novelraw Chapter 289: Punch Theater
Chapter 289: Punch Theater
After breaking free from that reverberation hallucination filled with false joy, Lin Jie sat by the cold wall of Guillotine Alley for half an hour before his violently pounding heart regained its steady rhythm.
He stood up, not daring to touch anything at the scene again, and re-examined this crime scene.
If it weren't for the powerful mental protective field of [Serene Heart] pulling him back at the most critical moment, Lin Jie was certain he would likely have already become a corpse with a bizarre smile plastered on his face, just like Sidney Porter.
The man codenamed "The Smiling Clown" was far more dangerous than the simple "mentally deranged" description in the file indicated.
Lin Jie began sorting through all the details he had seen in the reverberation moments ago.
The impact of that false joy had been too overwhelming, mostly obscuring all other environmental information, but Lin Jie had still managed to capture some key discordant elements.
After attacking Sidney with that comical short club, The Smiling Clown had not left immediately.
He behaved like a patient artist admiring his masterpiece, standing quietly in the shadows, watching the entire process of the victim transitioning from shock to falling into ecstasy, and finally losing all signs of life.
Throughout that entire process, the clown's body had remained stiff, making him look like a puppet.
But this wasn't enough. This information was too vague, too reliant on the unverifiable sensations of [Reverberation Touch].He needed more hard evidence from the physical world.
Over the next twenty-four hours, Lin Jie restarted the most basic investigative work in the traditional and rigorous manner of a Scotland Yard detective.
Lin Jie first returned to that underground bar on Bourbon Street.
Without revealing his identity, posing as a tourist curious about local urban legends, he bought the bartender several expensive glasses of whiskey.
From the bartender's half-drunk, half-sober descriptions, mixed with exaggeration and boasting, Lin Jie confirmed several key pieces of information.
Sidney Porter had indeed been at the bar that night, flaunting a large sum of "ill-gotten" windfall.
He had left alone in the end.
Moreover, no one had noticed anyone following him.
This meant the clown had strong counter-surveillance abilities, or possessed chameleon-like camouflage skills in such chaotic environments.
Subsequently, Lin Jie spent another sum of money to buy copies of all eyewitness testimonies from the previous clown murder cases from a street informant.
To the police, these testimonies were full of contradictions and nonsense.
Some said they heard faint circus music before the incident.
Some claimed to have smelled a cloying, mushroom-rot-like odor.
Some even insisted they had seen a "stilt-walking clown" over eight feet tall and faceless flash by.
Lin Jie recorded these seemingly absurd testimonies word for word.
He knew that when ordinary people's senses were slightly disturbed by spiritual force, they would unconsciously and automatically transform incomprehensible phenomena into the most terrifying images within their cognitive range.
"Circus music... mushroom smell... stilt-walking clown..." These elements began to gradually intertwine and connect with the puppet clues he already knew on the mind map Lin Jie was constructing in his head.
The file Isabella gave him stated The Smiling Clown's true identity: a former "Punch and Judy" puppet show performer from a circus.
"Punch and Judy" originated from 16th-century Italian commedia dell'arte and was later popularized during the British Victorian era. It was a popular yet violent and darkly humorous puppet short play.
The main character in the play, Mr. Punch, was a hunchbacked, hook-nosed figure with a violent temper and rebellious spirit.
He would mercilessly beat every character in the play with the comical short club in his hand, including his wife Judy and their child, as well as the policeman, the doctor, and even the Devil himself.
And each act of violence would draw the most enthusiastic laughter and applause from the audience below.
In a normal society, violence needs to be condemned.
But in the small, curtain-separated stage world of "Punch and Judy," violence became the source of comedy and the only means to obtain joy.
In Lin Jie's mind, a complete and tragic criminal profile instantly took shape.
A withdrawn child who grew up backstage in a circus, possibly suffering inhuman abuse.
A mentally ill patient who saw that small puppet theater filled with violence and laughter as his only refuge.
When he lost his ability to perform due to an accident as an adult and was abandoned by the entire world, his already twisted worldview violently collided with reality.
And when he obtained a grotesque armament with abilities similar to the comical short club in Mr. Punch's hand...
This man gained the power to forcibly impose his stage world, full of violence and laughter, onto this reality that caused him pain and hatred.
In his own way, he was forcing those he saw as "people who don't understand joy" to share with him that thick, dark humor originating from the "Punch Theater."
"This clown possesses human intelligence and cunning, and a heart completely unpredictable by common sense. Against such an enemy, conventional tracking methods might fall into his trap," Lin Jie thought to himself.
So he first went to a 24-hour public library in downtown New Orleans.
He needed information.
He needed all publicly available information in this city about "Barnum & Bailey Circus" and everything related to "Punch and Judy" puppet theater.
For the next day and night, Lin Jie hardly slept.
He frantically searched through all newspapers from the past ten years in New Orleans, municipal archives, and theater performance records.
