Clown Game

In the streets of K City, a gaunt man with a pale face wandered aimlessly.

With his hands in his pockets, stooping, and a cut scar on his mouth's corner, pedestrians who passed by occasionally stopped for a few seconds to look at his somewhat disgusting face before hurrying away.

Of course, Chen Xiao didn't care about that; he was dealing with a very annoying issue right now.

...

Although Chen Xiao's mind contained knowledge that others did not possess, and his perceptual abilities and thinking speed were far above that of an average person, his memory was blank: apart from knowing his name, he knew nothing else about himself—not his birthday, parents, whether he had siblings or friends, where he came from, if he had been to school, or his past occupations. In short, he didn't even have a way to prove his own identity!

This led directly to many tricky problems, such as his current one—he found he couldn't rent a house!

In the past few hours, he had first walked out of the "K City Disease Prevention Center," which was also "Anomalous Creature Research Area No. 15." Then, he stood for half an hour on a rural road until he finally found a taxi driver brave enough to take him.

Well, who could blame them, when he didn't look like a good person?

"Brother, where to?"

"Downtown."

"Uh... where in downtown?"

"Anywhere."

"..."

After a few brief exchanges and a subsequent awkward and dull trip, Chen Xiao arrived at the bustling yet challenging city center. Next, he started facing the "rental problem"!

"Ah, I've got to figure something out! At this rate, I might be detained as an illegal immigrant or something," Chen Xiao murmured as he sat on the curb, frowning. If it were not for his suit looking somewhat decent, he would have been taken for a vagrant.

...

...

It might have been due to good luck or simply to keep this rather unpopular story going, but at this moment, the black phone in Chen Xiao's pocket suddenly vibrated.

"Hmm? What's this?" Chen Xiao was slightly startled and took out the phone.

Then, he saw this message on the screen.

"New optional mission available."

He naturally clicked on it immediately.

————————————

Class D Optional Mission:

A new Class D Anomalous Phenomenon has appeared in the XX block of K City, 3km from your position.

No relevant data available for inquiry.

Do you accept this mission?

Yes——————No

————————————

"So close to me... It almost feels like it was tailored for me," Chen Xiao muttered to himself and, without a second thought, selected "Yes."

"Hehehe, I didn't expect my first mission to come so quickly!"

Frankly, field agents actively taking on missions were virtually nonexistent, and Chen Xiao might just be the only one who was actually excited about getting one. He grinned broadly, the gloominess from being unable to rent a room instantly dispelled.

At that moment, the phone screen flickered a few times and then displayed a map-like interface. The map showed Chen Xiao's current location, and two streets away, a red dot was flashing incessantly.

"Hmm... This is designed quite user-friendly!" Chen Xiao inwardly praised as he eagerly stood up and followed the direction indicated on the map.

...

A few minutes later, he arrived at the base of an apartment building. Chen Xiao glanced up, noting that the overall decor wasn't bad. It was located close to the street, the ground floor of the apartment housed a row of small shops with a steady stream of people coming in and out; nothing seemed amiss.

"Hmm... At this moment, it feels like I'm the most abnormal thing in this scene!" Chen Xiao habitually made a sarcastic comment.

In fact, most newly discovered Class D anomalies appeared normal at first glance. The Anomaly Detectors scattered around various locations by the Foundation and the monitoring satellites in the sky could only provide an approximate location and were unable to specify what the anomalous item was.

And this was where most Class D missions got difficult. For example, there was once an anomalous item that was a cup. Any liquid drunk from this cup, regardless of its nature—even urine—would taste like the drinker's favorite beverage. To find this anomalous item, a poor field agent spent a whole week, only to receive a meager 20 points as a reward, not even enough to buy a few titanium bullets.

Thus, most of those who took on Class D missions would wait until the item's peculiarities became very obvious before starting the task, to avoid thankless effort.

Chen Xiao clearly didn't care about these matters. With no clue to begin with, he was ready to employ a most magnificent ability that humanity had evolved to possess.

Language!

Right, if you can't tell at a glance, you can't just ask?

Without a second thought, Chen Xiao walked straight into the nearest cafe.

...

The shop was small, a few tables arranged by the window where sunlight fell on the floral fabric, and the air had a sweet and peaceful scent.

Chen Xiao leisurely approached the counter, taking in the details of his surroundings as he did.

"Do you have any cake?" he asked, trying his best to maintain a slight smile.

