Dylath-Leen, a large port city, countless merchant ships and caravans arrived or left daily.
This was not a bright city, its buildings were mostly black towers made from basalt. Between the black towers were dark and narrow streets. The streets were lined with low-rise taverns and the taverns were filled with sailors from all over the world.
The foreigners kept coming but the locals of Dylath-Leen were reluctant to even venture into the outskirts of the city.
This world was filled with danger and as a normal person, living in this city would give them everything they needed.
All the citizens of Dylath-Leen knew about the black sailboats. These boats were controlled by strange black merchants who traded in gems, slaves and other rare items.
The origins of the black merchants remained a mystery. Some said they came from the 'Plains of Leng'.
The Plains of Leng was a legendary place, it was said to be filled with endless fear but that was just a legend, people knew very little about it.
However, there were indeed some black merchants who traded in fear, some with strange rumors and some with strange objects. Normally, they would not cause too much of a reaction but recently, the 'Nightmare Wonder' brought by the black merchants at the Sunset Theatre caused a stir in Dylath-Leen.
The 'Nightmare Man', a hideous and scary monster, the illusions he unleashed would always scare the audience into a state of panic.
The first and second spectacles were only supported by the regular patrons of the theatre. They came with curiosity and suspicion and left with the satisfaction of fear.
Some of these patrons went to the taverns and they spread the news among the sailors.
When the half-drunk sailors heard this, they joked among themselves.
"Nightmare? Monster? I've sailed for so many years, what haven't I seen? "
"Let me tell you what true horror is. That time our ship was caught in a huge storm and we almost sank. That was the real horror."
"Only those who have not seen the world will find a deformed child covered in scars strange."
"I'll go watch it, I promise I'll finish it with a smile on my face."
With these sailors who wanted to show off their courage, by the third spectacle, the theatre was already filled to the brim. Even the walkways needed extra seats.
The smell of alcohol permeated the air. The sailors looked at the stage condescendingly, the black merchants sure knew how to play tricks.
It was not until the nightmare man made his appearance that they felt their hearts skip a beat.
But after all, they still had the alcohol in them. They gathered their courage and said that they had seen that kind of face too many times. They only needed to lock a lowly slave and a crazed beast in a cage for half a day and when the slave was released, it would be a nightmare man.
Then the black merchant poked the needles into the nightmare men's eyes. The sailors screamed immediately, their mental breakdown did not last longer than the normal civilians.
The black merchants seemed to want to use them to show their power. This spectacle lasted longer than the previous two, until they were all begging, crying, vomiting, and even fainting. Only God knew what kind of calamity they had encountered in the illusion.
After this third spectacle, the Nightmare Man completely stole the limelight at Dylath-Leen.
The sailors who were scared out of their wits refused to admit their weakness after they exited the theatre. When asked, most of them said sheepishly, "There's nothing to be afraid of, I vomited because I was a little drunk." "He's just a deformed child." But their pale faces and evasive answers were more than enough to tell the truth.
With this, even more sailors were intrigued. In the various taverns, there were many such quarrels and bets.
"You coward, I'm sure you'll pee in your pants the moment the Nightmare Man glances at you!"
"Then let's go have a duel and see who will fall first! What will happen to the loser? "
"We'll do whatever you say!"
Not only the sailors, even the locals showed more interest in this spectacle. Places like the House of Worm and Leng Yang only existed in legends. Even if they had the chance, they would not dare to go there. But the Sunset Theatre was right in the middle of the city, after watching a spectacle, they could enjoy the sunset.
Therefore, on the fourth day of the spectacle, due to the huge demand, the black merchants held three consecutive spectacles.
On the fifth day, it became 10 spectacles a day.
This was understandable to the merchants in the city. Be it the merchants or the black merchants, they would not be able to keep their goods for long. There were too many strange and powerful forces in this world. When something became famous, it was no longer up to the merchants.
Therefore, on the sixth day, the Sunset Theatre had to host the Nightmare Wonder. The Nightmare Man remained on stage and the audience changed again and again.
3 spectacles, 5 spectacles, 10 spectacles … Before noon, the 15th spectacle was over.
The people exited the theatre with hearts that were still shaking from fear. They all said the black merchants had made a killing. Where did they find this Nightmare Man? They probably found him at Leng Yang, the Leng Yang that was filled with endless fear.
No one would be reminded of the small town Ulthar that was not far from Dylath-Leen and the Zoogs that lurked in the forest at the outskirts.
At that moment, another batch of shaken audience left the theatre. The strange man on stage was once again covered by the black cloth.
The Nightmare Man sensed the fall of the black cloth. After a while, the pair of eyes regained their humanity.
"The 31st spectacle is over." Gu Jun mumbled to himself. The first spectacle was 0.1 percent, the second was 0.2 percent, the third was 0.3 percent and the subsequent spectacles would be reduced by 0.3 to 0.4 percent.
So far, the corruption rate had reached 38.07 percent and the completion rate of the abyssal mission was 9.8 percent. He only needed one more spectacle to complete.
Over the past few days, Gu Jun could feel the obvious change in his mental power, especially this morning, it was growing at a visible rate. Compared to before, there was an indescribable quality to it. What did that signify? Even he himself had no idea.
Furthermore, 40 percent was a threshold. After he broke through this number, his body felt like it was recovering. Various senses returned.
He could now move his fingers or toes, that was a good sign. The bad thing was that the tip of his left pinky had been cut off, it was probably the Zoogs' doing.
He alternated between using the five sweet dream bubbles. He had yet to use two of them, but three of them were already on the verge of shattering.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" Hearing the host's voice, a new batch of audience rushed in to take their seats. Gu Jun hid his consciousness into a new sweet dream and returned to the old theatre. He was already used to this.
Soon after, when the black cloth was pulled back, he could vaguely sense that the theatre was full again, there were thousands of audience members …
Suddenly, he saw something clearly. His heart, which had just regained consciousness, jumped up and began to beat faster.
Gu Jun saw a group of audience members sitting in the second row. They were earthlings, they looked exactly like earthlings.
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