Clown Game
Chapter 279 - 266: The Return of the Dark Realm (XXI)

Chapter 279: Chapter 266: The Return of the Dark Realm (XXI)

"Hearing you say that just makes this uneasy feeling grow stronger," Dos continued.

"Oh? What else have you guessed?"

Dos fired a casual shot as he responded, "It’s not a guess, just facts. Nearly 20 detectors have been destroyed, there’s no signal in the Dark Realm. So, if these people don’t want to come out, we’ll never be able to find them again. But why would they want to leave the protection of the detectors?"

"Because they’re sick of looking at you?"

"No, they’re afraid of me..."

Abraham furrowed his brows as if he’d thought of something... "You mean, there’s someone messing with things in the middle?"

Dos nodded: "That’s my current guess, most likely the person I just mentioned. If I remember correctly, he should be a grade B field agent. After all, he was the first to act, and I saw the video of him destroying the detector."

"But what’s his purpose? Causing trouble in the Dark Realm for no reason, isn’t that just looking for trouble?" Suddenly, Abraham stiffened, then his expression became serious, "Are you saying... The Splitters are targeting this mission?"

Dos’s gaze drifted to the broken-down street far away: "I don’t know, but it’s very likely. In any case, the field agents are now in pairs, and without my support, they’ll be in danger soon..."

"They’ll get infected, and the more infected, the greater the probability of those huge, dangerous mutants consolidating, especially since the mutants in the Dark Realm seem to have evolved somehow... Yeah, things have gotten unprecedentedly tricky," said Abraham, sighing helplessly before he reconnected with the whole team’s communication system: "Hey, guys, it’s Abraham Ken here! Omega Squad Member Three, codename ’Iron Barrel’, your highest commanding officer on the battlefield! I know you’ve heard or seen something, but please think carefully before you make any decisions. We are Omega Squad, we’re protecting you, so please hurry to the rendezvous point... Lastly, to give everyone a little motivation, cough cough." He cleared his throat, "There might be involvement from The Splitters in this operation, anyone not wanting to die better move it, over!"

Abraham cut off the communication, exhaling a tired breath: "Damn it, I had no idea covering the whole mission with signal would take up so much power..."

Dos didn’t pay attention to that remark, since in his eyes, the other was just a humanoid reactor. He hesitated for a moment before saying to himself: "I’ll go find those who still have a signal, you... um... just keep on strolling!"

No sooner had Dos spoken than he kicked at the ground, kicking up a cloud of charred dirt, and disappeared into the wind. Abraham was left standing there, waving away the still-settling dust.

"Ptooey... ptooey... These damn kids are getting more and more disrespectful..."

...

At that moment, at one end of the city, right where Dos had found the first damaged detector, two people in protective gear were moving cautiously.

"I mean... The guy with the codename ’Iron Barrel’ didn’t seem to be lying... Could it be..." whispered one of the shorter field agents.

The other one, his teammate, responded with some annoyance: "What, you’re saying Angel is lying to us!"

This Angel was a female member of their squad, curvy and seductive, and the man speaking had always claimed to be her boyfriend. Of course, there were about thirty men around Angel who thought the same.

And when Angel told them, "It seems someone from Omega is trying to kill us," she was just parroting the flattery of another old flame. These words spread like rumors, becoming more and more believable especially in a place like the Dark Realm, nearly isolated from the world, where communication was difficult, the pressure immense, and one’s nerves on edge constantly. If these field agents weren’t so sharp and mentally tough... Put a group of ordinary civilians in this place, and an unrealistic rumor after a few versions would’ve been enough to drive everyone mad long ago. How could it be that so far, fewer than twenty people had destroyed their detectors?

Less small talk, after sensing his teammate’s displeasure, the other explained: "I didn’t say she was lying; we’ve been comrades... well, teammates for many years, she wouldn’t lie to us. But we need to verify the truth, right?"

"Isn’t that why we’re here to verify it!" The man’s voice was still testy... Suddenly, he seemed to see something and hurried over...

"What... What is this?" he shouted.

The other hurried over as well.

In front of the two men on the ground lay clothing soaked through with blood.

The shorter field agent crouched down, smoothing out a corner of the clothing...

"A gun?" he suddenly shouted, pointing at the bullet hole on the clothing, "The location is near the heart!"

In Dark Realm, no matter the circumstances, a gunshot wound could only mean one thing: "infighting."

Without another word, another person stepped forward and flipped the protective suit over.

