Chapter 420: S+

His gaze swept through the gaps in the crowd, and his peripheral vision caught a flash of dark‑red light.

He pressed Luo Jinyou's shoulder and tilted his chin toward that direction; Luo Jinyou looked where he pointed and saw a palm‑sized metal box crawling slowly along the base of the wall, its shell etched with dense Rune circuits, and its Core glowing dark red.

"Vacuum robot?"

Luo Jinyou asked instinctively.

No, how could a vacuum robot possibly emit Mutation factor?

Because of someone's past actions, Luo Jinyou's first thought was whether that vacuum robot would, in the next instant, pull out a gun and fire into the crowd.

"You stay here and watch the situation; I'll go notify the Dome's security personnel."

With those words spoken, Bai Mu Yun turned and walked toward the security, his white curls flickering a few times in the crowd before disappearing.

Luo Jinyou stood in place, watching that vacuum robot crawl sluggishly under a table; he saw similar vacuum robots scattered throughout the banquet hall.

The number was indeed considerable.

The surroundings were pitch black, yet Luo Jinyou saw a man actually crawling under a table.

As the man slipped in, a corner of the tablecloth lifted, revealing a familiar hue.

Can he still make it in time now?

After the lights dimmed, Xi Ren Sheng also slipped under the table where Ying Duo was hiding.

Ying Duo handed Xi Ren Sheng the items he had specifically asked him to bring: a red‑and‑white clown costume, a black‑and‑white mask, and a vivid red wig.

Although the two cramped the space, Xi Ren Sheng quickly shed the elaborate outfit Hua Jian Lei had prepared for him, and darted into his own clown costume.

Once dressed, he crawled out from under the table.

Luo Jinyou saw that splash of green again and was convinced he hadn't mistaken it.

The man, after entering, quickly changed into another clown costume and emerged, now crawling in the shadows on the floor, silently edging toward the stage.

Onstage, the host was speaking enthusiastically, completely unaware that danger was closing in.

"Tonight the Dome's top designers will gather to present an unprecedented visual feast! Let us together—"

Before he could finish, a black figure on the side of the stage was shot out by the host using a sleek sliding rail.

The microphone slipped from his hand, spun several times in the air, and the black figure caught it with a solid thud, then struck a single‑knee kneeling pose.

One hand braced the stage to steady himself, the other raised the microphone to his lips; he stood there like a statue that had been placed onstage.

The banquet hall fell silent, everyone staring blankly at the scene, assuming the organizers were staging some impromptu act.

The lighting tech reacted faster, a spotlight swept onto the stage and illuminated the figure.

The red‑and‑white clown costume had bells on the collar and cuffs; a slight move set them jingling. He wore a half‑black, half‑white mask, a golden star painted on the left side of his face and a silver tear on the right.

A tangled red wig perched on his head; he rose slowly, the bells chiming a few more times, echoing clearly in the quiet hall.

After a long pause, he still hadn't spoken, and the audience below even suspected the performer had gotten nervous the moment he stepped onstage.

The next second, the instruments in the banquet hall suddenly sounded.

But that could hardly be called music; it was pure sound‑wave attack.

The wind‑instrument sounds surged from all directions, every note out of tune, every rhythm mismatched, blending like a hundred people shouting the same sentence in different languages.

The crowd began to stir; some clutched their ears in pain, others looked around for the source of the sound.

The musicians themselves looked bewildered, staring at their instruments; some remained untouched, others rang on their own without anyone playing.

Ying Duo's fingers tapped the keyboard, and energy surged along the Rune circuits into the Core of those instruments.

Some of this world's instruments are identical to those from his original world, but they require no Rune circuits; the instruments that do need Rune circuits are ones he has never seen.

Don't worry about what this BGM is; just tell me whether it exists.

When the exclusive BGM started, the clown finally dared to speak.

【9】 "Good evening, Dome trash—!"

Good evening, Dome's trash—!

The microphone carried his voice to every corner of the banquet hall; Xi Ren Sheng took two steps onstage, and the bells jingled along.

"For you wasteland games that want everything and have nothing, what's the point of staging these backward fashion shows?"

He pulled a spray can from his sleeve, shook it vigorously, the steel beads inside rattling, then turned to face the massive Dome emblem on the stage backdrop.

The clown raised the can and pressed the trigger.

Red paint spurted from the nozzle, flowing down the edges of the emblem like fresh blood.

He painted a symbol on it—

"S+."

Paint dripped from the emblem, leaving long streaks on the backdrop wall.

The flash illuminated Xi Ren Sheng; the red‑and‑white clown costume blazed under the light, and the stars and tears on the mask flickered on and off.

"Tonight is a revelry night belonging to entropy increase!"

Kak—.

The countdown ended; now it's the bait they arranged with the authorities…

No, it's revelry time!

All the small robots were activated simultaneously, instantly transforming from nondescript discs into weapon‑equipped small robots.

No one knew how those weapons folded to fit inside the tiny discs, but as they pointed their guns straight at the crowd, chaos erupted.

They watched the weapons in the small robots' hands charge up, red energy filling the guns' Rune circuits.

But the banquet hall's main doors had already been sealed in advance, leaving them to watch helplessly as the guns aimed at them loaded with energy.

Bang—!

Hahaha—!

Gagagagaga—!

Xi Ren Sheng mimicked the villains' laughter from TV, but the more he laughed the more it sounded like a duck's quack, and he choked on a mouthful of saliva, coughing repeatedly.

The bullets hit those people, making a "pop pop pop" sound.

Those people had already started screaming, but they found that the expected pain never came.

Those weren't lethal bullets at all—they were BB pellets of various paints.

Someone was wiping paint off their face with their hand, then looked blankly at the color on their fingers.

"Hahaha——!" Xirensheng laughed until he doubled over, the bell jingling wildly, "Look at yourselves! You're like you've become one with the palette!"

Xirensheng's red wig almost flew off from his toss, but he grabbed it and held it down.

"All right, all right," he said, raising the microphone to his lips, his voice still laughing, "The atmosphere's heated up enough—let's do something fun."

He tossed the microphone into the air, and before it landed, Xirensheng scattered in all directions.

Hearts, spades, clubs, diamonds—playing cards swooped over the crowd's heads, filling the banquet hall with a flurry of flight.