Clown Game
Chapter 341 - 328: Disintegration

Chapter 341: Chapter 328: Disintegration

Chen Xiao tucked the key and the antidote for the Gene Toxin into his pocket before he pulled out his cellphone and called Bai Xiong.

Having disappeared for so many days, it was time to give a call to his teammates, or they might really believe he had been swallowed by the worm horde. It would be quite the awkward moment to reappear only to find they had even dug a grave for him.

The call connected quickly.

"Hi..." he greeted as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Unexpectedly, the voice that came from the other end wasn’t Bai Xiong’s.

"Is this obnoxious tone how you always talk to him?" Song Xuan asked coldly.

"Uh..." Chen Xiao pondered for a moment: "Yep!"

"The fact that you haven’t been beaten to death yet is really a stroke of luck!" Song Xuan’s tone remained full of mockery and ridicule.

Chen Xiao didn’t take it to heart: "Ah, that aside, why do you have Bai Xiong’s phone?"

"Instead of that, shouldn’t you first explain why you suddenly disappeared from the mission? I was quite looking forward to the possibility that you had died," she said.

"Oh, that? It’s of course my secret weapon," Chen Xiao responded evasively.

"Secret weapon? There doesn’t seem to be anything in the team’s inventory that would allow you to leave the battlefield!"

"Tsk, that’s why it’s called a secret weapon. What do you think I’ve been getting as rewards for every ’elite strategy game’ I’ve played?" Chen Xiao started to bluff, feigning profound knowledge: "Now, come on, answer my question!"

"Humph, if you don’t want to talk about it, forget it. As for Bai Xiong... he’s already been lying in the ’Repair Pod’ for three days now..." Song Xuan’s voice trailed off.

Chen Xiao was taken aback.

...

...

Several hours later, at the Asian branch of the Order Foundation.

Medical area.

Chen Xiao stood in front of a door made of pure white metal. Quickly, the door sensed his presence and slid open. Inside the door was a room filled with medical equipment. Chen Xiao and Bai Xiong had spent a long time in this place when they had first arrived at the Asian branch. Back then, the research area in K City had just been wrecked... no, raided. Both of them had been seriously injured.

Now, in the center of the medical room, there was an enormous "Repair Pod" which looked far more advanced than the one Chen Xiao had "soaked" in before. Surrounding the Repair Pod, apart from the medical staff who were busy at work, were Song Xuan and a worried Mrs. Liu.

"Uh... hello everyone," Chen Xiao waved his hand and awkwardly broke the silence.

The two women turned to glance at Chen Xiao and then ignored him, clearly more concerned about Bai Xiong, who was still unconscious.

Chen Xiao made his way to the front of the Repair Pod... Through the glass, he could see Bai Xiong with his eyes closed, his body covered in patches and tubes, and wounds all over his powerful, muscular frame from which bubbles tinged with blood continuously emerged.

"Hmm, it looks like the injuries are quite severe. But wasn’t he already put in there? Why do you all look so worried?" he inquired, confused, because in his understanding, as long as one wasn’t dead, being submerged in the repair fluid was pretty much safe, with full recovery being just a matter of time.

"Yes, we thought the same at the beginning," Song Xuan said first: "But it’s been so long, and his condition hasn’t improved at all; it’s actually getting worse."

Chen Xiao was stunned: "What? Getting worse? Why?"

"We don’t know!" Mrs. Liu took over the conversation: "Not only that, but the nutrients in the repair fluid are completely depleted in about 10 minutes, so we have to keep replacing it."

She pointed to a tube by the door of the pod which was presumably continuously supplying the repair fluid into the pod.

After hearing this, Chen Xiao frowned: "How could this be happening? The repair fluid can’t be defective..." he grumbled.

At that moment, a person in a white lab coat approached: "Of course not. In fact, even if it were of inferior quality, the quantity he has absorbed could nearly heal over a hundred and thirty people with similar physical conditions."

As he spoke, he pressed a few buttons on the control panel by the Repair Pod, and a human body model appeared on a screen, glowing a fiery red all over.

"You are only seeing the wounds and blood... In reality, his internal injuries are far more severe. Without the maintenance of the repair fluid, he would rapidly deteriorate within an hour."

"What? Deteriorate, what do you mean?" Mrs. Liu asked urgently, her tone revealing her deep concern.

"I mean it literally," the medical staff said gravely: "His body is disintegrating. Skin, muscles, bones, and all his internal organs are rejecting each other. This phenomenon has reached the cellular level. You can imagine if he were to leave the Repair Pod, he’d barely last ten minutes before he would..." He hesitated, seemingly searching for the right word to describe the situation. After a while, he finally completed the sentence... "Melt!!"

Mrs. Liu stood there quietly, with no apparent reaction, but her face had turned visibly pale, and her hands were tightly clenched, her nails digging into her flesh.

"Isn’t there any way to treat him?" She struggled to keep her tone steady: "You are part of the medical team, the Foundation’s medical staff! There has to be a way."

The man in the white coat shook his head: "We are trying, but so far, there’s been no improvement."

"Then what’s the cause? Why has he become like this?" Song Xuan asked again.

"We have no idea. We’ve conducted a comprehensive examination. Strangely, his body appears to be in good health, with no parasites, toxins, or diseases, but... he is just disintegrating, as if this is just the natural state for him..."

...

...

The silence fell, and the atmosphere became suffocating.

Setting aside what kind of ethos these medical team bastards had, everyone knew that in the face of danger, they would do everything possible to save every member of the Foundation’s life.

If they said there was no way out... then there might really be no way out.

And at that moment, among all the people present, there was one who seemed completely untouched by the solemn atmosphere... Chen Xiao. He stood there like nothing was happening, staring at Bai Xiong behind the glass... hands in his pockets, carelessly humming a tune.

"Hey... where’s his necklace?" he pondered for a moment before asking.

"What?"

"The necklace, the pendant is a small disc. You must have seen it."

...