Setting aside Mr. Chuckles, I still had an important task ahead.

"And I still have no idea if you're serious or just messing with me, Barry. Is this all you want to say? Because I'm in a bit of a hurry right now."

"And that is why I am here. I guess you want to save the rest of your companions assigned to you by the System. But believe me, there’s no point in acting rashly."

"And why is that? I hope you're not thinking of threatening me, Barry." I focused a bit of Gravity Mana as I squinted.

"Oh, threatening you? No, no." Barry's oversized hands waved frantically. "I won't be so presumptuous. I am but a simple messenger. You see, the roller coaster rides and the Ferris wheel where these four are now cannot be entered. It's not like anyone could just force themselves into any attraction without a ticket or while the previous group is inside."

"If you have the will, you can always find a way."

"Even so, there is no point. Your companions are safe for now. You could easily enter the roller coaster in about two hours, and the Ferris wheel would be available in three and a half. Until then, you can just enjoy yourself, gather information, and familiarize yourself with the System. And I guarantee you, by the time the limit is up, your companions will not be in any significant danger."

"Let me give you a hint," Barry continued as I started to doubt. "All of them still have at least one more revival. If they die in their current challenges, they will revive safely and have some time before attempting their next challenge. This is a safe zone outside the attractions where security measures are in place, and anyone who dies here will receive a free revival. This applies to new users undergoing their Tutorials whose difficulty is Hard or below."

A revival, huh? Hmm, not sure how much I should trust the System with that... but there's no use; I can't just charge in to help my guys without a plan or understanding of the situation. I'd also need to learn more about how revivals work here. And it seems he implies that incidents do happen even in a so-called "safe zone."

"Will there be punishment for the murderer, though?" I asked. "In case someone kills another outside of an attraction."

"Well, of course! They won't receive any EXP for the kills, will pay a System Point penalty, and if they do it too often, they’ll incur the wrath of certain dangerous entities... so really, it's not a good idea to go around killing people. Obviously."

"Obviously," I repeated, even as I thought that those were rather lenient punishments for murder.

[Remaining revival points added to the map]

A System message notified me. Was it messing with me or what? Instantly, a number appeared at the center of each dot on the map when I opened it, and only one dot had a zero on it—mine. The dots nearby had numbers: 1, 2, 5, 5, 5.

Five, five, five? I noted. Well, I guess we found our dear trio who took the Easy Tutorial. Of course, I'm sure many on the planet chose that option, but only these were sent here. And judging by their state, the Tutorial was anything but easy for them. No surprise their condition was so poor after dying four times already.

As for the remaining four dots, those at the Ferris wheel had 2 and 1, while at the roller coasters were 3 and 1. Could the ones with single revivals be from Hard difficulty? Or Normal participants who'd died twice?

"And how does revival exactly work?" I asked.

"Well, you can ask your companions who have already experienced death," the clown said, pointing at the vampire and his wife, who had stayed silent and looked at me in awe, their eyes filled with caution.

"Also, try not to fly too much and attract unnecessary attention. You may be safe, but those who accompany you are a little too brittle. And the airspace is hardly the safest place in the city."

As soon as he said that, a cluster of seemingly innocent carnival balloons—red, blue, and yellow ones that had been floating nearby—suddenly turned pitch black and detonated in a chain reaction. The explosions came just a few dozen feet from us, each blast releasing waves of corrupted Mana that would have shredded normal humans instantly. I was just in time to react, creating a black protective barrier made of Gravity Mana to shield myself and the five little geese from the deadly display.

I briefly activated my Mana Sense to check if anything else, any other dangerous things, were nearby. I realized the zone near us was filled with spatial irregularities that I couldn't even analyze.

"Well, I guess we'll walk then. Or at the very least, not fly too high," I added.

"I'm glad you understand," the clown said, completely unharmed by the impact. I couldn't feel his Mana with my Mana Sense, which was impressive—but not so much for someone with the Space element. Instead, I tried to ask the System for more information, and it complied.

[Barry the Clown, Level 1000]

Level 1000? I recalled the levels of the beasts I had faced. The Mirrorfang had been just shy of level 500, standing at the peak of Tier 4, according to Luminosa's grading scale. The System had also indicated that level 100 would equate to a tenth of my Attributes at my peak, suggesting the Clown was at the height of Tier 5. Of course, I could be wrong in my estimations, as there were variables I was unaware of. In any case, I didn't feel prepared to confront him without jeopardizing my entire mission. I was definitely not powerful enough to protect my companions from him.

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"Well, well, well, until we see each other later, Mr. Anomaly," he said as the Space element flickered and he instantly disappeared.

Not wanting to tempt fate, I descended towards the ground, far from the exhibition where chaos still reigned. Using my Mana Sense, I noticed the clown reappear near the arena, touch the T-Rex with his hand, and teleport away with it. He then repeated this with the octopus and a few other beasts.

You know, among the Supreme Elements, Space was probably the most fun and convenient. Of course, with my Gravity, I could achieve equally impressive battle results. But if a Space user wanted to escape, I would have to employ my abilities creatively to stop them. As far as everyday life was concerned, it likely offered much more convenience and numerous ways to enhance quality of life.

We landed and blended into the crowded street. First things first—I tore off a decent-sized strip from my shirt to give the naked ex-gangster some basic coverage. To my surprise, we didn't appear particularly out of place among the crowd. The average person walking these streets was far more bizarre than our ragtag group, though this was only judging by normal human standards.

