Clown Game
Chapter 408 - 386 Mad Dog

Chapter 408: Chapter 386 Mad Dog

Dust filled the containment room as the explosion spread. Mikiko was far from the blast range, but the material inside her location and outside the glass were entirely different. The sound echoed in the enclosed space, making her head reel with dizziness. It took a long time before she recovered her senses. She stood up and struggled to climb out of the large hole created by the explosion.

"How’s the air outside?" Chen Xiao asked without a hint of seriousness.

Mikiko suppressed her voice, trying not to inhale too much dust, "Cough cough, it doesn’t seem much different."

Just then.

"Don’t move!"

With a sharp shout, Mrs. Liu held up her phone, the interface already dialed to the Gene Toxin’s activation panel, and her finger was already poised above the "Execute" button.

Chen Xiao was momentarily confused, "Hey, hey, what are you trying to do? It looks like you’re about to kill us, doesn’t it?"

"You have already violated multiple important regulations of the Foundation, I can execute you at any time!"

Chen Xiao feigned a hollowness in his eyes, "Violated regulations? Heh, maybe you don’t know, I’ve broken more rules than you can count... Let me think, unauthorized release of containment items, making up mission reports, murdering field agents, secretly hoarding anomalous creatures, contacting hostile forces, infiltrating the Foundation’s intercontinental branches, concealing the whereabouts of an S-class anomaly, acquiring anomalous abilities, dealing with non-normal humans, causing the failure of multi-person operations... Sheesh, there are so many I don’t even like to mention them all. Oh, right, I’m the one who wrecked this Anomaly Research Center. Those damaged facilities, the people who died... By that count, you should trigger the Gene Toxin now... "

He spoke casually, as if urging the other party to kill him.

Mrs. Liu shook her head in disbelief, "What are you talking about? How could you possibly do such things, you’re just a... "

"Ah, I know, I’m really just an ordinary person, right? Heh, then why was my treatment suddenly raised to S-class..." Chen Xiao raised an eyebrow and drew a question mark in mid-air with his finger, "You need to think about it carefully, this might be your only chance to kill me... Mmm... But it seems the recent notice said I must survive. So, if you kill me, it means you also break the rules, how ironic."

Mrs. Liu was uncertain what to think, but her hand began to tremble, knowing that with the press of that button, Chen Xiao would instantly become a thoughtless pile of mush, and then disintegrate. But... Mrs. Liu never pressed it.

Chen Xiao watched this unfold, shook his head regretfully, and pulled out a small syringe from his pocket, "Ah, it seems you’ve missed your chance," he lamented and naturally injected himself in the neck.

This syringe... was the antidote for the Gene Toxin that Qiu Mujin had given to Chen Xiao a while back in the coffee shop. Normally, he really disliked injecting things into his body, but right now, it seemed he had no other choice. After all, if that woman impulsively pressed the button, then he would be done for.

And those words he had just said, while it seemed like he was tempting the other side to kill him, were also giving her time to think. When a person has a direction to think about, they tend to analyze before making a decision subconsciously, and analysis takes time. The most unexpected situation is when there’s no clue, yet you force the other person to make a decision urgently. This often leads a person to an extreme of "screw it, just do it and see what happens."

Long story short, that whole sequence was very brief, the conversation between Chen Xiao and Mrs. Liu lasted only about a minute. He quickly seized the moment to use the antidote on himself. Then, a wave of intense fatigue rushed to Chen Xiao’s brain, severe pain and dizziness almost made him fall to the ground. Fortunately, he was prepared and threw an A-class recovery capsule into his mouth. Pure biological energy rapidly spread through his digestive tract. The pain was still there, but it seemed that the dizziness in his head was greatly reduced.

"Aiya, looks like I made the right bet!" Chen Xiao said through gritted teeth as he felt the pain in his body growing sharper and more intense. Since he had never injected that drug before, all he could do was recall the sensation when the Gene Toxin was first implanted in him. He figured the antidote wouldn’t be any less agonizing, which is why he had released Meizi first; in case his healing capsule couldn’t withstand the drug’s side effects and he passed out, Meizi could serve as a lifeline during his unconscious state.

But just like he said, his luck wasn’t too bad; he didn’t faint immediately.

The other three didn’t think that deeply. They just saw Chen Xiao rambling on and on, then gnashing his teeth as he took pills and gave himself injections, looking like he was suddenly stricken with illness.

"What... are you doing?" Meizi asked, puzzled. Mrs. Liu also watched Chen Xiao warily, gripping her phone and not daring to let her guard down for even a second.

Chen Xiao suddenly knocked on his head, trying to clear the lingering dizziness away.

"Ah, it hurts so much!" he exclaimed. "What I’m doing now doesn’t matter. What’s important is... haven’t you noticed? We’re all grasshoppers on the same string."

At that moment...

"I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but I must remind you that the Gene Toxin isn’t just about killing you; I can make you lose control over your limbs in seconds, pass out, become rigid, convulse, etc. While this would permanently damage your body, the order only stated that you can’t die—it didn’t say anything about not turning you into a vegetable. So if you keep being reckless, I won’t show any mercy!" Mrs. Liu said with utter seriousness.

Chen Xiao waved her off carelessly. "Come on now, if you were going to press it, you would’ve done it already. In fact, you’ve realized it too, haven’t you? Ever since you received the orders to write up the file for D-1147, you were marked for death; all of us here are meant to die—you," he pointed to each of the other three people present and then indicated himself, "and me... We’re all destined to die; no one is an exception."

Then, he turned to Bai Xiong. "A B-class field agent? Hah, no matter how exceptional you are, even if you’re a once-in-a-century talent, we only need to wait another hundred years to replace you, your death won’t make a bit of difference to the Foundation. Heh, let alone the fact that you’re an early traitor who should have died long ago."

"What?!" Mrs. Liu exclaimed, shocked as she looked at Bai Xiong.

"There’s nothing shocking about it. He turned against the Foundation even before I did." Chen Xiao spoke as if it was no big deal. "But don’t you think now is the time to worry about yourself? A mid-level manager with no family, no attachments, no friends, nothing at all, devoting your life to your work—so easy to put to use, and so easy to throw away without a second thought when the time comes to die. You’re pretty much the perfect employee... um... it seems you’re just one step away from ultimate perfection right now."

"You bastard... What are you saying!"

"Alright, alright, I’m just saying," Chen Xiao pushed his hand forward, signaling her to not get angry, and turned his head directly to Meizi: "As for the two of us, it seems like we’ve been caged like dogs from the beginning... um... that description doesn’t sound very nice. Actually, I meant to say that the entertaining show those people put on outside the cage was quite good. Whether I was lying on a couch or in a cage wasn’t really the point. But now, I’m kind of tired of watching it."

Meizi found Chen Xiao rather amusing. Although she was young, her years of containment had made her much more mature than her peers. "Heh, can you not be so melodramatic? As long as you’re still caged, what difference does a dog’s thoughts make?"

"Oh right, I forgot..." Chen Xiao said as if he had an epiphany: "Those people actually thought that a containment room that can withstand a nuclear blast could hold me. How naive!"