Chapter 49: The Joy Faction

The domain dissipated, and the view returned to the dilapidated hospital corridor. Not far away, the Slit-Mouthed Woman in a red dress lay on the ground, completely unconscious.

Li Guanqi let out a long breath, his tense nerves finally relaxing.

A domain duel was truly thrilling.

He slowly removed the duel disk and tossed it casually. The disk carved an arc through the air and landed steadily in Mickey's hands.

"The deck doesn't recognize me; next time, you'll have to rely on yourself."

Li Guanqi's voice was somewhat hoarse, carrying a trace of unnoticeable exhaustion.

With that, he could no longer support himself and slumped onto the cold floor, his gaze a bit unfocused—clearly suffering from overexertion.

Could he not be tired?

Ever since transmigrating, he had first been kidnapped into a prisoner transport cart, then forced onto the arena stage as a scapegoat. Before he could even enjoy a single evening, he was ambushed by the gang of illegal cab drivers. The moment he woke up, he was implicated in ghost card smuggling, debuted as a wanted criminal, and was almost run over by a car.

Originally, he just wanted to catch some small fry to play cards and relax his brain, but it turned out to be an elite monster.

He felt as though he had been dragged into a grand scheme, with a pair of invisible hands constantly pushing him forward, running without stopping, without a single moment to rest.

Seeing this, Mickey sat down as well, pulled two sandwiches and two bottles of water from his supercomputer ring, and handed half to Li Guanqi. "Have something to eat."

"Thanks." Li Guanqi didn't bother standing on ceremony with him, taking the sandwich and water.

"She was in cahoots with those illegal cab drivers, right?"

He took a bite of the sandwich and pointed at the fallen Slit-Mouthed Woman.

"That's right," Mickey said between bites. "This Slit-Mouthed Woman holds a higher status. She has a domain card and is a Minute Hand."

"What on earth are they after?" Li Guanqi took a sip of water, his brow furrowing as he recalled the actions of the illegal cab drivers.

Mickey replied offhandedly, "They have terminal illnesses and no money for treatment."

"If it were you, what would you do?"

"What can you do? Live one day at a time, I suppose," Li Guanqi said expressionless. "I've seen plenty of people like that."

To be precise, he had seen plenty of them in the hospital.

"But they don't think that way," Mickey frowned as he spoke. "They just want to spread this disease to others to gain a shred of psychological balance."

"To create and spread negative emotions."

"They claim that destroying the world is the only true fairness."

"Without regard to fortune or misfortune, high or low, noble or humble, main city or satellite district—everyone marches toward the end together to achieve true fairness."

Li Guanqi finally understood. There were people like this on Earth as well.

People who contracted HIV themselves, knowing there was no hope of a cure, would take revenge on society by infecting others to gain a shred of psychological balance.

Pure, unadulterated brain-dead morons!

"Can't these people be rounded up?" Li Guanqi asked.

Mickey sighed. "Ever since the Twin Shadows disaster descended sixteen years ago, the world population dropped from ten billion to eight billion. Out of those eight billion, seven billion are Twin Shadow people."

"How large is the Spirit Restraint Bureau, really?"

"Seven billion potential patients—it's extremely difficult."

"Catching the small fry doesn't do much good; we have to capture the twelve prime pathogens first."

Li Guanqi swallowed a bite of sandwich, took another sip of water, and remained silent.

Compared to the grand cause of saving the world, his immediate priorities were facing interrogation, lacking official residency, and dealing with trivial daily matters like three meals a day.

He looked at Mickey with pointed implication: "Catching a Minute Hand this time, your merit must be quite substantial, right?"

"Chu Chan gets 0.5 points for catching a small fry," Mickey raised his chin and said. "This Slit-Mouthed Woman is worth 60 points."

"That's over four months of salary, about a hundred thousand."

"That lucrative?" Li Guanqi's tone was suggestive.

Who works for free? Even a game booster charges boosting fees!

Mickey sighed. "Ah—I get what you mean. Pass the interrogation first, and once you're out, we'll talk."

"Is the Spirit Restraint Bureau going to lock me up after the interrogation?" Li Guanqi asked.

"If the eighteen dead people were citizens, they'd lock you up. Dead illegal cab drivers don't matter. If you really hid a ghost card, just hand it over; that thing is a pure hot potato."

"I genuinely don't remember."

"Then just say you don't know when the time comes. No matter how much the interrogators pressure you verbally, just say you don't know. They won't dare do anything to you. You're not just any ordinary numbered citizen—you're the numbered citizen who carried Bian Yuelong through a single sweep of three in the league."

