Yes! He's the god of acting

"Anyway, your task for the next two days is to search this street for any Calamity fur left under the rubble, or other unusual objects..."

"Unusual objects?"

"A Calamity's power affects the surrounding reality. How it affects things varies by Calamity... Some just standing there will twist everything nearby, others catch fire, and the strangest ones can allegedly control humans... We call this influence a 'Calamity Domain.'"

"The higher a Calamity's level, the more destructive and far-reaching its Domain becomes. Overall, we classify all current Calamities from Level One to Nine, though each level has nicknames to intuitively show their destructive power.

Take Level Nine Calamities... we usually call them 'World-Enders.'"

"World-Enders..." William was stunned. "So Level Nine Calamities can actually destroy the world?"

"While there's some exaggeration, they're not far from true world-ending... A single World-Ender supposedly has the power to completely annihilate a human realm." Sam lowered his voice, as if remembering something.

"You didn't know?"

"What?"

"Actually, the night before last, the one that escaped in your District Three... was a World-Ender."

"!!!"

William's face went deathly pale.

"Haha, I'm just messing with you." Seeing William's reaction, Sam laughed and patted his shoulder. "I heard your District Three's Calamity readings did spike—usually only happens when a World-Ender descends... but it's impossible, right?

It's been nearly a century since a World-Ender appeared, and if it really was one, District Three would've been annihilated instantly. How could things still be peaceful now?

So it was probably a Calamity whose Domain happened to affect the readings.

Didn't your Commander Beker fight it yesterday? Confirmed it was Level Five, not some World-Ender... so relax."

Sam stood with hands on his hips, grinning broadly.

But William couldn't smile.

As the "culprit" who'd beaten up Beker, he understood better than anyone what Sam's "Level Five" Calamity really was.

The "Level Five" Beker encountered wasn't truly Level Five... it was simply because the [Audience Expectation] happened to be stuck at 14-15%, making the "Audience" member who usurped the stage equivalent to Level Five combat power.

And William clearly remembered—the number of "Audience" members that escaped was less than one percent of the total auditorium...

So what if the "Audience" collectively escaped?

Did that mean... a complete "World-Ender" would descend?

At this thought, William broke out in cold sweat.

He'd known the Calamities in the "Audience" were powerful, but not this powerful... That was a super-Calamity with "World-Ending" capability! A time bomb capable of destroying entire human realms!

"Alright, get to work." Sam nodded with satisfaction.

"...Right."

As Sam left, William stood alone on the ruined street.

He took a deep breath, temporarily suppressing his fear, and began searching through the rubble... Whatever level the "Audience" was, they seemed bound by the theater's rules. As long as William kept [Audience Expectation] above 20%, nothing would happen.

[Audience Expectation -1] [Current Expectation: 32%]

Two lines of text materialized among the rubble, then vanished instantly.

Since going undercover with the Enforcers, audience expectation had jumped 10%, but over time it still dropped at a steady rate. At this pace, if he did nothing, it would fall back to 20% within 36 hours.

William spent the following hours carefully searching the ruins, but after several hours, he still hadn't found any fur or traces left by a "Calamity Domain."

Honestly, William was curious about what this Calamity—the one that had escaped alongside his "Audience"—actually was.

"William!"

A voice called from nearby. William, who'd been intently searching for clues, looked up to see his fellow sufferer Carl approaching.

"I heard you came early this morning?" Carl was drenched in sweat—unsurprisingly, he'd walked all the way from District Three. "How'd you get here so fast? Didn't go home?"

"Didn't go home. Had some issues."

"Related to your brother?"

At those words, William's head snapped up. "What did you say?"

"Oh, when I came by earlier, I passed your house... saw Commander Beker there, said he wanted to find your brother." Carl wiped his sweat, unable to help commenting, "But brother, your living conditions are worse than mine... your house is full of holes?"

William ignored Carl's teasing and pressed, "Did Beker interrogate my brother?"

"No, there was a tall man with silver-rimmed glasses inside talking to him. I couldn't hear what they said, but after a few words, Commander Beker just left... didn't even enter the house."

A tall man with silver-rimmed glasses?

William stood stunned for a moment, then a realization flashed through his mind—he'd completely forgotten about this!

Earlier he'd sent a message to Aurora City, hoping that [Doctor] would come treat him. With everything that had happened these past few days, he'd completely forgotten... Now it seemed that [Doctor] had arrived as promised to treat him.

But wasn't District Three sealed off? How had he gotten in?

Questions flashed through William's mind. He urgently wanted to go home and see what had happened.

"I won't keep talking—my task is relocating the surviving Ice Spring Street residents, and I've got a pile of work to do." Carl checked the time and hurried off after saying goodbye.

Since Beker had been sent away, there shouldn't be a chance to interrogate Henry. Home should still be safe... William thought while quickly heading toward Sam and the others.

That [Doctor] was a complete unknown to William. He didn't dare let Henry stay alone with him too long.

He had to go home. Right now.

Creak—

William stepped forward and crushed a piece of rubble underfoot. Looking down, he saw a faint red color pressed beneath the fragments.

William frowned slightly, crouching to brush away the debris. The red outline gradually became clearer... Seeing the object's full form, his pupils contracted violently.

It was a torn protective charm.

In the corner of the charm, two small characters were embroidered—

Henry.