Aidan took a bottle of cola and returned to his room to begin studying the shard of Aha's Laughter on his desk.
The shard of Aha's Laughter on his desk could be picked up or put down; although it seemed like an object, it was actually a special phenomenon with a very strange nature.
"What happens if I stick my hand in?"
Aidan boldly reached out his hand.
"..."
With a whoosh, he looked left and right, finding that he seemed to have been teleported.
"What is this place?"
Aidan stood at the main entrance, looking around.
There were quite a few people here laughing out loud.
—So, this place must be very Elated, right?
Well, as soon as Aidan walked in, he was surrounded by a group of Masked Fool who giggled and asked all sorts of questions.
His relatively normal answers were instead treated by these Fools as a source of belly-aching laughter—though they found it hilarious, Aidan couldn't understand what they were laughing at.
Aidan stood at The Tavern entrance, watching the group of Masked Fool laughing uncontrollably, falling into thought.
"So, what are you laughing at?"
"Hahahahahaha—he's asking what we're laughing at!"
"Laughing at what? At you, of course!"
"A new face asking so seriously what we're laughing at—isn't that hilarious?"
Aidan's brow furrowed even deeper.
"What's so funny about that?"
"Look, look, he's doing it again!"
Facing this situation where everyone was laughing, he carefully recalled what had happened since he entered, confirming he hadn't missed any information. There were no jokes, no slapstick performances, and no scenes worth laughing at. These people were just laughing purely because Aidan looked quite serious as he walked into The Tavern, and that was it.
"So you're just laughing at me?" he asked.
"Exactly!"
"Because it's funny?"
"Of course it's funny!"
"Why is it funny?"
"Because you're asking so seriously!"
Aidan stood at The Tavern door, the surrounding laughter surging like waves, one after another. Some doubled over laughing, some pounded the tables, and others rolled on the floor.
These Masked Fool seemed Elated, but they didn't even understand why they were laughing.
They were simply repeating the act of seeking fun, letting more sensory-stimulating events numb their emotions, and that was it. In essence, their pursuit of fun was no different from alcoholism.
Laughter was an instinctive reaction for them, rather than a genuine feeling of joy from the heart; they simply wanted to laugh whenever they saw anything.
Aidan was certain that if one of them died right now, their first reaction would be to laugh twice, then disperse, or go up and point fingers.
This place wasn't Elated at all.
Aidan pondered.
He remembered when he played the game, the faction text regarding the Masked Fool was generally quite sophisticated.
The gap between these Masked Fool and the ones he had imagined was far too large. No wonder Sampo had told him before that he wasn't suited for The Tavern and that staying on the Astral Express was better.
Inside The Tavern, Aidan didn't feel much Elation; instead, there was a sense of Nihility.
Elation is, in a sense, a form of optimistic nihilism—acknowledging that the essence of the world is meaningless, without objective meaning or truth, yet not becoming depressed. Instead, it views the void as a prerequisite for freedom, actively bestowing and creating meaning.
The surrounding laughter flooded in like a tide, but it couldn't make him laugh along.
He suddenly thought of Sampo.
That silver-tongued fellow wouldn't even blink when lying, but Sampo would restrain himself in front of children, lend a hand when others truly needed help, and work diligently after taking payment...
Well, it seemed he had thought too highly of the Masked Fool after all.
The laughter of these people was even worse than the pre-recorded laughter in sitcoms.
"A glass of milk, please."
The bartender stared at Aidan for two seconds, then actually turned around to take a bottle of milk from the fridge, poured it into a glass, and pushed it in front of him.
In short, even though Aidan didn't laugh, everyone thought he was an interesting Masked Fool; at least everything he did could make everyone laugh.
"Your jokes really lack class."
Aidan slowly turned around, swirling the glass in his hand.
"Stuff like kicking a cripple's good left leg today and their right leg yesterday... don't bother serving up such low-level jokes."
Saying this, Aidan turned and walked toward The Tavern entrance. Before long, he returned dragging a robot from the doorway.
When it came to dry humor...
The authority!
Shush's slender mechanical arm made a 'The Thinker' pose.
Then, it began telling dry jokes to everyone.
Thirty minutes later, Shush, who had almost frozen The Tavern solid, and Aidan returned to the Astral Express's Party Car. Shush poured another glass of milk for Aidan.
"I can't believe I finally had such an opportunity to share the jokes I think about every day with so many people."
"Yeah, you left them all Out of Reincarnation."
"I didn't sense any happy emotions from them. Is it because my jokes aren't funny?"
Shush seriously looked for the reason within itself.
This master of the dry humor field was becoming a bit insecure.
"It's not your problem, they're the ones with the problem."
"What's the reasoning there?"
"Those Masked Fool no longer know why they laugh. I used to think Masked Fool were the very positive type of people."
Aidan seemed to be in a bit of a bad mood.
"Is The Tavern not fun?" Stelle leaned over. "I heard Sister Himeko say that The Tavern is Elation's territory."
"Not fun."
Aidan shook his head and placed the glass on the table.
"Remember the canned laughter in TV shows? They don't even have a proper reason; they laugh when they see someone enter, they laugh when someone pours water. Staying there made my skin crawl; it wasn't interesting at all."
"Are there no other people there besides Masked Fool?"
These words reminded Aidan.
"You're right."
Maybe there are other people there?
It's not like I have to play with the Fools.
"But you're not allowed to drink alcohol. Just order milk like me. If you drink, Sister Himeko will give us both a harsh scolding when we get back."
"Roger that, drinking only milk, infiltrating The Tavern."
The two went to Aidan's room and touched Aha's Laughter. After a brief moment of dizziness, the noisy waves of sound instantly flooded their ears.
Stelle had put on Aidan's Fool Mask ahead of time, looking like a real Masked Fool.
Splitting one Fool identity for two people to use—reasonable.
"The way they're just staring at us and laughing is indeed pretty creepy..."
Stelle whispered.