Chapter 32: One Last Game!

’Wait, how is this possible? I could have sworn he didn’t awaken.’

’What is going on?’

Staring at the stage and the change in front of him, Ethan couldn’t understand what was happening.

Before this, he sensed little to no mana in the Clown King; how could he suddenly pull off such an ability?

’Also, the apocalypse hasn’t started; all awakeners so far should be at F-rank, at most E-rank.’

’However, the scale of this ability, isn’t this at least C-class?’

The more he thought of it, the more Ethan couldn’t understand what was happening.

Reality warping? Space transfer? Duplication? Just what was he witnessing?

"Ho ho, now isn’t the time for you to get lost, little Smith."

"I know, why don’t I take off that mask of yours so I can see you smile!"

Talking at the same time, the twelve clowns’ right hands simultaneously increased in size and stretched towards Ethan on the ground.

"Damn it! Although I haven’t practiced using this spell..."

"You leave me no choice!"

Roaring at the giant hands, Ethan didn’t hold back.

In less than a split second, he activated the body-strengthening spell he had learned from Marcus.

Instantly his already outrageous attributes began to increase.

From over twenty times the average human, to almost thirty times.

Boom!

Accompanied by a sonic boom, nineteen of the clowns instantly shattered, and the Clown King in the middle flew back, his body nearly folding in two.

"Ack!"

Spitting out a clot of blood, he fell from the sky, losing his earlier momentum.

"Monster..."

"I see, what you showed earlier wasn’t your full strength."

"How could you be so strong! Compared to the others with powers I met, none could compare to you!"

"How could you be so strong!"

Staring at Ethan from the ground, the Clown King couldn’t understand what happened.

Just now he was prepared to play with this person in front of him and maybe even turn him into his subordinate.

How could he be so strong?

However, Ethan, seeing the Clown King like this, suddenly understood a lot.

"So that’s it..."

"Everything makes sense now!"

Focusing his mana into his eyes, Ethan finally understood what was going on.

Indeed, at this stage no one could have such power, except perhaps him.

Thanks to his max-level comprehension, Ethan finally figured it out.

"Illusion!" he said.

"It turns out your ability is illusions! Using the surrounding mana, you can create all kinds of illusions while you hide your real body in the mix."

"Perhaps your real body only came out now, and the one I played the game with was but an illusory clone!"

Talking to himself, Ethan began to understand more and more.

For an illusion of this scale, perhaps he had been planning it since he entered the building.

Even the game might have been a calculation by the Clown King to buy time for this mass illusion.

Had it not been that he had gotten feedback from helping his family awaken...

Then perhaps he would have died here without even knowing what happened.

"As expected of a Smith, you figured out my ability."

"Even when I faced those others who could control flames and another who could summon lightning..."

"Neither of them could give me any joy before they died."

"Are the Smiths truly God’s favorite children?"

*Cough* *cough*

Coughing up more blood, the Clown King felt it; with just that punch just now, various organs of his were damaged.

His ability was becoming undone and he didn’t have much left to live.

In less than a few minutes, he would meet his end.

*Cough*

"Alright Smith, let’s play that game one more time, and this time I mean it."

"If you do me one favor, I’ll do you one."

"As a bonus, you don’t need to worry about those guys who came with you; once I die, they’ll stop laughing and forget what happened."

Smiling with blood on his lips, the Clown King seemed to have resigned himself.

However, thinking about what happened last time, Ethan still decided to be careful.

"In my left shoe there’s a hidden compartment; it contains a note."

"On that note is a location which not only has a safe, but that safe contains what you need."

"Information and proof of our dealings with the Reinhardt house."

"Locations of our branches and supplies, everything."

"Haha, I always keep it around so whenever I die I can screw those Reinhardt bastards over!"

"Hahaha!"

Laughing crazily, the Clown King’s madness once again began to surface.

"Hey, do you really think I wanted to be a gangster? And do you think I wanted to be a clown?"

"I too was once a kid who had a dream; however, those Reinhardt bastards kidnapped me when I was small and trained me to be a chess piece against the Smith family."

"They told me to call myself Clown because the eldest young lady thought my face was funny?"

"Unbelievable, right? Hahaha!"

"The great Clown King, just a joke to the powerful Reinhardt family!"

"A joke!"

As he spoke, his vision began to become blurry, his breath became heavy, and his temperature cooled.

"Smith, now that I’ve said my part, please do your part of the game and do me a favor."

"If you can, just like you’ll wipe out my gang today..."

"Wipe out those bastards from the face of this world."

"Hahaha!"

Silence.....

Watching the Clown King spiral into madness before his death, Ethan felt complicated.

It turns out even villains have their own story.

However, even then, he still did not promise him anything.

In the apocalypse to come, he had too many things to take care of; the Reinhardt family was the least of his troubles.

Plus, the Clown King said he had encountered two ability users before him and won.

Who knew if the Reinhardt family had ability users?

Even if Ethan had mana, he never once looked down on ability users; after all, he knew just how bizarre abilities could be.

Rather, instead of saying anything, he sat cross-legged, focusing intensely on the surrounding illusions before they collapsed completely.

He wanted to use this opportunity to get another spell!