The Mini Game

When the sucking and swirling sensations came to a stop, I found that I was inside of a completely different place. The place that I had been sucked into something that looked like it came out of a children's book.

It was colorful and bright, all around me were trees that had leaves that looked like cotton candy and were in a multitude of different colors. Around the trees there were some animals that were running around, taking a closer look I noticed that there are children chasing the small animals.

Well, they looked like children.

On closer inspection I wouldn't call them children, rather, they were something that resembled children. They had the tiny bodies of children but the aura around them was a little different, they had a glow about them it was white and felt light.

Even from this distance, I could feel the soft ebb and flow of the energy around them. However, one of the small children managed to catch the animal that they were all chasing.

Once it caught the animal it was like something else had taken over the child's body, it's hands wrapped around the small animal's neck. The animal was similar to a cat, it had three tails and was quite small and around with four legs.

Without a second of hesitant, the hands around the animal began to constrict, the little animal that was a puff of grey soon began to bend and crack under the restraint of the child.

"Crack~" The sound reverberated through the area like a bolt of lightning, the small cat-like animal stopped all its movement. I could tell from where I was that the animal had met its end at the hands of the child.

But it didn't stop there, even though the animal was clearly dead the child kept its vase-like grip on the animal. Soon the grey fur was bulging and the animal began to leak blood.

"Heheh~" The soft sounds of giggling invaded the now still air.

All of the children had gathered around the one child that had the poor animal in its grubby hands. The blood poured out of the small creature and ran down the child's hand like a vivacious liquid.

All sorts of emotions ran through my head, but the only thing that I could think of was the horrible emotion that the small animal must have felt. Now that it corpse was being desecrated by these tiny little monsters.

The once soft halo of white that surrounded the children vanished and was instead replaced with the feeling of pure evil and malice. Not even the soft and beautiful setting could replace the sort of horror that had just transpired at the hands of children.

Without much thought, my body moved forward, and my steps increased, and I started to run towards those vile children. My body reacting before my brain, I arrived in front of the children.

But they didn't have the face of children, on their face was a white mask that had holes around the eyes and mouth, all the mouths were turned up into a smile. At the look of the clownish mask, something in me snapped.

Without waiting, I balled my hand up into a fist and punch the small clown-like child in the face that was still squeezing the poor animal.

To my surprise, the child barely moved as my fist collided with its face, but it did look shocked. The mask on its face seemed to ripple slightly from the impact.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," I growled. It felt like liquid fire ran through my veins, as I stared at the children.

The child didn't respond instead, the ripple mask turned dark like a vivacious liquid that had been soured as if someone has placed a dirty paintbrush into it and swirled.

But the transformation didn't stop there instead, the child's body began to expand, and a pungent liquid began to gush from the hallowing eye sockets of the child. As if it was acid the red liquid carved a path down the cheeks, and the mask soon began to transform into a face.

In an instance, I felt my body being jerked backward. Royals mouth had closed around my body and yanked me backward with such force, I felt my stomach twist.

But a second later, the childlike a clown had turned into a full-grown adult. The smell of death and decay soon entered my nose, and a hand closed around thin air. Just a split second earlier my neck had been where the hand had closed.

The once calm environment that seemed like a dream straight out of a child's imagination was crushed by a grotesque clown that now was fully formed.

"What the hell!" I growl as Royal continues to retreat with me at high speed. However, as we neared the entrance it began to vanish.

Before, we could step outside the door had completely closed and we're stuck with the deathly looking clown. Who was following hot on our heels, I found that it wasn't just the one that I'd punched.

Soon the other also began to morph and change shape and soon terrifying monsters began to appear.

What were they focused on?

None other than me, I felt my stomach drop.

They were now targeting me?!

Why… clowns!

However, without much hesitation, Royal began to move forward again. He slightly tossed his head and I landed on his back without much impact.

After, he made sure that I was on we took off. With a speed that felt like we were slicing through the air. He didn't waste a moment and darted towards the clowns and used his tail to hit them like a whack a mole.

Splat!

Splat!

Splat!

The sound they made as they were crushed was anything but music to my ears. The gore that splattered up from the body's hit my face and part of my legs. I felt a little sick to my stomach, but that feeling passed as the gore began to evaporate off of my body.

It was like it was never there, to begin with. After he'd crushed all the clowns, the area was left unmarked as if nothing had ever occurred here.

However, before I could even fathom the thought a voice appeared.

"The player has entered the mini-game 「Clown Seek」in the game you're tasked with eliminating all the clowns within the town, you've got three hours to complete the task. Before the difficulty is raised, and the advanced clown king will be released into the game, along with his court clowns. However, if you do manage to defeat the Clown King and his Court Clowns. You'll be awarded a rare treasure chest!" It was an automated voice, one that sounded neither like a woman or a man and didn't have a shred of humanity in it.

"We'd like to notify the player that another player is also currently participating in the game. They've been within the game for proximity two hour and forty-eight minutes, their time is being counted. You've got twelve minutes until the King Clown is released!"

"What the hell!" I couldn't help but yell at the sky.

Didn't that mean that I was already doomed to face the advanced difficulty of the game from the start?!