Thirty minutes later, a pulse of red light signaled Pennywise's reappearance in the center of the amusement park. He wore a wide, confident grin as if the previous round's humiliation had never occurred.
"I apologize for the wait," Pennywise announced, bowing with theatrical flourish. "In view of your... efficient performance in the first act, the theater has decided to adjust the rules for the second round."
He snapped his fingers, and the neon signboards on the Ferris wheel flickered to life with new text.
[SECOND ROUND RULES]
The Joker's Entry: Pennywise joins the game as a special participant.
Untouchable Status: All players are prohibited from actively attacking Pennywise.
The Mark: Four 'Clown' identities will be assigned per round.
The Finale: The game ends once only two players remain, triggering a mandatory duel.
Pennywise's malicious gaze locked onto Steve. This move was a calculated betrayal of the game's "fairness." By prohibiting attacks on himself and holding the 'Clown' identity, he was invulnerable. His plan was clear: use the rules to force the "prey" to eliminate each other, specifically targeting the lead zombie—the brain of the operation.
Steve saw through the transparent scheme instantly. Instead of anger, a meaningful smile tugged at his lips.
"A physical body, finally," Steve whispered. Through his enhanced perception, he could sense that Pennywise was no longer a hollow projection. He emitted the distinct, erratic life-fluctuations of an anomalous biological entity.
The game began. Four neon hip-hop hats appeared, landing on the heads of Zombies Six, Seven, and Eight. The last hat landed squarely on Pennywise's head.
"Oh, what bad luck! I'm a Clown too!" the entity feigned surprise. A jagged, rusted dagger appeared in his hand, and his gaze turned predatory as he looked at Steve's primary vessel. "According to the rules, I must harvest one civilian to survive the round..."
To Pennywise's confusion, Steve did not resist. He ordered the other three zombies to remain still and began transferring all his high-tier gear and Totems of Undying to Zombie No. 8.
"Giving up?" Pennywise muttered, blinking.
Suddenly, Zombie No. 8 lunged forward. Without a hint of hesitation, it drove a serrated blade through the lead zombie's heart.
Pfft!
Blood sprayed across the cold ground. The lead zombie's body collapsed, the light fading from its eyes.
"Hahahaha!" Pennywise burst into maniacal laughter, his painted face twisting with joy. "Foolish! Truly foolish! Sacrificing your commander to protect a mindless puppet? Without your brain to guide them, these simpletons will be toys in my hand!"
Inside Zombie No. 8, Steve's consciousness adjusted to the new vessel. He watched Pennywise's celebration with cold mockery. Go ahead and laugh. You'll be screaming soon enough.
The next few rounds were a farce of clinical efficiency. Protected by the "Untouchable" rule, Pennywise harvested Zombies Six and Seven with brazen arrogance. Zombie No. 8 remained silent, moving with the mechanical rigidity of a puppet that had lost its master.
Finally, only two figures remained: Pennywise and Zombie No. 8.
Ding!
[Current Players: Number Eight, The Clown][Final Rule Activated: Duel to the Death. Only one survivor.]
"Finally, it's just the two of us." Pennywise stretched his neck, his muscles popping with a sickening sound. "I still don't know why your leader chose suicide, but it's clear he was a moron. If you had all attacked me at once, I might have been worried. But now..."
A dark red aura erupted from Pennywise , causing the entire amusement park to groan. This was his Dread Domain, a territory where the very laws of physics were warped by his will.
"Against a lone Tier 4 puppet, I am invincible."
"Is that so?"
Zombie No. 8, which had been standing with its head bowed, slowly looked up. The vacant, dull eyes were now sharp with predatory intelligence.
"A physical body. A tangible aura. I've been waiting for you to commit to a form."
The familiar, calm voice of the "dead" commander froze the smile on Pennywise's face.
"You... you still have your mind?!" Pennywise stammered, stumbling back. "But No. 1 is dead! I saw the life leave him!"
"No. 1 was me. No. 2 was me. No. 8 is also me." Steve's aura began to climb, shattering the red tiles beneath his feet. "Every vessel here is a extension of my will. I am the legion. I am immortal."
"What?!" Pennywise was stunned. He realized he hadn't been playing a game; he had been the plaything.
"Damn you! So what if you have your mind?!" Pennywise screamed in a fit of rage and shame. "This is still my world! In my Dread Domain, even a god must kneel!"
RUMBLE!
The amusement park came alive. The carousel horses tore free from their poles, transforming into dozens of red, grotesque clones that swarmed toward Steve. Each clone radiated the power of a peak Tier 3 entity.
Steve didn't blink. Buzz!
The Tier 5 Frost Domain expanded like a tidal wave. The charging clones were frozen solid mid-motion, turning into macabre ice sculptures that shattered into a thousand shards before they could even touch Steve's cloak.
Swish!
The obsidian wings on Steve's back snapped open. He vanished, leaving only a sonic boom behind. A millisecond later, he appeared behind Pennywise, driving a fist wreathed in absolute-zero energy into the creature's spine.
"So fast!" Pennywise shrieked. His body twisted bizarrely, teleporting him to the top of the distant Ferris wheel.
"You can't run from me in my own perception," Steve said, appearing instantly beside him.
BOOM.
A single punch reduced the massive steel Ferris wheel to a heap of twisted scrap. As Steve emerged from the dust, Pennywise truly panicked.
"Fine! If you want a grave, I'll bury you with the rest of them! Rise, my servants!"
Following the clown's roar, thousands of translucent, vengeful spirits crawled from the soil. They were the echoes of every player who had ever died in this theater. They let out a soul-rending shriek, a tide of spectral despair flooding toward Steve.
Steve snorted, his body hovering into the air. "Roar!"
He stopped suppressing the Tier 5 genetic code within his marrow. Click, click, click. His skeleton expanded, his muscles tearing and reforming with the sound of snapping cables. In the blink of an eye, a terrifying, fifty-meter-tall Frost Giant stood where the zombie had been.
The sheer pressure of his biological presence caused the vengeful spirits to freeze in terror, their wails silenced by the arrival of a true apex predator.