing more than an inexpensive prop.
Kent’s costume was different.
The material seemed almost leathery.
Although it looked old, the wear only gave it a sense of age and history.
A costume like this could easily qualify as a collector’s item.
Liam said nothing for the moment and decided to keep watching.
Over the course of the birthday party, he noticed several strange things about Kent.
The first was his seemingly endless energy.
When Kent arrived, he had been drenched in sweat and looked like he was about to collapse.
Yet he spent the entire afternoon jumping around and playing without taking a single break.
Even stranger, he seemed to have somehow mastered a whole range of clown skills without ever learning them.
He picked up the long balloons Liam had handed out and effortlessly twisted them into all kinds of shapes, his hands moving so quickly they were almost a blur.
He even performed several difficult acrobatic tricks and casually pulled off a few simple magic tricks.
Thanks to Kent, the party became livelier and livelier.
But the more Liam watched, the more suspicious he became.
Kent was an ordinary working man.
Where had he learned all these clown tricks?
This wasn’t the kind of thing someone could pick up overnight from a crash course.
Eventually, the children wore themselves out and were picked up by their parents one after another.
Soon, only Liam and the Kent family remained.
While Meg was busy cleaning up, Liam approached Kent.
“Mr. Kent, I’m Liam from the TV station.”
Kent was still staring in the direction the children had left.
He only snapped back to attention when he heard Liam speak.
“Oh, right. Thanks for coming today. Things got pretty desperate. Here’s your payment.”
Kent held out both hands.
His fingers moved with astonishing dexterity, and after a few quick motions, five hundred dollars appeared out of nowhere in his palm.
Liam didn’t take the money.
He simply stared at Kent.
After a moment, Kent seemed to realize what had just happened.
He looked down at his hands in confusion.
“Did I just do that? Since when do I know how to do that?”
At that moment, Liam noticed another change in the Events Logbook.
[The Clown’s Skin]
[Event Level: C]
[Exploration Progress: 2%]
The Exploration Progress had increased.
Apparently, as more time passed, the costume’s influence on Kent was beginning to change.
Liam cautiously asked, “That costume looks pretty unusual. Did you borrow it from Binky?”
Kent shook his head.
“No. I’m a real estate agent. I found it in an old house.”
That made perfect sense.
Everyone knew that finding some mysterious old object inside an abandoned or aging house was practically the standard opening to an urban legend.
Either the object was haunted by the vengeful spirit of someone who had died horribly, or it contained some ancient demon sealed inside.
Either way, nothing about it sounded good.
“Old clothes with no known history are risky. For all you know, they could be carrying some kind of disease. You should take that thing off as soon as possible.”
“You’ve got a point. I’ll take it off right now. This damn thing is unbearably hot.”
Kent grabbed the collar and tugged at it a few times.
His expression immediately changed.
“It’s too tight. I think there’s a zipper on the back. Can you check?”
Liam walked behind him and lifted the collar.
The edge of the costume had already fused with Kent’s skin.
Seeing that, Liam began to understand what might be happening.
This was very similar to an urban legend he remembered from his previous life.
Kent also realized something was wrong.
“Shit. Why is this thing stuck to my skin?”
He reached up and tried to remove the wig and red nose.
Neither one moved.
They had fused to him as well.
“Damn it, what am I supposed to do? I can’t go to work dressed like this.”
Liam advised him, “Forget about work for the moment. You should find out where this costume came from. I think it may be possessed by an evil spirit.”
Kent was clearly starting to panic.
“Come on, man, don’t joke about this. I know you like telling spooky stories on TV for the kids, but this isn’t funny. Someone probably smeared industrial-strength glue inside the costume.”
Liam wasn’t surprised.
That was exactly how an ordinary person would react.
He continued, “When did you put the costume on?”
“Around noon.”
Noon.
It was around six in the evening now.
The Event still had a long way to go before reaching full Exploration Progress.
Judging by the rate of change, there were probably at least five or six days left.
There was still plenty of time.
Before leaving, Liam reminded him, “Mr. Kent, you know what I do. If you need help, call the TV station or leave a message anytime.”
“Sure, thanks,” Kent replied absently.
At that point, all he cared about was getting the costume off.
An Event that clearly involved supernatural power had to be handled carefully.
Liam had worked hard to build up his young fanbase, and he had no intention of letting any of those kids get caught up in something dangerous.
For now, the best option was to increase his own strength.
Relying on Gluttony was too slow.
Liam turned his attention back to Freetown Forest.
If he could resolve the [Thunderbird] Event, whatever Reward it gave him would still make him stronger.