Clown Game
Chapter 374 - -5 Once Upon a Time

Chapter 374: Chapter -5 Once Upon a Time

"Ready? Heh, I can hardly wait," Chen Xiao responded, itching all over his body, "What do I need to do now?"

"Touch it."

"That simple?" Chen Xiao casually asked, already walking towards C-211.

"Yes, just that simple. Touch it, right in the middle, that circular rune..."

Angel was speaking quietly, and Chen Xiao had already reached the side of the coffin-like object. Without a moment’s hesitation, he pressed his hand down on the rune that Angel had indicated!

A tremendous force suddenly gripped Chen Xiao’s arm, preventing him from moving it even slightly. The dense runes, like an interacting black hole, frantically absorbed and also expelled, connecting the inside and outside of the iron coffin, creating some sort of link... Chen Xiao did not appear surprised; he simply relaxed his body, unresistingly accepting the sensation. It started with a tingling feeling, a bit of pain, and then... intense pain. Gradually, the pain became so severe that it drove him mad. His pores were all open, as though drawing in the moisture from the air in a sauna room. Only this moisture was filled with countless venomous insects, burrowing into his skin and bones, mercilessly tearing and transmitting, returning...

...

...

...

A black card, a white crow outlined in white lines, with its mouth open as if screaming, bellowing, furiously cursing.

The edge of the card was connected by a thin electrical wire, seemingly transmitting something into the card. The other end of the wire was connected to a simple video recorder.

"How much longer?" a male voice asked sharply, sounding a bit uncomfortable.

"About 15 minutes, I guess. It’s a makeshift modification, so it’s slow," responded a very plain voice, which sounded young, belonging to a boy.

Chen Xiao, out of boredom, nodded absently and shifted to a more curled position on the couch. This scene was exactly like the scene stored in the holographic image of the card.

A little while later...

"When should this card be given to... the you of many years later?" the boy possibly also felt a bit bored and asked. His body was still thin, his head still bald, the only difference was that now A-Ming seemed a bit more youthful... oh, and much shorter.

Chen Xiao, laying back nonchalantly, said, "How would I know, by then I’d be a lunatic with no memory, or maybe even dead."

"Then I’ll decide myself," A-Ming said.

"Huh?" Chen Xiao made a puzzled noise, sitting up incredulously, "How could that be, I’ve only known you for 3 hours!"

"You don’t trust me?" A-Ming retorted.

"Of course I don’t trust you! If it weren’t for the fact that I’m going to be an idiot tomorrow, you wouldn’t trust me either!" Chen Xiao ranted without giving any face.

A-Ming frowned, "Even if you become vegetative, you are still a dangerous- And besides, we already have an agreement!"

"No!" Chen Xiao suddenly became more serious, extending a finger to indicate that the other party needed to understand, "The person cooperating with you is me from a few years later, not now."

"What’s the difference?" A Ming’s frown deepened.

Chen Xiao’s expression changed, then reverted to his indifferent look, "Of course there is a difference." He rested a hand behind his head, "This card I will naturally entrust to someone I trust... hmm... someone more trustworthy than you. She will decide when to give it to me, and also, if she thinks your group... what’s it called?"

"The Splitters."

"Oh, right, if she thinks the organization called The Splitters is actually plotting some other conspiracy, well, I don’t know what she is capable of, you all might want to use your imagination." Chen Xiao said leisurely, reclining.

A Ming shook his head, "You really are as unpleasant as the rumors say."

"You’re welcome." Chen Xiao responded, "Oh right, I heard you’re from another place?"

...

A Ming remained silent for a short while, "Hmm." he finally replied.

"Can you talk about it? Is it another planet? Universe? Or some parallel space? Anyway, there’s still some time left for the transfer, might as well talk, since I’ll forget everything by tomorrow anyway." Chen Xiao slightly sat up straighter.

A Ming hesitated again, then a bit later, "The place I was born is also Earth, but the year is Epoch 313, that’s the only name I know. In our history, there’s no record of your ’AD’ era... so, I might be from the future, the past, or some other dimension. But I lean towards the future because our technological systems are the same, only that ours is more developed, more widespread, like this."

As he said that, A Ming pointed at the USB port behind his head.

"Our information and some knowledge can be transferred, some thoughts can also be downloaded and processed by computers. Our world has no countries, but is divided by huge corporations. Prosthetic enhancements like those within the Foundation are rampant in our world, Dream Addicts are everywhere. Technology hasn’t brought us happiness, but more chaos and poverty, I don’t like it there..."

"Hmm... sounds not too bad though, but knowledge can be downloaded? That would mean everyone is born knowing everything. And... what is a Dream Addict?" Chen Xiao asked.

A Ming shook his head, "It’s not like that, knowledge still requires learning because even if you download everything, you just store it but can’t synthesize or apply it. ’Dream Addiction’ is a synthetically created dream that you plug into your head to experience anything you want. Countless people are addicted to it, even to the point of neglecting their families, quitting their jobs, spending everything they have, until they starve in their dreams or the immense pleasure fries their brains..." A Ming said, his mood seeming increasingly somber, "Enough, my world will never appear in your story, so let’s not talk about these useless things. The information has also finished transferring."

Just then, a chime sounded, indicating that the signal on the card had indeed been transferred completely.

"Oh? Were you timing it?" Chen Xiao asked, more interested.

"It’s not a difficult thing." A Ming casually responded, then pointed at the video camera, "This needs to be destroyed, burned."

"Of course, how could I forget the most basic things like destroying evidence..." Chen Xiao said, "On the other side, my identity is also already prepared, even if the Foundation searches, I’ll just be a patient with various psychiatric histories, and under a memory scan, they’ll find nothing, ah, truly a perfect vessel."

Chen Xiao said this, got up, pocketed the card, and then pried out the memory card from the video camera, popped it into his mouth, and chewed nonchalantly.

"Let’s go." he said, then with his hands in his pockets, walked out of the room.