Fate Trading System – Chapter 245

Plan A

Mist Map 18

Second Update

Everything happened so suddenly, Zhang Shuyi had no time to react at all.

He saw the clown, who had been trying so hard to make him laugh, walk off the stage, ending his performance.

The moment he was made to laugh, much of the gloom in his heart had already dissipated.

Then he realized that losing his job wasn’t such a big deal after all. If he lost this job, he could just find a new one. Besides, this job was exhausting, busy from morning till night, requiring overtime with low pay, unpleasant colleagues, and an unfriendly boss. So why keep this job? To make himself suffer?

Thinking this way, his mood, at least, wasn’t so heavy anymore.

Zhang Shuyi felt a surge of gratitude towards the clown who had come down and was about to thank him, although he still found it very abnormal for a clown to appear on this road in the middle of the night.

The clown stood there quietly, without speaking.

“Thank you so much for the happiness you brought me. I’m going home now. It’s chaotic outside, you should head back early too.”

Zhang Shuyi waved at the clown. The clown made a smiling expression at him and waved back.

Zhang Shuyi continued walking home along his original route, but then he heard footsteps behind him again.

“Hmm?”

Zhang Shuyi was about to turn around, but before he could, he felt a sharp object pressed against his lower back.

Summer clothes were thin, so he could clearly feel what it was.

From the shadow cast by the streetlight, he could see that the man holding a knife to him from behind was the same clown from before.

“You…”

“You were laughing very happily just now, weren’t you?”

“Six years ago, your smile then was just as happy as it is now.”

“You really are a good person. Unfortunately, your kindness was misplaced. Stupid, clueless kindness only brings disaster to people. So, this is the reason for your death.”

“A clown, very interesting, isn’t it?”

The strange, shrill tone of voice was enough to make one’s hair stand on end; it wasn’t the voice of a normal person—peculiar, as if it had crawled out from hell.

“What are you talking about? Do you know me? What six years ago?”

Cold sweat beaded on Zhang Shuyi’s forehead. He thought this might be a misunderstanding.

“You’d better not shout for help at the top of your lungs. If you do, I will absolutely send you to hell in the next second.”

The clown still wore that expression that was neither crying nor laughing, his red nose looking comical. But the recent spectator didn’t think so anymore.

The scene and surroundings hadn’t changed, but the person watching had experienced several shifts in mood.

“What do you want?”

“How about we play a game? It’s very interesting. If you’re rescued before the game ends, then I’ll let you go, and you won’t have to die at my hands.”

The clown’s voice was light and cheerful, as if he were talking about something very happy.

“You…”

“Shh, let’s talk somewhere else, okay?”

The clown’s voice was gentle and lingering, no longer that deliberately affected, shrill tone.

Zhang Shuyi only felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck, and then he plunged into darkness.

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Su Xin hadn’t received any news from the perpetrator for a whole week. Ever since that phone call, the perpetrator seemed to have vanished into thin air.

However, no one dared to relax. Everyone’s nerves remained highly strung; who knew when that perpetrator would strike again.

Su Xin sat on a chair beside the dining table, her phone in her hand. She was now in a state where her phone never left her side, 24/7. The perpetrator—it was unknown what he was preparing for, or if he wanted to wear down their patience, making them anxious in the wait. In short, waiting was truly an agonizing process.

Unknown hardships are never something to look forward to. Su Xin occasionally fantasized that the perpetrator had been in some car accident and kicked the bucket. That kind of outcome would be so satisfyingly delightful, but it was just a thought. After all, such things were highly improbable, perhaps even zero probability.

Liao Qingjie was busy cooking in the kitchen. After all, when it came to cooking, Su Xin and Liao Qingjie unanimously agreed that if it were left to Su Xin, it would be terrifying.

They were having lunch now: two dishes and a soup, just right for two people.

Shredded pork with green peppers, stir-fried water spinach with garlic, and a tomato and egg soup—commonplace yet incredibly warming.

Su Xin was halfway through her meal when she noticed her phone ringing. Su Xin almost immediately picked up her phone to look; a call was coming in.

“Connected so quickly. Were you waiting for my call?”

The young man’s voice hadn’t changed much from before; it was still calm in tone, even carrying a hint of a smile.

“Stop with the nonsense.”

“It seems your mood isn’t very wonderful. Why so unhappy to receive my call?”

“You’ve been talking more and more nonsense lately. Can you just get to the point? The game has already begun.”