The man behind the counter was in his twenties, a bit chubby, wearing a pale pink apron that made him look somewhat adorable. He glanced at Chen Xiao's face, frowned slightly, then quickly switched to a smiling expression.

"Yes, sir, which kind would you like?" he said, pointing to the menu on the counter.

Chen Xiao didn't even look at it: "The sweetest one!"

...

After a while, the chubby clerk placed a small piece of cake in front of Chen Xiao. Chen Xiao managed to put on a polite smile as best he could, but a flicker of disgust passed in the clerk's eyes.

Chen Xiao didn't mind, tasting a bit of the frosting with his spoon, seeming to enjoy it.

Suddenly, he blurted out, "By the way, has anything strange happened around here lately?"

The clerk was taken aback, his eyes darting subtly before he blurted out without thinking, "No!" Then, stealing a very discrete glance at Chen Xiao's eyes, he added, "Nothing strange!"

Chen Xiao took another spoonful of frosting and, with a small smile said, "Thanks!"

Then he sat down with the small piece of cake at the table furthest inside.

This position allowed him to watch the flow of people outside the window and keep the entire coffee shop within his line of sight...

"To think there really is something strange going on, and the clerk answered without thinking, which means he's been pondering this as well, yet there's curiosity without panic... Could it be that he doesn't care? Or is it that a strange customer frequents this shop these days?" Chen Xiao pondered as he stuffed a big bite of cake into his mouth.

The flow of people outside dwindled, the sun listlessly emitted its remaining rays of light, and Chen Xiao remained in his seat, now with four empty plates on the table. He had been sitting here for almost three hours, watching the clerk's expressions. In the last ten minutes, the chubby clerk kept glancing at the clock on the wall, now for the seventeenth time, with increasing frequency.

"It seems that the strange customer will come today," Chen Xiao thought.

Indeed, not long after, the cafe door was pushed open, and a young girl walked in.

"About 25 years old, a simple ponytail, decent-looking overall if not for the freckles on her face, lives alone, stays at home for long periods, sits in front of the computer for over ten hours a day, has irregular eating habits, recently changed her living environment, is troubled, and tired..." These details all simultaneously popped into Chen Xiao's mind as he excitedly chewed a large bite of his cake, almost smiling inadvertently, but he quickly composed himself.

"A cup of coffee..." the girl said faintly, her voice hardly audible, but the chubby clerk clearly knew what she wanted and immediately started the coffee machine.

"She comes often, at least every day recently," Chen Xiao surmised, then watched as she chose a seat close to the door, her back to him, and pulled out a new but thick notebook from her bag.

"Student? No, a writer! She must have started a new novel recently, still brainstorming the plot or perhaps stuck on a scene... But what's bothering her isn't this, it's..." Chen Xiao frowned slightly, "No good, can't figure it out!"

At that moment, the clerk brought a cup of coffee to the girl. She nodded politely, indicating that it was enough to just place it on the table. Then she ran her hand through her hair and sighed deeply, looking frustrated.

Chen Xiao hesitated for half a second, then picked up his half-finished cake and walked over to her.

... and sat down right across from her.

This was an abrupt move, coupled with Chen Xiao's off-putting face, which would typically put anyone on high alert, asking about the situation or even leaving.

However, the girl did not react defensively. She merely glanced at Chen Xiao from the corner of her eye, without a single question.

"Hey, hey... just going to ignore me? Doesn't she have any self-defense awareness? Or are all novelists a bunch of eccentrics?" Surprised by the girl's indifferent attitude, Chen Xiao paused and muttered to himself.

...

...

The awkwardness persisted for a few seconds.

Eventually, Chen Xiao decided it wasn't working out, "Can't seem to figure out the thinking patterns of this woman, but eight out of ten chances she's a bit of an airhead, so why not just get to the point directly!" he thought to himself.

He then cleared his throat, signaling to her that he was about to speak.

Unexpectedly, the girl across from him suddenly looked up sharply, staring at Chen Xiao with a puzzled look as if he had just sat down.

"Who are you?" she asked cautiously.

Chen Xiao's eyes twitched, thinking, "Hey, are you single-celled or something? Are you always this slow to react?"

Despite his inner complaints, he immediately straightened the collar of his suit to appear more respectable. At this moment, he decided to abandon the whole spiel he had prepared, suspecting that this girl might deviate from his carefully laid-out conversation plan with her unpredictable responses.

So, Chen Xiao, full of adolescent bravado and without beating around the bush, said, "Hello miss, I'm here to help you!"