Clown Game
Chapter 209 - 197 Fairy Tale Two

Chapter 209: Chapter 197 Fairy Tale Two

At dusk,

a black car of indiscernible make was traveling along a mountain road.

In ordinary circumstances, we could be sure... it belonged to the Order Foundation.

In the driver’s seat, Bai Xiong’s sturdy body seemed extremely out of place, necessitating the seat to be pushed back... while behind him, Song Xuan, with a body as thin as cardboard, didn’t seem the slightest bit cramped. Beside her, Chen Xiao leaned against the door with a look of arrogance, obviously unwilling to indulge the other.

The atmosphere was a bit awkward... but thankfully, it seemed the awkwardness wouldn’t last long as the black car changed lanes, entering a small road next to the highway.

Minutes later, a row of iron fences came into view, stretching along the small road to a sentry post up ahead, where several guards in riot gear walked to the middle of the road, gesturing for the car to stop.

Chen Xiao glanced at the emblem on the sentry post’s barrier; indeed, it was still flying the flag of a national military zone. It seemed the Foundation’s isolation ruse was truly monotonous. Anyway, as long as it prevented the citizens from blundering into the quarantine area, it was sufficient.

After a careful fingerprint scan and corneal comparison, the group was allowed to pass, and the car continued along the small road for several kilometers before winding around and revealing a small town.

Because of the sloped terrain, the car was at a higher elevation, and through the car window, Chen Xiao could roughly make out a small part of the town.

It wasn’t very large, with a few intersecting roads dividing it into small blocks; buildings were generally low. Toward the center, there was a square, and on the outskirts of the town, several huge devices resembling some sort of detectors rotated at a steady speed, with the rumble of grinding steel faintly audible. People dressed as researchers were bustling around the machines...

"Is this the place?" Chen Xiao’s arrogance was quickly replaced by curiosity, and he asked a question to which he already knew the answer, then subconsciously licked his lips. He seemed not to mind these little gestures now, but rather found them fitting for his mood.

Bai Xiong unlocked his phone and tapped the screen a few times: "The Giggling Bird Squad arrived an hour ago," he said, emotionlessly.

Song Xuan nodded quietly and looked out at the town without saying a word...

Yes, this mission involved two teams.

This was a rare occurrence. In most missions, squads of the same level were generally able to handle the situation on their own, only in cases where lower-tier teams were compelled to undertake higher-tier missions, as in the previous "Dark Realm" mission, would there be situations with multiple squads participating. The reason for this...uh, is that those in fieldwork aren’t too keen on carrying out missions with strangers. Think about it, in a circle where life and death hangs by a thread, if you have someone behind you whom you barely know, holding a weapon that could blow you to smithereens with one shot, that’s no joke, anyone would be uneasy. Plus, you can’t just take them out, that would be detrimental to the organization’s unity...So, teams are only formed when absolutely necessary; it’s an unwritten rule acknowledged by all.

In fact, Chen Xiao and his group didn’t want to team up for this mission, and the Giggling Bird Squad probably didn’t either. But the high-ups at the Foundation explicitly instructed that at least two squads were needed for this mission... The reason was quite understandable. The Foundation simply did not want to keep expending resources.

C-177 wasn’t a normal anomaly; it only appeared once a year, for just a few days, meaning if this anomaly wasn’t dealt with, they would have to wait until the next year. In the meantime, all the monitoring, protection, and cover-ups would have to continue without respite. Moreover, this anomaly was not a trifle, it was an entire town, leading to a significant burden in terms of time, finances, and personnel deployment. Thus, the necessity for this mission approach was understandable.

A few minutes later, the car drove into the small town.

The car slowed down, and the three inside looked through the windows at the streets on both sides. Like other small towns, supermarkets and restaurants dominated most street corners, while alleys were piled with weathered garbage covered in a layer of dust. Some stores were still open, with empty baby strollers standing in the middle of the sidewalks, as if a massive explosion had swept through the town, incinerating all the people but oddly sparing everything else.

