Chapter 28: The Cleaners

Rat-a-tat!

Rat-a-tat-tat!!

A moment before the gunfire erupted, Lu Xiao had already abandoned the idea of retrieving the bone spike.

Thump-thump-thump!!

The soldier with the spike embedded in his chest was shredded into pieces by the dense hail of bullets.

Lu Xiao now held a freshly torn, still-beating heart in his hand.

After crushing it casually, he lunged at the next person.

The Puppeteer was, after all, only controlling humans.

And causing effective damage to Lu Xiao was exceedingly difficult for a human.

During his three years surviving in the Dark Prison, Lu Xiao had faced all sorts of monsters and anomalous creatures.

The abilities of those beings were far more unimaginable.

And in those three years, the areas Lu Xiao had explored were merely the tip of the iceberg of the Dark Prison.

There were many places he had never set foot in, places harboring even more terrifying and bizarre existences.

The scene was one of carnage, flesh and blood flying everywhere. 

The seven J01 Warden soldiers lasted less than two minutes against Lu Xiao.

Even those soldiers with their heads smashed apart were still being controlled by the Puppeteer to attack him.

After dealing with the J01 Wardens, Lu Xiao kicked the half-meter-long wooden casket.

The contents were exposed.

It was a filthy, dilapidated doll.

The expression on the doll's face was extremely eerie.

Lu Xiao grabbed the doll and ran over a hundred meters in one go.

Of course, he hadn't forgotten the Puppeteer's trait, his hands never ceasing their movement.

Only after Lu Xiao left with the Puppeteer did the seven members of the City Fire Squad regain the light in their eyes.

They slumped to the ground, retching violently.

Dart was the first to recover.

A single glance at the scene told him the current situation.

"All units, implement countermeasures for S137-The Puppeteer!"

As he spoke, his hands began a mechanical, swinging motion.

He then spoke into his mic.

"Doctor! The operation is complete."

"Additionally, S137 was present on site. How should we proceed?"

The Doctor's cold voice came through the headset.

"Bring S137 back to the Asylum."

Dart nodded, then remembered another matter.

"Slick, check the villa for any survivors!"

Slick, waving his arms, entered the villa.

Not long after, his voice came through the mic.

"Captain, Liu Mingsheng is alive!"

"He's begging me to shoot him. What's the call, Captain?"

Liu Mingsheng was the owner of the villa, the hidden mega-tycoon Boss Liu.

Dart's eyes darkened, his voice cold.

"That would be letting him off too easily."

"Keep an eye on him for now. Let the Cleaners handle it. He'll serve as a resource at our Asylum."

Though Dart didn't know the specifics of what Liu Mingsheng had done, he was well aware that those who made deals with the anomalous rarely had clean hands.

The cost of dealing with most anomalies was the sacrifice of living people.

Anomalies like the Prison Doctor, who chased after you to offer treatment, were absolute exceptions, rare clean water in a filthy river.

After the squad members had mostly recovered, Dart spoke into his microphone.

"Mr. Lu Xiao, you can return now."

On the other end, hearing Dart, Lu Xiao hurriedly ran back, still holding the Puppeteer and waving his hands.

The members of the City Fire Squad were all gesturing wildly, a rather comical sight.

Glimmer sighed with emotion.

"Lucky we had S292 with us. Otherwise, we probably would have been done for today."

Lu Xiao, waving his arms, grinned.

"No, no, no! I fell for it too. It was thanks to Little Rain here."

The squad members immediately looked at Little Rain.

Under everyone's gaze, she seemed a bit shy.

"It was the Captain's quick thinking. If he hadn't reminded me at the last moment, I wouldn't have thought of the Puppeteer."

For a moment, they all engaged in some mutual professional praise.

…………

An ambulance emblazoned with "The No. 1 Psychiatric Hospital in Magic Metropolis" drove along a remote path.

The vehicle swayed left and right.

Glimmer, waving his hands, said in a hoarse voice, "Captain, can you shake your hands a little lesser? I think I'm getting carsick."

The others nodded in agreement.

Dart pursed his lips, somewhat helpless.

"I don't want to either! But I don't dare stop my hands for a single moment!"

In the vehicle, the dirty, broken doll lay at their feet.

Next to it was the ornately patterned mirror.

Lu Xiao waved his hands incessantly, staring out the window, lost in thought.

Elsewhere.

Slick was handing over duties to a group of people dressed in sanitation worker uniforms.

He pointed at Liu Mingsheng, slumped on the sofa, addressing one of the uniformed men.

"Take this man back to the Asylum. He is to become a resource."

The man in the sanitation uniform was one of the Cleaners Dart had mentioned.

They were responsible for handling cleanup and aftermath for the Warden organization.

The lead Cleaner and Slick walked a lap around the villa.

The scenes they witnessed made both of them shudder.

The most horrifying was the ground littered with mutilated, incomplete corpses.

"Ahem! Did you deploy a D-Level anomaly?" the Cleaner asked.

As they hadn't yet received the detailed operation report, he was unclear on what had happened.

But the field of dismembered corpses clearly wasn't something this squad could have caused alone.

Slick scratched his head.

"According to Warden regulations, D-Level anomalies are not permitted outside the Asylum."

The Cleaner shot him a look.

"Of course I know that!"

Slick chuckled.

"The specifics will be in a detailed action report from our Captain later."

"For now, just clean up this mess."

The Cleaner waved a hand.

"Fine. We'll need your report to know how to handle any potential follow-up effects."

"Additionally, Liu Mingsheng will be delivered to the base within two days. Make sure you're prepared to receive him."

He then gave Slick a Warden salute, his right fist held inverted over the heart.

Slick returned the salute.

After Slick left, the Cleaners began processing the scene.

They first gathered the scattered body parts.

In some places, they even needed shovels to scoop up the flesh and blood.

They then poured a special liquid over it.

Upon contact, the flesh dissolved at a visible rate, leaving only a residue of black ash.

Next, the Cleaners repaired the damaged parts of the villa, restoring it to its original state.

From this point on, the estate showed no signs of a battle ever taking place.

The interior remained opulent, the exterior grand and imposing.

Finally, a Cleaner produced a confession document.

He placed it in front of Liu Mingsheng, grabbed his finger, and pressed it onto the paper to leave a fingerprint.

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