"So, I guess you have a lot to tell me, Mr. Vampire. And you, Miss Wife, or rather Mrs..."

"Sir, please let us go," the vampire pleaded. "I don't know if you're with the Church or the Shifters. I can't imagine anyone else could be so powerful on our planet, but please—me and Alisa, we don't know anything! I'm just a minor member of the Sanguine clan with no dealings with the higher-ups! Also, I deeply apologize for betting against you in the first two battles. I can't assess someone's power with just a glance, and the System misled us."

"Hey, calm down. I don't know who the heck you're talking about. I'm not with the Church or the Shifters. Actually, I'm on a quest to ensure you two complete your Tutorials. So you're in luck. But for this reason, you have to obey me, and we should share information." I paused, studying the nervous vampire. "So first question… wait, before that—what's your name? It's basic courtesy to introduce yourself to your savior."

"I am Sergio Johnson, and this is my wife Alisa…" He hesitated, glancing at his wife. "I don't know about you helping us. I didn't receive any notification."

"Well, it doesn't matter. I did. So now you're under my care, Sergio and Alisa, whether you like it or not."

"Thank you, I guess." He relaxed slightly. "We also finally completed that attraction thanks to you and won a small fortune betting on you in the last round. Though our winnings could have been much bigger if I'd listened to my wife during the second fight…"

Alisa, who now that I thought about it looked Slavic, shot him a withering look. "Dear, after we lost our bets in the first round, I told you that someone who moves like that couldn't be easily defeated. You didn't believe me when I said he was just testing his opponent."

"What can I say? I heard a lot about the Mirrorfang monster. It was rumored to be invincible. How was I supposed to know that someone from our world would be powerful enough to play around with it?"

"Here, here. You should listen to your wife, man." I grinned. "How could you look at my handsome face and watch my courageous battle and still think I could lose to anyone? Makes no sense at all."

"Yeah, ha-ha, very silly of me…"

"How long have you been here, anyway?" I asked.

"Three days already," Sergio replied. "Though it feels like weeks…"

"And what the heck did you want at the exhibition?"

"What? Of course, we were just trying to complete our quests. In this place, everything costs points," Sergio explained. "Without System Points, you can't survive. The exhibition was an opportunity for anyone to have a decent chance at earning some points with minimal risk. All you had to do was win a few bets without—"

"Yeah, with minimal risk," I repeated with a wry smile. "The System mentioned that one of you had lost your Revival point. And let me guess—you two chose Normal difficulty and died once already or otherwise lost a point. Your wife was smart enough to bet on me while you failed."

Sergio squinted. "Yeah. This place isn't what I expected when I first read the description. You see, as a vampire, I'm more powerful than the average person. So I thought Normal would be a breeze. I even considered choosing Hard, but then I would be separated from my dear Alisa... or so I thought. Though the System hadn't told us how it would distribute us in the zones."

"I guess many people choose the same difficulty as their friends or family, or whoever they want to end up with," I mused. "But considering the size of Earth's population and the number of different Tutorial zones, if the System was just randomly putting people in tutorials, the likelihood of seeing anyone you knew would be abysmally low."

"Actually," Alisa interjected, "from what we've seen and heard, the System seems to have some logic in its distribution. Most of the humans we've met here speak English, and many seem to be from the same general region. Though we did meet a few Japanese tourists..."

"And some of the assignments appear intentional," Sergio added. "Like putting supernatural beings together. Take you, for example; we only briefly met, and yet here we are. We've also met another vampire I knew, though not from my former clan, thankfully."

That caught my attention. "Former clan?"

Sergio's expression darkened. "Despite my heritage, I was exiled from my clan for a transgression I committed a hundred years ago."

"Wait, a hundred years ago? How old are you, buddy?"

"It's a bit impolite to ask a vampire for his age," Sergio said, noticing my unimpressed expression. After all, this was our second meeting today. "Okay, okay, I am rather young, you know. I will be 143 this year. I'm basically a teenage vampire."

"Yeah? And how old is your wife?" I looked at Alisa; her freckled face and red hair made it hard to guess her age—she could be twenty or twenty-five.

"I am 29," Alisa answered, surprising me a bit. "Why?"

"No, nothing, never mind. You're both adults. So as long as you didn't raise her since childhood or something like that, I'm fine with it." I gave Sergio a pointed look, remembering how quick he'd been to lie about me being a robber just to escape earlier. "You didn't start dating before she was 18, right?"

"No, of course not!" The vampire looked genuinely offended and a tad bit scared of my reaction. "I like my women... mature. Usually, I go for older women as well, but Alisa is just so charming, intelligent, and具有 the tastiest blood... ahem, never mind."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it. Just remember—I’m watching you. It would be very unfortunate if there were a predator in my party. It would complicate the completion of my quest when I have to take certain drastic measures..."

"Oh, don't worry about that!" Alisa chimed in cheerfully. "Sergio isn't acting like some wild beast. I've trained him well! He hasn't hunted a single mouse in over three years. Though sometimes he still gets this weird look when we pass by pet shops..."

"Dear," Sergio muttered, facepalming, "I don't think that's what he meant..."

"What? But you used to hunt small animals before we met! Remember that time with Mrs. Henderson's cat?"

I couldn't help but laugh at the exchange. At least it seemed their relationship was genuine, if somewhat unusual.