Chapter 604

It was as if time had reversed. The instant the golden dagger pierced through the heart, the scattered bubbles in the sky immediately reassembled, coalescing into the hunched figure of the Twin Fish Director.

I underestimated this…

After glancing down at the blade protruding from their chest, the Twin Fish Director gently closed their eyes for a moment before reopening them, making no futile struggle. Instead, they allowed themselves to be supported by a strong hand and slowly sat cross-legged.

“You’re still… as reckless as ever.”

“Pretty much!”

With an amiable chuckle, the Aquarius Director, who appeared to be only in her thirties, slightly twisted the wrist holding the dagger and then softly said to the violently trembling Twin Fish Director, “There’s no point doing anything unnecessary. Since I dared to come directly, there’s no way I’d let you send out any message.”

“That’s true…”

The Twin Fish Director nodded upon hearing this, recalling the bubble enveloping their tongue and calmly countered, “So what exactly are you trying to do sneaking into the Dream Realm like this? Surely not just to stab me out of anger?”

“I’m certainly not that dull.”

The Aquarius Director shook her head and smiled, “Taurus is about to ascend soon. If I don’t deal with you first, even if I successfully kill Taurus, I wouldn’t be able to ascend myself. All my efforts would turn into nothing if you just expand your ‘Bubble Dock’ in time.”

“Hack… hack, hack! So what’s the use of stabbing me?”

While painfully coughing several times and wiping the blood on their robe, the Twin Fish Director emotionlessly stated, “Though I was careless and gave you an opening, once you pull out the knife, the fact that you injured me will instantly vanish into a bubble. Even the torn clothes will be restored. You… hack, hack! You can still do nothing!”

“You’re still as stubborn as ever.”

“This isn’t stubbornness; it’s reality.”

After another bout of severe coughing, the Twin Fish Director coldly remarked, “The reality now is that you, whose Aquarius Star Palace has been temporarily sealed, have lost the ability to kill me. In fact, if I hadn’t been distracted, you wouldn’t even have the chance to ambush me!”

“That’s true.”

Without arguing with the Twin Fish Director, the Aquarius Director maintained the position of the backstab while sitting behind the Twin Fish Director and pointed at Leon wreaking havoc in the dream, asking with a smile, “Do you see the knife in his hand? It’s mine. Even when he was swallowed by the Death Hound and almost digested, I saved him.”

“So what?”

The Twin Fish Director replied coldly, “You don’t mean to tell me that Leon, who exposed your plan publicly and nearly killed you twice, secretly works for you, right?”

“Don’t jump to conclusions.”

The Aquarius Director waved dismissively, “How could he possibly work for me? He doesn’t work for anyone.”

“What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said.”

While forcefully twisting the Twin Fish Director’s heart, the Aquarius Director explained with a smile, “Although this person is a cleaner, it doesn’t necessarily mean he sides with the Clearing Bureau. He has an extremely rigid mindset, almost uncompromising, and will always do whatever he wants.

He chose to become a cleaner and help you against me simply because some of your ideologies align. But if, regarding a certain matter, my decision suits him better than the Clearing Bureau’s, he would switch sides without hesitation.”

“Hmph.”

After a disdainful smirk, the Twin Fish Director mockingly commented, “A clumsy attempt to sow discord… Do you think I’ll start fearing him or act rashly against him after hearing your spiel? There are plenty of people who joined the Clearing Bureau with selfish motives, viewing being a cleaner merely as a means to gain power. If we dealt with every one of them, more than half the cleaners would have to be expelled!”

“Hmm… you’re not wrong.”

After listening to the Twin Fish Director’s rebuttal, the Aquarius Director thoughtfully nodded.

“Indeed, many within our Clearing Bureau don’t take the mission of ‘protecting humanity’ seriously. Although Leon may be strange, his thoughts and intentions aren’t necessarily worse than those others.”

“Stop rambling!”