“Listen carefully. The keyword I’m giving you this time is ‘Clown.’ The location is K City. I’ll give you four days. If you haven’t found him by then, well… I’m very sorry.”

After saying this, the perpetrator immediately hung up the phone.

Su Xin had put the call on speakerphone and recorded it from the very beginning. Liao Qingjie had also heard the entire conversation.

“K City? I’ll go buy tickets right away.”

Liao Qingjie took out her phone and first called the Captain.

K City was not close to where they were, at least several provinces away. No wonder the perpetrator hadn’t called him for so long. It must have been to prepare for the crime. After all, just getting there from this place would take a long time.

And only four days. This was truly treating human life as a child’s game.

“Yes, okay, we’ll send the audio over. The two of us must go. With only four days, it’s very tight. You come with us. I’ll buy the tickets; your other team members can make their own arrangements.”

After hanging up, Liao Qingjie used her phone to book three plane tickets. They had to fly to the scene as quickly as possible.

“Are the tickets bought already?”

“Bought.”

“What time?”

“Three in the afternoon. That’s the earliest.”

“Okay.”

Su Xin nodded, continued eating, and after finishing her meal, she also drank a bowl of soup.

“You’re this calm?”

“When objective facts cannot be reversed, we should maximize resource utilization and arrange to do the most things within a reasonable time.”

A concise translation would be: f%cking hell, even if we pack up and rush to the airport now, we’ll just be waiting. Might as well sit down and finish this meal first, replenish some energy.

Influenced by her emotion, Liao Qingjie also quickly calmed down, finished the food in front of her, and went to the kitchen to wash the dishes.

After Su Xin finished eating, she wiped her mouth, walked into the room, opened a suitcase, and began preparing for their trip.

Once everything was packed, she sat in front of the computer and started searching for information.

Clown?

The meaning these two words could represent was far too broad. And only four days, such a tight schedule.

Four days later would be the final deadline. During this time, what kind of situation would that unlucky child be in?

Dressed up as a clown? The perpetrator dressed as a clown? Would the person about to be victimized wear clothes with a clown pattern on that day? Location? Event?

The search results quickly appeared. A circus was about to perform in K City. K City had a paid park themed around clowns, with clowns performing inside.

These were the top two results from the search engine. Su Xin calmed herself and continued to read down.

At this moment, she absolutely could not rush; she absolutely could not lose her composure. Perpetrators who set up such games usually do it to enjoy the feeling of toying with them, to have everyone under their control, watching them helpless.

The more nervous and flustered they became, the more proud the perpetrator would be. Moreover, a chaotic mind was not conducive to making correct judgments.

Su Xin roughly read through all the entries, including some old, bygone events, which took her nearly twenty-odd minutes.

By this time, the Captain had arrived.

The Captain had recently been worrying about his hair volume. If this anxiety continued, he’d have a Mediterranean¹ sooner or later.

“We’re also investigating on our end. We won’t bring too many people, because it’s really far this time, so it’s not suitable to take too many people.”

The Captain had listened to the audio recording over and over again several times and was also constantly searching for information about clowns in that city.

He really hated it most when high-IQ antisocial criminals played these kinds of games with him. Having a brain was a good thing, but why couldn’t they put their minds to good use? Beating around the bush, racking their brains to figure out how to harm people, how to harm them more perfectly—it was truly the most disgusting thing. Isn’t world peace good?

The Captain had already contacted the police over there. The communication process had been somewhat difficult.

He very wisely didn’t mention that someone had once seen the perpetrator and even let the perpetrator escape right under her nose. This matter couldn’t really be blamed on anyone, but if an uninformed person heard about it, they would inevitably think certain things and grumble about it, stirring up trouble.

“The number of people isn’t really the point. That perpetrator is very shrewd, ruthless, and extremely good at disguise. More importantly, he doesn’t seem to be afraid of being caught. He plans to die after certain things are over.”

The Captain understood the meaning behind Su Xin’s words.

Barefoot people aren’t afraid of those wearing shoes.² If the perpetrator was already prepared to die and wasn’t afraid of being captured, it was very likely he would resort to a mutually destructive act³ in the end.

“Clown.”

The Captain habitually scratched his head, his whole being sinking into a state of irritable anxiety.

“Only four days?”

“Yes. Let’s go to the airport now.”

Liao Qingjie dragged a small suitcase. Su Xin hadn’t packed much, just two sets of clothes for each of them.

I believe…… whatever doesn’t kill you simply makes you…… stranger.

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