Clown Game
Chapter 262 - 249: The Return of the Dark Realm (Part 4)

Chapter 262: Chapter 249: The Return of the Dark Realm (Part 4)

On the helipad at the top of a building in the old city district, Mr. Zou stepped off the helicopter. The skyscraper-like semicircular Iron Pillar in front of him pierced the sky... In the distance, similar pillars would emerge every few kilometers, abruptly embedded amidst uneven buildings, or unreasonably breaking through the center of the roads. Vehicles were haphazardly crowded at the sides of the roads, resembling a mini city model into which a piece of the Cybertron Planet puzzle had been discordantly added.

In the void before him, light seemed to be blocked by an invisible canopy, with everything inside the pillars flickering in and out of visibility, like a dream.

He had never seen such a massive "Dark Realm" invasion before.

As someone who had been promoted from field operatives to management, he possessed many precious experiences that could only be accumulated by frontline combat personnel. Although he had been away from the battlefield for a while, this did not hinder his keen intuition.

The absurd, apocalyptic scene before him only confirmed his suspicion...

The Dark Realm was mutating!

The unknown entities on the other side seemed to have finally found what they had been searching for!

Did it have something to do with those three bodies...?

He didn’t know, nor did he want to know. Back when he was with the field operatives, that ludicrous proposal nearly threw the entire world into chaos. Since that day, the Dark Realm had never ceased...

"Ah..." Mr. Zou sighed helplessly. Although Foundation technology made him appear like a man just over 40, he knew that he was already over 70. He only wanted to retire in peace, undergo memory erasure, and live the life of an ordinary person.

But the unease in his heart always troubled him.

Oh, right, besides this unease, there was another thing that infuriated him even more—that bastard Chen Xiao under his management and the squad he had formed... what was it called, the Giggling Bird or something? Anyway, this squad had the audacity to get involved in this mission... and even got approval!!!

And what’s worse, it wasn’t just Chen Xiao going off to die; he had taken Bai Xiong with him! It should be known that Bai Xiong had been one of the Foundation’s rare elite talents in recent years, with potential enough to possibly join the Omega Squad if he tried hard enough.

And there was Song Xuan, who was doing well in the Oversight Department, but who had to go and team up with Chen Xiao.

Are young people’s brains damaged these days??

Forget it, I don’t want to think about it anymore; this might also be the will of the "Supreme Council", since that phone call...

"Senator..." Suddenly, a voice interrupted Mr. Zou’s wandering thoughts. He turned his head, and a guard wearing a riot helmet got off the helicopter, stood at attention, and thumped his chest with a fist: "Someone from the Omega Squad wants to see you."

As soon as the words were out

"Ah, it’s been really hard to see you ever since you left the field operative team, almost as tough as reaching the heavens!"

A rugged voice came through, speaking in Chinese, but with an unmistakably stiff Western cadence, and the owner of the voice seemed to effortlessly drown out the roar of the helicopter.

Accompanied by the sound of steel clashing against steel, a man with an incredibly thick beard walked up.

Mr. Zou smiled... with helplessness, delight, and full of memories. Truth be told, since stepping into the management circle, he seldom displayed such a smile.

"So, at your age, are you planning to keep doing this?"

Mr. Zou slowly said, his words dripping with a thick hooligan vibe which totally clashed with his usual demeanor, leaving the guard beside them taken aback.

At that moment, the bearded old man also walked over to Mr. Zou’s side, with a typical Western face, slightly dark skin—a clear sign of a tough-guy image sculpted by years of exposure to the elements... well... at least he looked like a tough guy back in the day. Now, he appeared to be in his sixties or seventies, his appearance wholly unkempt. His full beard completely covered his neck, spotted here and there with traces of spit, and his scar-covered leather jacket hung open at the front, revealing an enormous beer belly. Below that was a pair of jeans with the largest waist size available, the belt barely clinging below the stomach, teetering on the edge of disaster, and his shoes... they were metallic, exceptionally sturdy, peeking out from under his pant legs, looking out of place and yet... stable.

"What about it? Given how I look, could I even go back to living a normal life?" The bearded man said, patting his belly before chuckling to himself as if he found it amusing.

"It’s up to you. Anyway, with your temperament, if you went back to a normal life, you’d be in and out of jail every other day. Might as well stay as you are..." Mr. Zou shook his head and then said, "Oh, there’s one more, right? The mission brief said two of you were coming."

"That kid? He doesn’t have anything to do with us. I told him I was going to meet some old friends and didn’t bring him along. You wouldn’t hit it off with him..." the bearded man responded with a laugh, his voice sending a buzzing vibration through his chest. "To be honest, it’s not our era anymore. But how about you? Weren’t you in charge of the D and C zones? Why mess with this mess?"

At this question, Mr. Zou immediately showed a helpless expression: "A guy named Chen Xiao!"

"Chen Xiao? Never heard of him!"

"Of course you haven’t, he’s just a C-level person with a screw loose. I don’t know how he got the information, but he applied for this mission, and what’s more unbearable, he actually got the approval!"

"Well... whatever, since it’s already like this. If I happen to come across him, I’ll try to help out," the bearded man said nonchalantly as he scratched his nose.

Upon hearing that, Mr. Zou quickly waved his hands: "No, no, please don’t. With your temper, I’m afraid you might tear him apart if you interact with him..."

"Huh?"

"I know this sounds awkward, but believe me, if there were a value called ’asking for a beating’ in our physical assessment, this guy would definitely max it out."

"Well... now that you mention it, I kind of want to meet this character," the bearded man said, patting his belly again in his habitual manner.

"You’ll regret it..." Mr. Zou said, massaging his head, "anyway, after you meet him, you’ll know it’s him for sure. Maybe you’ll get so annoyed, you’ll flatten him, and I’ll have one less thing to worry about before I retire."

"Hahaha—" The bearded man laughed out loud again.

Then his expression shifted, and a rapid stream of data seemed to flash through his pupils.

"The other teams are almost in place... if I don’t get dismantled, we’ll have a drink together after the mission..."

The bearded man said this nonchalantly, then casually ambled to the edge of the apron’s building... and jumped off.

Mr. Zou watched the figure disappear from view, then looked toward the distorted light not too far away and the numerous giant crescent-shaped metals, inexplicably

sighed.

...