Suddenly... the car stopped.

"We can’t go any further..." Bai Xiong said as he took the lead getting out of the car.

Chen Xiao and Song Xuan followed, opening their doors. On the road in front of them, numerous family cars were parked crookedly or had crashed into streetlights on the side, clumped together. One could imagine the drivers inside disappearing suddenly, causing the cars to crash into the curbside by inertia.

Bai Xiong pulled out his phone again and checked the map, "Let’s go, they are not far ahead."

The "they" he was referring to was naturally the "Tea Nibbler Sparrow" Squad, which had arrived an hour earlier.

To make a long story short, Chen Xiao and his two companions kept a vigilant eye on their surroundings as they moved forward and, ten minutes later, arrived at the location of the other squad.

A school.

Through the iron gate outside the school, one could see several standing cameras on the sports field, and beside the cameras, four people were gathered together.

And those four people also saw Chen Xiao’s trio approaching.

...uh

As mentioned before, field agents generally didn’t like working on missions with people they were unfamiliar with, so for a moment, both teams just looked at each other, unsure of what to say.

At times like this, it was still up to Chen Xiao to break the silence.

Still the same three steps: smile, wave, and a hearty "Hi~~~"

This, of course, was promptly followed by the other four furrowing their brows uncomfortably. Almost everyone reacted like this the first time they met Chen Xiao.

So, before both sides introduced themselves, let’s first talk about the four people on the other side.

First off, the person closest to this side was a bald man, the kind of bald that shone, with a head round like a marinated egg, wearing an unappealing mustard-colored armor. Though it was a tight fit, the thick material made it seem a bit bulky. Moreover... although everything below his neck was covered, Chen Xiao still noticed that his right hand was significantly thicker than his arm, probably a prosthetic limb.

Next to Mr. Marinated Egg was a fat man. Hmm... actually, no need for much description, the word "fat" succinctly captured him. He was really fat, even more so than those who sat in front of computers all day with their tables littered with food remnants, with no particular features on his face that seemed crowded together on his huge visage. In terms of size, he might even be larger than Bai Xiong, dressed in a distinctive combat suit; his belly, although tightened, still bulged out quite a bit, making him look somewhat comical. At that moment, he was sitting on a large iron box, and his heavy breathing could be heard from a distance.

Not far opposite the fat man was an average-looking man, who seemed like any office worker you’d see around, dressed in a black bulletproof suit, neither fat nor skinny with an average stature. There were bits of stubble on his chin he hadn’t shaved clean. The only thing out of place was the high-tech goggles on his head, and right before Chen Xiao greeted him, he was stooping over to adjust the camera in front of him.

The last one was a young man. Uh... rather than young, it’d be more accurate to say he was a child, most likely around 18 years old, with his hair distinctly dyed red, dressed in a white suit, with tattoos faintly visible around his collar. In terms of looks and physique, he was several cuts above Chen Xiao, always holding his head up slightly, an obvious "lady-killer" allure in his eyes and brows, exuding an "I’m awesome, but I keep it low-key" vibe. Toss such a person into society... well, regardless, he would definitely attract a lot of female attention.

At the moment, the four of them, though somewhat discomfited by Chen Xiao’s trademarked smile, still greeted the trio.

Then, the pretty good-looking young guy, hand in pocket, said to Chen Xiao’s team, "Looks like you guys are the Giggling Bird Squad, huh?" He spoke with quite an air, flipping his hair back, "Let me introduce myself... My name is Zhang Zhihao, and I’m with the ’Tea Nibbler Sparrow’~~"

Chen Xiao squinted his eyes, nodded, and looked at the other with an expression as if watching a brash kid, which the other didn’t notice; after all, that was just how Chen Xiao usually looked.

Just then, behind Chen Xiao’s trio, another voice came.

"Yo~ it’s you..."