Four Split Personalities

King?

Ivy blinked somewhat blankly, standing there in a daze for quite a while.

Although she hadn’t actually engaged in the ’poker’ game, which was gradually becoming popular in small circles recently, she had heard about it, especially after capturing that careless Red Heart 3 and extracting quite a few words from him using the [Soul Capture Devil’s Eye]. Ivy had even deliberately researched some of the game rules, like playing Doudizhu.

Considering that Red Heart 3 was merely an extremely ordinary grassroots member, the information Ivy received wasn’t much either. As far as she knew, the number of such 3 series members was quite large, and the reasons for joining... or working for the Clown Brand were varied, some wanting to earn a bit of money, some seeking information, and even some working to repay debts.

For instance, the reason Red Heart 3 Pike Bieber was willing to temporarily join Clown Brand and diligently complete tasks was simple. Two months ago, he wanted to apply for a small loan from the Gold Coin Commerce Association but got stuck. Clown Brand allegedly helped him solve the ’guarantee’ issue, with the condition that he had to temporarily join Clown Brand before repaying the loan, working at least three hours a day.

Pike accepted, thus obtaining the codename ’Red Heart 3’, occasionally helping run errands or keeping watch, tasks he was capable of and simply manageable.

As for whether Pike’s loan was related to [Clown Brand], Ivy discreetly investigated this afterwards. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a setup deliberately targeted at anyone. Pike Bieber’s reason for applying for the loan at the time was to maintain laboratory equipment, which concerned his end-of-year assessment, and the tasks given by Clown Brand were indeed easy, entirely devoid of conspiracy.

It was merely ’mutual benefit’, not even close to mutual exploitation.

Pike was a person of good character, studying diligently while working, and the loan application couldn’t be processed simply because of age. The Clown Brand provided the guarantee entirely through messages and communication without anyone showing their face, without imposing any strict requirements. Given that the Gold Coin Commerce Association would never disclose guarantor information, there was no way to trace it.

In fact, on the day Pike was captured by Ivy, he had already repaid the loan from the Gold Coin Commerce Association. He voluntarily worked an extra day due to Clown Brand’s assistance, and finally helped by keeping an eye out for a few hours.

Roles like Pike, akin to temporary work nature, are actually numerous within Clown Brand. With Pike being relatively reliable and capable, if he were willing, it seemed there was still a path to regularization.

Regularization meant obtaining a specially made identity card.

This was Pike’s original words, in Ivy’s view, he seemed quite keen on regularization before his ’abduction’, but it’s uncertain what he thought afterwards.

During his ’part-time’ work, Pike had met a few colleagues, most of whom had situations similar to his own, exchanging occasional words while working, and getting along quite well.

According to Pike, he had seen at least five Red Heart 3 cards similar in nature to his, without gaining ’identity proof’, two larger by one number but still lacked ’cards’ as Red Heart 4, one Red Heart 4 with identity proof, and one genuine Red Heart 5 whom he saw only once.

Among them, the formal members of Clown Brand, Red Heart 4 and Red Heart 5, didn’t reveal their true faces. During the meeting, one wore a mask, the other used Illusion Technique on his face, even altering his voice. However, their attitudes were fairly pleasant, unlike the typical gloomy underground organization.

Yet, in fact, Ivy almost certainly determined that [Clown Brand] was a dark underground organization, merely not as gloomy or perhaps Pike hadn’t encountered its dark side.

In short, she became intensely interested in this organization back then, purely because it was genuinely intriguing.

Unlike the Miss from [Death Angel], newly crowned Red Queen Lily Yulan, Ivy, despite also being Lehman family’s Miss, compared to the former’s pure evil faction, the Lehman main family primarily prospered through legitimate businesses; thus, even with an interest in investigating Clown Brand, she had no substantial breakthrough point.

However, Ivy wasn’t a simple girl. After a period of information gathering, she did have some understanding of this organization.

Firstly, the number of formal members in Clown Brand was extremely scarce, and they hid their identities well. Other than among themselves, nearly no one could discern their true identities (Lian exerting family capabilities as an exception, not the general rule).

Secondly, the organization had an abundance of temporary workers, and even several offices. Academy City alone has three, although mostly handling simple tasks like searching for people or gathering information, and they seemed somewhat limited in their business capabilities, but it was still officially operational.

Thirdly, among the Clown Brand members in Academy City, the vast majority were [Red Heart], with the highest level being Red Heart 5. Any higher numbers might exist but were very well hidden.

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