Finally, in an inconspicuous report in the entertainment section of the *Picayune* newspaper from five years ago, he found the clue he wanted.
It was an article about "Barnum & Bailey Circus" being on the verge of withdrawing from New Orleans due to poor management.
At the end of the report, it mentioned, "Its historic 'Royal Puppet Theater' near Canal Street, also notorious for multiple haunting incidents, will be closed indefinitely pending further handling by the city hall."
Royal Puppet Theater.
A name forgotten by the world.
Lin Jie carefully compared the address from that newspaper with the New Orleans map in his hand.
That theater was located in a no-man's-land at the border between the French Quarter and the more chaotic American District.
Surrounded by abandoned warehouses and closed factories, it was an ideal stage where the clown could freely perform his one-man show without being disturbed by anyone.
On the afternoon of the second day, he changed into the most ordinary worker's clothes and came alone to that decaying industrial area forgotten by urban development.
He didn't approach the theater directly, instead taking up a concealed position at the top of an abandoned clock tower hundreds of yards away from the theater.
Using his telescope, Lin Jie carefully observed the theater, which lay dormant like a silent giant beast among the dilapidated buildings, and all its surrounding environment.
The theater was in ruins, with almost all its stained glass windows shattered, and the walls covered in graffiti and water stains.
It looked like a giant skeleton with its innards scooped out.
However, Lin Jie keenly noticed that something was lacking in this seemingly dead ruin—homeless people.
Logically, such an abandoned building of no interest to anyone should be the best shelter for the city's destitute, homeless population.
But this place was unnaturally clean, without a single trace of a homeless person in sight.
Just as Lin Jie continued observing, his heart gave a violent jump.
He saw a figure flash past a broken circular attic window on the third floor of the theater, where only the window frame remained.
It was a figure wearing a comical clown costume, with thick greasepaint on its face!
Lin Jie immediately held his breath and adjusted the telescope to its maximum magnification!
He saw the clown standing behind the broken window, holding an old-fashioned brass monocular telescope, and "gazing" directly toward Lin Jie's own location from afar!
Eye to eye.
Across hundreds of yards, across two layers of cold lenses.
Lin Jie could even see the other's greasepaint-covered face slowly split into a huge, brilliant smile.
"He's... inviting me."
Lin Jie instantly understood the other's meaning.
After completing this silent stare-down, the clown's figure disappeared behind the window and never reappeared.
Lin Jie slowly lowered the telescope, and the last trace of doubt in his heart dissipated.
When night fell on the third day, Lin Jie appeared alone before the entrance of that abandoned theater.
The theater's architectural style carried a Victorian-era Gothic beauty.
The towering spire, stained glass windows, and ivy-covered mottled walls looked like a black giant staring at him under the dim moonlight.
The main entrance was sealed shut with heavy planks.
But a small, inconspicuous side door leading to the backstage was slightly ajar, leaving a crack.
It seemed like a deliberate invitation for him, this "late audience member," to enter the theater.
Lin Jie knew this was most likely a trap.
He slowly pushed open the creaking door and stepped into that Punch Theater shrouded in darkness.
The theater interior was cleaner than he had imagined.
The air lacked the expected smell of decay.
In its place was a faint odor, like a mixture of mushrooms and damp soil.
Lin Jie's gaze was immediately drawn to the sight at the very center of the stage.
Where the curtain should have hung was a gigantic, unimaginably large fungal symbiote that was still pulsing slightly!
The thing's shape resembled a mushroom covered in colorful spots, breaking through the stage floor and growing to a height near the ceiling.
Several translucent mycelium strands that looked like blood vessels extended from its main body, spreading across every corner of the theater's walls, ceiling, and audience seats, forming a neural network.
The entire theater had fused with this bizarre UMA into one entity!
Information about a certain UMA's file instantly flashed through Lin Jie's mind.
[UMA Designation: C-082]
[Name: Laughing Madcap Mushroom]
[Threat Level: Alert-class]
[Description: A rare fungal-type UMA possessing a basic psychic network. Its spores contain potent hallucinogenic components that can directly act on a biological organism's central nervous system, inducing an uncontrollable and extremely intense "sense of euphoria." Organisms exposed to its spore environment for extended periods will eventually die due to complete nervous system collapse.]
"Looking at it this way, the clown's [Punch Comedy Club] is likely a derivative of this thing... I wonder how he managed it without an armament blacksmith..."
At that moment, the kerosene stage lights on both sides of the stage snapped on with a *click*!
A dramatically stark white beam of light accurately illuminated the very center of the stage.
A figure wearing a comical clown costume, with thick greasepaint on its face, holding a wooden short club identical to the one in the file photo, slowly walked out from behind the giant mushroom like an actor awaiting audience applause.
"Good evening, my dear new audience member."
The Smiling Clown spread his arms and performed an exaggerated bow toward the empty audience seats and his sole guest, Lin Jie.
"Welcome to my theater."
His voice was hoarse and grating.
"I hope... you enjoy the show tonight."