Apparently fed up with these endless riddles, the Twin Fish Director, whose chest was soaked in blood, violently coughed twice before impatiently saying,

“My ‘Bubble Dock’ has never been turned off. Given your current state, there’s no way you can kill me. Moreover, if you dare to move away from me, I can break free immediately. You have no leverage over me! The same applies to these cleaners participating in the promotion exam. They’ve only sent their consciousness here, all trapped within fragments of ‘Paradise Lost.’ Once I regain control, I can instantly send their consciousness back.

If I didn’t have full confidence in handling your attack, this promotion exam would’ve been postponed long ago. Right now, you can neither harm me nor touch any of these cleaners!”

“Rest assured, although I almost got killed by the bureau, I don’t hate it enough to destroy it. Still…”

Glancing at the cleaners who hadn’t dared to step forward after Leon cut down over three hundred, the Aquarius Director couldn’t help but shake her head.

“Aren’t these cleaners’ qualities a bit too poor?”

Upon hearing this, the Twin Fish Director’s expression involuntarily stiffened. Unaware of this, the Aquarius Director continued, “Before stabbing you, I briefly observed their performance. Not only can’t they compare to our batch, but their level might not even match the supposedly worst group from ten years ago.

Among these cleaners taking the promotion exam, excluding Leon, the number of those qualified to challenge the Zodiac Palaces barely reaches five?”

“…”

“If I remember correctly, it takes around thirty to forty such qualified cleaners to produce one successful challenger to the Zodiac Palaces?”

Seemingly deeply concerned about the future of the Clearing Bureau, watching the last few brave ‘challengers’ get cut down and sprawled messily on the ground, with no one daring to step forward anymore, the Aquarius Director couldn’t help but sigh worriedly: “If future promotion exams maintain this ratio, the situation will indeed become quite dire.

“…”

So you came here just to torture me emotionally? Not only did you stab me with a knife, but you also had to jab me with words?

“Shut up!”

Making a great effort to turn her head and angrily glare at the Aquarius Director who was making sarcastic remarks, the Twin Fish Director furiously rebuked, “This has nothing to do with you! You traitor who joined the Execution King Assembly!”

“I haven’t fully joined the Execution King Assembly; I just chose to cooperate with them for some purposes.”

Looking at the enraged Twin Fish Director, the Aquarius Director couldn’t help but shake her head and say, “However, although I’m not completely aligned with the Execution King Assembly, I actually believe that what they intend to do might be beneficial for both the Clearing Bureau and humanity.

The Clearing Bureau is currently too well-protected by the Watchtower Palace, rarely encountering any crises, causing the quality of the cleaners to deteriorate with each generation. If this continues, sooner or later, it will reach a point where even the Watchtower Palace can’t protect them.

From this perspective, I think it would be better to allow the Execution King Assembly more activity, eliminating the royal families of seven or eight kingdoms, giving future cleaners more opportunities for training.”

“Nonsense!”

The Twin Fish Director couldn’t help but rebuke angrily, “Do you know what you’re saying? How many palace members’ efforts have contributed to the Watchtower Palace reaching its current scale? Are you planning to destroy all the efforts of countless predecessors with just a few words? You’re simply…”

Not missing a single word inside 69 Book Bar!

“Hey, calm down.”

Again turning her wrist with force, interrupting the Twin Fish Director’s speech, the Aquarius Director leisurely said, “Actually, I don’t have any other intentions. While waiting for the anomalous item to take effect, I couldn’t leave, and since I met you, an old friend, I just casually chatted with you. Such idle talk doesn’t need to be taken seriously.

After the time is right, I’ll continue planning my own schemes, and you can also continue doing what you want. We were friends once, so there’s no need to argue over such things…”

Anomalous item taking effect… Time is almost up?

Catching the keywords in the Aquarius Director’s words, the Twin Fish Director’s heart couldn’t help but feel somewhat disordered, then immediately retorted:

“It’s useless. As long as the ‘Bubble Dock’ exists, regardless of what you do to me, as long as I slightly move my mind, everything that happened during this period will be equivalent to never having happened. And without a star palace, you absolutely cannot break my ‘Bubble Dock’ now!”

