Discovering the black market
Xing Yao was absorbed in planning his perpetual-motion card-making machine, itching to get started on the spot, when Clone No. 2's frantic, foot-stamping voice suddenly exploded in his mind.
"Main body! Main body! I found the black market, but I lost the guy while tailing him!"
Xing Yao's brows snapped together, and his expression darkened on the spot.
Half an hour earlier, Clone No. 2 had kept his invisibility active the whole time, sticking doggedly to that man with the weird-as-hell behavior like a haunting shadow that refused to leave.
The man had pulled his hat brim so low it almost covered his entire face. He picked out obscure corners and camera blind spots to slip through, glancing back like a madman every couple of steps as though a dog were chasing him, completely unaware that an invisible figure had already latched onto him.
Just then, Clone No. 3 finally made his way over and quietly joined the equally invisible Clone No. 2.
Both remained invisible the whole time, following right on the man's heels without so much as breathing loudly.
After countless twists and turns, the man finally plunged into the deepest part of an underground parking garage, stopping before a shabby, inconspicuous iron door.
He raised his hand and tapped out a furtive rhythm on the door, and it opened with a creak.
One step inside, and the two clones were dumbstruck.
Outside the door lay the garage's bone-chilling dead silence; inside, everything boiled over into chaos-
The lights were dim and the voices deafening. Hawking, haggling, and whispered conversations mingled into a racket that made their heads hurt.
Stalls lined both sides of the narrow aisles, with cards, bizarre objects, and all sorts of materials piled everywhere.
Most absurd of all, everyone here wore a strangely shaped mask.
Savage beast faces, cold silver faces, raven masks, painted-face masks... each more hellish than the last, concealing their real faces completely.
It was certainly lively, and it was certainly dangerous.
The eyes beneath those masks were wary, greedy, or sinister. Not one of them looked like someone to trifle with.
Clone No. 2 and No. 3 stayed invisible, mingling with the crowd as they kept their eyes glued to him. But the black market was packed, the masks all looked much the same, and the lighting was dim as hell. After a few twists and turns, the man ducked into the crowd-
When they looked up again, he had vanished!
Clone No. 2's heart tightened on the spot, and he hurried after him, but all he could see were masked figures, without so much as an extra hair to go on.
The two circled the area several times, searching until their scalps tingled, but in the end, they had lost him despite their efforts.
After listening to Clone No. 2's rapid-fire account, Xing Yao stood where he was, closed his eyes, and sank into thought.
His fingertips unconsciously rubbed his chin as his mind frantically sorted through the information:
The strange man, the hidden entrance, a black market where everyone wore masks, a target who vanished just like that...
Countless clues collided chaotically in his mind.
A moment later, Xing Yao slowly opened his eyes and sighed softly.
"Ah... so they ended up in the hands of those criminal scumbags after all."
But the next second, Xing Yao's eyes darted, and a devious-as-hell idea sprang straight into his mind.
The corners of his mouth slowly curled upward into a strange, vicious smile, his gaze frighteningly cold.
Immediately afterward, he sent a telepathic message straight at Clone No. 2 and No. 3 simultaneously:
"You two, listen up. Set up a street stall right there in the black market and sell cards!"
Clone No. 2 was stunned on the spot. His voice exploded with bewilderment and a hint of anger:
"Wait, main body?! The cards have already fallen into those bastards' hands, and we're still going to sell cards in the black market? What the hell are you playing at?!"
Clone No. 3 immediately chimed in, looking equally baffled and disapproving:
"Exactly, main body! Shouldn't we be figuring out how to snatch our stuff back? Why are we taking cards straight to them to sell?"
Looking at the clones in his consciousness, still bewildered and even somewhat opposed, Xing Yao did not grow impatient. Instead, he patiently began explaining, slowly and deliberately, word by word. His tone was so calm it made their scalps prickle, and the longer they listened, the colder their backs grew.
"Have your brains still not caught up? Do you think I'm sending you to set up a card stall in the black market to hand out charity and spread some warmth? I'm going there to dig pits for those scumbags, set snares, and lay a death trap!"
Outside, Clone No. 1 and Clone No. 4 did not dare breathe loudly,
While inside the black market, Clone No. 2 and Clone No. 3 instantly stiffened as well. All of them listened in silence, even softening their breathing.
"Listen carefully. Those cards I'm giving you to sell have already been thoroughly modified into broken, poisonous things that won't spare even their own flesh and blood. Every original negative effect-I've doubled them all, maxed them all out, and stacked them all together. I haven't left out a single one!"
"First, I'm only keeping a single minute of the cards' positive effects!
They'll look explosively powerful, with flashy effects and maximum showing-off potential, sweeping through everything when used. In reality, the instant those sixty seconds are up, they'll stop working and won't be worth a damn!
Want to keep enjoying it? Sure. Pay up for another one and keep jumping into my trap!"
"The real point is the side effects. I'm stacking those until they explode!
Every negative effect from all the previous cards will be added, then strengthened tenfold, lasting a full hour!"
"As long as they dare to buy them, dare to use them, dare to show off-
Once that minute of fun is over, the backlash starts immediately!
As his words fell, Clone No. 1, Clone No. 2, Clone No. 3, and Clone No. 4—all four clones instantly sank into deathly silence. The consciousness link was terrifyingly quiet, without even the slightest fluctuation of their presence. Every one of them had been shaken hard by this utterly ruthless scheme.
After a long while, the silence shattered completely. All four clones spoke almost simultaneously, as though losing control, their voices filled with shock and lingering fear.
Clone No. 2's voice was trembling with disbelief. "Holy shit... main body, that's way too ruthless! One minute of pleasure in exchange for an hour of hell-level side effects, with every negative effect from the gene cards stacked to the max? That's not selling cards-that's sending them to their deaths! If it suddenly kicks in during a fight in a secret realm, they'll be reduced straight to useless sludge!"
Clone No. 3 followed with a low shout, his voice shaking with excitement. "Badass! Absolutely badass! Selling cards in the open while digging pits in the shadows-the more happily they buy, the more horribly they die! Maxing out the side effects is one thing, but they're all the deadliest kinds of backlash from gene cards. Those criminals are absolutely going to fall flat, fair and square!"
A bone-deep chill seeped into Clone No. 4's voice, and he could not help exclaiming, "Ruthless! Too ruthless! The positive effects are so short they're a joke, but the side effects can torment someone until they break down, without even giving them a chance to fight back. This trap is practically seamless!"
Clone No. 1 outright erupted, his voice full of admiration. "I bow down! Main body, this move puts you among the gods! Every negative effect piled on for a whole hour-who could withstand that? Use one in a secret realm and you'll drop dead on the spot, unable to close your eyes in death!"
But just as the atmosphere reached its most feverish pitch, Clone No. 4 suddenly dropped a remark that froze everyone on the spot.
"Wait... main body, I have a question. What if the people buying the cards aren't criminals from the black market, but ordinary awakened people? They just came to the black market to hunt for bargains and find some treasures, and accidentally bought our cards... wouldn't that mean we'd trapped innocent people by mistake?"
The moment those words came out.
The consciousness link, which had been boiling with excitement just moments earlier, abruptly fell quiet.
Clone No. 1, Clone No. 2, and Clone No. 3 instantly fell silent, sinking once more into a heavy hush. Even their breathing grew stifled.
That was right. Dragons and snakes mingled in the black market, and no one could guarantee that everyone buying cards was a bad person. If they really harmed ordinary awakened people, that would change the nature of the whole thing completely.
The atmosphere instantly grew as heavy as it could possibly be.