"As an agent of the Spirit Restraint Bureau, is it appropriate for you to say that?"

"What kind of agent am I? I just wear the uniform, a good-for-nothing who can't duel."

Mickey leaned his back against the decaying wall, raised his water bottle, and gazed through it at the sky, a trace of melancholy on his face.

At that moment, another water bottle entered his field of vision.

Li Guanqi smiled self-deprecatingly and said, "Am I not the same? Good for nothing except dueling, a total good-for-nothing with nothing else."

"Hahaha—"

The two of them burst out laughing simultaneously.

The two water bottles collided in mid-air, emitting a crisp sound.

"Cheers—"

"To the good-for-nothings!"

"To the good-for-nothings!"

Taking the water as wine, the two of them tilted their heads and drained the bottles.

Li Guanqi drank his water to the last drop and let out a long breath.

Mickey finished his in one go as well, tossed the empty bottle aside, exhaled heavily, pulled out his phone, and opened an app called [Jester].

"What software is this?" Li Guanqi asked curiously.

Mickey said softly, "Relying solely on the Spirit Restraint Bureau makes it hard to fight against the Clock. Fortunately, we have a righteous grassroots organization!"

"The Jester Faction!"

"The Jester Faction?" Li Guanqi raised an eyebrow. "Is it the kind of jesters I have in mind?"

People who love trolling actually formed an organization here?

"Positive emotions can raise the sanity rate," Mickey said, a sense of mission rising throughout his body. "Spreading joy, taking the lead!"

"So what are you going to do?"

"Upload just now's duel. If the likes and comments hit the target, the platform pays out."

"Good stuff, even mosquito meat is meat."

Jester App was Antana's highest-traffic short-video platform, where countless people uploaded interesting duels every day to make people laugh.

When a video reached ten thousand likes, the platform would issue a small incentive.

The Spirit Restraint Bureau was not fighting alone; righteous jesters were also a vital pillar!

In the backend of the Jester Network, Xiao Wang, a content moderator, was feeling rather bored. The recently uploaded videos were all too cliché, featuring nothing but small fries.

[Ding—]

A newly uploaded video pop-up caught the moderator Xiao Wang's attention.

He raised his eyebrows slightly, a look of surprise appearing on his face.

"So explosive?"

[Double Domain Duel! Encountering Mo Wang, the Scissor Wolf tried its absolute best with a seven-hit combo, successfully beating itself to death!]

Just the first five words of the title—"Double Domain Duel"—were enough to make this video a massive traffic hotspot.

The founding principle of the Jester Network was to counter the spread of negative emotions by the Clock organization. A double domain duel meant there was a very high likelihood a Minute Hand was involved!

Since they dared to upload it, it meant the Spirit Restraint Bureau side had won. If the Minute Hand had won, moderation would never let it pass.

Xiao Wang instantly perked up and softly read out the second half: "The Scissor Wolf tried its absolute best with a seven-hit combo, successfully beating itself to death?"

The Scissor Wolf should be from the Fluffal archetype.

Tried its best with a seven-hit combo, and beat itself to death?

What kind of meme was this?

Xiao Wang's curiosity was completely hooked, and he couldn't help clicking on the video.

"The Slit-Mouthed Woman? Should be a winning match."

He didn't accept matches won by narrow margins; those people acted all high and mighty, and narrow defeats couldn't pass moderation either.

Two minutes later, his brow slowly smoothed out.

"Three in the front, five in the back? The final board is harder than my..."

"Banish four..."

"Awesome, it's back again!"

"Still cooking, still cooking."

"Ah, a seven-hit combo, are they about to lose..."

"Such a brilliant play! Wait, why defense position?"

Up to this point, although Xiao Wang had doubts, it was still within his understanding.

Until he saw the Battle Phase.

"Forced battle?"

"Seven-hit combo?!"

"Pfft—"

He was dumbfounded. He wanted to laugh, but the video wasn't over yet, so he didn't dare to laugh out loud.

The Scissor Wolf fell, the Scissor Wolf got back up, the Scissor Wolf was still attacking!

Seven consecutive strikes, seven consecutive strikes!

The Slit-Mouthed Woman went from initial anger to fear, despair, breakdown, whimpering, and finally, her eyes lost their highlight.

"Wolfie..." Xiao Wang was moved by what he saw and decided to share it with everyone.

"Hey—come over and take a look!"

"Top-tier entertainment right here!"