There wasn’t a single hint of red on the indicator on the back.

"Damn it! Could this be real?"

"No shit, isn’t it obvious? Someone killed a person who wasn’t infected! Look at this bullet hole, it’s definitely that Omega kid’s doing, the gun he carries is definitely fishy!" another person immediately shouted, hurriedly pressing the communicator on his helmet.

"Did anyone nearby hear that, anyone nearby, I found a body! Killed without infection! There’s a gunshot wound to the heart!"

Another, shorter person hesitated for a moment, feeling a bit panicked, so he also connected to the communicator, and whispered something under his breath.

The information could only spread a short distance, but shortly after Abraham had finished his transmission, a message like this came out, throwing people who had just started to calm down back into panic. The discovery spread from those nearby to another group nearby, and a few calm enough folks were dizzy with the repeated exchange of messages.

Perhaps it was human nature to be suspicious, or perhaps the environment made people’s spirits fragile, or... perhaps within Dark Realm, everyone’s thinking was under the influence of some mysterious force, and even with the protection of the protective suits, there was still some interference, to say the least. In Dos’s goggles, four more signal sources had disappeared!

He stood atop a building more than twenty stories high, looking at the target he was heading to, which flickered a couple of times before turning pitch black, feeling a strange irritation in his mind.

"What the hell? Are these people suspecting me?" he cursed in his mind, "I’m protecting them, trying to finish this mission quickly, to eliminate the threat of Dark Realm, but these idiots just keep suspecting and causing trouble! So damn annoying!"

For a moment, Dos even thought, "What good are you useless bunch, if you want to die, then so be it!" Fortunately, he immediately realized what he was thinking and quickly shook his head to expel the horrid thought from his mind.

"What is happening today?" he muttered in confusion, not even daring to believe he could have such thoughts, quickly switching to another direction in the goggles, he leaped off the high building and sped toward that direction.

At that moment, in an inconspicuous ruin, a thin figure sat on a fallen stone, slouching, legs inelegantly spread apart, one hand clutching a dagger, the other gently holding a gun, hanging in front of him, swinging back and forth.

"Hmm... Do you know what I hate most about this suit? ...It’s the helmet. Sometimes I just can’t help but spit, and then it slides down the visor all the way to the insoles. Every step is sticky and I can’t take off my boots to wipe it off..."

He was speaking to the deserted ruins as if he were talking to himself.

A moment of silence

"Oh, well, seems like you didn’t find that funny... Or maybe you did find it funny, but you have to hold it in, otherwise all that effort to maintain your poker face would be wasted... Ha ha ha ha!"

After babbling some more nonsense and laughing awkwardly for a few moments, he smacked his lips, "You’re no fun."

After finishing, he stood up and aimlessly wandered around the ruins, humming tunelessly and rhythmically tapping his thigh with the revolver in his hand.

Suddenly, without warning, he raised the gun and placed it against his temple.

"Hey, hey, brother, don’t do anything stupid, the kid’s in my hands now," he said inexplicably, "You know my temper... oh, I should say you don’t know, because I can’t even figure myself out... Heh heh... Ha ha ha ha ha burp. Anyway... you understand, I fire one shot, and this guy’s gone, it’s no big deal to me, I can just find another, but you trying to find me again would take a lot of effort. So, you need to be very, very good. Right, Detective?"

Chen Xiao paced back and forth nonchalantly, his tone as casual as chatting with a neighbor, except his hand kept pointing the gun at his head as if the hand had its own will and the head was a hostage.

"That’s much better, it’s less effort talking to a smart person than to those self-righteous folks... By the way, what’s the name of that kid who always has candy in his mouth? Whatever, what exactly did he tell you? Just look at me and I’ll give your body back to you, right? Ha ha ha, so you can’t resist the temptations of the flesh after all! Sss— I get you, breathing, walking, seeing! Hearing! Those flavors, and... the ability to think! Yes, that’s it, you’ve fallen for the pleasure of thought, haven’t you? It’s just too delightful... Humans have so many things we dream of, yet they are still not content, it’s so foolish it makes me laugh!! Ah heh heh heh... Ha ha ha ha!

You heard those communications, right? I guess you could analyze the whys and wherefores in just a few words, humans are all like that, you see? I just fired one shot, everything’s like dominoes, toppling in a direction even I don’t know, faster and higher, until the building collapses, all rationality shattered to bits, vaporized, mixed with blood and brains to a mushy gooiness, and what’s left... is madness!!"