“Huaam.”
I slowly opened my eyes and sat up, rubbing the back of my head while shielding my eyes from the light streaming through the window.
“Ugh, what time is it?”
I tapped around the bed until I finally managed to find my phone and checked the time.
“Two?”
My eyes immediately shot wide awake.
“Holy, shit! How long did I sleep for?”
The last thing I remembered was heading back to the dorm after quickly releasing the game and passing out the moment I reached the bed. While I did remember that it was late, I knew it wasn’t that late.
It was at most five in the morning.
’How in the world did I end up sleeping for so long?’
If I truly did sleep at seven in the morning, and it was now two in the afternoon, then…
“I slept for seven hours?!”
How absurd!
What sort of foreign concept was this?!
“No, no, no. I’ve wasted too much time sleeping.”
I hopped off the bed and rushed into the bathroom, taking a quick shower before changing and sprinting back to the office.
’There’s still so much that I need to do. I can’t afford to be sleeping in like this. Shit. It’s not like I can suddenly hire a team to help me out with the multiplayer system. Oh, right. I also remember sending the link to Jamie. I wonder how the sales of the games are…’
All sorts of thoughts ran through my mind as I dashed into the Guild and ran to the elevators that quickly brought me down toward the familiar department.
Back then, this place felt extremely stuffy and suffocating to me.
However, things were different now.
This place now felt more like home than my own dorm, and as I moved past the main working area and finally saw my office, I was suddenly stopped by a certain hand that went on to grasp my shoulder.
“Hold on a second.”
“Hm? Kyle?”
Turning around and seeing Kyle, I paused.
“Good morning…?”
“It’s the afternoon.”
“Oh. It’s the same.”
So long as there was light, it was morning to me.
“That’s…”
Kyle looked like he wanted to say more, but he just shook his head.
“Whatever. There’s something that I’d like to talk with you about.”
“What?”
Looking at his face and seeing that it was somewhat serious, I decided to nod and point towards my office.
“Good, since that’s the case, I also have a few things that I want to talk about.”
Basically, a way to enter the black market.
This was something I had been dying to find out for a while.
“You have something to talk about? Hm, wait. I think I know what you want.”
“You do?”
I glanced at Kyle, surprised, but he didn’t say anything more. He just headed toward my office. I followed closely, and once we reached the door, I opened it, led him inside, and shut it behind us.
“Alright.”
Now certain that there was no prying ear, Kyle turned to face me as he handed me a small sack.
“This is?”
“The fragments that you won in the bet.”
“Oh!”
My eyes lit up.
’Yes, right! I almost forgot!’
I grabbed the bag excitedly and looked through it, counting every one of them to make sure that there was none missing. Once I was certain that it was all there, I couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear.
“You look happy?”
“Happy?”
Of course, I was happy. With this, I was now a step closer to reaching the Third Order.
“Well, although I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, the fragments that you’re currently holding are all of rather poor purity. While they might still fetch a good sum of money, they aren’t usable.”
As his words paused there, his expression turned serious.
So serious that for a brief moment, I felt my heart skip a beat.
“When I mean unusable, I mean that in no way should a person even think or consider using the fragments in order to awaken. Doing so will lead to disastrous consequences, like the potential of several fractures, or even worse, developing a Cognitive Shard.”
Kyle’s tone grew even more serious.
“I repeat, don’t even think about consuming the fragments unless you want to die. Is that clear?”
“….Yes.”
Somehow, I couldn’t help but find Kyle’s serious parental talk to be amusing. However, I knew that his words came from a place of concern, and I naturally nodded my head.
I wasn’t planning on consuming them in that state anyway.
“That’s good.”
Following my confirmation, Kyle appeared a little more relieved as he took out a file and slapped it on the table.
Pa!
“Hm? This is…?”
Looking at the file, I opened it curiously and slowly started to read through it. There were a lot of words, and I skimmed right through them. At the end of the day, this didn’t really concern me.
However, what caught my interest were several drawings.
Each drawing looked like a quick, careless doodle. Something a child might sketch. A man in clown makeup, his bright, mismatched clothes, oversized red nose, wild red curls, and the ever-present red balloon.
But what stood out most were the eyes: deep black voids, scribbled in heavy, swirling strokes that grew denser with each ring, as if the artist had spiraled into obsession trying to get them just right.
What sort of…
“This is a most recent case that I’ve been assigned by the Section Chief. It involves a recent Anomaly that has been discovered. They call it ’The Hiding Clown’. No one has yet seen the anomaly in person, nor is there much information about it. We don’t know its class or its rules. The only reason why we know of its existence is because of the drawings in the file.”
“….Oh.”
I put the file down.
’I can already tell that this smells like trouble. Let’s just stay as far away as possible from thi—’
“The ones who drew this are children who belong to a specific orphanage. One called ’Happy Kids Orphanage’.”
My thoughts immediately froze upon hearing Kyle’s words, and as I slowly turned my head, I saw him slowly nod his head.
“Yes, it’s the same orphanage where the two of us grew up.”
The moment he confirmed it, my heart gradually sank as my eyes slowly closed.
“…Fuck.”
Of all places, it had to be that place.
“I’ve been told by the Section Chief that I can create a team in order to go. Normally, I wouldn’t bring you there, but given how you performed before, I thought that maybe you might be interested. And…”
Kyle paused, his expression turning a little complicated.
“…The Matriarch wants to see you. She says that it’s about time that you came back to visit. There’s a lot that the two of you need to talk about.”
No, there wasn’t.
Of all people, she was the last person that I wanted to talk to. She was also the main reason why I hardly visited.
But…
“Okay, I’ll go.”
I ended up quietly nodding my head and agreeing.
Not because of her, but because of the children. They were all in some way my siblings.
And most importantly…
’Maybe if I go there, I might be able to find some clues about myself before the world changed.’
Maybe.
Just maybe.
…I could find something useful.
