Clown Game
Chapter 295 - 282 Prelude

Chapter 295: Chapter 282 Prelude

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S—009 cleansing task concluded

Field personnel settlement report:

Participants in class A field teams: 32, survivors: 5.

Participants in class B field teams: 51, survivors: 1 (confirmed permanently incapacitated).

Participants in class C field teams: 3, survivors: 3.

Omega group casualty report:

"Abraham Ken," unit 17 converging armor severely damaged, fissile reactor unaffected, consciousness comatose, transferred to medical area for restorative treatment.

...

Branislav Dosnovich: status missing. Search teams are exerting full effort for rescue, but biological scans show no response within the range of the old city, survival probability low. Search duration tentatively set for 24 hours x 30 days.

Approximate death count of citizens in the old city: >2800 people. Degree of urban destruction >90%. All subterranean city facilities damaged. Large affected area, excessive number of people, difficult to pacify, request for centralized memory erasure approved.

S—009 invasion point first purification personnel: Song Xuan (survived), attached to the Asian subdivision "Playful Bird" squad.

S—009 invasion point second purification personnel: Bai Xiong (survived), attached as above.

S—009 invasion point third purification personnel: Chen Xiao (survived), attached as above.

Authenticity confirmed without errors

...

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Mr. Zou rubbed his eyes, he had not slept for two days and one night, and even though his body had been enhanced and remained healthy, his muscles and organs, which had endured over 70 years, struggled to maintain such a high intensity of work.

All of this was just one page of the casualty report, beneath which lay a thick stack of more.

He leaned forward and looked at the old city area brightly lit by makeshift lights... ruins, broken walls, flesh, mud, as if a fragment from an apocalyptic dream had been forcefully inserted into a peaceful scene.

Absurd, terrifying, unbearable to look at directly.

The giant steel towers that supported the sky canopy had already been quietly removed, and rescue teams continued to search for the survivors in the city area, who were almost nonexistent.

Indeed, from the initial detection error, it had been predictable that this operation would be brutally severe, hence the Asian subdivision had mobilized nearly all the combat personnel they could.

Yet, even so, the outcome remained horrifyingly unbearable.

Class A elites, Class B fighters... and one member of the Omega squad. This was perhaps the most severe loss he had faced in over 70 years. And in this harsh environment, it was that class C team who ultimately purified the Dark Realm.

Playful Bird...

Chen Xiao...

And that call from a supreme council meeting more than half a year ago...

"Who... exactly are you?"

...

Mr. Zou didn’t know, and of course, he wasn’t foolish enough to investigate. In the Foundation, if someone didn’t want you to know something, it was best to comfortably remain ignorant—this had been his unshakeable rule for many years.

So, he hesitated for a moment, and at the end of the mission report, he added the following passage...

"Class C field team—Playful Bird, three members, successful purification of this S—009, meets the criteria for honor application, report truthful, approval endorsed."

Thus, our narrative about the Dark Realm comes to an end, of course, as mentioned before, this is not the end, but the beginning.

...

...

...

Three days later

Café on Shell Street in City K

Chen Xiao hummed a tune as he pushed open the door.

He was in a good mood... although he hadn’t yet received the settlement after the mission, although Bai Xiong had disappeared once again since that day and was uncontactable, and although everything seemed to be on the verge of chaos, with a storm brewing, Chen Xiao was still in a good mood.

"The sweetest~" he shouted as soon as he entered the café, completely ignoring the displeased looks from several nerdy patrons and swaggering over to the counter to sit down.

Then he looked, somewhat puzzled, at the young owner standing before the cash register.

"Uh... why aren’t you in the kitchen anymore...?"

The owner pushed the cash drawer closed and turned around, "Give this jerk the sweetest!" he said with an expression of disdain. Then, looking at Chen Xiao, he said, "Cousin is making it!"

He spoke briefly, his words tinged with a sense of loss as if he had just been fired.

"Uh... why?" Chen Xiao asked casually, although he really didn’t care about it, but as he said earlier, he was in a good mood.

The owner shrugged, "You know, there was a comic fair a few days ago, a really big one..."

"I’m not a fat otaku immersed in a pink, anime world every day. How would I know about it?"

"Oh, right, you’re just an unimaginative, mentally ill, ugly-looking, second-class disabled person who doesn’t even dare to mention his profession, so do you even want to listen?" the owner responded nonchalantly.

"Of course I’ll listen~ Well... it’s not that I really want to hear about it, but whenever I see that sorrowful look on your face, I find myself quite interested in what you’re saying. So go on, I don’t want to waste time on trash talk anymore."

The owner snorted, "Alright, I went to the comic fair that day, and it was a big deal, definitely not something to miss. So, I had to leave the shop in my cousin’s hands. You know, although she makes decent coffee, her cakes are truly terrible!"

"...Honestly, I think her cakes aren’t that bad!"

"Ah, if we’re just talking about the taste, they are indeed not bad, but their appearance is just too atrocious. No matter how tasty they are, it’s rude to place something that looks like a pile of shit in front of customers... not to mention actually eating it."

Chen Xiao hesitated for a moment, "This... that’s a very apt point, but if she hears you, you might get killed!"

The owner waved his hand dismissively, "She doesn’t have time to beat me up!"

"Okay, then what happened next...?"

"Ah, well, the cakes sold exceptionally well that day!"

"I see, so you... huh?? Your stories from before and after don’t seem to match up."

"Yes, I also feel it doesn’t match up! Even though they looked so bad, now they’re in short supply!"

Saying this, he pointed towards a large group of people crowded together in a corner.

"See... that bunch of people!"

Chen Xiao had naturally noticed them when he came in, but at that time, he had no idea what these people were there for... but now!

"They couldn’t be..."

"Yes! They are here specifically to buy the cakes. These past few days, my cousin’s cakes have become wildly popular across the whole block... Hey, do you know that feeling, suddenly realizing that your livelihood is outdone by a complete outsider... "

Chen Xiao patted his shoulder and sighed emphatically as if to comfort him.

Suddenly, the owner seemed to remember something. He started patting himself down frantically and finally... pulled out a black card from his own pocket.

"Ah, a few days ago someone came by, asked me to give this to you..." he said as he handed the card to Chen Xiao and gestured near his shoulder as if measuring the height of the person who had come.

Chen Xiao’s pupils constricted,

On the card, a raven-like pattern was outlined in white lines...