“That’s true, I can’t do it.”

The Aquarius Director nodded upon hearing this and then smiled, “Your ‘Bubble Dock’ is indeed a great thing. As long as you record the ‘anchor point’ in advance, it can almost erase any reality you dislike and forcibly steer events towards a direction favorable to you.

But all this still has a prerequisite: you must remain yourself, and you must actively generate the idea of ‘using’ the Bubble Dock.”

I must remain myself?!?!

In the suddenly startled expression of the Twin Fish Director, the Aquarius Director’s wrist turned again, rotating clockwise with force.

“Looks like you’ve figured it out.”

The Aquarius Director smiled and said, “Although your ‘Bubble Dock’ is almost flawless and can even trigger automatically in an unconscious state, your soul has a huge flaw.

Because of past events, your soul split into four parts, constantly changing between male, female, old, and young forms over time. After this most powerful ‘old’ soul, comes Mimi, representing ‘youth.’

According to my understanding of Mimi, the innocent and drowsy her wouldn’t know how to control the ‘Bubble Dock,’ let alone recognize all your anomalous items?”

So… your real goal is to make Mimi’s soul appear earlier to replace me! And this dagger piercing my heart has secretly been ‘cutting’ my time?!

Looking at the short blade protruding from her chest, rotating counterclockwise, the Twin Fish Director vaguely guessed the truth and hastily mobilized secret arts to identify it, truly discovering traces specific to temporal anomalous items.

Probably each rotation of the Aquarius Director’s wrist causes my soul’s experienced time to unconsciously leap forward significantly. After being gouged so many times, my ‘on-stage’ time seems to be nearing its limit.

No! Absolutely cannot let Mimi come out now!

Feeling the gradually awakening soul inside her body starting to compete for control, the Twin Fish Director couldn’t help but grit her teeth and began struggling desperately.

Even if Mimi can passively ‘trigger’ the ‘Bubble Dock’ and won’t be killed by the Aquarius Director, without my protection, these cleaners participating in the exam will fall into the Aquarius Director’s hands.

Moreover, the time for the Taurus Director to ascend has been set and cannot be changed. If Mimi appears now, leading to the loss of the ‘Bubble Dock’ protection…

“You’ll collapse if you keep moving.”

Placing a hand on the shoulder of the Twin Fish Director and stabilizing her violently trembling body, the Aquarius Director gently advised,

“Relax, I won’t do anything to these cleaners. This time, my target is only you.

Out of respect for our past friendship, I don’t even plan to hurt you. As long as Mimi, who can’t control the ‘Bubble Dock,’ comes out early to replace you and prevent you from using the ‘Bubble Dock’ to trouble me, my goal will be achieved.

As for this batch of less-than-stellar cleaners… Their fates depend on what you decide to do.”

Under the furious gaze of the Twin Fish Director, the Aquarius Director smiled and warned, “You know, I don’t like killing indiscriminately. If you don’t cause trouble, I naturally won’t act against them. But if you insist on risking your soul breaking to forcibly stop Mimi from coming out… then I’m afraid I’ll have to apologize!”

“…”

“If you’re still unwilling, I can help you calculate something.”

Seeing the still trembling body of the Twin Fish Director, the Aquarius Director increased the speed of gouging her heart while leaning close to her ear and whispering softly, “Your probability of perfectly suppressing Mimi is at most one in four. The remaining three in four possibilities are that your soul breaks due to conflict, causing the ‘Bubble Dock’ to become imperfect, resulting in you and these four hundred plus cleaners being killed by me.

But if you choose to follow my arrangement and obediently let Mimi emerge from your soul, although the Taurus Director will lose the protection of the ‘Bubble Dock,’ you and the future of the Clearing Bureau can all survive.”

“…”

“Come, make your choice!”

(End of Chapter)